Need help with cooling and fan placement

[Mike226]

Picture of build: http://gyazo.com/22c65dd449ef283e96a24a6a1eb7ffe1

So i made my first build a few days ago and i feel that my gpu is getting too hot when under any kind of stress, i think its because the case i got is a bottom mounted psu one and so the gap between it and the gpu is very small, playing games with the side panel on gave me temps of 85C, i took the side off and it only goes to about 75C but i think that is still too hot, so i've got the fan you see on the right and i'm getting another one to go at the front by the air intake. It idles about 45-50C

1. Am i overreacting about the temps or is 75-85 normal? I really don't know.
2. Will the addition of the 2 fans be enough to bring it down in temp if it is too hot
3. Which direction should i make both the fans go, i was thinking make both of them blow cold air in and the exit fan at the top can take the hot air out but i thought i would ask

Any help is appreciated
- Mike

Edit: forgot to mention, it's a XFX DD 7870 and cpu is a fx 6300 if it makes any difference

 

[Guest]

Your best bet would to have both the top and front fan as intake and the back fan as exhaust. In regards to the GPU temperature, those are normal idle and load temps.

 

[Guest]

Why would you have the top fan as an intake fan?

Heat rises and you want to pull that hot air out. how does blowing fresh air into the path of hot air trying to escape help with cooling?

True, but you also have to factor in static pressure, in which you usually want more intake than exhaust.

 

[Mike226]

Sorry if the picture seemed misleading but i don't actually have a top fan, i only said 'top' on the picture to show which way round the system was, the highest fan is the black fan you see near the cpu

 

[Mike226]

Sorry if the picture seemed misleading but i don't actually have a top fan, i only said 'top' on the picture to show which way round the system was, the highest fan is the black fan you see near the cpu

Ok so you have one fan on the bottom of the side panel, and one fan on the rear, and the front of the case has air holes for intake as well.

Have the fan on the side panel be an intake, and the back fan at the top as the exhaust.
Does the case allow for a bigger fan for the rear? From the picture it looks like an 80mm or a 92mm and if that is the case I would suggest something bigger.

It came with the case, it's 92mm and i don't think there's space for a bigger fan to go in there, on the website for the case (it's called the zalman t3) it says that it will naturally draw air in through the front bottom but you can mount a fan there which i will do when it arrives from amazon. Thanks for your help.

 

[sedona]

What about a M-ATX casing like Fractal Design Core 1000? The PSU is mounted at the top, and 1 front intake 120mm fan. I'm using a Radeon HD 6850 1GB GDDR5 graphics card, so should I add two fans or just one? If one, then where is the best location? The options are 1 rear 92mm fan and/or 1 side panel 120mm fan (facing the graphics card).

http://www.fractal-design.com/home/product/cases/core-series/core-1000-usb-30

 

[sedona]

..... and side-to-side hard drive cage (because front-to-back hard drive cages can be a pain without removing the motherboard).

Hard to visualize what you mean. Side-to-side? Front-to-back? Do you mean a ITX casing?

 

[sedona]

..... and side-to-side hard drive cage (because front-to-back hard drive cages can be a pain without removing the motherboard).

Hard to visualize what you mean. Side-to-side? Front-to-back? Do you mean a ITX casing?

Your F.D. Core 1000 has a front-to-back hard drive cage, where the cage and the drives are oriented facing the front and back of the computer tower. Other cases (like the F.D. Define, Rosewill Challenger, etc, etc) have the hard drive cage oriented to go from side panel to side panel.


Side-to-side hard drive configuration: http://www.sweclockers.com/imagebank/200909/Fractal1001.jpg
Front-to-back hard drive configuration: http://content.hwigroup.net/images/products/xl/123863-3.jpg


The side-to-side configuration is not manditory by any means, but I have seen several front-to-back cases where at minimum you have to unplug sata cables and 24 pin from the motherboard to get a hard drive added/removed, possibly remove memory, or even worse remove the entire motherboard.

The Fractal Design Core 1000 is quite interesting in that the drive mounting is secured by 3 thumbscrews, which can be removed together with the drive/drives. Quite convenient to change harddisks.

 

[sedona]

What about the cooling fans? The Fractal Design Core 1000 has options to add a 92mm rear fan and/or a 120mm side panel fan. I have the Radeon HD 6850 graphics card. Should I add the 92mm rear fan or should I add the 120mm side panel fan? Or add both? The casing comes with a 120mm front intake fan. My power supply FSP Hexa 500 also has an intake fan.