[SOLVED] Cooler Master H500 Case - Top Fans Worth It?

[Ziphikai]

I'm in the process of picking parts for a new build and was wondering if anyone knew whether the Cooler Master H500 benefits much from top mounted fans? I'd be running with the mesh front and don't want to mess up air flow or pressure if the default fan setup is better suited. I'm probably going to be running i7 9700k with maybe the CM hyper 212X and an RTX 2080.

Thanks

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

212x can't cool a 9700k.

 

[Ziphikai]

Avoiding the "why would you get a 9700k if you're not going to overclock.." 212x should be fine at stock speeds?

 

[Karadjgne]

I'd suggest either a NH-D15S aircooler with 1 rear exhaust and 1 top rear fan or a decent 240mm AIO mounted up top. Between the 9700k and 2080 your case will be an oven with just the 2x stock fans.

To have any sort of actual control over temps, the cooler TDP should be close to double the cpu TDP, if not more. For a 95w cpu, you'd be looking at the coolers in the 180w+ range. The 140w hyper212 will slowly cook under heavy usage and you can expect temps gaming to exceed 70°C, which puts the cpu fan at full speed and full volume. It'll do it you can use it, but it's almost guaranteed you will not be happy with the results.

Stock speeds usually entail higher vcore and other voltages than a decent overclock. That's done specifically by amd/intel to guarantee stability across every cpu made since the cpu lottery will change each cpus specific needs.

I5-3570k, 75w cpu stock 1.24v. 4.3GHz OC 1.08v. Prime95 72°C h55 aio (same as a hyper212), gaming 55°C.

That's a 4core 75w cpu. Expect 6core cpu at higher vcore and 95w will run considerably hotter. The hyper212 will be closer to 90°C under stress and 70°C gaming.

 

[Ziphikai]

I'd suggest either a NH-D15S aircooler with 1 rear exhaust and 1 top rear fan or a decent 240mm AIO mounted up top. Between the 9700k and 2080 your case will be an oven with just the 2x stock fans.

Appreciate the help, I'm now leaning towards the NH-U14S as many people seem to suggest it would be fine for the stock 9700k but is not quite as large with only a single tower.
At stock I believe the H500 comes with 2x200mm front fans and a rear 120mm fan. My concern with mounting a top rear fan was whether it would pull more hot air from the 2080 into the CPU instead of allowing the air to flow more towards the back of the case and out. I'm a newbie when it comes to this so my concerns could be completely unfounded.

 

[Karadjgne]

Heat rises. That's an unavoidable fact. The heat put out from the gpu comes from the side next to the window. The fans suck air from below and pump it out sideways. So most of that heat has an almost direct pathway to the top of the case.

The cpu cooler exhaust will dominate the rear exhaust, fan vrs fan, so there'll be little room to remove a majority of the gpu exhaust, it'll slowly leak out from the top mostly. This is where the top-rear exhaust comes into play. The draw vacuum from that fan collects most of that heat and helps it out the top. So you have a chimney affect. Cooler air in from below, hotter gpu exhaust shoving air up the side, top fan sucking it out the top in a constant flow.

Without that fan, you'll be relying on the ability of heat to escape out the top naturally, which it will, but not as fast as if helped by the fan. The remaining heat will sit there and eventually collect enough to start affecting the cpu cooler efficiency. The and cpu temps go up. Slightly.

 

[Ziphikai]

Thanks @Karadjgne
Makes sense. I'll look for a decent top fan and add in a good Noctua cooler 👍