Help with more effective cooling

[Brandon Holden]

I'm trying to figure out if my fan setup is messing with my overall cooling effectiveness.
This isn't an updated picture; as now my fans are inside of the front panel for the h100i GTX radiator, in intake position.
My question is, should I reverse my top fan to be an intake instead of exhaust?
My temps for my GPU average 30C idle, about 55-60C after gaming for a moderate amount of time, I've never seen higher than that for the GPU. Currently running a 5.5% core Overclock, as that's the max it can do. I don't normally use AMD but I couldn't pass up a card that runs as good as a 980, and cheaper by far. (Hydro 980 is 650+)
My CPU is i5 6600k @ 4.6 ghz 1.375V. Up from 1.345, it was stable at 1.345 but as soon as I ran prime 95 workers 3/4 failed. As I moderately increased voltage they stopped failing, at 1.37 only worker 3 was failing, 1.375 the fails stopped. I probably got a bad chip, but it's fine cause 4.6 is a good OC for me, and under 1.4 is still within normal ranges.
CPU temps, while stressed and cooler on performance speeds with fans is about 70C max, normal usage I don't see anymore than 50C, usually settles in 40s, with fans set at 50%. I'm considering replacing the corsair fans.
Something to note, I didn't bother with aftermarket thermal paste I just use what was on the cooling block pre applied since corsair is a quality product.

 

[Rabmac]

I would assume that you have it set up correct with regards your top fan. As heat rises, one would assume that the top fan should be an exhaust fan. The temperatures you have given seem reasonable to me and I would not be worrying about temperature on your GPU.

 

[o3neonsxt]

Those temps aren't too bad. The fans on the rad for the h100 are pulling in. Which in theory would be pulling warm air in. Imo the top fans should be exhaust to get rid of that warm air from the CPU cooler.

 

[-HH-]

So the best thing to do is have all the fans on your rads as exhaust and the fans at the front as intake, this should mean air will flow through your case. If this is not working well then I'd reverse it so the rads are intake and the front is exhaust.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

1. In air cooled system....

Front, sides and bottom fans are intakes / top and rear are exhaust.

In water cooled system ... same as above, except.... all radiator fans are intakes... always.

Yes we all learned in 8th grade earth science that hot air rises .... but not in a room with a ceiling fan over your head. Compare the rate of rise for a helicopter and a hot air balloon ,, it ain't close.

On the other hand, let's "do the math"

Ambient air = 23C
Case Air = 28C
Coolant = 33C

Cooling potential is based upon "Delta T". So using outside air as intake (33 - 23 = 10) you get TWICE the cooling capacity than using inside case air (33 - 28 = 5)

As for worry about interior case temps.....

a) The air is flushed out of your case usually in excess of 100 times per minute.
b) Are you worried about your CPU temps or other components within your case ?
c) What component has an issue at 28C ?


2. The time of P95 ended with the Intel 3xxx series. Old P95 stable is not Windows application stable because the older versions don't test any of the newer instruction sets. Running RoG Real Bench for example will often crash a P95 box. Using the newer P95, with all those newer instruction sets is potentially dangerous, and will put a load on the CPU far above anything it will ever do "in real life". A 4.5 Ghz P95 OC therefore could very well be a 4.7 GHz OC under realistic conditions far above anything it will normally encounter.

3. Quite often the AMD cards will top the comparably priced nVidia cards out of the box, but, as you have discovered, they are very aggressively clocked in the box and have very little OC headroom. The 980 / 980 Ti overclock 25 / 31% and at that level that out of the box advantage vanishes.

5. Hybrid coolers are necessary for the higher performance AMD cards. I would recommend against a nVidia hybrid as it brings nothing to the table. When a 9xx card reaches its OC limit it is usually because of 2 things a) its hit its power or voltage limit or B0 the VRM has reached its thermal limit, The CLC cooler will lower the GPU temp from low 70s to 50s but at what gain ? The cards fans don't even turn on till 65C and throttling doesn't start till into the 80s. OTOH, the VRM is left in the same or, more often worse , position as the hybrids either don't provide any air or provide less cooling than the stock cooler for the VRM.

6. The Corsair paste is average, there are better. The max you'd see from best to worse on commercially available products would be 3C, A better TIM, might bring you 1C assuming you have a good mounting.