I have a Antec P180B case with an ASUS P5W DH Deluxe mobo coupled with a Core 2 Duo E6600. I also have an ATI X1900XT in there. Ok, well, I wanted a quiet system and to accomplish that, I had to replace the ATI cooler with something quieter. I chose the Accelero X2 which works great, except for it dissipates the heat onto the motherboard. Well, the south bridge is fairly close to the PCI Express slot and the heat from the gfx card has reached the sb. Therefore, I placed a fan (120mm) on the middle HDD cage to cool it. Afterwards, I decided to get a better cooling solution for my CPU since my load temps were in the mid 60s. Hence, I got the Thermaltake Silent Water...

<b>Now, here's the problem!</b>
I placed the fan/pump/radiator on the back of the case, which was ok, because I still had the top fan hooked up. Now, my motherboard came with a fan for the northbridge since the northbridge relies on the CPU fan for cooling. But with the fan/pump/radiator on the back of the case, I couldn't place the fan that came with the motherboard. Therefore, I bought 2 40mm fans and placed them on the nb and sb (after I removed the stupid ASUS covers from both the heatsinks). Afterwards, my temps for the CPU were still high. It occurred to me that this is probably due to the fact that the heat within the case is being sucked through the radiator, which doesn't really help cooling. Therefore, I removed the removable HDD cage and placed the fan/pump/radiator to the front of the case. This allows for <b>FRESH</b> air to blow across the radiator. But guess where the heat goes? Yup! Right back into the case... And the placement of the fan/pump/radiator is at level with the gfx, which blows more hot air into the case. So, what's the best way to set up the inside of the case, so that I can get more heat out of it? My CPU stays cool, but now the components in the case get warmer. The top and rear fan don't seem to help much. All in all, I have 2 fans (top and rear) mounted to the back, 1 fan is part of the radiator and pump. This totals out to 3 120mm fans now. Then, I have 2 40mm fans on the nb and sb and the ASUS fan on the heatsink next to the CPU. Then there's the fan on the Accelero (quiet) and the OCZ GameXStream fan (noisy), which helps pull cool air from the front of the case across my hard drives ( I removed the middle fan on the bottom shaft). So, what can I possibly do now?!

Any ideas and suggestions are welcome!

Can you post any pictures, which might be of great help?

Alright, hope this helps. It's hard to take pictures due to the location of my computer and I don't want to move it, unless necessary.

In the beginning:


Now:








As you can see, the fan/radiator/pump is in front of the gfx, if you follow through.

Er, look at my last post, I just edited for the "beggining" picture. Placing the water cooler at the top, means removing the fan away from the heatpipe heatsink that's located next the the CPU socket. Even with the top fan still in tack, the top of the motherboard won't get adequate cooling. When I first had this build but together, when gaming, the gfx card had it's stock cooler, meaning all the heat it generated was automatically pushed out the back. But I got an aftermarket cooler, the Accelero X2, so when I game, it basically blows the heat against the SB, which is where the temp sensor (if I've read my posts right) is located. My motherboard temperature (with ASUS probe) recorded 45C on full load with everything stock. Now, it idles at 43C and on load, gets to almost 60C.

I also thought, that if I had the radiator/pump/fan sucking cool air from the front of the case, it would allow the CPU to be cooler and this has actually worked.... just I have to get the heat ouf of the case now

I would get a Scythe Ninja, but I like to go to LAN parties, meaning my case would be moving a little and with a huge heatsink attached to the motherboard, I would be afraid of it snapping due to the weight of the heatsink. I was going to get the Arctic Cooler 7 Freezer Pro or whatever, but I want maximum cooling with minimum noise!!! Right now, my OCZ GameXStream 700W makes the most noise! I'm so tempted on opening it up and replacing the fan, but that would avoid the nice 36 month warranty, but honestly, how many people have had a power supply go out just to plain 24/7 use?

Anyways, so watercooling with a P180B = bad cooling performance...

I don't understand why you are having problems.

Go back to your original setup, but place the rad on the outside of the case. Set both the rear and top fans to blow out, and the front to intake. Cool air in the case, exhausted efficiently out the top/back.

I kind of wanted everything internal, but I guess we can't have everything we want in life...

Well, if I can't figure out another way, there goes another $60 for another cooling solution (Scythe Ninja or something that won't put a lot of strain on my motherboard while being transported).

Anyone else have any ideas?

my setup was all internal but the temps were getting to high. now the radiator is outside and its a big diffrence. also if your using a non-conductive fluid the temp will run a few degrees higher.

My other problem is that I have a all in one liquid cooling set. Meaning, there's no way for me to really unhook the tubing so that I can place the radiator on the outside. If I did, I would have to flush out the cooling that's in there now and I don't have any extra cooling lying around.

Well, you could get a Kingwin Aquastar AS-3000. It's around $90 from newegg, which isn't bad for a liquid cooler.

It might work in your situation because it's meant to take up 2 x 5.25" bays with the radiator, pump and resevoir contained in one unit.

You could replace the included fluid with FluidXP, maybe the new kind with the colors mixed in

It probably won't have as good performance as the BigWater...but then, because it'll probably work better, you might actually see better cooling performance. It's just a thought.

The reviews said it was pretty good for an all-in-one. And then you can get rid of those 40mm fans. Works on LGA775, and it includes a VGA waterblock, probably universal.

what are you using for cooling. if you want to see a big difference in temp drop use distilled water.

i have a friend that was using a setup similar to the Kingwin Aquastar AS-3000. it died after 6 months. if your going to liquid cool those all in one setup is not the way to go.

the pump on the all in one system probably is pushing enough liters per hour. a good pump is 900 to 1200 lph. the all in ones are probably 700 lph.

It's just the rad. It will still be bolted on, just stick out an inch or so. And it's at the back, so you won't really see it.

Really? There must be a way to disconnect the tubing somewhere. You can buy de-ionised water at any gas station. Just make sure you buy some corrosion inhibitor at some point. Heck, you might find that at the gas station too! Draining and filling a system isn't really hard at all.

Finally, had another idea. You could put the rad behind the fan in front of the psu. Your psu will get hotter air, but it's not something they are not designed for anyway. All internal, and cold air in the top half of the case. If you're lucky then you won't need to disconnect any tubing either.

I'm not sure if the tubing on your all in one system is long enough to do this but...

You could place the rad in the bottom hdd cage (the one that's separated from the rest of the case) and add a fan at the bottom. This will probably require quite a few modifications to the case but you would draw cool air from the front of the case and expel it out the bottom. This would require raised feet for the case, cutting two holes from the bottom area to the rest of the case and cutting a hole at the bottom to mount a fan. I think this would be the best way to keep it internal.

Another way and much simpler, is to put a fan in the side panel placed right behind the rad. This should pull the hot air that is passing through the rad out the side (fan set on exhaust).