CM 690II Fan configuration + silent fan advice

[mt_196]

Hi guys, I'm here to ask some help about my fan configuration. I have a Cooler Master CM690 II, i'm going to change my TIM with the Arctic MX-4 and the GPUs with a MSI R9 390 so I want to be sure that my new little baby will be welcomed well and "cold"


So I decided to refresh my fan configuration:


2 Noctuas cooler's fan (55cfm each)
2 bottom intake 120mm (?)
2 top (1 exhaust, 1 intake) 140mm (BeQuiet!Silent Wings2 PWM 60cfm)
1 front intake 120mm (Arctic Cooling F12 74cfm)
1 rear exhaust 120mm (Arctic Cooling F12)
1 side panel intake 120mm slim (Scythe SlipStream 2000rpm 110cfm @1100rpm)
1 HDD cage intake 120mm (?)

The difference between this and what I have now is that i have the front panel intake fan (the one below, that is preinstalled with the case) instead of the HDD and only one bottom intake fan. I'm planning to canghe the fan that I have now that are the CM preinstalled for other more performant and silent.

What I need are 2 x 140mm case fans, 2 x 120mm case fans and 1 x 120mm with a good static pressure fan. For the 140s I chose the BeQuiet! Silent Wings 2 140mm PWM, i really don't know what to chose instead for the 120s. As you can see the more important aspect is silence with acceptable air flow (BeQuiets have 60cfm). Just for the HDD cage fan i'll look for a fan with a good air pressure because (with the due calculation) it will be at less than 1cm from the VGA cooler so the fan will have to push air in it and to take air through the HDD (it could even make them fresh I think).

What fans can I buy with 50euros budget?

 

[mt_196]

Quick update: right now my problem is, should I take two Noiseblocker BlackSilent XL2 120mm that are on sale in a shop near me at 7€ each, should I take two BeQuiet! Silent wings2 PWM 120mm for 25€ each or should I buy 2 Noctuas NF-S12A PWM for 19€ each?

Which of them is better looking at cost/cfm/dbA?

 

[doyll]

Check out this guide to case airflow.
http://www.overclockers.com/forums/...nd-Lighting-Suggestions?p=7678268#post7678268

Then we can get serious about how to get the best flow pattern in your case.

 

[mt_196]

Check out this guide to case airflow.
http://www.overclockers.com/forums/...nd-Lighting-Suggestions?p=7678268#post7678268

Then we can get serious about how to get the best flow pattern in your case.

Ok I read it, what's next?


It seems that the problems can be:

Cases, especially those with filters, usually benefit from fans with higher static pressure ratings than stock fans... "cooler" fans instead of "case" fans.

The case has dust filter and yes the fans i've choose has not the best static pressure in the market, but since they still work pretty good on a cooler I think that could be a good balance between silence and air

This does not mean heated air is not mixing with cool air. Nor does it mean cool air is going to where it is needed.

I don't know that, I really hope so because I'm doing it in order to move the cold hair where it is needed, but I don't know if it will be mixing with heated air

Traditional tower cooler exhausting toward back of case must have rear / rear & top back case exhaust fan that remove as much or more cfm than cooler fans exhaust.

That's what I did, the AC fan has more cfm that the Noctua one

 

[doyll]

Good rundown!

I can add that two fans side by side, one in and one out create a looping airflow. The pressure of one's exhaust side is drawn to the lower pressure in front of other's intake side. You will be better off with no fan in the back vent on top.

I use a low cost indoor / outdoor digital thermometer with wired non-metal remote sensor to monitor airflow temps inside of case as well as room. A piece of stiff insulated wire, some tape and a clothespin with no metal in it twisted into last foot of sensor lead allow it to be clipped onto something inside of case and bent to position it in front of CPU or GPU intakes lets us see the temp of air going into them. We want to get this air as close to room temp as possible. 2-3c is very good 5c difference is good, anything above then I think it needs more work to get air temp down.

 

[mt_196]

Well so I need to use a low cost thermometer in order to measure the air temp in my case? I didn't understand quite well the part of the non-metal remote sensor.

The green "thing" in the photo is a divisor made of paper (a common rigid box paper) that does not allow to mix intaked and exhausted air, but I can make some trials with both fan exhausting and see if temps are lower (I based my previous choice on a thread that I read on the web of other people having this case and lowering the temperature or 2-3° in this way)

 

[doyll]

The use of no metal means if it comes in contact with anything it will not short anything out.

Airflow is not easy to understand and even harder to predict. It requires lots of experimentation. Trial and error with a record of what each setup does. But with 4 or 5 or 8 vents with different fan speeds create a huge number of possibilities .. and can make it extremely hard to find the best combination.

 

[mt_196]

So let's assume that I'll start with the basic configuration with one front intake and one top one rear exhaust, after that I put one extra fan at a time and see the differences. Can be a good method?

 

[doyll]

That would be fine, but I would start with both front fans, and back exhaust with all unused PCIe slot covers removed.

The straighter and smoother the air flows front to back the better. This will help move the GPU's heated exhaust back rather than up around the CPU cooler.

 

[mt_196]

Ok, after that the bottom fan and at the end the second top fan (exhaust or intake trials included).
I'm giving up the idea of two bottom intake fans and hdd fan for a more classic one front and one bottom fan intake.

