CM Hyper 212+ Second fan useless

[sebaz]

I thought that adding a second BladeMaster fan to my Hyper 212 Plus was going to make a difference, but today I installed it and apparently it doesn't at all. My case is a Cooler Master ATCS 840 which is very large with plenty of airflow, including two 230mm fans on top.

To run them together and at the same speed I also bought a Y cable so both fans are connected to the CPU fan connector on the motherboard.

Before I installed the new one, I ran Prime95 for ten minutes using the Maximum Heat setting to compare. It was 48C. After that, I cleaned everything again (I had cleaned everything a few days ago including the Hyper 212 heat sink but I cleaned again just in case) and I installed the second Blademaster, which is identical to the one bundled with the Hyper 212+. I made sure that I installed both with the arrow pointing in the same direction, towards the back of the case, where the other case fan is pulling the air out of the case. Before I closed the case, I verified that both were running fine.

Then I ran Prime95, again on the Max. Heat setting for ten minutes, and I was disappointed to see that the temperature was still 48C (both times according to CoreTemp).

So is there anything else I can do? I mean, other than buying a very noisy fan, which I would prefer to avoid. If I change the direction of the two fans, the hot air being pulled from the Hyper 212+ would blow right on top of the 4 RAM modules, so I'm not so sure that would be a great idea. One thing seems certain though, adding the second fan made absolutely no difference. What are your experiences with two fans in this cooler? Have you achieved a difference in temperature?

 

[ratbuddy]

I was looking at mine yesterday with an eye towards adding a second fan but the fins are so far apart I decided it would be pointless, especially with the case exhaust fans right behind the heatsink.

 

[TheQuadFather]

maybe you had a really good mount with 1 fan, 48 is good for a 125W phenom II, ( i had the hyper ) and i hit around that with a good mount, so maybe you got a bad mount with 2 fans cancelling out the cooling benefit of having 2 fans? try a remount.

 

[Know Nuttin]

Were the fans spinning at the same rpm when testing both with one and two fans?
I've seen a small decrease in temps (3-4c) when using dual fans while also having them spin slower so the end result was that they were also quieter overall.

 

[Psycogeec]

So is there anything else I can do?
Is it running horizontal? try running it Base down, in the exact same configurations.
Just carefully lay the computer on the side (when off) if you can, and just see what happens.
I did some playing with that here, not on computer, and i am highly interested in your results.

Your 48* is just fine anyway ? especially if you have OCing and all going on.
If it was me I would think about adding in the second fan, not to go cooler than 48, because of it was 48 ALWAYS ,that would be just wonderfull.
i would use a second fan, to have 2 running slower, making it even more quiet at the same temps.

(as already mentioned)

When you used Y cable to connect both fans, are you positive that both fans now ran at the same spee, that one did? There is resistance and some limitations on amperage out of one connection point. . If you drive one fan off of of a molex for testing, you would reduce any changes in total power consumption. That might change the "top" speed by some rpms.

Do you have any "onboard fan control" occuring ? usually via the BIOS, that monitors CPU temps and adjusts fan speed accordingly?

do you have a frequency or RPM monitor laying around you could use? a strobe light even?
.

 

[sebaz]

So is there anything else I can do?
Is it running horizontal? try running it Base down, in the exact same configurations.
Just carefully lay the computer on the side (when off) if you can, and just see what happens.
I did some playing with that here, not on computer, and i am highly interested in your results.

Your 48* is just fine anyway ? especially if you have OCing and all going on.
If it was me I would think about adding in the second fan, not to go cooler than 48, because of it was 48 ALWAYS ,that would be just wonderfull.
i would use a second fan, to have 2 running slower, making it even more quiet at the same temps.

(as already mentioned)

When you used Y cable to connect both fans, are you positive that both fans now ran at the same spee, that one did? There is resistance and some limitations on amperage out of one connection point. . If you drive one fan off of of a molex for testing, you would reduce any changes in total power consumption. That might change the "top" speed by some rpms.

Do you have any "onboard fan control" occuring ? usually via the BIOS, that monitors CPU temps and adjusts fan speed accordingly?

do you have a frequency or RPM monitor laying around you could use? a strobe light even?
.

