Airflow advice/opinions

[LGC]

Hi

After doing some clean up, managing my cables, buying a couple fans and a new heatsink, I started to experiment and see if I could improve my case airflow.

The case is a NZXT Tempest 410 Elite and currently looks like this:

http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q100/shadowsins/IMG_4250_zpsec8e2894.jpg

My fan setup is as follows:

2 Front intake 120 NZXT performance fans (47 CFM / 1300 RPM)

1 Bottom Intake same as above

1 Top frontmost intake Corsair 140AF

1 Top rearmost exhaust Corsair 140AF

And the Hyper 212 EVO is pulling the air through the heatsink and pushing it out the rear of the case.

CPU is an I7 2700k Idle temperatures are between 28-34°C and wont go pass 55° at 100% (not overclocked)

GPU is an XFX 6970 and my only gripe is that it wont go below 40° on idle. Its currently running on the stock fan though I plan on upgrading to something like the Accelero Xtreme III in a couple of months.

Currently its summer time over here (Peru) so my room temperature is about 25°C for most of the day. give or take 3°.

As far as I know and given my history with PCs, I am getting pretty good temperatures (correct me if I'm wrong) for summer time and I only expect them to get slightly better when winter comes. Although winter here is incredibly humid (mostly over 90% humidity, no idea how that compares to other countries).

My most recent change was removing the rear exhaust and using it to blow air into the GPU which to my surprise made almost no difference on the GPU temps (2-3° at most).

I'm looking for advice and opinions on what to improve so that I can ultimately get some overclock done in the safest manner possible.

Thanks in advance.

EDIT: Currently my case is sitting on my desk raised 2" from the surface with 2 (wood lumbers?) , I'm looking into buying/making a fan filter for the bottom intake (some products are hard to come by here in Peru)

EDIT2: Wasnt entirely sure if this was the right forum

 

[scout_03]

the intake air have to come from front bottom and outake at the back and top,this way you wil create a air flow from front to back .

 

[wiggbot]

Looks alright apart from your top intake. Flip it around to make it an exhaust. Fighting the effects of convection isn't wise. Try to visualize air coming in from the front, bottom, and side and going out the top and back.

Another thing to test may be moving the pull fan off the cpu cooler to make it a push fan. Having the cpu and back case fan that close most likely would be sub-optimal.

 

[adamv1]

I said this earlier, but I will say it again. I almost never keep the cases on my computer closed. Leave the side open and your system wont hold heat. This is the cheapest and most effective way to keep heat from remaining trapped in your case.

If it's hot where you are, which it sound like it is. Put a small room fan next to the case blowing into the case toward the back case fan. This will move the air from the processor, RAM and GPU out of the case. I have built many systems and have tried many cooling methods and although the above method may sound ghetto, it is the most effective.

 

[wiggbot]

I said this earlier, but I will say it again. I almost never keep the cases on my computer closed. Leave the side open and your system wont hold heat. This is the cheapest and most effective way to keep heat from remaining trapped in your case.

I can also probably get better performance out of my truck from removing the air filter. That doesn't sound like the best idea to me, though. In essence, you are doing the same thing except to your computer.

 

[LGC]

Thanks for the quick answers.

A few days ago I had no bottom intake, 2 front intake, both top exhaust, rear exhaust, and the CPU fan as push. I did some testing and with the front top fan as intake the CPU temps went down a bit.

Some further experimenting (removing the rear exhaust) gave me a net 3°C reduction on the CPU and basically no effect on the GPU or motherboard.

I'm pretty happy with the CPU temps for now, I'm mostly looking to decrease my GPU temperature and the "classic" front intake rear exhaust didn't prove to be superior in this case.

 

[adamv1]

I can also probably get better performance out of my truck from removing the air filter. That doesn't sound like the best idea to me, though. In essence, you are doing the same thing except to your computer.

Do you think the side wall on the case blocks dust or something? Believe me it doesn't. The more air space the computer has the better it cools.

Computer cases have side walls in order to protect the components from atmospheric disruption. It acts like a feradyne cage blocking incoming radiation and static. But it also blocks airflow. I have never had problems with atmospheric disruption but I have had problems dispersing heat. I would rather take my chances with radio waves than have my system crap out while working on 3d model.

 

[LGC]

Just to address the side panel open discussion. I dont get better temps with my case side open. I'm more interested atm in reducing GPU temps and I'm surprised that the bottom intake had almost no effect on them.

 

[wiggbot]

Do you think the side wall on the case blocks dust or something? Believe me it doesn't. The more air space the computer has the better it cools.

Computer cases have side walls in order to protect the components from atmospheric disruption. It acts like a feradyne cage blocking incoming radiation and static. But it also blocks airflow. I have never had problems with atmospheric disruption but I have had problems dispersing heat. I would rather take my chances with radio waves than have my system crap out during while working on 3d model.

Radiation? Feradyne? Perhaps you're referring to a Faraday cage. Regardless, it's clear you have no idea what you're talking about.

Leaving the guts of your system exposed is not a good idea. Yeah, I do believe that the side panel is there to keep dust out. It is also there to prevent you from accidentally dropping something in there, kicking it, a mouse making a nice warm home, etc.

Perhaps if you've had such great cooling performance from not putting the side of your case on, just try taking your components out of the case altogether. It'll cool even better then! 😀

Sorry if that's coming off a little harsh, but I deemed it necessary for spreading such poor advice.

 

[adamv1]

It has to do with airflow. Vertexes in the flow can make the fan's worthless, even counter productive. These are caused by turbulence brought on by air pressure. If you have too much air coming into the case and not enough going out you are creating a pressure differential that will make the air un-able to move.

