|
Installation
Assembly of the Chill Vent was a little bit of a challenge.
Although the instructions were very clear on every other aspect of the
installation, getting the 80mm fan into the Chill Vent itself was a little
vague. The vent itself is wide enough to allow it to fit over a 92mm fan, so
there is a lot of space for the 80mm to wander around in. I ended up with the
fan wedged in so it wouldn’t fall out, but it was not as stable as I would
have liked it to be. Mounting for the 80mm would be a great addition.
**click to enlarge**
The
Chill Vent II was installed into my overclocked Athlon XP 2500+ system, so the
temps will be higher than normal even at idle. The brackets did not do well in
the Z-Alien case, as it was so big that the clips didn’t provide the needed
support. Using the Chill Vent II in a smaller chassis would be recommended,
unless the mounting system gets a serious revision. The two 40mm fans ended up
straddling the AGP slot, so one fan blows directly over top, while the other
blows at the GPU cooler – nice!
**click to enlarge**
Test
temps were taken with Motherboard Monitor 5, after sitting at idle or load for
at least 45 minutes. The CPU load was performed by running the Folding@home
client. The Ambient temperature was 26°C +/- 0.5°C during the testing.
| |
Idle |
Load |
| Stock |
44ºC |
50ºC |
| Chill Vent II |
41ºC |
48ºC |
Given
that the Z-Alien has no vents around where the Chill Vent duct ends up, 2-3°C
is a respectable improvement for merely adjusting the airflow. One could
reasonably expect to see another 2 degrees with a few holes to let cooler
outside air into the Chill Vent.
|
