My original build lasted with no problems for about 8 months. But then Battlefield 4 came out. It sounded like my CPU fan was working a little harder. After a couple days, this issue started to annoy me. My usually silent system was no longer as silent as I remember.
I ended up buying the CoolerMaster Seidon 120XL. I liked the larger radiator on this as opposed to most others. This one features a 1.5" thick radiator with fans in a push-pull configuration to facilitate heat dissipation. After a little bit of use, I did find the fans that it came with a little too noisy for my tastes. So I went ahead and ordered 2 Fractal Design Silent Series R2 fans since I loved them from the beginning if my build.
I'm ready to overclock if need be, but my system still works above and beyond for me.
-AMD FX-8350 Unclocked Processor
-Sapphire Pure Black 990FX Motherboard
-16GB DDR AMD Performance Series RAM
-Fractal Design Tesla R2 800W Power Supply
-HIS 7970 IceQ X² 3GB DDR5 GPU
-Sapphire HD 7950 3GB GDDR5 GPU
-Sandisk 128GB SSD
-Western Digital 1TB 7200RPM HDD
-Seagate 1TB 7200 RPM x2
-Fractal Design Define R4 Windowed Case
-Acer G7 Series 21.5" LED IPS Monitor
-Sony Home Theater 5.1 Dream System
-L3vetron Mech5 Keyboard & Mouse
-X-Arcade Tankstick
-X-Box 360 Wireless Controller
-USB NES Gamepads
-CoolerMaster Seidon 120 XL
don't you find that having any fans inside the machine-housing causes unnecessary dust build-up, thereby making an internal radiator self-defeating?
This is a pic of my rig after having had the cooler in for 3 months. There is very little dust. I have 2 fans on the front taking in air through a filter. There is another rant up top to blow air out and the fans on the radiator blow outward.
I'm actually surprised at how little dust has settled. My older builds always had a lot of dust no matter what I did. I think my air intakes being filtered helps a lot.
+Benedict Corpuz gotcha.
I've just always used an external radiator; as I enjoy "hiding" my radiator in the closet to reduce [noise, dust].
With the silent series fans, this thing hardly makes noise.
That's a nice looking build +Benedict Corpuz, now that you are ready to overclock I recommend you look at this guide http://www.overclock.net/t/1348623/amd-bulldozer-and-piledriver-overclocking-guide-asus-motherboard
It's for Asus motherboards but it might be really useful to give you an idea of the settings you need to tinker with. Remember that the max temps are 60°C core and 72°C socket. These temps are like the danger zone.
Happy overclocking!!
Thanks +Nicholas Brooks
+Benedict Corpuz it's been great watching this build come together. It's been far too long since I've built a nice system. Thank you for sharing your experience. (Also, go AMD!)
Thanks +Justin McIver. The PC Build is ever ongoing. I'm not quite done yet. Just a couple more steps to go until I am current.
+Benedict Corpuz From picture I can say that your fans are fighting each other. Always the fan central hub shows where air is being sucked in. Top one, and one on rad is pulling air into the case, but not out.
+Justas Stanevicius I have 2 fans sucking air in on the front of the case. I figured the two fans on the radiator are pulling one stream of air through the back and the fan on top is pulling more another direction. This way there's always a fresh supply of air to push through the radiator.
My bad, +Justas Stanevicius. You are correct. I had them pulling in from the top and back and the front ones blowing out.
I think I did this because of the door on the front of the R4 case. I usually leave it open anyways. Should I turn them the opposite direction? I honestly thought I had it the way I described earlier.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/42u708zkrmjtvjd/IMG_4033.jpg
Here is a setup I have. Two at the front and on the bottom are pulling in and one in the back is pulling out. On load it creates positive pressure to keep GPU cool. For your push-pull setup I recommend setting up the same. Front intake, back exhaust. Turn around the fans at the back and on the top and you should be fine.
I'm gonna have to turn all of the fans around. I knew before to have them all blowing the same direction. I just reversed it when I put then all together.
The Silent Series fans are really but designed for radiators. Should have picked up some eLoops or something.
+Larry Bob I'll take a look at those for next time. They do look a little pricy though.
The eLoops are indeed expensive but they're probably the best radiator fans you can buy, period. Nicer sound profile than even the Gentle Typhoons and they push a ton of air to boot.
Thanks for the recommendation. I'll definitely take a look at them for a future build. Would I need 2 for a push-pull configuration or will 1 suffice?
1 would probably net you better temperatures than both of those Silent Series fans.
All the high end custom loops I've seen don't have push/pull configs and they pretty much universally use eLoops or Gentle Typhoons.