If you really believe that having the side wall on helps then you should do this, make all the fans at the top (or bottom depending on you PSU orientation) and on the side pull air out of the case. If your case has good breathing room on the other side you won't need to have incoming air since the other fans will be pulling the most air they can move through the case.

 

[wiggbot]

Just to address the side panel open discussion. I dont get better temps with my case side open. I'm more interested atm in reducing GPU temps and I'm surprised that the bottom intake had almost no effect on them.

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1805/12/

It looks like during testing they had similar idle temperatures. Perhaps that is just what the card sits at. Does it get excessively hot during load?

 

[adamv1]

Radiation? Feradyne? Perhaps you're referring to a Faraday cage. Regardless, it's clear you have no idea what you're talking about.

Leaving the guts of your system exposed is not a good idea. Yeah, I do believe that the side panel is there to keep dust out. It is also there to prevent you from accidentally dropping something in there, kicking it, a mouse making a nice warm home, etc.

Perhaps if you've had such great cooling performance from not putting the side of your case on, just try taking your components out of the case altogether. It'll cool even better then! 😀

Sorry if that's coming off a little harsh, but I deemed it necessary for spreading such poor advice.

Poor advice? I dropped 5c by removing the side wall. And unless you have a filter on your case it is not blocking the dust. IF you are worried about dropping something in it then don't leave it in a place that might expose it to such a mishap.

And I do run components out of the case. I call it a test bench, and the cooling is great.

 

[mouse24]

Poor advice? I dropped 5c by removing the side wall. And unless you have a filter on your case it is not blocking the dust. IF you are worried about dropping something in it then don't leave it in a place that might expose it to such a mishap.

And I do run components out of the case. I call it a test bench, and the cooling is great.

What case, fans, and how do you have them set up? Normally when opening the side you are completely ruining a back to front setup. The only way I can see you getting better temps from the side being off is if your intake fans aren't strong enough or their is obstructions in the way of fresh air getting in.

 

[LGC]

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1805/12/

It looks like during testing they had similar idle temperatures. Perhaps that is just what the card sits at. Does it get excessively hot during load?

During gaming I get about the same temps with the fan at 70% (MSI)

Idle is slightly higher than on that review although it takes a while for it to reach 40-42°. When idling I don't use MSI. Something that kidna puzzled me about this GPU is that using firefox, watching videos on youtube and generally browsing stuff can get it between 46-60°.

Maybe it is a card limiting factor. I actually hadn't thought about it. With that in mind getting an Accelero Xtreme wouldnt make much difference on idle temp, although it would under load and definitely in noise.

 

[wiggbot]

During gaming I get about the same temps with the fan at 70% (MSI)

Idle is slightly higher than on that review although it takes a while for it to reach 40-42°. When idling I don't use MSI. Something that kidna puzzled me about this GPU is that using firefox, watching videos on youtube and generally browsing stuff can get it between 46-60°.

Maybe it is a card limiting factor. I actually hadn't thought about it. With that in mind getting an Accelero Xtreme wouldnt make much difference on idle temp, although it would under load and definitely in noise.

Looks similar to the cooler on my Gigabyte GTX 670. Quiet, and damn effective. I know we're talking about completely different video cards, but that design would definitely be better than the reference design you have. Keep in mind though that such a cooler exhausts mainly into the case instead of out of it. Not a big deal for a well cooled case, but something to keep in mind.

One thing does spring to mind, and it involves cost. Have you considered instead of swapping the cooling of the card, just getting a new card? It would definitely cost more, but with the right cooler on it from the factory it saves you some screwing around. You'd also get above and beyond the overclocking you were hoping to get.

Just food for thought...

 

[adamv1]

What case, fans, and how do you have them set up? Normally when opening the side you are completely ruining a back to front setup. The only way I can see you getting better temps from the side being off is if your intake fans aren't strong enough or their is obstructions in the way of fresh air getting in.

He is asking for opinions, I have been building systems for years and have found that the more open airflow the case has the better it cools. Right now I have two 120 mm fans pushing air around the CPU (top and behind). Believe it or not, by just removing the case side panel, I dropped 5c. I can only assume that the incoming fresh air pushes the heat away from the processor and having the side open allows the heat to escape.

I really didn't think this would be a controversial suggestion since multiple people on this site have said it does work.

www.tomshardware.com/forum/278676-29-open-case-closed-case
www.tomshardware.com/forum/248702-29-case-open-case-closed

 

[LGC]

Looks similar to the cooler on my Gigabyte GTX 670. Quiet, and damn effective. I know we're talking about completely different video cards, but that design would definitely be better than the reference design you have. Keep in mind though that such a cooler exhausts mainly into the case instead of out of it. Not a big deal for a well cooled case, but something to keep in mind.

One thing does spring to mind, and it involves cost. Have you considered instead of swapping the cooling of the card, just getting a new card? It would definitely cost more, but with the right cooler on it from the factory it saves you some screwing around. You'd also get above and beyond the overclocking you were hoping to get.

Just food for thought...

Yea the price is partly why I haven't made a decision to buy an aftermarket cooler yet and the same reason that I'm not upgrading my card yet. Sadly I don't have plans to upgrade my card for the remaining of this year (I've had it for a year already).

I might look into an aftermarket cooler that is compatible with a better card and do some overclocking when this card starts to fall behind in performance and save for a new card after that.

Thanks for raising these points. I guess the temps aren't half bad then and I think I'll continue with my current setup, maybe adding a side fan but not sure. When the time comes to upgrade I'll try to look for an ASUS one, I've seen most have 2 fans instead of the one I have.

Ill look more into the turbulence and see if theres any way I can test for it.

 

[LGC]

Best answer selected by LGC.