Many Newbie Questions on General Cooling Advice, Case Fan Placement, and Hardware additions

[therickaman]

Dear All,

Before I begin, l'd like to say thank you for any help I may possibly receive. So, due to lack of time, instead of building my own computer I decided to buy one already assembled that I could customize some. I'm pretty happy with what I got and I think the price was fair, although I know putting it together would have probably been cheaper. The company that built the computer is Cybertron PC and I payed $900. Let me know what you think of the price I payed and what I received:

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Case: Carbide Spec-03
Motherboard: MSI H110M VD-Pro Plus
CPU: i7-6700k @ 4.0 GHz with a generic stock intel cooler
Video Card: Nvidia (MSI) GeForce 1050 2G OC
Memory: 16 gig Crucial Ballistix Sport DDR4 @ 2400 MT/s (1 stick, 2 slots on MOBO)
Case Fans: Two Corsair 120 mm LED fans in front (A1225M12S), 1 generic 120 mm exhaust in back
Storage: Firecuda 1 TB SSD Hybrid
Optical: CD/DVD-RW
PSU: Cybertron PC, 500W ATX
Monitor: Philips 247E6BDAD 24" Class Full HD, Anti-Blue Light LED-LCD monitor with stereo Speakers, VGA,DVI, MHL-HDMI, 2ms Response Time (NOT INCLUDED WITH ABOVE)

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Complete or Planned Upgrades and Additions:

CPU Cooler: Cryorig H7 (Being shipped now)
Storage: 256 Gig Samsung EVO 850 Pro, 256 Gig (Completed)
Case LEDs: Multi-color LED strips with RF Remote Control (Completed)
Case Fans: Three open spots for 120 mm fans, Two on top and one on bottom of case (Soon)
Fan Controller: NZXT Sentry 3 5.4-Inch Touch Screen Fan Controller Cooling (Soon)
Optical: LG WH16NS40 Super Multi Blue Internal SATA 16x Blu-ray Disc Rewriter
Memory: 2nd stick of 16 gig Crucial Ballistix Sport DDR4 @ 2400 (Later in the year)
Networking: ASUS 4x4 802.11AC Wireless-AC3100 PCIe Adapter (Later in the year)
CPU: May upgrade to Kaby Lake (Two or more years away)

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I don't do PC video games, but I might start soon after I graduate. Does this rig seem like a decent gaming computer? I know it would have been cheaper to build, but what do you think about the price I paid?

What you think about my planned upgrades and additions. I know the market may be unpredictable, but could I probably plan on the computer fetching $700 or more bucks after the upgrades in three years?

So, if you can't tell...I plan for this computer to be a machine that I'll upgrade over the long term of several years. Maybe doing so I'll be able to sell it for a few hundred bucks, so that I can build my own with newer parts by that time. My long term goal is to build with a dual socket motherboard at some point. That's a hobby though, for the short term I need something that will help me with my job...and this computer will need to be it.

I'm a mathematician, so I'll be using this computer to do some heavy multi-precision computations for hours or maybe days or weeks without stopping. I'm planning to have this CPU running at the max. During these long computation sessions, nothing else will be running besides the C program I wrote to do the computations and the operating system. I'm not planning to overclock, but I'm willing to bet that doing computations like the ones I describe could lower the lifespan of the CPU...especially if not cooled well. This is where I have some questions. Questions should be answered with this sort of CPU load in mind.

My nvidia card has it's fan underneath the card, thus the hot air dumps into the case. I've read somewhere online that air movement could cause the GPU cooler to not perform as well. Is that true? Also, can the GPU cooler be changed so that the hot air is dumped out of the case? I've never had a dedicated graphics card as I've always used integrated intel graphics up to this point. I apologize if these are newbie questions.

Do custom PC builders usually change out the generic 120 mm exhaust fan in the back (which comes with the case)? The cryorig h7 that is on the way will be very close to the top of the video card and will be very close proximity to the exhaust fan. I'm pretty sure I will be unable to put a second fan on the cryorig unless I remove this exhaust fan at the back. Would it be better to have dual fans for the cryorig or just one with the generic exhaust fan at the back?

The two fans that are currently at the front pull air into the case. They always run at the same speed always, since I connected them directly to the PSU using molex to three pin connectors. I assume since I connected the fans in this way, the fans are running at there maximum always, is this true? Should I consider upgrading these fans to something that I can control the RPMs?

