Built first computer, need fan placement appraisal, advice

[SuicuneSol]

I built my first computer a couple weeks ago. While it did run well for those weeks, I am now running into some GPU problems involving pink screens and crashing when my GPU reaches a certain temperature (But only when playing intensive games!) It doesn't help that we're in the middle of summer.

I'm probably going to replace my GPU (still under warranty), but I wager my computer has ventilation issues. I would like some advice on fan placement so I can avoid overheating and damaging parts.

Here are my specs:

Case: Corsair Obsidian Series 250D Mini tower
OS: Windows 7 Professional
Processor: Intel Core i5 4570 CPU @3.20 GHz
Motherboard: MSI Computer Corp. Z87I AC
Power: Corsair Builder Series CX 600 watt
Liquid Cooling: Corsair Hydro Series Cooling H75 Performance Liquid CPU Cooler
(Note: The H75 Cooler setup includes 2 fans and a heatsink for "push & pull" air flow. However, my mini-ITX case can only fit the heatsink and one fan. Right now, the fan just pushes air through the heatsink, which isn't optimal, but I don't know how else to make it work.
Thermal Compound: Arctic Silver 5
Memory: 8GB
GPU: MSI NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 (Twin Frozr)

Current Fan Setup:
Front: AF120L 120mm fan (Intake)
Right side: H75 fan, SP120L (behind the heatsink) (Intake)
Left side: None (GPU sits there)
Back: None, but there is space for two 80mm fans.
Bottom: Power Supply fan (Intake, blowing directly at bottom of motherboard)

Pics:
Front:

Top:

Right side:

Left side:

 

[Alec Mowat]

Is this a mini ITX setup?

I'd be more concerned with cable management. If you can move the cables out of the way, you should get better airflow.

 

[smorizio]

if you can flip the power supply around. dont want waste heat from the power supply blowing over the gpu. if you can have some of the fans blowing air out. trick with a case when closed is having 1\2 pulling cold air from bottom or front of the case and the rest blowing hot air out.

 

[SuicuneSol]

Yes, it's Mini-ITX. Mini tower.

I'll see what I can do with the cables, but it's not as bad as the pictures make it look.

I usually put the cables along the side of the case, and secure them with twist ties. However, I'm worried that the GPU heat might harm the cables, so I opted to keep them away from the GPU.

 

[Alec Mowat]

"crashing when my GPU reaches a certain temperature "

What temperature?

 

[SuicuneSol]

"crashing when my GPU reaches a certain temperature "

What temperature?

Furmark read about 61 degrees before the onscreen image corrupted and turned pinkish pixely. Had to shut off the machine. Another demanding game (Skyrim w/ ENB) also had the same problem soon after loading up.

The GPU idles at about 34-35 degrees.

Other less-demanding games don't seem to have the problem.

 

[Alec Mowat]

61 isn't hot for a GPU, might be another issue.

Could be this: Power: Corsair Builder Series CX 600 watt

What's the CPU at?

 

[SuicuneSol]

61 isn't hot for a GPU, might be another issue.

Could be this: Power: Corsair Builder Series CX 600 watt

What's the CPU at?

If you mean MHz, it sits at 3.2. Not overclocked, or anything

Why would it be the Power Supply? I know 61 isn't hot, but it certainly wasn't 61 the first time it happened. The case was a lot hotter to the touch then. And I'd been playing demanding games for the past week and a half just fine. :/

 

[Alec Mowat]

Those power supplies are well known time bombs. There's a million posts on these forums with PSU issues related to that particular model.


No, what's the CPU temperature I mean. 60 - 70 on a CPU is a little hot. I'd also check the RAM temps and the HD temps.

 

[smorizio]

one easy test to see if it airflow issue and heat..use a box or a small fan and blow cold air across the case as it is now and game. if the temp stay cool and the gpu runs fine....heat issues.

 

[SuicuneSol]

Those power supplies are well known time bombs. There's a million posts on these forums with PSU issues related to that particular model.


No, what's the CPU temperature I mean. 60 - 70 on a CPU is a little hot. I'd also check the RAM temps and the HD temps.

