[SOLVED] Is the deepcool macube 310p an ok case?

Andrew 3584

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I'm am currently looking for a PC case replacement and was wondering if the thermal performance of the deepcool macube 310p case is okay. My mother board only has one chassis fan header but the case apparently comes with a 4 port fan hub. I'm currently using a noctua y splitter in my pc, would I be able to use that on the CPU fan header to allow another case fan for cooling?
My CPU cooler is the deepcool gammaxx 400 and it's fan runs at around 900rpm always. Would this case supply sufficient cooling/airflow if I ran like 3 static pressure intake fans at the front, one rear exhaust fan and one top mounted exhaust fan?
Thanks

PC specs
I5-8400
Asus prime b360m-k matx
GTX 1050ti
 
Solution
Yes, very good quality case. It does have a few features you may not be familiar with though since you are asking, so I'll just say that if you need a 5.25" drive bay for something like an optical DVD or BD drive in the front panel, this doesn't have one. A lot of cases these days don't have them though.

It also only has room internally for mounting two 3.5" and two 2.5" drives inside. There is room for plenty of fans with 3 x120mm at the front or top OR 2 x140mm at front or top plus one rear 120mm fan. It supports coolers up to 165mm so it will easily accomodate that Gammaxx 400.
Yes, very good quality case. It does have a few features you may not be familiar with though since you are asking, so I'll just say that if you need a 5.25" drive bay for something like an optical DVD or BD drive in the front panel, this doesn't have one. A lot of cases these days don't have them though.

It also only has room internally for mounting two 3.5" and two 2.5" drives inside. There is room for plenty of fans with 3 x120mm at the front or top OR 2 x140mm at front or top plus one rear 120mm fan. It supports coolers up to 165mm so it will easily accomodate that Gammaxx 400.
 
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Andrew 3584

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Yes, very good quality case. It does have a few features you may not be familiar with though since you are asking, so I'll just say that if you need a 5.25" drive bay for something like an optical DVD or BD drive in the front panel, this doesn't have one. A lot of cases these days don't have them though.

It also only has room internally for mounting two 3.5" and two 2.5" drives inside. There is room for plenty of fans with 3 x120mm at the front or top OR 2 x140mm at front or top plus one rear 120mm fan. It supports coolers up to 165mm so it will easily accomodate that Gammaxx 400.
My current build does have a DVD drive but I honestly never use it so it's pretty much useless.
the case has a fan hub included but it only supports 4 fans. https://www.amazon.com/DeepCool-Con...=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B07LGWHHXV

this fan hub suports 10 fans but uses a pwm cable and a sata cable.
https://www.amazon.com/DEEPCOOL-FH-10-Integrated-Occupying-Motherboard/dp/B077YHLDSP
does that mean all the power to the fans is coming from the psu and the pwm connector is just for fan speed?
 
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How many fans are you planning to run?

What fans are you planning to run? We need to know every fan, and whether it is three pin or four pin PWM?

Do you already have that motherboard?

No, you do not want to run case fans off the CPU fan header, it will drive you insane with constantly revving up and down due to being controlled by the CPU thermal sensors rather than the motherboard system sensor.

Honestly, for that build, two decent front 140mm intake fans, one decent top rear 140mm exhaust fan and one rear-top 120mm exhaust fan would be more than plenty, and would in fact be suitable for a graphics card or higher TDP CPU upgrade down the road at some point.

I can make recommendations on fan models as well if you need guidance there.
 

Andrew 3584

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How many fans are you planning to run?

What fans are you planning to run? We need to know every fan, and whether it is three pin or four pin PWM?

Do you already have that motherboard?

No, you do not want to run case fans off the CPU fan header, it will drive you insane with constantly revving up and down due to being controlled by the CPU thermal sensors rather than the motherboard system sensor.

Honestly, for that build, two decent front 140mm intake fans, one decent top rear 140mm exhaust fan and one rear-top 120mm exhaust fan would be more than plenty, and would in fact be suitable for a graphics card or higher TDP CPU upgrade down the road at some point.