How should I set up the three open fan slots? Should I use high quality, high air flow fans? If so, should they dump air or take air in? Should I buy a fan controller first, then add fans as I go?

Also, on the motherboard I noticed that so far the only fan I've been able to connect is the exhaust fan at the back, the system fan. Are there any places where I can control other fans from the motherboard (besides CPU and GPU coolers)?


I just noticed that the PCIe 2.0 x1 slot is very, very close to the GPU. Do they make cable extensions so that I can put a network card lower than where the motherboard is mounted?

Pictures of the computer:

https://ibin.co/3DlCNF4pMsKl.jpg
https://ibin.co/3DlCgubIPUWl.jpg
https://ibin.co/3DlCt5XmCJln.jpg
https://ibin.co/3DlDBVda1uqF.jpg
https://ibin.co/3DlDTJ13G5Xz.jpg
https://ibin.co/3DlDcz6CcwLH.jpg
https://ibin.co/3DlDmyXWIaY3.jpg
https://ibin.co/3DlEICI8WJZQ.jpg

Thanks,

Rick

 

[ThePlaneAddict]

Hey Rick,

I just saw that you haven't gotten any replies and I decided to let you know what I think.

To start, you got screwed on that price by 3 things mostly. That GPU, the PSU and the storage solution. The parts are also very cheap for the price and I reckon building it yourself would have saved you 200-300 dollars labor, not including OS.

Let me start off with, great, you seem to have a good idea of what you want to do and how to do it. Here is what I would recommend...
1: Upgrade that intel cooler, which you are already doing, great

2: If you were willing to rewire that whole case, I would change that PSU as fast as possible. A cheap no name brand PSU can waste electricity and worst case, fry your whole computer. I would upgrade it to this: https://www.amazon.com/EVGA-Supernova-220-GS-0550-V1-Modular-Supply/dp/B00UVN20UO?th=1

3: With this PC, that CPU is ahead of the game for years to come. You will not need to upgrade that CPU for the life of the system. With your H7, you will be fine to do a mild overclock. Number crunching won't hurt the CPU as long as it is kept cool. The only way to improve your crunching performance would be to upgrade to a 6 core or 8 core Intel CPU, which isn't possible on that motherboard (something to consider for future build)

4: Dump all of the fans in that case. Buy either noctua or fractal venturi fans and fill the spaces. The fan on the H7 cooler will be fine. I would buy airflow type fans for the rest of the case, either https://www.amazon.com/Setting-Anti-Stall-Bearing-NF-S12A-FLX/dp/B00BEZKX8Y/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1488917235&sr=8-3&keywords=noctua+120mm%5C or these https://www.amazon.com/Fractal-Design-Venturi-HF-12-FD-FAN-VENT-HF12-BK/dp/B00YTVIRMO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1488917340&sr=8-1&keywords=hf-12 With this setup, I would ditch the fan controller as these fans are silent even at full speed. You can buy fan splitters to connect lots of fans like this, but make sure you use all of the same types of fans. Leave your CPU cooler fan hooked into the CPU fan header on the motherbard, but the other case fans can be connected to the splitter. https://www.amazon.com/SilverStone-System-Cables-Black-CPF04/dp/B00VNW556I/ref=pd_sbs_147_1?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B00VNW556I&pd_rd_r=77P3RPEMX33A9KZ3YM31&pd_rd_w=zjttA&pd_rd_wg=jynjT&psc=1&refRID=77P3RPEMX33A9KZ3YM31

5: The second stick of ram is a good idea to take advantage if dual channel...

6: The PCI slot should be clear of the GPU, even if it looks close. It may affect cooling though. Your card won't have problems though as it is a very low power card. This is the last thing I would upgrade. This card wont game very well, and is dwarfed by your CPU. If you wanted to get into serious gaming, I would consider a 1060 6gb, RX 480 8gb, or a 1070 8gb at the present. This will change as time goes on obviously as cards get better.

 

[therickaman]

Hi ThePlaneAddict,

In the time since I posted this, I've made quite a few upgrades. I didn't realize how quickly I would be able to make these upgrades. It sucks because, like you said, I could have saved some money...but I did have some projects I had to complete and without a computer I couldn't.