I would lay the computer on the side, but for what exactly? The computer sits vertical, so even if laying it horizontally made a difference in temperature, it wouldn't matter since I wouldn't leave it that way. As it is right now the fans are vertical.

As for the change in speed caused by the Y cable, I really couldn't say since I didn't wrote down the speed of just one, which I should've done, but well, it's not easy for me to open the case all the time because for that I would need to rotate my desk to make space and be able to access the side that opens.

However, that's better than connecting the second fan to the SYS_FAN 1, because in that case they would run at different speeds.

The BIOS has three settings for fan control, auto, voltage or PWM, so I set that to PWM because that's what the fans are.

 

[Mjolnir]

Get a couple of Gentle Typhoon AP-15's 1850rpms and strap those on.. . They're not really that loud at all for the amount of air they push. But honestly I wouldn't expect to see more than 1-3 degrees difference even with those..

 

[Psycogeec]

I would lay the computer on the side, but for what exactly?
because there are liquids in the heat pipes, probalby very little in this style and there is "wicking" which attempts to move the liquid to the base, after it recondences in the cool area of the fins. look at where a liquid would have a tendcy to flow now :-( Get an idea for the flow pattern internally in the heat pipes as the liquid changes phases. we do flow control for our cases, but not heat pipes?

hey you said anything, I cover the anything part

and of course THAT part of it does not directally effect the fan thing here as in CFM, but a person on a benching station (say) should have a slightly different heat transfer occuring.

have you seen the reviews where a tester will rotate the cooler 90* (or a flat cooler 180*) and then re-test, making asumptions about how that changed due to Air-flow, without also making asumptions about how that effects the liquid flow? they get different results, and cant quite place it.

with a bunch of recondenced liquid sitting near the end of the pipe, where there is no "wick" , and a bunch of it cooling out at the low places moving slowy near the base, you end up being left more with some really nice copper moving heat around, theroy is that gravity doesnt exist in the pipe. but once i open them up the gravity must rush in

if something is automating your fan control, that is different.

The BIOS has three settings for fan control, auto, voltage or PWM
this covers the "method" of control, will they pulse it, or alter the actual voltage, IF your board has themal control the adjustments might be found in a different location?
like on some ASUS boards, it is in the system monitoring area .
.

 

[muddocktor]

I thought that adding a second BladeMaster fan to my Hyper 212 Plus was going to make a difference, but today I installed it and apparently it doesn't at all. My case is a Cooler Master ATCS 840 which is very large with plenty of airflow, including two 230mm fans on top.

To run them together and at the same speed I also bought a Y cable so both fans are connected to the CPU fan connector on the motherboard.

Before I installed the new one, I ran Prime95 for ten minutes using the Maximum Heat setting to compare. It was 48C. After that, I cleaned everything again (I had cleaned everything a few days ago including the Hyper 212 heat sink but I cleaned again just in case) and I installed the second Blademaster, which is identical to the one bundled with the Hyper 212+. I made sure that I installed both with the arrow pointing in the same direction, towards the back of the case, where the other case fan is pulling the air out of the case. Before I closed the case, I verified that both were running fine.

Then I ran Prime95, again on the Max. Heat setting for ten minutes, and I was disappointed to see that the temperature was still 48C (both times according to CoreTemp).

So is there anything else I can do? I mean, other than buying a very noisy fan, which I would prefer to avoid. If I change the direction of the two fans, the hot air being pulled from the Hyper 212+ would blow right on top of the 4 RAM modules, so I'm not so sure that would be a great idea. One thing seems certain though, adding the second fan made absolutely no difference. What are your experiences with two fans in this cooler? Have you achieved a difference in temperature?

Your mistake was to test with a single fan with 1 mount of the heatsink, then test with both fans on a different mount of the heatsink. To really compare, you need to try both configurations with the same mounting of the heatsink. Now that you have run the test with both fans installed, remove the backside fan and retest with P95 and see what temps you get.