I can make recommendations on fan models as well if you need guidance there.
All my fans are 3 pin 120mm fans, oversight on my part. The 2 fans in my system are the Noctua 120mm NF-S12B Redux Edition and the fractal design venturi HF 120mm.
I want to run like 5 fans but i guess depending on the diameter of the fans i might run less.

yeah I already have that motherboard (old asrock z370 pro4 got zapped by lightning)

the system will basically have 3 120mm fans if i include the deep cool casefan they give. should i just ditch the default fan for now and just go for the configuration you suggested.
Could I get recommendations for 2 good 140 mm fans appropriate for front panel intake. Im pretty sure both the fractal and noctua fans I have are only good for unrestricted airflow
Thanks
 
1200rpm or 700rpm on the S12B redux? If it's the 1200rpm 3 pin model that would work fine as an exhaust fan in the rear location. A very good, very quiet fan.

The Fractal design Venturi 12 is ok. Not great, and about 7db louder than the Noctua, but for functional purposes and to save money, it will work in the top rear fan location. You can always swap out those two fans for something that better matches whatever you put in front, later on, unless finances are no issue in which case you could just do them all at once. Obviously, your call on that.

On the front fans, a pair of NF-A14's would be my first choice, either in the original Noctua earthtones or the newer chromax.black.swap black versions, which functionally are the same. Or, the Thermalright TY-147, which are a very good alternative to the Noctua NF-A14 or A15, but probably don't have bearings that will last as long as those in the Noctua. For less than half the price though, I'm ok with that. They are still extremely high quality fans.

Both those are four pin PWM fans so a controller that can handle both 3 pin and 4 pin fans will be necessary, and it will need to be capable of running off a single 4 pin PWM header on the motherboard. Since that's most controllers these days, that shouldn't be a problem.

The problem with the ones you suggested earlier is that 3 pin fans cannot be variable speed controlled using those. They will run at full speed at all times. That is not preferable.

I'd recommend this:

https://www.amazon.com/Phanteks-Uni...s+fan+hub&qid=1582168654&s=electronics&sr=1-1


Or something more advanced like the NZXT Grid+ v2 or v3, which of course are about 25 bucks more expensive.

The Phanteks PWHUB_02 is one of the very few controllers or hubs on the market that will do both 3 and 4 pin fans without being limited to full speed operation any connected 3 pin fans.
 

Andrew 3584

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The noctua I have is the 1200rpm version and mb its actually a pwm fan
honestly imo i dont find it worth it to replace all my fans so i would probably just go with 2 140mm fans and the controller you recommended.

If I for some reason were to use the deepcool 4 fan hub, couldnt i just control the speed for all the fans simultaneously even if they were 3 or 4 pin as my motherboard supports some thing called fanxpert in the bios.

The cryorig and be quiet silent wings fans are quite cheap at 16 aud each. Out of those which model would be the best? from what i can tell the cryorig performance is the best?

Cryorig QF140 Performance Series 140mm PWM Fan
https://www.pccasegear.com/products/37894/cryorig-qf140-performance-series-140mm-pwm-fan

Cryorig QF140 Silent Series 140mm PWM Fan
https://www.pccasegear.com/products/37895/cryorig-qf140-silent-series-140mm-pwm-fan

be quiet! Pure Wings 2 140mm PWM High Speed Fan
https://www.pccasegear.com/products/29597/cryorig-xf140-140mm-fan

Cryorig XF140 140mm Fan
https://www.pccasegear.com/products/45989/be-quiet-pure-wings-2-140mm-pwm-high-speed-fan
 
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No. Those hubs will not allow for ANY DC or PWM speed control for 3 pin fans. It says so right in the documentation.

The very first line of the product description clearly states

If 3-pin non-PWM fans are connected to this fan hub, this fan hub CANNOT give them extra PWM function. They will run at FULL SPEED.

