PC case fan setup (Advice Please)

TheRift said:
That's sound too noisy for me. :)

The CMstacker830 has only 1 position for the PSU. The air coming out the PSU feels minimal.

I initially had 3 12cm fans on the side blowing in, a 30cm tube fan on the edge of the motherboard blowing in and across the board, then a 12cm in front of the drives. At the back I had the H50 radiator pulling air out. All on controllers, but they eventually got to me.

I am only missing proper flow across the motherboard which is why I want to seal the sides to keep the air in and flowing to the top. Just need to get back into the garage next week on clean up those aluminium plates.
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Well, I had specifically bought low dba fans coz I knew it was gonna be hectic :P

Why would you want to seal it up though? I mean, hmm. Maybe just seal up the side panel fan? Sealing it up CAN be bad because you creating hot spots inside the chassis as there's not enough air being pulled out of the system? With spaces at least the air is escaping some way?

Drake2007 said:
Gecko's too, so it's no real solution but I did go ahead and drill a grid of holes into the top of that panel. On a side note, the only difference I notice with having the right side panel fan is with the GPU temperature.
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I did the same to my old TT Tsunami Dream. Cut holes in the bottom and top of the case, slapped on some grills and filters and 12cm fans!
 
Honestly looks like your fans are complicating the situation more than helping. Airflow is very complicated and it is not easy to determine:

1. You did not factor in the impact of the PSU fan, which should be blowing air out the back of the case. There is a chance that the air coming in from the rear fan, is simply being sucked into the PSU and sent straight out the back.

2. If I understand correctly the CPU fan and CPU duct fan are blowing in different directions? This could reduce the ability of the CPU fan and result in a situation where insufficient air is passed over the CPU cooler.

3. Ditto above for GPU fan.

4. Simplest, and most effective air flow, is simply front to back, i.e. all fans blow in the same direction.

Try remove the back fan, and both side fans and check the temps. Add one fan at a time and monitor the impact. Best way to see if a fan is effective is to monitor it.....
 
The best cooling i had was taking the side panel off and using a normal 3 power fan blowing in air :D.

Well apart from water cooling.
 
Kuga said:
Well, I had specifically bought low dba fans coz I knew it was gonna be hectic :P

Why would you want to seal it up though? I mean, hmm. Maybe just seal up the side panel fan? Sealing it up CAN be bad because you creating hot spots inside the chassis as there's not enough air being pulled out of the system? With spaces at least the air is escaping some way?

I did the same to my old TT Tsunami Dream. Cut holes in the bottom and top of the case, slapped on some grills and filters and 12cm fans!
Click to expand...

Well I'm after a proper chamber really. I want the lower 14cm or 12cm fan add pressure internally to assist air moving up. The air around the top half of the motherboard is really affected by the air coming through the radiator so I suspect the air coming in from the lower 12cm is really just being held down there and being pushed back out the side again.

The plates I have for the side are no big deal, but at least it's worth a check as I don't feel like I want to pull air out the case through the radiator.

The first test would be with just one 12cm fan, but there is obviously space for a 2nd. Placed at an angle would definitely get the flow right, but we'll see as it comes along.

The other quick option ofcourse is to make the air leaving the radiator to just go up with just a small funnel-like plate. I suspect in this scenario the air entering the side would then be able to flow as expected.

I have a grille on the bottom of the case and I can just possibly put a fan or 2 in there instead. This will sort it out as it will give me the missing air across the motherboard (I have IGP so I feel like it is needed). The problem is the grille area is very shallow. I'll mess with that setup when I have a chance. It's just that a 12cm fan won't fit down there which leaves one with the noisier 8cm fans.
 
killadoob said:
The best cooling i had was taking the side panel off and using a normal 3 power fan blowing in air :D.

Well apart from water cooling.
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I still have a fan like that. :D I needed it due to how hot the house was and how damn small the original R100 case was. :P Never needed it again when I bought a proper case and CPU cooler.
 