Get a couple of Gentle Typhoon AP-15's 1850rpms and strap those on.. . They're not really that loud at all for the amount of air they push. But honestly I wouldn't expect to see more than 1-3 degrees difference even with those..

And I also agree with this post 100%. The AP-15 fans are good stuff and better fans than the Blademasters. And in my experience with most heatsinks, going from one to two fans doesn't make a big difference in temps.

 

[Adak]

Look at the temps from a larger point of view:

1) There is a lower limit. You are, after all, trying to cool a (moderately) hot cpu, using ambient air. So there is a lower limit that no amount of fans, regardless of their CFM rating. At less than 50°C, you're almost into the range of temps for an idle cpu, on air (at 80°F air).

I expect that with two large 230mm fans atop your case, your heat sink was already getting all the air it could use with just the one fan. That's one possibility.

2) Having a push pull arrangement, doesn't double the air flow. The air is still going over the fins of the hs, at approximately the same speed, if the doubled fans are running at the same speed as the single fan. The cooling fin area, and the ability of the metal and tubes to transfer that heat, has not changed by adding another fan.

I agree with the recommendation of the Gentle Typhoon fans - they're wonderfully quiet while moving more air than other fans. I have two of them (fixed low speed model of the Gentle Typhoon), on a case that is within three feet of my ears -- and can't hear them.

I like the idea of using a PWM fan, with a fan controller (either through the BIOS if the mobo supports it), or via an external (to the mobo), fan controller, of any type, but a fixed speed Gentle Typhoon, can also be an excellent answer to a quieter case. GT's come in slow, medium, or fast speeds. The slow one's are inaudible - a mule-ear deer couldn't hear one. The medium one's are a low whisper. I haven't heard the high speed versions, yet. Yes, GT's cost more. Yes, they're worth it. A high quality product.

Don't be surprised that your tests with hs&fans, don't match up with the results from other testers. What they may not have mentioned, but is VERY true, is that their tests may get quite different results than you, because they have small differences in their equipment (cases, fan model and brand, cpu, or heatsink), their environment, and technique. Small differences in these tests, can make a big difference in the results they publish.

To see if you've reached the lower limit for air cooling on your system, test with just one fan (that's the control), with a higher CFM. I believe the decrease in temp will be minimal, but only a test will tell for sure.

 

[Bobnova]

Erm, if the BIOS is actively controlling fan speed, that may well be why the temps are the same: That's where the BIOS wants them.

 

[Ethan E]

You can use the utility (EasyTune) provided by gigabyte to precisely control fan speed. It works pretty well for the CPU fans. I doubt you would notice much difference in temps without OCing your processor, as one fan alone should be more than enough to keep up with the heat load. As someone else already said, the fins on the 212+ are spaced pretty far apart, which means that the air has plenty of space to pass through and collect heat. By adding a second fan, you will be increasing the pressure drop over the heatsink, but not really increasing the airflow that much, since the flow was pretty decent already with just one fan. Adding a second fan to this situation does very little until you increase the heat load to the absolute maximum, and even then you will probably only see a 3-5c drop, but to someone pushing 100c, that is the difference between life and death.

 

[stunt]

Erm, if the BIOS is actively controlling fan speed, that may well be why the temps are the same: That's where the BIOS wants them.

I was thinking the same thing Bob. He's running off the 4 pin but didn't say how his fans are set in bios. Auto, full on, or stepped down.

 

[sebaz]

I was thinking the same thing Bob. He's running off the 4 pin but didn't say how his fans are set in bios. Auto, full on, or stepped down.

They are in auto, but I wouldn't want them at full speed all the time because of the noise.

 

[stunt]

Well than in order to get a base line you would need to run them at full-on with one fan and two fans. On auto, your mobo is trying to keep the temp at a specified level. And it sounds like it'd doing a good job.

I have tried it with 1 and 2 stock fans, GT 1850s in push and push/pull and the temp and sound difference wasn't worth the extra fan. It was around 2-3c. Right now my i7 has one GT1850 on it running 4.2 OC.

 

[Bobnova]

Odds are that's why the temps didn't change. The mobo turned the fan speed down to maintain the temps where it wants them.