The Thermalright fans I recommended are far better than anything made by Cryorig or Be Quiet. Don't get me wrong, they are all pretty decent fans, Cryorig makes good fans but all their products are very expensive these days because they have no presence in the US market anymore. Only 3rd party sellers list their products here now so either they are going to be expensive or you are somewhere other than the US.

Plus, at ten bucks each, there is no fan on the market that even remotely compares to the Thermalright TY-147. You'd have to spend twice that to get a better fan, at least.

I'm not a fan, no pun intended, of Be Quiet. They've built a name, clearly, on making fans with low noise levels BUT they've generally done it by reducing the RPM, and therefore the high end performance, of those fans. Obviously a fan reduced to 1300rpm is going to be quieter than the same fan at 1500rpm, but it's also not going to have as much static pressure OR move as much air. So it's mainly a marketing schtick and I don't like to see that from a supposedly high end manufacturer. But their fans are decent quality so to some degree you may be able to overlook some of that. For me, I'd rather have a fan that can push the full Monty AND still maintain low sound pressure levels.
 
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Andrew 3584

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No. Those hubs will not allow for ANY DC or PWM speed control for 3 pin fans. It says so right in the documentation.

The very first line of the product description clearly states



The Thermalright fans I recommended are far better than anything made by Cryorig or Be Quiet. Don't get me wrong, they are all pretty decent fans, Cryorig makes good fans but all their products are very expensive these days because they have no presence in the US market anymore. Only 3rd party sellers list their products here now so either they are going to be expensive or you are somewhere other than the US.

Plus, at ten bucks each, there is no fan on the market that even remotely compares to the Thermalright TY-147. You'd have to spend twice that to get a better fan, at least.
I reside in Australia so kinda the opposite in terms of brand presence and also i meant all the fans i listed were in AUD not USD so they are basically 10 USD.

do you think I could rely on just three pwm fans and one dc fan?. Like would y splitting the fan header and connecting the included fan hub(with the 3 pwm fans running off it) to one connector and the dc fan to the other work?

because im using the noctua y splitter which has a 3 and a 4 ping connector, and my noctua pwm fan runs at a low rpm and the 3 pin fractal fan already run decently quiet.
or would there be some electrical issue i dont know about?
 
No, that won't work. It doesn't work that way. The bottom line is that no matter what or how you connect any 3 pin fan to those Deepcool hubs, they are going to run full speed. Unlike the Phanteks hub, those are not designed to run DC controlled fans with variable speed control. They just cannot do it. Doesn't matter how you connect them or with what.

The Cryorig XF140 looks like the best cheap option that is still a decent quality fan for you.
 

Andrew 3584

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No, that won't work. It doesn't work that way. The bottom line is that no matter what or how you connect any 3 pin fan to those Deepcool hubs, they are going to run full speed. Unlike the Phanteks hub, those are not designed to run DC controlled fans with variable speed control. They just cannot do it. Doesn't matter how you connect them or with what.

The Cryorig XF140 looks like the best cheap option that is still a decent quality fan for you.
i probably shouldbe worded it better. I mean i only have one chasis fan header on my mobo. Im not saying that plugging the splitter into the hub would work.

cant i use my noctua y splitter on it and then connect the fractal 3 pin fan to the 3 pin connector on the splitter, and connect the fan hub to the pwm connector of the noctua splitter.

therefore i would be able to connect only just the 4 pin fans to the deepcool hub, and have the dc fan out of that system with my current fan control.

also that cryorig xf fan is i think for cpu coolers mostly
 
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Fans connected to PWM circuits, without additional circuitry designed to allow operation of both 3 and 4 pin fans like the Phanteks controller, will still result in full speed operation. Four pin PWM ciruits are not designed for both PWM and DC control. If you change the control type in the BIOS, assuming that header is capable of being switched between DC and PWM modes like many boards can do these days, you would then cause any PWM fans connected to that circuit to go full speed instead, if they were connected to a hub or controller that requires a PWM signal in order to provide a variable speed control.

