Project EXAC

[ESX]

I guess you guys have seen my introduction post, so I wont introduce myself guessing that you already seen me :)

First of all, I want to tell you a little bit about this project.
Ah yes, the name! What does EXAC stands for you ask? Well, I'll tell you, it stands for EXtensive Air Cooling (or EXtreme, although its not REALLY EXTREME). The goal of this project is to cool down my PC, which is quite hot (beeing a P4 Prescott). Apart from the cooling, eye-appeal did not really matter, but heck, if its practical, it should also look nice, so dont worry, its going to look nice as well (I hope!).

I did not have a lot of material to begin with, some fans taken out of old PSUs, some ez-sleeve, some flexible wire etc etc.

So anyways, let us begin:
Gah, its so tidy with the wires gone >_>
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1303/1084606687_5430eb0b9f_o.jpg

Marking front intake window.
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1159/1085471866_56304198a5_o.jpg

Rough cut.
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1281/1085477954_46f401183d_o.jpg

Sanded and painted.
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1185/1085483426_9d2110d413_o.jpg

Up close.
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1315/1084628201_d44350523d_o.jpg

Pic with everything installed. What a nightmare!
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1179/1085496542_65b3364777_o.jpg

This thing is cooling my CPU. A modded Igloo 5700MC.
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1338/1084642413_e59817342d_o.jpg

A little timeskip here, sorry! Cut door window and put some plexi that I had.
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1091/1084646765_45e5e7337f_o.jpg

Window insides.
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1072/1085512512_f75b9b8c99_o.jpg

How the case looks at this step.
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1307/1085516168_d684eda215_o.jpg

A little bit more wire management. This is not the end, I will not surrender!
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1029/1084662945_40be98d6b6_o.jpg

This does not conclude my mod, there will be a lot more additions, cuts and stuff!

Btw that doggie thing is what keeping my CPU fan at full speed. The controller is messed up so I put that thing there until I fix it. :)

[FuzzyPlushroom]

Good work so far. I rather like that color blue.

As for heat, that power supply may be a contributor. I can't read the UL number, but L&C is among the worst PSU manufacturers out there, and they rebadge their supplies under various names. "GYRO" may well be one of them. A quick Google of the model number also shows that it does indeed appear to be a generic, inefficient pile - low-speed fan, terrible efficiency (= more heat), and it's probably close to its limit with a Prescott system - a friend of mine ran a similar system (3.2 Prescott/6600) on a PSU of roughly equal quality, and the top rear of the case would get too hot to touch.

If you come across $30 or so, or even $8 and shipping from these guys (http://www.weirdstuff.com/cgi-bin/item/22100) (I've had three Fortron supplies last me close to ten years so far), it'd be a good investment.

[purdy]

Hey, nice project so far! I have a P4 in my rig as well and I was just wondering what your exact setup is and more importantly, how hot your system was running before the mod. I have a temperature gauge on my comp and the hottest my CPU gets is around 41 degrees Celcius while running WoW on max settings. I'm going to keep a close eye on this mod because I'm looking for ways to better cool my comp (pretty hard in a SFF case such as mine). Anyways, +rep for "cooling first, looks later", and keep up the good work!

[ESX]

I will get this soon, hopefully: http://www.jsp-tech.com/_english/2_products/2_detail.php?hMainTypeID=2&hSubTypeID=13&hProdID=128

Purdy, my system runs at 44C, thats with around 30C ambient temperature at night (at summer of course) and 35C+ at day. (My room is pretty hot.. its quite warm at winter as well)
MB temp says 32C while hard drives are at around 40C.

One thing I didnt get to yet is my graphics card, which at this ambient temp runs at 50C+ (eVGA 7900 GS KO).

There are going to be lots of tweaks to lower the system temp as well as eye-candy! :)