 

[doyll]

Yeah, bottom next. I would not use a fan in the back top vent. Front top as intake might help, but be careful to keep the intake and exhaust vent areas balanced. I like more intake fans than exhaust, but want at least as much exhaust area as intake.

 

[mt_196]

I was thinking, after looking at your result, that my two NF-P12 would be more useful if used as intake case Fan and replaced by two NB B12-3 or B12-PL as cooler fan. According to you they have much more static pressure both at 1mm and 0.5

 

[doyll]

Yes, they have more airflow against resistance like filters and grills. Pressure reading is measured in mm H2O (how much the fan can push the liquid up the tube). This is the pressure differential .. difference between fan pressure and ambient pressure.

Yes, better pressure fans give better airflow when used on filters and restrictive grills.

But the cooler fans are balanced for cooler resistance.

Before buying fans, I would tune system airflow and see what the temps will be. If then the temps are still not low enough, decide of replacement fans.

 

[mt_196]

So here I am, I cleaned my pc, re cable managed and substituted the TIM. My temperatures on the CPU are 2-3°C lower.
Now I'll try to add one fan at a time.

 

[JrClocker]

When you run your experiments, don't forget that your GPU adds a lot of heat into the case.

You should run experiments at:

1. High CPU, Low GPU load
2. High GPU, Low CPU load
3. High CPU, High GPU load

If you don't feel like doing all three, then (3) is the most important as it's the worst case on your system.

You should see if you can move the drives in your lower drive bay up into your upper drive bay, remove the lower drive bay (if you can). The bottom fan will have unrestricted air flow.

 

[mt_196]

You should see if you can move the drives in your lower drive bay up into your upper drive bay, remove the lower drive bay (if you can). The bottom fan will have unrestricted air flow.

In the previous photo I removed the lower drive bay, more than that is impossible, at least I can install the fan lower but in that case my HDD won't recive fresh air animore.
I'm currently running test with high CPU and low GPU, because that won't be my GPU in the future, i'm going to buy a R9 390 after Xmas

 

[JrClocker]

In the previous photo I removed the lower drive bay, more than that is impossible, at least I can install the fan lower but in that case my HDD won't recive fresh air animore.
I'm currently running test with high CPU and low GPU, because that won't be my GPU in the future, i'm going to buy a R9 390 after Xmas

I'm not sure how much cooling drives actually need (maybe other members can comment on this). I didn't do anything special in my build to cool my drives. I do monitor their temperature and have not seen them get very warm.

Can you monitor your drive temperature too?

 

[mt_196]

Yes they are 28°C

 

[doyll]

HDD are happy at 40c, even 50c is not really bad. Server drives often run 40-50c.

Generally the hardest part is supplying cool air to CPU / keeping the GPU heated exhaust from contaminating it. This is why the upper front intake is such a good thing to have .. but few cases have a vent inline with CPU. The the flow from this vent to CPU intake free of any obsructions.

I use two remote temperature sensors; one for CPU intake and one for GPU intake.

If case fans are speed controlled by CPU and GPU heat they can usually be adjusted to flow a constant channel of cool air to and from both CPU and GPU.

 

[Tech Tweaker]

I'll chime in here, because I've actually owned this case for around four years.

Personally, I did the following:

With 240mm radiator mounted at top:
Front: 1x 140mm intake (stock) (60.9 CFM)+ 1x 120mm intake (Yate Loon D12SM-12 70.5 CFM)
Bottom: 1x 120mm intake (Cougar CF-V12HB 60.4 CFM)
Side: 2x 140mm intakes (2x NZXT FN-140RB 62.5 CFM each)
Top: 2x 120mm exhaust (2x Scythe Gentle Typhoon D1225C12B5AP-15 58.6 CFM each)
Rear: 1x 120mm exhaust (Scythe Gentle Typhoon D1225C12B5AP-15 58.6 CFM)
1x 120mm attached to drive cage for addition airflow to video card(s) (this actually really helped GPU temperature by a lot, 5°C or better improvement in my case) Cougar CF-V12HB 60.4 CFM

With 120mm radiator mounted at rear:
Front: 1x 140mm intake (stock) (60.9 CFM)+ 1x 120mm intake (Yate Loon D12SM-12 70.5 CFM)
Bottom: 1x 120mm intake (Cougar CF-V12HB 60.4 CFM)
Side: 1x 140mm intake (1x NZXT FN-140RB 62.5 CFM)
Top: 2x 140mm exhaust (2x NZXT FN-140RB 62.5 CFM each)
Rear: 1x 120mm exhaust (Scythe Gentle Typhoon D1225C12B5AP-15 58.6 CFM)
1x 120mm attached to drive cage for addition airflow to video card(s) (this actually really helped GPU temperature by a lot, 5°C or better improvement in my case) Cougar CF-V12HB 60.4 CFM

I chose the Cougar fans because they were reasonably quiet and had good airflow. Chose the NZXT FN-140RB fans for the same reason (these are really quiet actually, I can't hardly hear them when they're running by themselves), and they offered better airflow than stock Cooler Master 140mm fans.

Chose the Scythe Gentle Typhoon D1225C12B5AP-15 because they offer much better exhaust airflow than the stock 120mm fan that came with the case. And they're high static pressure, which is important because I have the top ones mounted on a 240mm radiator.

The Yate Loon D12SM-12 was used just because I had it on hand, and I ran out of the Cougar CF-V12HB's.