The bottom line is, mixing DC and PWM fans on systems where the motherboard does not have enough individual fan headers to at least split between any potential DC and PWM fan groupings, is going to result in nothing but problems UNLESS you use something like that Phanteks controller. That, and the NZXT Grid+ fan controllers, are about the only ones I am aware of that can do both DC and PWM fans at the same time using one PWM signal from the motherboard.

There are NO fans intended ONLY for use on CPU coolers. None.

Intake, radiator and heatsink fans are all preferred to have high static pressure along with good CFM characteristics, while exhaust fans do not have a requirement for high static pressure since they are exhausting to the outside where the pressure is generally either lower or the same, and therefore does not offer a significant restriction to the airflow. So fans used for heatsinks and radiators often make good choices for intake fans and visa versa, but as far as being "intended" only for heatsinks, there is no such thing. They are all fans, period. There is no "only for this" type of fan. Any fan can be used anywhere so long as it's specifications are conducive to the required task.

Those fans in fact are often used throughout an entire build for both case fans and heatsinks or radiators since they have very decent general overall performance characteristics and are neither tended toward one end of the spectrum or the other by too much.
 

Andrew 3584

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Fans connected to PWM circuits, without additional circuitry designed to allow operation of both 3 and 4 pin fans like the Phanteks controller, will still result in full speed operation. Four pin PWM ciruits are not designed for both PWM and DC control. If you change the control type in the BIOS, assuming that header is capable of being switched between DC and PWM modes like many boards can do these days, you would then cause any PWM fans connected to that circuit to go full speed instead, if they were connected to a hub or controller that requires a PWM signal in order to provide a variable speed control.

The bottom line is, mixing DC and PWM fans on systems where the motherboard does not have enough individual fan headers to at least split between any potential DC and PWM fan groupings, is going to result in nothing but problems UNLESS you use something like that Phanteks controller. That, and the NZXT Grid+ fan controllers, are about the only ones I am aware of that can do both DC and PWM fans at the same time using one PWM signal from the motherboard.

There are NO fans intended ONLY for use on CPU coolers. None.

Intake, radiator and heatsink fans are all preferred to have high static pressure along with good CFM characteristics, while exhaust fans do not have a requirement for high static pressure since they are exhausting to the outside where the pressure is generally either lower or the same, and therefore does not offer a significant restriction to the airflow. So fans used for heatsinks and radiators often make good choices for intake fans and visa versa, but as far as being "intended" only for heatsinks, there is no such thing. They are all fans, period. There is no "only for this" type of fan. Any fan can be used anywhere so long as it's specifications are conducive to the required task.

Those fans in fact are often used throughout an entire build for both case fans and heatsinks or radiators since they have very decent general overall performance characteristics and are neither tended toward one end of the spectrum or the other by too much.
ok then
so basically my fractal 3pin was operating at max speed the entire time? since im able to control the noctua 4pin via bios and asus fan xpert software.
lol i forgot about the 120mm fan mount holes,
well in that case would 1 120mm rear fan, 2 120mm top exhaust and 2 140mm front panel intake fans work okay?

also what if for the top panel fans i made the closest to the front panel an intake and the closest to the rear of the case an exhaust?
thanks
 
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Are you running the stock CPU cooler?

No, do not start trying to change things around. Specific fans in specific locations need to specifically be configured as intake or exhaust because that is what works there, and in many instances not all fan locations should be used at all.

Regardless of any other considerations, if it is a tower case with a bottom mounted power supply, then any front, bottom or side mounted fans should be configured to be intake fans and any top or rear mounted fans should be exhaust.

