[New build] case fan question.

[MarkUK68]

I'm looking to place an order for components today.
I've decided on all my parts, but I have 2 questions about case fans and circulation:

First question:
With this ASUS M4A89GTD PRO/USB3 890GX, the GPU has to be in the lower PCI-e slot. Now I'll be adding a PCI sound card, which I guess will go in one of the slots below the GPU. Then of course there is the PSU intake fan, which will be facing upwards (as per the Antec manual instructions). So that's two fans, one PSU intake and one GPU 'outtake' with a sound card in between. That's getting pretty crowded, so is that OK with regards to airflow?

Last question:
This Antec 300 case can take 3 additional fans (two front and one side). So that will be 6 in all! I've had a look at the Asus motherboard manual and I'm struggling to see how I can connect all 6 fans (if I choose to use all 6 - but why wouldn't I?).
So can I connect all 6?

Mark.

 

[Silvune]

Do you really need a sound card? As onboard sound these days is of a good standard. If you don't need one then this would alleviate any airflow issues that might be caused by installing one.

PSU fans usually draw air into the PSU, so there won't be any cool air coming into the case from the PSU. I think that it is a better idea to have the PSU fan facing downwards anyway as there will be no chance of anything falling into it - mostly dust.

The Antec 300 comes with two Antec TriCool fans, which use 4pin molex connectors to plug into the PSU and they have three speed settings. So you would only need to connect the other three fans (which could also be to the PSU).

The Asus M4A89GTD PRO/USB3 has four fan connectors (two 4pin, two 3pin - a 3pin fan can be connected to a 4pin mobo header btw). So you'd fill them all after plugging in the CPU heatsink fan as well.

 

[MarkUK68]

Thanks for your reply Silvune.
I need good ASIO performance and I don't know if an onboard sound chip will give me that. The one on my last board had terrible ASIO, but thats about 5 years old now, so hopefully things have improved.

I'll definitely want to add some extra intake fans. Perhaps the 2 front fans and the side fan, although that could be an extra exhaust.

I'm hoping to get all my stuff ordered tonight! I've got a couple of hours with ebuyer's deadline, so I'm cutting it a bit fine

 

[Silvune]

You could get the Gigabyte GA-890GPA-UD3H 890GX which would allow you to have plenty of distance between graphics card and sound card.

 

[MarkUK68]

You could get the Gigabyte GA-890GPA-UD3H 890GX which would allow you to have plenty of distance between graphics card and sound card.

I can't thank you enough for that suggestion. It looks like the solution.
Just one thing...I see from Gigabyte's website that there are 3 revisions of that board - 1.0, 2.0, 2.1.
I doubt I can guarantee to get a particular revision, but would that really matter if, say I got a 1.0 instead of the latest?

 

[Silvune]

No I don't think it will really matter, the differences between revisions would be minor.

 

[MarkUK68]

No I don't think it will really matter, the differences between revisions would be minor.

Just found this.

I think I'll go for it. Bonus - it's £14 cheaper

Thanks again.

 

[Silvune]

And it also has four fan headers on the mobo. What other parts are you getting, out of curiosity?

 

[MarkUK68]

AMD 1090T CPU
4GB RAM
ATI 5770 GPU

Actually it was a toss up between that and an i7 930 build, but that got too expensive.

 

[MarkUK68]

Well I just ordered the following:

Item: AMD Phenom II X6 Black Edition 1090T 3.2GHz 9MB Cache 125W Retail Box Processor - Qty: 1
Item: G-Skill 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1600MHz/PC3-12800 Ripjaw Memory Kit CL7(7-8-7-24) 1.65V - Qty: 1
Item: Samsung SpinPoint F3 500GB Hard Drive SATAII 7200rpm 16MB Cache - OEM - Qty: 1
Item: LiteOn IHAS124-19 24x DVD±RW DL & RAM SATA - OEM Black - Qty: 1
Item: Xilence Red Wing 120mm Quiet Fan - 3&4pin connection - Qty: 3
Item: Arctic Silver 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver Thermal Compound Thermal paste 3.5gram - Qty: 1
Item: Antec 300 Three Hundred Case - Qty: 1
Item: XFX 650W XXX Edition Single Rail Modular PSU - 13.5cm Fan 6x SATA 4x PCI-E - Qty: 1
Item: XFX HD 5770 850MHz 1GB DDR5 HDMI Dual DVI Display Port PCI-E Graphics Card With Assassins Creed Game - Qty: 1
Item: ASUS M4A89GTD PRO/USB3 890GX Socket AM3 DVI VGA HDMI Out 8 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard - Qty: 1

I decided on the Asus board despite my potential sound card issue. I'll see how the on-board audio performs in ASIO and take things from there.

Ebuyer are very reliable so I should get my stuff some time tomorrow.
I hope that building my PC will be easier than deciding on the components.
Thanks to those who helped me.
Mark

 

[Silvune]

Well there won't necessarily be an issue, but there was less likelihood of it with the extra space provided by the Gigabyte. Maybe you can report back so that others know if it is an issue or not.

Nice selection of components, good luck and enjoy.

 

[MarkUK68]

Well there won't necessarily be an issue, but there was less likelihood of it with the extra space provided by the Gigabyte. Maybe you can report back so that others know if it is an issue or not.

Nice selection of components, good luck and enjoy.

The only issue I can think of is how hot the sound card would get from the GPU's exhaust.
If I mount the PSU fan facing down, I might be able to put the sound card in the lowest PCI slot for a larger spacing. But these 5770's are big, so I'll have to wait and see.

I certainly will report back..with pictures
Mark.

 

[MarkUK68]

A quick update.
It's built .
It was much easier than I though, and apart from a little problem with the spinpoint not being recognised (solved with a BIOS setting change) there were no problems.
Well the old soundcard didn't work out (too many pops and crackles), so I'll just wait a while and get something that wasn't made in the last century
Many thanks to all who helped.
Mark.