Case Fans and Cooling

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scottgeorge-harrison

Commendable
Oct 22, 2017
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Hey, hopefully this is the best place for advice.

So I am looking to buy more fans for my case (2x120mm) but im wondering is it better to intake air or exhaust it. my case is this:
http://www.gamemax.uk/products_162_106.html

I have a GTX 1080ti and a Maximus Formula IX with a Corsair H60 Hydro Cooler for cpu.

I know my GPU and watercooler exhaust the air and the 2 fans in front of the case intake. so would it be better to shove more cool air in?

Any suggestions?

Thanks
 
Solution
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You want balance with intake and exhaust. For the front you have space for 2x140mm fans. Bigger is better in this case so get 140s for the front definitely. In the back is going to be your corsair h60. You can add one up top for a balanced 2 in and 2 out airflow.
Here's a nice video about optimal numbers of fans:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OmkmluAYAQ (can skip to 11:52 conclusion if you don't want to watch the whole thing).
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ahh okay great i understand! thank you

 
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Working temp...temp/rpm curves are there to adjust fan's rpm (how fast it's spinning) based on the temperature sensor inside the case (typically cpu but some mobos allow mobo sensors for this as well). So when it gets hot, the fan spins faster. Now this performance greatly matters on the fan. Typically 3 pin voltage fans have max rpm capped at around 1250 or 1000rpm. Running at max speed is still going to be pretty quiet so ramping up and down doesn't matter so much. Switch is sufficient when you just want them quiet, and max is fine for performance/gaming.
I went with a huge rpm range front fan cause of insufficient cooling in my place in general so I went overcompensating, and hence the pwm and micromanaging of the fan, so they don't get ridiculously loud unless I'm really worried about temps in which case I worry over temps more than noise.
Again, for great majority of situations, 3 pin voltage fans are just fine for the front. If you want good cable management, there's a definite point in 3 pin fan and fan controller setup favour. If you have no air conditioning and heat can be an issue, case can be made for high rpm front fans sometimes. Again...preference and how much you want to nitpick this :)
Also...$$$ and what you can get for less money.
 
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so if i have them connected to my mobo i can have fans with higher RPM? if so would that be better? it does get pretty hot in my house but my computer is close to a window
 
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Higher RPM depends entirely on the fan. Not what it plugs into.
It just happens that pwm fans typically have higher top rpm ranges. PWM fans are for example standard on the cpu air coolers. And since they're 4 pins, typically you'd plug them into the motherboard since most simple fan controllers that come with the case support 3 pin fans.
You can just as easily get voltage controlled fan with very high top rpm but that gets very noisy so you really can't just pull a switch to max and leave it all the time at that level. It has to be controlled by making a fan profile preset on the motherboard.
Again, don't overthink it. If you're not worried about temperatures too much, just go with SP140s and your fan controller.
I fried two of my previous systems for various reasons, temperature was one of them, so I was overly careful with high cooling options for this system this time. Again, this isn't the usual setup. If you're not lounging in your undies in the summer in your room out of sheer self preservation, I pretty much would forget about it :)
 
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im so torn between them im worried about heat so i might fork out that bit extra money to get a really good 4 pin high rpm fan and then plug it into my mobo just to be safe, which would you recommend?
 
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Well again, it depends on the deals as well. For example, at the time I was buying, my local store (ncix) was having a really good deal for my pwm fans. All the other pwm fans were for like $25 CAD and over so if there wasn't a really good price on those, I may not have gotten them. So I grabbed two for decent price for the rpm range of 650-2800. Now lets be perfectly clear. At anything over 1500rpm it slowly starts to sound like a vacuum cleaner so I am absolutely serious about noise being an issue and I never go up to max rpm anyway. However, at times when I was gaming in the sweltering heat of the summer, it really came in handy as I had noise issues anyways from the street, and I just wanted to play the game without worrying about frying things after a few hours so up to 2k did happen a few times and I put up with it because of lack of air conditioning.
Again and I can't stress this enough. Unless you're really really worried about heat, just pick whatever you can get a good deal on and like how it looks, you'll very rarely need this high rpm if ever. It'll just run a 5-8 degrees hotter which is absolutely fine, your components can actually take a bit higher heats for a while.
Did I mention I've fried systems before? I was just being careful. Don't overthink it. See what you can get for decent prices.
 
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Hey, sorry for the late reply.

what 4 pin fans would you recommend? value for money kind of thing? then i can compare and think about it? Im only from the uk but it can still get pretty hot in the house. also my components get pretty hot obviously. so send me some recommendations and i will look, i wouldnt mind a 4 pin for the fine tuning and knowing its there when i need it and sound isnt too big of an issue but quieter is obviously better.
 
