[SOLVED] Case hot to the touch

[Gibbs(57]

I recently build a new PC with and i7 9700k CPU and a RX 5700 XT GPU. I'm cooling the CPU with an cooler master ml240l in a NZXT h500 case. Everything seems to run fine but I can feel how hot the case gets. I expected some heat but I barely want to touch around the front of the case where the radiator for the cooler is. I have check CPU temps and I idle just below 40 C on the desktop and can get to and past 80 C in most games. Not to mention that the GPU runs hot normally. Is there any suggestions of fixes or ideas what to do?

 

[Mickieg1994]

How much airflow do you get in the case? how many fans?
Do the fans have enough room to breathe?
What are the gpu temps?
Cases can get pretty warm/hot to the touch, it is pretty normal under load, the heat spreads out through the case as it acts like a giant heat sink, it can be fine

 

[Gibbs(57]

There are three fans, two on the radiator and one for rear intake. I would install more but I only have 4 fan headers on my motherboard and one is using the pump. Inside it is relatively uncluttered inside and It should have plenty of airflow too as its a good 6 to 7 inches from any walls. My GPU runs almost at a flat 80 C under load and from what I heard that is normal.

I hope that it is fine but something about feeling the heat makes me worry I did something wrong.

 

[Karadjgne]

The nzxt H500 series works best with a negative pressure system, basically a lot more exhaust than intake. And that's most of the issue currently, your lack of exhaust. It's a fact that the case right next to the gpu will get warm, it's unavoidable with powerful gpus dumping their exhaust right to it, but with sufficient exhaust that can be mitigated some.

I'd suggest you purchase 2 things, a very good airflow 140mm fan for the top/rear and a 2way 'Y' splitter. Just make sure the fans match, so if the rear exhaust is 4pin pwm, then the 140mm needs to be 4pin pwm. If it's 3pin, that's voltage regulated, so the 140mm needs to be 3pin. Attach both fans to the Y and that goes to the header the rear is on now. (if you buy a Noctua fan, a Y splitter is included, not sure on other brands)

Then adjust the fan curves so that the exhaust group is spinning much faster than the intakes when gaming.

 

[Gibbs(57]

I just ordered a fan Y splinter to see if it really is just that the case works better with negative airflow. Is there anything else I can try well I wait? Like I know the radiator for the CPU cooler is supposed to get hot but it still concerns me that that who area where its located gets incredibly hot too.

 

[Karadjgne]

Kinda, but no. The coolant is more like a train, it picks up wattage passengers and transports them to the destination radiator. So if your case temps at idle sit @ 32°C, the coolant will be 'room temperature' at 32°C as well (±). The pump pushes fluid through the microfins underneath, picks up the excess wattage from the cpu, moves it to the radiator and dumps it. If your cpu has 100w of waste heat, about 98w of that gets dumped into the rad, so 98w is all the heat output you'll get. The coolant taking forever to absorb that extra few watts and move up 1°C.

Hairdryer on high is @ 1500w. Your pc on high is @ 200w with a decent locked core OC and Prime95 load. Gaming, it's closer to 150w±. Not as hot as you'd think, but having a lot of exhaust is a benefit.

I'd suggest a really good, silent fan. Airflow, not sp/static pressure. You want to move a lot of air, it doesn't need force at exhaust. The quieter the fan at higher rpm, means you can go even higher. More cfm.

 

[Gibbs(57]

Alright, that is a lot of good information to know. I'll see what happens when I get the Y fan splinter. Thank you.

 

[Piske]

it's totally and absolutely normal, specially on metal cases.

The hot air generated in the inside, normally is not pulled outside as fast as it's generated, so hot air deals with metal and heats it. And it doesn't matter how many fans you place, it will still heat the case. Obviously, if you place no fans, the case will go warm faster and hotter, and your components will overheat. It's the same exact example as when you drive your car. The hood will became warm although your engine temps are ok. I

I have a phanteks P400S with an IAO in the front (intake), then two 140's at the top (both exhaust air outside) and another 120 at the back also exhaust.

My GPU rarely goes to 70ºC with a pretty conservative custom fan curve, and the CPU is an E5 1650 v1 at 4,6ghz (summer config) 45ºC at iddle and 65ªC ish while gaming. After a few hours in a 27ºC ish enviroment, my case at the top is hot. Really hot, but components are just ok.

Use a push in/out config (or the best setup for your case) and don't worry for the external temps on your case. What matters is your hardware temps.

 

[Karadjgne]

Component temps don't really apply to case temps. Run a 2080ti at 70°C or a GT730 at 70°C and there's a vast difference. What matters is the wattage output. A GT730 is going to dump @ 20w for that 70°C. A 2080ti is going to dump @ 300w. That makes a huge difference to airflow ability to compensate. Even if you pushed better fans at higher rpm and dropped that 2080ti to 50°C, that's only a measure of heatsink/fan efficiency, not going to change the 300w worth of exhaust dumped into the case and hitting the side panel.