It is generally accepted, for most systems, that using the front and middle fan locations for systems with air CPU coolers is both counterproductive and unnecessary as it doesn't generally help performance to have fans there AND it can actually HURT cooling performance by "stealing" cool air from the airpath intended to bring cool outside air to the motherboard chipset, VRMs and CPU cooler. The rear and top-rear fan locations are plenty to expel heat from the case that has risen to accumulate and while a middle-top fan CAN be used, as can all three locations if there are three, it doesn't really offer a lot of benefits. I prefer, if anything, to see a neutral pressure arrangement and given the amount of holes that are generally found throughout the case and at the rear panel, putting two to three front intake fans and two exhaust fans, with one in the rear and one in the top-rear, are going to usually offer the best general cooling performance.

Obviously for water cooled systems some variations will be necessary. Also for some specialty configurations like many miniITX systems.

It should pretty much always look something like this.


eGfaFHL.jpg



Or if filling every available fan location, then like this, without any variation unless there is a VERY good reason for doing so.

qYcd0fb.jpg
 

Andrew 3584

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Are you running the stock CPU cooler?

No, do not start trying to change things around. Specific fans in specific locations need to specifically be configured as intake or exhaust because that is what works there, and in many instances not all fan locations should be used at all.

Regardless of any other considerations, if it is a tower case with a bottom mounted power supply, then any front, bottom or side mounted fans should be configured to be intake fans and any top or rear mounted fans should be exhaust.

It is generally accepted, for most systems, that using the front and middle fan locations for systems with air CPU coolers is both counterproductive and unnecessary as it doesn't generally help performance to have fans there AND it can actually HURT cooling performance by "stealing" cool air from the airpath intended to bring cool outside air to the motherboard chipset, VRMs and CPU cooler. The rear and top-rear fan locations are plenty to expel heat from the case that has risen to accumulate and while a middle-top fan CAN be used, as can all three locations if there are three, it doesn't really offer a lot of benefits. I prefer, if anything, to see a neutral pressure arrangement and given the amount of holes that are generally found throughout the case and at the rear panel, putting two to three front intake fans and two exhaust fans, with one in the rear and one in the top-rear, are going to usually offer the best general cooling performance.

Obviously for water cooled systems some variations will be necessary. Also for some specialty configurations like many miniITX systems.

It should pretty much always look something like this.


eGfaFHL.jpg



Or if filling every available fan location, then like this, without any variation unless there is a VERY good reason for doing so.

qYcd0fb.jpg
I'm running the deepcool gammaxx 400

Then 1 120mm rear exhaust, 1 120mm top rear exhaust and 2 140mm front panel intakes is ok? I'll just not use the included deepcool case fan when I decide to buy the case

I was just worried that the front panel intake wouldn't be adequate for the system considering the front panel case vent spacing.
 
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Yes, those four fans should be plenty for your configuration, and most configurations to be honest. Even if you had an overclocked i7 or 8 core Ryzen, that would still be fine. Good in fact. The only change I might make would be a top-rear 140mm fan instead of a 120mm one, but since you have it already I understand using what is already available. Perhaps at some point down the road you might swap it out for another fan that matches whatever you put in front if aesthetics are a concern at all. Otherwise, so long as cooling performance is acceptable, it is fine.

If you wish, you could put 3 x120mm in front, and gain a small amount of overall fan surface area and CFM, but 2 140mm intake fans is honestly enough for pretty much any build that isn't heavily overclocked OR has a combination of both a high TDP graphics card AND CPU.
 

Andrew 3584

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Yes, those four fans should be plenty for your configuration, and most configurations to be honest. Even if you had an overclocked i7 or 8 core Ryzen, that would still be fine. Good in fact. The only change I might make would be a top-rear 140mm fan instead of a 120mm one, but since you have it already I understand using what is already available. Perhaps at some point down the road you might swap it out for another fan that matches whatever you put in front if aesthetics are a concern at all. Otherwise, so long as cooling performance is acceptable, it is fine.