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Well ok if you want 2x140mm for front that are pwm, then https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/products/case-fan/#s=140&p=1&sort=price&page=1
for the price it's offering I'd probably again go for Cm's masterfan pro 140 air pressure as they're only 9.99 pounds which compared to the rest of the pwm fans for that range of rpm is unbeatable. But that's me. If you accept that it's very unlikely you'll need more than 1800 rpm (and it really is), then I might go for beQuiet purewings 2 140mm.
 
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I think i will go with the CM ones you suggested there. Just to be safe.

would 2 of those work on a Y splitter cable for the 1+amp header without melting the connection?

 
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You don't need a y splitter for them. You've got 3 system fan headers that are all 4 pin. Just plug your two fans, one into each fan header and you're fine. You can use third system fan header for whatever fan you stick up top, and your cpu_fan header will be used for your h60.
Use your asus utility from your mobo support page, aura is what I think it's called to launch qfan and setup your fans after.
 
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so i should have enough 4 pin cables come with my mobo to plug the fans into the mobo? or are you on about the cables that the old/current fans are using right now? because the ones that came with the case arent they only 3 pin?

 
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Ok so when the two fans come, you'll just plug the cables they come in straight into the mobo. One cable to each header. Their cables are pretty short so it'll likely be able to only reach two fan headers anyway, the top right and the bottom right.
The fan you stick up at the top of the case I'm assuming will be one of the two you have at the front right now. Since it's plugged into fan controller now, you can just unplug it from the splitter it's plugged into now that leads to psu and plug into 3rd chassis fan header on the motherboard. Or you can leave it as it is plugged in right now if you want to control it using fan controller switches but I don't see the point of that if you're going to control your other fans via a mobo utility. You might as well control them all that way then.
 
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ahh okay, will they fans you suggested come with cables though because it doesnt look like it?
 
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Yes they come with cables but they're pretty short. meaning they'll reach on your mobo the fan headers you have at top right and bottom right. They're marked as H_AMP and CHA_FAN3. It doesn't matter what fan header you're using. They only truly important one is cpu_fan which is reserved for the cpu cooler.
I can send you a pic of mine if you want, to see the distance and what they look like, though it's a different mobo but so you get idea of size/length of the cord. It'll go through one of the cutouts on the back of the mobo directly to the fan header. You won't be tying it around with your current fan controller cables snaking it down all entire length of the case. You don't have enough slack for that.
 
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ahh okay would they defiantly reach my fan connections on the mobo? i can send a link to a picture off my set up inside if that will help?

Do you also know what this is? https://imgur.com/a/NR5Xb thats on my mobo?

If you have discord or something would it be okay to add you for when i get my fans so you can help me haha
Thanks
 
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I'll send you a pic so you see what the sizes are. What is the case you're using? So I know if it's bigger than my case?
As for your pic, I have to check with positioning on your motherboard, but off the top of my head, it looks like a motherboard speaker. The thing that gives you beeps on boot. edit: yes it's in the right position bottom right marked 15 in your manual for 4 pin speaker.
I don't have discord, only skype. If you use it, yes I don't mind helping you out when you're installing them.
 
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ahh i think it might be the little speaker tbh, just looked at a close up pic of my board, but while i look at the pic i can only see an external fan connection near the bottom left?

as for the case i am using http://www.gamemax.uk/products_162_106.html
 
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Oh...right you told me that already. I'm sorry, too many threads, I'm losing track.
Yeah my case is longer and wider, though not taller, so it should be just fine. It was the depth I was worried about. I'll send you the pics of what it looks like the moment I get a chance to open my case.
The top fan header says H_AMP. It's near top right. Marked 3 in your manual, page 18.
Page 73 talks about setting up a qfan profile for each fan afterwards.
 
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Haha dont worry about it.

I think my manual is different from the one you're looking at, but with the H_amp one will that be okay to use as it wont be above 1 amp so it will be under powered for that socket?
 
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i have a software already thats similar i think, i havent played games today but when i have played the programme CAM says my gpu has reached 85 degrees C and my cpu 80 degrees C
 
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ahh right it looks a bit different in my manual but i found it anyway, good job im not doing water cooling as i would have no idea at all,

also skype would be helpful if you dont mind me adding you??
 
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ahhh I see and you want it a bit cooler. Well ok, no problem. The fans should help, and the extra fan up top, as that is a bit warm, as should the qfan curves.
And you are doing water cooling? At least an aio right? H60 in the back?

As for skype, send me a message with your info, don't post it on the forum.
 
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