Cooling in an Enthoo Pro

[hdshatter]

The pump on my 240-x just died so decided its time to do a cooling overhaul for my build while I wait for the RMA. I have air conditioning so my room is cold most of the time even when its hot outside so not too big of an issue.

Currently I am looking to improve my Enthoo Pros cooling performance, what would be the optimal setup? Currently looking at buying 3 Corsair AF 140mm fans and moving the fan it came with to a bottom fan. Is it worth buying 2 120mm fans to put on the drive cages or should I remove the drive cage and put all 3 of my drives in the bottom cage and just let 2 front 140mm fans do the work?

The drives I have run very cool and don't even need air on them to remain at great temps so that is not an issue.

My CPU Cooler is an H240-x, currently I use the 200mm as an intake and the 240-x fans and the 140mm it came with as an exhaust. The inside of my case gets very hot and I believe the cause is the poor performance of the 200mm intake fan + being blocked by the drive cages. Very little air flow is coming into the case even at max fan speed.

I am also planning on buying a 980ti and adding it to the loop of my 240-x.

Current Specs:
X99 Deluxe
i7 5820k
290x (replacing with a water cooled 980ti or a 980ti hybrid)
EVGA 1300w Supernova G2

 

[Darkbreeze]

What are you looking for as far as the end result? Maximum airflow with no care for noise, quiet operation or a combination happy medium?

I would not configure the radiator fans as exhaust. It's very inefficient. You want cool outside air flowing through those radiator fins, not hot internal air.

Honestly, I'd move the radiator to the front and configure the fans as intake, use the top two or three locations and the rear as exhaust, using 140mm PWM fans and that should be sufficient for all but the highest overclocked configurations.

I'd also consider something better than those Corsair fans. Those are for folks who don't know better and are simply drawn to the Corsair name. If you want good fans that MOVE some air, are QUIET and will LAST due to having higher quality bearing designs, I'd look to something from Noctua's consumer or industrial series lineup, one of the higher end Phanteks fans or something made by either Thermalright or Noiseblocker.

I use one of the fan models below on pretty much every build I assemble, depending on budget

.

Noctua NH-A15 (Used on what is arguably the best currently made air CPU coolers, the Noctua NH-U14S, NH-D14 and NH-D15):

http://www.noctua.at/main.php?show=productview&products_id=54&lng=en

That's what I use exclusively in my personal build. I have two of those in front, two on top and one rear. My CPU cooler, the NH-U14S also uses that fan in this build. It's almost silent, but moves plenty of air when necessary.




These are good if sheer volume and static pressure are what you want. With 10.52 H2O static pressure, there's not much out there that can outperform it aside from one of the very loud (Think Jet engine) Delta industrial fans:

http://www.noctua.at/main.php?show=productview&products_id=84&lng=en&set=1




These are also noteworthy and very well designed fans:

Phanteks: http://phanteks.com/PH-F140XP.html


Thermalright: http://www.thermalright.com/html/products/fan/ty-140.html


Noiseblocker: http://www.blacknoise.com/site/en/products/noiseblocker-it-fans.php


If you want a decent budget priced fan, I'd look to one of the Cougar fans before Corsair. Honestly, for the price vs performance, I think the Noctua A15 is the best fan out there right now.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Case Fan: Noctua NF-A15 PWM 140mm Fan ($20.40 @ Amazon)
Total: $20.40
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-07-03 21:28 EDT-0400

 

[hdshatter]

Looking for the best balance of airflow with noise, it doesn't need to be dead silent but it needs to be some what quiet.

Anything worth buying to replace the helix fans on the h240-x?

Also the H240-X doesn't reach the CPU from the front, not sure what tubing to buy.

I have 3 hard drives, one of them I can move to external but I need the other 2 so would the best choice be putting them in 5.25" to 3.5" adapters in the drive bays?

Edit: Pumps working again WTF? I just inspected it further and it looks like algae is growing in the liquid? Guessing they messed up this unit big time and maybe thats why temps were so bad?

 

[Darkbreeze]

How old is your 240x?

It will apparently be compatible with the tubing shown here, but I'd double check with Swiftech to verify that the tubing shown and the G1/4 fittings are for certain compatible with that unit if you choose to upgrade the unit with longer tubing.

If there is foreign matter in the tubing or system, my understanding is it can be several things. Algae would have a hard time growing in propylene glycol, so unless you've had the unit apart and refilled it with something other than what came in the unit, it would be unlikely to be algae. Liquid cooling isn't my absolute strongest area, however I've read that it's common for these to create deposits due to "plasticizer" chemicals in some tubing.

Take a read on this thread and see if maybe this is what you're seeing. Check the pics down the page a bit.

http://www.overclock.net/t/1380775/what-is-plasticizer

Honestly, if you are having pump issues, seeing crap inside the system and temp issues as well, I'd RMA the unit. It would still be ok to use the unit at the top with the fans in intake configuration, but if there is still room to mount a third fan there in addition to the radiator, I'd at least try to get a 120mm fan to fit that third fan location on top and use it as an additional exhaust. That would give you the rear exhaust and one top exhaust, two fans in intake configuration for the radiator and two front intake fans. Not as balanced as I'd like to see as far as intake vs exhaust, but you'd definitely have less dust accumulation in the case due to the positive pressure affect you'd generate which is what some builders and enthusiasts shoot for anyhow.

You would for certain want to go with high static pressure fans in a configuration like that, and I'd recommend these for that type of configuration, at least on the radiator fans. These are a max of 107CFM, 4.18mm H20 static pressure. Probably double the static pressure of most high end consumer fans. They have a max decibel level of 31.5db but you'd be very unlikely to ever see them reach those levels since they move so much air even at medium speeds:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835608047&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-PC&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-PC-_-pla-_-Case+Fans-_-N82E16835608047&gclid=CjwKEAjw5disBRCA5r7OjsK_-UgSJAC27JPgrmu6qcPmOo-lr113FyNpJBNwyLBHwugYswIfkfDM8BoCkELw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

 

[Darkbreeze]

Another option might be a bottom mounted radiator. The Enthoo Pro case specs show support for up to a 240mm radiator on the bottom of the case where it would work very well in an intake configuration. That would leave all your top and front case fan locations open and you could simply go with however many you like. I'd recommend filling them all, which would leave you with four intake fans, two in front, two on the radiator, and four exhaust, three on top and one in the back. That would put you very close to a balanced pressure configuration.