 

[Piske]

Component temps don't really apply to case temps. Run a 2080ti at 70°C or a GT730 at 70°C and there's a vast difference. What matters is the wattage output. A GT730 is going to dump @ 20w for that 70°C. A 2080ti is going to dump @ 300w. That makes a huge difference to airflow ability to compensate.

The more wattage the components have, the more hot air generated = more heat inside the case = the case will go hotter, also your components inside (VRM, RAM, chipset, Motherboard) since they cool themselves (normally pasively) with that air.

What i said is that it will not matter how many fans you place in your case, it will still heat up. I never said don't use fans inside the case to create airflow. Airflow is an important way of cooling your components. Why would i say my config if i was not concerned about that ??

But the question is not if you have a 2080ti or a gt730. The question is that heat will still increase your case "touch-temps" no matter how many fans you place.

 

[Karadjgne]

And I'm saying it can. But it depends on more factors than just adding a fan. It's where the fan is placed, it's sp, rpm, cfm in relation to proximity of the heat source, the exhaust itself.

Take a hairdryer and stick it 1 foot from your nose. You will feel the full brunt of that 1500w and your nose will get toasty real quick, same as a case side does from a higher power gpu. Stick a fan 90° perpendicular to the hairdryer, you don't get the full brunt of that heat, might not get any at all, or a lot, but not 100%. That's the purpose of airflow, directing, channeling heat. You can have a bunch of fans blowing into a case willy-nilly, that's trapping the heat inside, creating circulatory patterns, or half that many fans placed right will channel the flow into a solid stream in/out.

For the gpu, there's little to no actual flow in that area, it's a hot spot. So you'll need to create flow. Pull as much of that heat upwards as possible instead of allowing it to go sideways into the case side. The case will still get warm, that's unavoidable, unless you stick a fan blowing upwards, perpendicular to the gpu exhaust, but you can mitigate just how much heat hits the side with sufficient draw on exhaust creating a higher low-pressure area, which attracts the warmer gpu exhaust like a magnet.

 

[Gibbs(57]

There is a lot to digest here. It seems like the TL DR consensus is yes a PC will get physically hot but that does not mean the component temperatures are high. But GPU's and other high temperature spots should have airflow to pull as much of the hot air away.

I'm an not a complete beginner to PC and PC building but its not often I get to work with high end components that this becomes more of an issue with. Thank you for sharing this information with me and Ill post if the new fan instillation makes any difference when the split cable arrives.

 

[Karadjgne]

Most people just get in a car and drive. Occasionally they'll change the oil or rotate the tires, maybe even give it a bath. When getting into higher end pc equipment, you really are no longer just the Average Joe. The maintenance quota goes up, the need/want to get the most out of the big chunk of money you spent gets more intense, the ability to do more gets vastly expanded forcing inquisitive minds to see where the boundaries are.

You went from being a daily driver to driving in NASCAR. For most, that's enough, but some do graduate to Formula 1 or top-fuel dragster 😉

Flow starts to matter, design, cfm, sp, voltages, amperages, size, speed, resistances all take on new meanings and importance.

Welcome to a much larger World 😁

 

[Gibbs(57]

That's a fantastic analogy. I hope I will be able to learn and help others as well.

 

[FoxVoxDK]

Karadjgne is spot on, my CPU and GPU are water cooled, yet I still have 2xNF-A12x25 mounted on top of the 2080Ti pulling air UP towards my exhaust fans on my CPU radiator. Passive heat just sits around your components if your aren't pulling or pushing it up and out of your case.

 

[Karadjgne]

@Gibbs(57

Learning is always a good thing, you can never learn too much, and there's a LOT to learn lol. There's people around here that Dwarf Me in comparison when it comes to things like cpus and temps and networking and bios etc.

But for the most part, helping out is 9/10ths common sense. Connecting the dots, following the path back to the root issue. Just spouting out answers because you read it once isn't usually helpful. Being able to spout out an answer because you've paid attention to argument or discussion is often quite helpful. That's where knowledge and common sense are the most applicable.

But first choose a topic that interests you. Read up on it, get acquainted with its particulars. Don't try and learn everything at once or that gets confusing to say the least. In time, that'll branch out into other areas and that's when the background info you have will take you to the next step.

So learning about aircoolers, what they can do, why they do it, how they work naturally leads into comparison with aios and liquid cooling, airflow requirements, fan designs, TDP and Tau, cpu temps, gpu temps........

So take the first step, just don't be afraid to stay there awhile, there's always another step and always a tomorrow.