Advice regarding PSU and cooling for upgrade

[russianpolecat]

Hi, I'm thinking of upgrading my PC. I'm thinking about going for a AMD Phenom II X6 1055T 2.80 GHz processor with probably an MSI AMD 3 890FXA-GD65 motherboard. 4-8 gigs of DDR3 memory, and (a little bit later down the line) a graphics card capable of full HD video editing - prob an entry level Fire Pro card, although maybe the Radeon 5870.

In terms of the Lian Li V1000 case (which I love) that I have - even though it's 6-7 yrs old, it's an ATX case so shouldn't have a problem with motherboard etc. - what extra cooling do you think I would need - if any - for the above system? Looking at a PSU of around 500W - 700W I would think. The Seasonic S12 II Bronze 520W I can get for about £65, but if I go for a Radeon card I might need a bit more than that...

Ta.

P.S. I have a Plextor PX-712SA (SATA) DVD drive. Will I still be able to use this with the new mother board etc?

 

[Silvune]

The Antec High Current Gamer HCG-520W unit, which is based on the Seasonic S12II Bronze unit you mentioned, is usually below £60. It should have plenty of power for a system with a 5870. I don't know about the power requirements of professional cards.
For ~£65 you should be able to get a good 600-650W PSU.

Yes you will still be able to use your SATA DVD drive.

 

[russianpolecat]

Cheers.

What about cooling? The case has two 120mm fans. Here's what the above review says about cooling -

The 120mm units in the V1000 have a 2.88 watt nominal rating, which isn't much for a fan of this size.

ADDA specify (PDF datasheet here) these 25mm thick 120mm fans to move 72 cubic feet per minute (CFM) of air, when just hanging there in space. They'll shift rather less than that between them through the PC-V1000, because each fan only has a 0.095 inches of mercury (inHg) static pressure rating. ADDA's 38mm thick 120mm fans with the same motor achieve 0.135 inHg.

One fan on intake and one on exhaust gives no change in the theoretical airflow figure, but twice the static pressure capability. That'd be 72CFM and 0.19 inHg for the V1000, if its fans were in a true push-pull arrangement, but the two-compartment interior means they're not, really.

The older Lian Lis do have a pretty straightforward push-pull setup. Recent fan-filled Lian Lis have two fans on intake and two on exhaust, with one exhaust fan on the back panel and one in the lid. That gives double the airflow and double the pressure of one fan.

The old 1.8 watt, 25mm thick 80mm fans are rated at 31.4 CFM and 0.114 inHg, so the four-fan config gives 62.8 CFM and 0.228 inHg.

So if the V1000 fan setup were push-pull, it'd be quite likely to move pretty much the same amount of air through the case as the old four-fan config did. A bit more theoretical airflow, a bit less pressure capacity; overall, it's a wash.

The two-compartment setup messes up this back-of-an-envelope calculation, but the extreme leakiness of the V1000's multi-perforated case means the two fans probably do move plenty of air, and probably also manage to move most of that air past things that actually need cooling.

The super-ventilated design of the V1000 inescapably means that there'll be a certain amount of air short-circuiting happening - warm air exiting the bottom and being sucked back in at the front, and cool air being sucked in at the back and then blown straight out again. But there's just so very much ventilation there that I doubt this'll matter.

 

[Silvune]

I'm not convinced that you'd need much, if any, additional cooling, unless you are overclocking.

If you do experience some kind of problem with heat then you could try buying higher airflow fans to see if that rectifies it and then finally if that doesn't work then you'd have to look at a new case.

 

[delluser1]

http://www.silverpcs.com/lian-li-ex-b-hd-rack-take-of-bay-for-hd/

 

[russianpolecat]

Cheers guys.