If you wish, you could put 3 x120mm in front, and gain a small amount of overall fan surface area and CFM, but 2 140mm intake fans is honestly enough for pretty much any build that isn't heavily overclocked OR has a combination of both a high TDP graphics card AND CPU.
Okay, I'll go for the 2 120mm exhaust and 2 140mm front intake configuration then.

do you know if the phantek fan controller you linked has like actual 4 pin and 3 pin control via the motherboard? so i would be able to set all the fans to i.e 45% speed?
 
It has four ways to control speed. Without being connected to the motherboard at all it has three preset speeds that it can be set to. Silent, balanced and performance.

Or, it can be connected to a PWM fan header on the motherboard, and provide VARIABLE speed control based on temperature, usually the motherboard (system) thermal sensors although a lot of newer boards offer the ability to choose system, CPU, VRM, chipset, graphics card options for the temperature source. I recommend using the motherboard system sensor temperature source for case fans. Variable control is what you want. You do not want a constant, unchanging speed otherwise you may end up with too little cooling when you are under high demand loads or too much, noisy fan operation when the system doesn't really need it because it's not doing much at the time.

Just connect the controller to the motherboard header, then go into the BIOS and set a custom fan curve or a preset curve for that fan header, and for the CPU FAN header as well so that the CPU isn't just blasting along all day either.
 

Andrew 3584

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It has four ways to control speed. Without being connected to the motherboard at all it has three preset speeds that it can be set to. Silent, balanced and performance.

Or, it can be connected to a PWM fan header on the motherboard, and provide VARIABLE speed control based on temperature, usually the motherboard (system) thermal sensors although a lot of newer boards offer the ability to choose system, CPU, VRM, chipset, graphics card options for the temperature source. I recommend using the motherboard system sensor temperature source for case fans. Variable control is what you want. You do not want a constant, unchanging speed otherwise you may end up with too little cooling when you are under high demand loads or too much, noisy fan operation when the system doesn't really need it because it's not doing much at the time.

Just connect the controller to the motherboard header, then go into the BIOS and set a custom fan curve or a preset curve for that fan header, and for the CPU FAN header as well so that the CPU isn't just blasting along all day either.
oh ok
my motherboard i think does allow me to choose either the cpu or motherboard for temps and if i recall from factory asus already preset everything in bios to the standard preset so the fans dont ramp up at all.
Last thing does controlling the phanteks hub via mean that all fan are synchronised in percentage or actual rpm?
 
They are not "synchronized" at all. They are simply variable rate controlled. The motherboard will increase or decrease the rate of PWM signal to the controller based on temperature. The Phanteks, and other controllers like it, will translate that into a variable signal that will either increase or decrease the fan speed of any connected fan. I assume this is via DC voltage, increase or decrease, but it may be both DC and PWM depending on the kind of fan connected.

Honestly, I don't know about how the controller is designed to work inside. That is further into it than I have bothered to investigate. Suffice to say that it works, so how it works is really of less importance to us.

The RPM of a given fan is directly proportionate to the amount of voltage supplied to the fan, for DC 3 pin controlled fans, or the rate of the PWM signal, for PWM controlled fans.
 

Andrew 3584

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They are not "synchronized" at all. They are simply variable rate controlled. The motherboard will increase or decrease the rate of PWM signal to the controller based on temperature. The Phanteks, and other controllers like it, will translate that into a variable signal that will either increase or decrease the fan speed of any connected fan. I assume this is via DC voltage, increase or decrease, but it may be both DC and PWM depending on the kind of fan connected.

Honestly, I don't know about how the controller is designed to work inside. That is further into it than I have bothered to investigate. Suffice to say that it works, so how it works is really of less importance to us.

The RPM of a given fan is directly proportionate to the amount of voltage supplied to the fan, for DC 3 pin controlled fans, or the rate of the PWM signal, for PWM controlled fans.
ah ok i get it know
thanks alot, btw i replaced the garbage psu with the one you recommended already, the pc is basically inaudible now unless you listen from 30 cm away.