Okay, so it happened again during some gameplay. I checked and the CPU temperature reached 56 max. The GPU temp was 66. I'm not sure about the drive and ram temps because I don't know how to check those.

Also, last night I installed two 80mm fans in the back (exhaust), flipped the power supply over (fan faces down), rearranged cabling, and made the cpu fan/radiator an exhaust. The only intake fan is now the front fan, and I plan on upgrading that into a 200mm fan soon.

Honestly, I just think repeated overheating caused damage to the GPU. The damage has been done, so increasing airflow will only prevent, not cure the problem.

 

[smorizio]

one other thing to check use hardware monitor and look at the 12v line power of the power supply. the cx line is the lowest line from cosair and some people have had issue with it when fully loaded the unit ripples out or wont hold up to atx voltage. if you have a friend that has another unit that you can test with try it.

 

[SuicuneSol]

one other thing to check use hardware monitor and look at the 12v line power of the power supply. the cx line is the lowest line from cosair and some people have had issue with it when fully loaded the unit ripples out or wont hold up to atx voltage. if you have a friend that has another unit that you can test with try it.

Thanks a lot!

I'm checking temperatures and... I don't know if I'm reading this correctly, but I'm seeing some unbelievable temperatures at idle right now...

(first column seems to be current value, last column seems to show max value, don't know the middle column...)
+- MSI Z87I (MS-7851) (/mainboard)
| |
| +- Nuvoton NCT6779D (/lpc/nct6779d)
| | +- CPU VCore : 0.88 0.872 0.88 (/lpc/nct6779d/voltage/0)
| | +- Voltage #2 : 1.024 1.024 1.024 (/lpc/nct6779d/voltage/1)
| | +- AVCC : 3.36 3.36 3.36 (/lpc/nct6779d/voltage/2)
| | +- 3VCC : 3.36 3.36 3.36 (/lpc/nct6779d/voltage/3)
| | +- Voltage #5 : 1.104 1.096 1.104 (/lpc/nct6779d/voltage/4)
| | +- Voltage #6 : 0.848 0.848 0.848 (/lpc/nct6779d/voltage/5)
| | +- Voltage #7 : 1.064 1.064 1.064 (/lpc/nct6779d/voltage/6)
| | +- 3VSB : 3.424 3.424 3.424 (/lpc/nct6779d/voltage/7)
| | +- VBAT : 3.328 3.328 3.328 (/lpc/nct6779d/voltage/8)
| | +- VTT : 1.016 1.016 1.016 (/lpc/nct6779d/voltage/9)
| | +- Voltage #11 : 0.04 0.016 0.408 (/lpc/nct6779d/voltage/10)
| | +- Voltage #13 : 1.016 1.016 1.016 (/lpc/nct6779d/voltage/12)
| | +- Voltage #14 : 0.752 0.752 0.752 (/lpc/nct6779d/voltage/13)
| | +- Voltage #15 : 0.76 0.76 1.08 (/lpc/nct6779d/voltage/14)
| | +- CPU Core : 35 34 37.5 (/lpc/nct6779d/temperature/0)
| | +- Temperature #2 : 42 42 43 (/lpc/nct6779d/temperature/2)
| | +- Temperature #3 : 22.5 22.5 22.5 (/lpc/nct6779d/temperature/3)
| | +- Temperature #4 : 109 33 123 (/lpc/nct6779d/temperature/4)
| | +- Temperature #6 : -35 -55 104 (/lpc/nct6779d/temperature/6)
| | +- Fan #1 : 1119 1102 1122 (/lpc/nct6779d/fan/0)
| | +- Fan #2 : 1456 1427 1464 (/lpc/nct6779d/fan/1)
| | +- Fan Control #1 : 60 60 60 (/lpc/nct6779d/control/0)