Did some cleaning up and changed some fans around on my CM 690. The top fans are now blowing in (after watching that vid), added a second 120mm fan in the drive cage and the 80mm fan on the right side panel is now blowing in.

My setup now : http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d101/kug4/Cooler_Master_CM_690_Case_Interior_.jpg?t=1263340050

Internals aren't mine. Reference pic used.

I used OCCT and did the linpack burn in test, it peaked at 95C :O Also cut out 8 min into the test. Fans were on max using a controller during the test. Can't believe with all that cooling it would reach that high.

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d101/kug4/2010-01-13-01h31-CPU1.png?t=1263340081
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d101/kug4/2010-01-13-01h31-CPU2.png?t=1263340114
 
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Kuga said:
Did some cleaning up and changed some fans around on my CM 690. The top fans are now blowing in (after watching that vid), added a second 120mm fan in the drive cage and the 80mm fan on the right side panel is now blowing in.

My setup now : http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d101/kug4/Cooler_Master_CM_690_Case_Interior_.jpg?t=1263340050

Internals aren't mine. Reference pic used.

I used OCCT and did the linpack burn in test, it peaked at 95C :O Also cut out 8 min into the test. Fans were on max using a controller during the test. Can't believe with all that cooling it would reach that high.

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d101/kug4/2010-01-13-01h31-CPU1.png?t=1263340081
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d101/kug4/2010-01-13-01h31-CPU2.png?t=1263340114
Click to expand...

The problem is that the airflow does not necessarily follow the little arrows in straight lines like picture :D All those fans are most likely working against each other. Would be interested to see what would happen if you remove all the fans except the CPU, GPU, front and back....
 
What were the temperatures previously?

Air coming out the back of a fan leaves in a diffused pattern. If you want air to go according to arrows then you need to look at getting some aluminium honeycomb and putting it at the back of the fans. It straightens out the air.

There's a guy on SPCR that sells this stuff. You can find him at http://www.saxonpc.com. It might help direct air where you need it and even perhaps give those front fans some reach, or perhaps the top fans some reach.

That top rear fan can go. If you think about it, it's having no effect at all. Air is just coming in and then being sucked out by the rear exhaust fan. Remove that and see what happens. It's also probably hampering exhausting the hot air from the CPU, sort of forming a hot spot where you don't need it.

I'm sure there's a limit to the amount of positive pressure you want.
 
ok changed the fans around as suggested, mobo is cooler but now the CPU hits temps it never did before 53 to 58 degrees! :eek:
 
Funny game this cooling stuff. :P

How about turn the rear fan around again to pull in air, then ditch the duct and the fan on the side? See what it does then.
 
TheRift said:
Funny game this cooling stuff. :P

How about turn the rear fan around again to pull in air, then ditch the duct and the fan on the side? See what it does then.
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ok I'll give it a try, but then I have no exhaust fans....
 
TheRift said:
That's a dodgey PSU setup.
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I dono, maybe it weak, but it works, the CPU temp since this new setup has been really weird, it ranged between 44 and 58 degrees, I have taken of the 1st part of the bracket on the top side intake fan....
 
What I meant by dodgey is that I'd assume air would be pulled out through the PSU rather than it blowing air into the case.

First part of the bracket? You mean on the duct on the side? With those setups I normally extend the duct until it is almost right on the heatsink. That way it actually draws the cool air in, rather than it having more of a chance using air in the case which could have been heated up with cards, bridge chips, etc.
 
TheRift said:
What I meant by dodgey is that I'd assume air would be pulled out through the PSU rather than it blowing air into the case.

First part of the bracket? You mean on the duct on the side? With those setups I normally extend the duct until it is almost right on the heatsink. That way it actually draws the cool air in, rather than it having more of a chance using air in the case which could have been heated up with cards, bridge chips, etc.
Click to expand...

but you just told me to remove the duct :confused:
 
these grill at the back are terrible! they don't let any air though
 
Tpex said:
but you just told me to remove the duct :confused:
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But you just said you remove first part of the top side bracket, so I assumed you remove part of the duct, meaning some part of the duct was still there.

So how did it run with the duct removed?
 
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