Question Ryzen 5 3600 running very toasty in Cooler Master Elite 130

[Henry1050]

I have been running this configuration for the past year now:

CPU: Ryzen 5 3600
Cooler: Noctua NH-L9x65 SE-AM4
MOBO: GIGABYTE B550I AORUS PRO AX
Case: Cooler Master Elite 130 ITX
Ram: Corsair Vengeance LPX 3200
GPU: Gigabyte Windforce GTX 1070 OC 8gb
Storage: 1tb Intel m.2 SSD, 2tb WD Green
PSU: Corsair CX650M

This config has been fine for the most part, but the biggest problem is the fact that the CPU fan barely has room to get air, about 1.5cm of clearance. Since the positioning of the power supply is directly above the motherboard, any air cooler in this case is very compromised. Due to this the CPU runs at 50-60c at idle, but explodes up to 75-85c as soon as you start taxing the processor. The current airflow setup has one 120mm intake fan in the front, and a 80mm exhaust on the side. I am posting this to see if anyone has used the case and experienced similar temperature issues. I am upgrading to an AIO, so this issue will most likely go away soon.

 

[punkncat]

Yup, I used that case with a 1300 and a 1700 on stock coolers. I would imagine you are using the little side mounted fan that pulls in fresh air to the CPU cooler? Also might be of consideration to flip the PSU to pulling air in from the top for its fan so that they aren't competing for flow. I never had heat issues with the case, but sure did not like how the front got looking after some time with dust in hard to access places in the mesh.

 

[Phaaze88]

Try this: Flip the NH-L9x65's fan around and flip the psu so it's fan faces the cpu cooler.
Reason: You're probably trapping some heat as it currently is - pushing air in through cooler means hot air coming out toward motherboard turns out, hits RAM, GPU, I/O houseings etc., turning up past cooler & fan hits the psu's backside and is sucked back into fan.
With cpu cooler fan pulling air out, air flows over motherboard, up into cooler, fan and vents out through the psu.

I am upgrading to an AIO...

Well, I guess the suggestion doesn't really matter...

 

[Henry1050]

Yup, I used that case with a 1300 and a 1700 on stock coolers. I would imagine you are using the little side mounted fan that pulls in fresh air to the CPU cooler? Also might be of consideration to flip the PSU to pulling air in from the top for its fan so that they aren't competing for flow. I never had heat issues with the case, but sure did not like how the front got looking after some time with dust in hard to access places in the mesh.

Right now I have the 80mm side fan as an exhaust as theres really no where else for the air to go. I thought about flipping the PSU, I am just concerned that then all the hot air from the CPU will just be dumped directly into the PSU which seems bad for longevity.

 

[punkncat]

I turned the small fan to blow towards the CPU cooler, and by the PSU I mean to turn its intake fan to the top, exhausting out the back so that the CPU cooler's much smaller fan doesn't have to compete with that for flow.

 

[Henry1050]

Well, I guess the suggestion doesn't really matter...

I plan on keeping this case for an eventual home theatre PC so the suggestions are very welcome! You're suggesting flip the noctua fan so it pushes air upwards, and flip the PSU so that it's fan is facing the cooler?

 

[punkncat]

No, cooler fan as installed blowing down. The small side fan that was included with the case blowing towards the cooler. PSU installed with it's fan facing the mesh on top of the case to pull air in from the top and out the back. The CPU fan will be directly below the closed side of the PSU case. The x65 is quite a bit thicker than the regular L9, so I am rather assuming that there is sufficient room for it to draw from.

 

[Henry1050]

No, cooler fan as installed blowing down. The small side fan that was included with the case blowing towards the cooler. PSU installed with it's fan facing the mesh on top of the case to pull air in from the top and out the back. The CPU fan will be directly below the closed side of the PSU case. The x65 is quite a bit thicker than the regular L9, so I am rather assuming that there is sufficient room for it to draw from.

Thats how my current set up is but with the small fan as exhaust. I had the small fan blowing at the CPU before with the same issues.

 

[punkncat]

Thats how my current set up is but with the small fan as exhaust. I had the small fan blowing at the CPU before with the same issues.

Ah, gotcha....I honestly wonder if the height of the Noctua you are using is causing an issue with flow given what is a small space to the PSU case. I would think that the height of the current cooler and the stock cooler to be pretty similar considering the shroud over the stock Wraith.

Sort of makes me wonder what would happen if you reversed the Noctua fan to "suck upward" while having the PSU fan turned down to assist in getting the air out. In a Raijintek case I used for a while I went with a similar method and found that running the CPU hot air as intake to the PSU significantly shortened the life of the power supply.

Admittedly, I didn't have this heat issue with mine, but the equipment inside wasn't as powerful either.

 

[Henry1050]

Ah, gotcha....I honestly wonder if the height of the Noctua you are using is causing an issue with flow given what is a small space to the PSU case. I would think that the height of the current cooler and the stock cooler to be pretty similar considering the shroud over the stock Wraith.

Sort of makes me wonder what would happen if you reversed the Noctua fan to "suck upward" while having the PSU fan turned down to assist in getting the air out. In a Raijintek case I used for a while I went with a similar method and found that running the CPU hot air as intake to the PSU significantly shortened the life of the power supply.

Admittedly, I didn't have this heat issue with mine, but the equipment inside wasn't as powerful either.

Was it the Rajintek Metis? I bought the same case for my gf's pc but it's airflow is much worse than the elite 130. The only place for intake on that case is from the PSU itself.

 

[punkncat]

Was it the Rajintek Metis? I bought the same case for my gf's pc but it's airflow is much worse than the elite 130. The only place for intake on that case is from the PSU itself.

Yes, I ended up modifying mine to remove the plexi side panel and replaced that with "critter cage" (hamster type) grate. I turned the rear fan to intake and also added a fan on intake to the top. Even with the side open it left a lot of hot air to be pulled in by the PSU and led to a much early demise. I still have mine but not currently in use. I envision setting it back up with a super low power CPU and some drives just for LAN storage, maybe...The case itself is quite difficult to build in, particularly if you don't use a modular SFX PSU.
I most recently had mine set up with an R7 1700 and a GTX 1080. I had to remove the front panel connector board for the 1080 to fit. It was absolutely shoehorned in there.

 

[Henry1050]

Yes, I ended up modifying mine to remove the plexi side panel and replaced that with "critter cage" (hamster type) grate. I turned the rear fan to intake and also added a fan on intake to the top. Even with the side open it left a lot of hot air to be pulled in by the PSU and led to a much early demise. I still have mine but not currently in use. I envision setting it back up with a super low power CPU and some drives just for LAN storage, maybe...The case itself is quite difficult to build in, particularly if you don't use a modular SFX PSU.
I most recently had mine set up with an R7 1700 and a GTX 1080. I had to remove the front panel connector board for the 1080 to fit. It was absolutely shoehorned in there.

Yeah I was building that PC on a budget, definitely going to make some modifications to help with the temps/noise soon. I barely managed to squeeze a GTX 680 in there.

My new temporary solution for my pc is aiming a circular desk fan directly into the front intake at full speed, seems to have dropped temps by about 10 or so.