| | +- Fan Control #2 : 24.7059 24.7059 24.7059 (/lpc/nct6779d/control/1)
| | +- Fan Control #3 : 60 60 60 (/lpc/nct6779d/control/2)
| | +- Fan Control #4 : 60 60 60 (/lpc/nct6779d/control/3)
| | +- Fan Control #5 : 49.8039 49.8039 49.8039 (/lpc/nct6779d/control/4)
|
+- Intel Core i5-4570 (/intelcpu/0)
| +- Bus Speed : 100.001 100.001 100.002 (/intelcpu/0/clock/0)
| +- CPU Core #1 : 800.01 800.009 3600.06 (/intelcpu/0/clock/1)
| +- CPU Core #2 : 800.01 800.009 3600.05 (/intelcpu/0/clock/2)
| +- CPU Core #3 : 800.01 800.009 3600.05 (/intelcpu/0/clock/3)
| +- CPU Core #4 : 800.01 800.009 3600.05 (/intelcpu/0/clock/4)
| +- CPU Core #1 : 32 31 41 (/intelcpu/0/temperature/0)
| +- CPU Core #2 : 31 29 34 (/intelcpu/0/temperature/1)
| +- CPU Core #3 : 32 29 36 (/intelcpu/0/temperature/2)
| +- CPU Core #4 : 32 30 36 (/intelcpu/0/temperature/3)
| +- CPU Package : 35 34 41 (/intelcpu/0/temperature/4)
| +- CPU Total : 1.94111 0.384617 31.6177 (/intelcpu/0/load/0)
| +- CPU Core #1 : 0 0 100 (/intelcpu/0/load/1)
| +- CPU Core #2 : 0 0 21.875 (/intelcpu/0/load/2)
| +- CPU Core #3 : 4.6875 0 52.3077 (/intelcpu/0/load/3)
| +- CPU Core #4 : 3.07692 0 50 (/intelcpu/0/load/4)
| +- CPU Package : 3.14666 3.09137 21.3175 (/intelcpu/0/power/0)
| +- CPU Cores : 0.0953823 0.0667156 12.7707 (/intelcpu/0/power/1)
| +- CPU Graphics : 0 0 0 (/intelcpu/0/power/2)
| +- CPU DRAM : 0.882316 0.870288 1.52857 (/intelcpu/0/power/3)
|
+- Generic Memory (/ram)
| +- Memory : 26.6366 26.6364 27.3863 (/ram/load/0)
| +- Used Memory : 2.11635 2.11634 2.17592 (/ram/data/0)
| +- Available Memory : 5.82894 5.76937 5.82895 (/ram/data/1)
|
+- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 (/nvidiagpu/0)
| +- GPU Core : 135 0 135 (/nvidiagpu/0/clock/0)
| +- GPU Memory : 324 324 324 (/nvidiagpu/0/clock/1)
| +- GPU Shader : 270 0 270 (/nvidiagpu/0/clock/2)
| +- GPU Core : 32 31 32 (/nvidiagpu/0/temperature/0)
| +- GPU Core : 0 0 41 (/nvidiagpu/0/load/0)
| +- GPU Memory Controller : 3 2 28 (/nvidiagpu/0/load/1)
| +- GPU Video Engine : 0 0 0 (/nvidiagpu/0/load/2)
| +- GPU Memory : 11.5625 9.79004 12.2822 (/nvidiagpu/0/load/3)
| +- GPU : 1260 1170 1290 (/nvidiagpu/0/fan/0)
| +- GPU Fan : 43 42 43 (/nvidiagpu/0/control/0)
|
+- Corsair Force GT (/hdd/0)
| +- Temperature : 33 33 33 (/hdd/0/temperature/0)
| +- Used Space : 79.6457 79.6419 79.6457 (/hdd/0/load/0)
| +- Remaining Life : 100 100 100 (/hdd/0/level/0)
| +- Write Amplification : 1.06727 1.06727 1.06727 (/hdd/0/factor/1)
| +- Controller Writes to NAND : 476 476 476 (/hdd/0/data/0)
| +- Host Writes to Controller : 446 446 446 (/hdd/0/data/1)
| +- Host Reads : 545 545 545 (/hdd/0/data/2)

 

[Alec Mowat]

66 Isn't hot for a GPU

I don't think it's a heat issue. I don't think the motherboard can handle the GPU's power requirements.

 

[smorizio]

that one hot temp in the read is the mb chipset temp n the newer mb they run hot due t everything that inside of them now. most newer mb have heat sink over the chipset to keep them cool.