[SOLVED] A bit more cooling...

[hildebranddj]

Thinking of adding one more fan to my case now with the RX580 GPU installed. Case is a Cougar Challenger so it's got the massive fan in front drawing air inside. PSU is isolated with its own intake and exhaust. CPU cooler is a EVO 212 on a FX8350. I have one 120mm rear case fan sucking air out and one fan on top sucking air out as well. CPU Fan is pushing air thru the cooler pretty much right at rear case fan. Would adding another fan to the top be more beneficial to dissapate heat out of the case or do I add it to the bottom sucking more cool air in from under the case?

Before adding the RX580 when I still had the R7/360 on it at idle I could maintain or maybe 5 degrees above ambient room temp inside the case. Now with the RX580 in place my case temps sits between 85-90F with the idle temp of the GPU sitting at 85F and the fans on auto are usually off or running very slowly.

Either way this has become quite the room heater. Running it under a moderate load the case temps jump to about 120F and I can usually raise my rooms temp by 5 degrees. I haven't fully taxed it yet so I don't have any numbers for a full load situation.

Thanks again. You guys have always been more than helpful. -DH

Pic is before the GPU swap.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ehnX6UNaGg6xeeWr7i0dtGwcmPGxGR6r/view?usp=drivesdk

 

[prince_xaine]

The best thing you could do is put a fan on the bottom. That cool air will most certainly end up hitting your GPU on the way up.

 

[Karadjgne]

Yes, I'd add a fan. Anywhere as intake would be good.

Exhaust fans work by creating low pressure areas in front of the fan. Nature abhors a vacuum, or a low pressure area, so the surrounding air will try and fill that gap, pretty much most of the case air will move in a block to fill it, which will draw other, outside the case air through any other vents or cracks. Not very efficient, but effective over time. An intake fan works by providing a higher pressure air on the backside of the fan, forcing the block of air into the direction of the exhaust.

So with an intake/exhaust situation, there's a constant flow of cooler air towards heatsinks. Without both, you are at the mercy of however air can enter the case, or escape.

 

[hildebranddj]

Thanks guys Fan added and dropped case temps quite a bit at idle..



now i have the big 200mm Fan pulling air thru the front over the SSD and HDDs, the 120mm pulling cool air off the floor under the PC, one 120 mm Exhaust Fan above the RAM, and the main 120mm Case Exhaust Fan. ALso the PSU fan and the CPU cooler

 

[Karadjgne]

I'd move that top fan to the back. As an exhaust, it's fighting the cpu fan, which is trying to grab all it can. By moving it to the back, all the air from the bottom intake will be grabbed by the cpu cooler, and between the rear and top-rear fans, you'll have a stronger pull for gpu heat coming up from the bottom. That won't affect idle temps much (if any) but will affect long term loads temps.

It's nice you stuck with the Orange, it's a rare color in pc's nowadays, everybody wants blue, red, black or white.

Now all you need is a can of orange spray plastic stain/paint and some masking tape and a sharp knife and touch up that gpu...

Can even get orange sleeves..

 

[hildebranddj]

I'll definitely move it to the back if it will help.

For an older build to start, I wanted to be different so I went Orange. It's got red accents, Front fan has Red LEDs and now my Ram has Red Heat Sinks,, so that Red accents on the RX580 kind of fit in. But if I ever get bored I may play around with some paint. I actually have the right orange in a spray can, I was originally going to paint a graphic on the side with a stencil but passed on the idea ages ago.

 

[hildebranddj]

Moved it to the back, and added a strip of metal tape to the edge of the cpu cooler, i had to slide it out a bit to clear the RAM Heat-sink, and never realized i had air bypassing the heat-sink. some HVAC Metal tape fixed that.. have to do some full load tests now see how warm the case gets..

 

[hildebranddj]

Now under the full load of TimeSpy my Temps are as follows

Ambient Room Temp 73F

System (South Bridge temp) Min 89F Max 95F
CPU Min 97F Max 125F
CPU Package (cores same) Min 73 Max 117F
TMP 2 (Case Temp) Min 73F Max 113F
SSD Min 73F Max 93F
HHD1 Min 73F Max 73F
HDD2 Min 82F Max 84F
GPU Min 91F Max 152F

Before new bottom fan, and top fan move to back

System (South Bridge temp) Min 94F Max 102F
CPU Min 107F Max 135F
CPU PACKAGE Min 77F Max 135F
TMP 2 (Case Temp) Min 83F Max 127F
SSD Min 82F Max 97F
HHD1 Min 77F Max 79F
HDD2 Min 85F Max 89F
GPU Min 97F Max 182F

So its amazing what just a bit better airflow can do.. much happier with these baseline temps over the old. Both tests were done under as close to the same load, and room temp as possible.

 

[prince_xaine]

Now under the full load of TimeSpy my Temps are as follows

Ambient Room Temp 73F

System (South Bridge temp) Min 89F Max 95F
CPU Min 97F Max 125F
CPU Package (cores same) Min 73 Max 117F
TMP 2 (Case Temp) Min 73F Max 113F
SSD Min 73F Max 93F
HHD1 Min 73F Max 73F
HDD2 Min 82F Max 84F
GPU Min 91F Max 152F

Before new bottom fan, and top fan move to back

System (South Bridge temp) Min 94F Max 102F
CPU Min 107F Max 135F
CPU PACKAGE Min 77F Max 135F
TMP 2 (Case Temp) Min 83F Max 127F
SSD Min 82F Max 97F
HHD1 Min 77F Max 79F
HDD2 Min 85F Max 89F
GPU Min 97F Max 182F

So its amazing what just a bit better airflow can do.. much happier with these baseline temps over the old. Both tests were done under as close to the same load, and room temp as possible.

Your reports in Fahrenheit confused me, but I'm happy your temps came down

 

[hildebranddj]

Apologies Prince, Ill remember to use Celsius in the future..

Case is about 23C now idle, was 32C roughly before the addition of the fan and moving the other.. all other temps have dropped 10-20C.. Not nearly as warm sitting next to it under full load now.. Breathing much better..

 

[Karadjgne]

Yes. Most ppl prefer °C to °F. Celsius is not only used in a good part of the rest of the world, but Intel cpu's have this bad habit of topping out in heat @ 100°C, so using 100° just puts things into an easier to read perspective. Saying their cpu is reaching 212° (100°C) just makes for freakout numbers lol.

 

[prince_xaine]

Apologies Prince, Ill remember to use Celsius in the future..

Case is about 23C now idle, was 32C roughly before the addition of the fan and moving the other.. all other temps have dropped 10-20C.. Not nearly as warm sitting next to it under full load now.. Breathing much better..

Happy to hear it!