[SOLVED] Maximize Airflow Fractal Design R5

[cadefoster]

Hi all,
I recently purchased a noctua nhd15 and wasn't seeing the temps I was hoping to see. After about 15 minutes of prime 26.6 small fft tests, my cpu was hitting almost 80c which seems a little high. Definitely and improvement over my old 212 hyper evo but still a little warmer then expected. I thought maybe my install wasn't the best but before re-installing, I thought i would try some prime 26.6 stress tests with the case open. My temps drops significantly, about 72c max with the case open which leads me to believe my install is fine and I'm having a case airflow problem. My current airflow setup is 1 140mm as a front intake, 1 140mm rear exhaust and both noctua cpu fans directed to the exhaust. The case has room for a lot more fans so i was hoping to get a little advice on how many more fans to add and the best orientation to maximize air flow and try to bring the temps down a bit.. Thanks in advance!

win 10 64
i7 7700k 4.5gz
asus prime z270
rtx 2080
16g ddr 4
corsasir gold 750 psu
fractal design r5 case

 

[theycallmechris]

Hi Cade, looking at the case you have on their website, the front fans seems to be rather choked off by the panel and with the drive bays behind it is probably struggling to provide enough air and be starving the system of the air it needs.

As the case has bottom and top fan mounts, I would say maybe get a set of good 120mm fans or 140mm fans and install one in a bottom mount location as an intake and one in a top mount location as an exhaust. The case has a good amount of space between the bottom of it and the ground, so air flow should be good, and the top mount fan should help with removing extra hot air and drawing the cooler air upwards from the bottom of the system. You can also try removing the drive bays from behind the fan (if you haven't already) and see if that helps any.

As fans are relatively inexpensive, I'd start with 2 extra fans and see how the system reacts before spending extra money on it.

Hope that helps.

 

[cadefoster]

Thanks so much for the advice, much appreciated. I'll definitely look at adding at least another front intake fan and probably go with a bottom intake as well. I also wasn't thinking and installed my hard drive bays right behind the front fan so between that and the front case panel, the noctua probably isn't getting the air it needs. Thanks again.

 

[scout_03]

see this https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/help-with-fan-setup-for-fractal-design-define-r5.3210234/