Case Fans.

I'm currently looking at upgrading my case fans. Anyone have experience with AP-182 fans? I have two AP-181 fans I hope to replace them with these.

Just a note these are not cheap fans, well at $30 a piece.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835220048&cm_re=ap-182-_-35-220-048-_-Product

 

Just ordered two of them.

 

From what I've read the Air Penetrator fans are considered high end fans. The 182 series is a decent step up. But they don't work with a fan controller, besides the one that ships with them.

I figured since I now run 3 way sli (for mostly folding, though some gaming) I need to upgrade the fans since the gpus are right next to each other. I have pictures in a different thread.

For not quite the size, the Noctua NF-A14 pushes air flow at 140 with a speed of 1500 (if I'm reading this right)

http://www.noctua.at/main.php?show=productview&products_id=65&lng=en&set=1

The ap-181 does 130 cfm at 1200 rpm.
http://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=258
The ap-182 does 130 cfm at 1200 rpm but can go to 170 cfm at 2000 rpm.
http://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=344


I'll be running them at 2000 rpm. Should drown out my coil whine on my 970s. :-D Not as loud as my server fans at work though. Hopefully. LOL

 

It will be a PITA, to take my case apart to get these new fans in, but I will do it. I'm hoping GPU-Z will be enough for a before and after.

I'm thinking of starting a new thread for a case. I love the 90 degree switch of having the outputs on the top, instead of the typical way of most cases.

Since heat rises, your top GPU will gain the heat of the lower ones. BUT, rotate that then the heat should be quite less.

 

I'm not a fan of these cases, since heat rises Your top GPU gets the heat from the gpu below it. With the 90 rotation on the motherboard heat goes up instead of up through your gpus.

Also, with 90 degree cases, it is easier to access everything. Down side so far is pitiful case wire management.

 

Sorry guys, mythbusters time.
The fact that heat rises has almost nothing to do with case cooling. Heat does rise but is only a factor in passive cooling setups. Fans are so much stronger than natural convection it should not be considered in a cooling setup.
That being said top vents are still a good idea when properly planned. But not always. I worked on an overheating GPU in a top vent rig because the fan in the upper front of the case blew in and the fan in the top blew out. Little air circulated at the bottom of the case where the video card was. Also the top fan was larger. The video card was dual vented in the case and out the back. The top fan overpowered the video card fan going out of the back, reducing its air flow. I took out the top fan and added a second small fan to the front and all was well.
For some good cooling ideas check out the Macs. The G3 had direct outside air to the CPU cooling. These were famous over clockers although the CPU itself was difficult to overclock as you had to draw traces. Unfortunately really good case airflow has not caught on - which is why I water cool most of my rigs.

 

With my setup my temps are not bad. 84, 81, and 77 celsius. Today. Everything I've read is that it is a bad idea to run 3 way without water cooling, but I'm not having any issues. Which does not mean others won't have any issues.

 

I tend to go with a negative pressure in the case, which means multiple exhaust fans, and are being cooled by being drawn in the front port of the case.

If you put your hand in my front intake port, it will chill it rather nicely.