Aspire
XDreamer and Kool Solutions Chill Vent II
The
result of effective 100% air cooling to Tame the Prescott
lazyman@earthlink.net
X-Dreamer Case
Asus P4P800 Deluxe (Bios date
Swiftech MCX478-V with 80x25 mm fan
@3300 RPM
Arctic Silver-AS3
Western Digital 60 GB
Siemens PC3200 2x256
Radeon 9000 Pro 128
NEC DVD
MSI CD RW
After I finished the Prescott Hot Potato review, I was starring at the XDreamer case and said to myself why not take another look at the effectiveness of the side panel fan. It is only natural to think that a window fan on top of the processor fan will decrease processor temperature. And, a vacuum shape thingy may be questionable at best. There are four different tests using the following setups.
The
2.8E is clocked to 3.43 GHz at 1.475 volt. Ambient temperature was ~22C. Two of the four part tests include the use of
a fan duct called Koolsolutions
Chill Vent II which Ohls-place.com had done a review HERE.
The Aspire X-Dreamer was reviewed by Tomshardware.com HERE.
Why should I read this you ask? Look here and here, the difference between a good air cooling system and water cooling rig is only a few degrees Celsius. Until there is a “complete” bolt on water cooling system that pays attention to my hard drive, north-bridge, memory, graphic card, PCI express (to be) load in addition to the CPU, I remain loyal to good 100% air cooling with less fuzz in maintenance.
Let’s take a look at the rig here. The same I used to nail down the P4 Prescott furnace HERE. You have to bear in mind that the MCX478-V costs as much as the case, but it is worthy of every dollar. Would two cheap items combined provide the necessary cooling? Let’s find out.
Player
one – XDreamer Player
two Chill Vent II
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TEST 1
Default –
using the case as is with side window 80 mm fan on top (almost parallel to the
Processor).
I am using the case without the Koolsolutions Chill Vent and the side fan as is. Ran Prime95 for 15 minutes and idle for 10 minutes for each of the test. The load temp reached 58C.
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TEST 2
The Window Fan was taken out
and the hole was filled with by a piece of flexi-glass.
Chill Vent II installed with
80 mm LED booster fan.
The load temp now is at 55C.
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TEST 3
The original case side panel fan installed. Chill Vent II (clear version sample)
installed less the top cover and held by two Velcro tapes.
The load temp now is also at 55C.
Note: The clear Chill Vent II used is currently unavailable; it is a marketing sample I received.
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Test 4
The original window fan is removed and blocked with
flexi-glass. Chill Vent is removed.
The load temp now is also at 61C.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Summary
I got the above chart from Digital-Daily (HERE) just to compare some of the coolers without Chill Vent II. The Poseidon is a water cooler. Bear in mind, the 2.4C is not the Hot Prescott we are dealing with here.
Blue,
Green and Red 80 mm booster of your choice.
Conclusion:
The XDreamer is a very good case and an excellent price of around $50. It has provision for 6 case fans; 2x80 front, 2x80 rear exhaust, 1x80 top blower and 1x80 on window panel. Both the design and quality are above average. As I noted in my last test that the digital thermal probe was defective. One day after I wrote to Aspire, they replied with a replacement module sent. You can’t find this kind of service everyday. The side fan does reduce CPU temp by 3 degrees C. but it added noise. The Koolsolutions Chill Vent II in both cases (in two different configurations) knocked off another 3 to 6 C. If you care to take another look closer to the case temperatures listed on MBM5 charts above, you may find another interesting point. I assume the side panel fan location may have the effect in lowering the case temp blowing cooler air to the case sensor location. But, this could be misleading, as case/system temp should represent the cause and effect on hard drive, memory and AGP components. With two exhaust fans closer to the side panel fan, the air intake only takes an immediate left turn and most being sucked out.
With a dog around the house, I’d better block the side panel fan permanently. The less “holes” and locations sucking air in the less dog hair I find on the heatsink later.
If you don’t have a side window fan that is facing the processor and not handy enough to cut a hole, rather than spending $48 for a new case and a day to fool around with installation, the Chill Vent II with its easy installation will take off 6 degrees for you for ~ $19. When you have side panel fan as such, the Koolsolutions Chill Vent II still gives you 3 more degrees reduction. And, if you are looking for a good price point case with decent quality of features, you got it here.
Update:
Take a look at how Chill Vent II and Video Card Cooling.