The first thing I did was upgrade the fans. I didn't go with the brand you specify, but I did get some good fans...I think. I got Corsair HD120 RGB for the front of the case, so that I could have some color. For exhaust fans, I got two Corsair SP120 High Performance fans. One exhaust fan is at the top rear of the case, and the other is on the top at the back of the case. So in other words, it kinda makes like a sideways L shape with the H7 in the middle. It's pretty cool, holding 55 degrees after three hours of Prime95 ver. 26.6. I did "upgrade" the thermal paste from the paste that came with the H7 to Kryonaut Thermal Grizzly.

Tomorrow, I'll receive a second stick of 16gb ram.

The upgrade that I am most excited about is the motherboard itself. I got fed up with the fact that I didn't have but one sysfan header and one cpufan header. So, I went ahead and got a MSI Z270 SLI PLUS. I believe that this motherboard will last me for quite awhile. Also, with SLI support I'll be able to make some more upgrades with time.

I agree that I need to get a new PSU, which I plan on doing...especially before I start overclocking. I'll look into the PSU that you posted, thanks for the suggestion. I'll have to make that upgrade after a week or two.

I do plan to upgrade the GPU. I'm planning to have a GTX 1080 by the time Christmas rolls around, maybe even two for SLI if I can convince my wife to go for it.

So, what am I going to do with all these parts since I essentially have enough to make another computer? I plan on making another computer and selling it for a deep discount.

Thanks,

Rick

 

[ThePlaneAddict]

Awesome, thanks for the update. Yea all those things are good. I run SP120s as well but just don't like how loud they are at full speed. If you can get that power supply changed, you'll be set! Good luck!

 

[therickaman]

I don't mind the noise. I just found out my motherboard will arrive on Friday. Until then I'm doing some testing and playing around on this mobo. I've ran Prime95 several times now but it seems like I have to use MSI command center to manually set all fans to 100%. I rather don't like this as I'd really prefer for the fans to speed up on their own.

I have a couple of questions if you don't mind.

I'm pretty sure they do speed up on their own, but it seems like it gets to a certain heat then the fans speed up. I could be wrong, but I think the computer has a harder time cooling down than rather keeping it cool before it gets hot. I'd rather them speed up before hitting a certain temp, instead of attempting to cool the CPU down. Do you know if this is possible?

I noticed that you said dual channel ram. From my understanding, the computer gets a performance boost when ram is inserted into both slots. The motherboard I'm receiving has four slots. Do I need to make sure that each slot is taken by some amount of ram in order to receive this performance boost? As it stands with the new motherboard, I'll only be able to do 16x16x0x0. Should I buy some more ram so that say the slots will be something like 16x16x8x8 or will 16x16x0x0 be fine?

 

[ThePlaneAddict]

I don't mind the noise. I just found out my motherboard will arrive on Friday. Until then I'm doing some testing and playing around on this mobo. I've ran Prime95 several times now but it seems like I have to use MSI command center to manually set all fans to 100%. I rather don't like this as I'd really prefer for the fans to speed up on their own.

I have a couple of questions if you don't mind.

I'm pretty sure they do speed up on their own, but it seems like it gets to a certain heat then the fans speed up. I could be wrong, but I think the computer has a harder time cooling down than rather keeping it cool before it gets hot. I'd rather them speed up before hitting a certain temp, instead of attempting to cool the CPU down. Do you know if this is possible?

I noticed that you said dual channel ram. From my understanding, the computer gets a performance boost when ram is inserted into both slots. The motherboard I'm receiving has four slots. Do I need to make sure that each slot is taken by some amount of ram in order to receive this performance boost? As it stands with the new motherboard, I'll only be able to do 16x16x0x0. Should I buy some more ram so that say the slots will be something like 16x16x8x8 or will 16x16x0x0 be fine?

Your new MSI board should come with software that will allow you to control each fan curve individually as long as they are on separate fan headers. This will allow you to set them to run at certain speeds based on temperatures although, only if the fans are 4 pin PWM fans and the motherboard headers are 4 Pin headers and not 3 pin ones. The only way to control 3 pin fans is with a fan controller or voltage control in the bios. You can google this online if you need to. There is also free software that will let you do it.

Also, 2 sticks can do dual channel as long as you have them in every other slot. Read your motherboards manual and it will tell you which 2 slots to put them in. They will not be right next to each other, but separated by 1 slot in between. Again, check your manual for your new mobo and it will tell you!

 

[ThePlaneAddict]

And to remind you, if you are planning on possibly going to SLI, consider this PSU over the other one solely on wattage, https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00TJDY47E/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_jEmWyb6STPBXR

This one is 850 watts versus 550. Only consider if SLI is a possibility for you