Safe to put 2 80mm fans right in front of GPU fan?

[Antisthenes]

Got a Cooler Master Elite 110, a Gigabyte 1070 Mini GPU, and a 6700k cooled by H80i V2. Will the GPU be damaged if two 80 mm Noctua NF-A8 exhaust fans are placed absolutely right in front of the GPU fan, with almost no room between them at all, perhaps only a mm, but airflow in the same direction?

Without the exhaust fans, will temps be low enough in the case for the 6700K? Got a small Corsair SF600 psu about 2 cm below the roof of the case, so guess its fan will blow some of the hot air near the roof outside the case, right?

If the two 80 mm fans are safe right next to the GPU, how does one use the rubber mounting screws to attach the NF-A8 when I can't see how there is room to use pliers down at the bottom rubber screws, since the two fans are at the floor of the case, right next to each other.

The rubber screws can't be drawn at both ends, one end has to go through the case wall first, and then one can pull the other end through the hole in the fan frame, but the screws are not that long, so can't see how this is possible in the small space of the CM 110. Any other rubber screws I can use?

 

[Nebulous]

Gotta have some sort of exhaust otherwise your 2x 80mm fans will just be dumping the warm air back into the case and back towards the video card.

My suggestion: Get a larger case.

You can try one of these , but again you'll be recirculating the warm air back into the case.

 

[Vishera]

I agree with nebulous. There are plenty of larger cases for a decent price on the market right now. The Phanteks Enthoo Pro M has somewhere around 7 case fans for $60, and plenty of room inside, with a window, and I believe a PSU shroud (or basement, whichever you prefer). If that's too expensive for you I believe the Corsair 100R and 200R cases are cheaper than that, they've also got plenty of room and plenty of places to mount fans. There's also the NZXT S340 if the Enthoo is in your price range but you don't like the look. The S340 comes in black/red, black/blue, and white I believe. Probably a few other choices as well that I'm not remembering off the top of my head.

 

[Antisthenes]

As mentioned, the two 80 mm fans are the exhaust fans, mounted on the wall of the case, with the same outward airflow as the GPU fan, so back to the original question: will it damage the GPU when the two exhaust fans are perhaps less than a mm from the GPU fan?

Will take the mITX with me when travelling, so will keep the CM 110.

 

[Vishera]

So long as it's the exact same direction of airflow, then no, it'll just assist in guiding the air from the GPU fan. Tbh if you know how you could probably take the fans off the GPU and have the two 80mm fans do the cooling, if you're worried about space between the card and the fans.

 

[Antisthenes]

Ok, good, but just got a reply on Tom's Hardware which said that putting fans right in front of each other with different fan speed can cause damaging turbulence, so what's correct?

A bit off topic: to get rid of static I have often touched the metal parts of the case when installing components, but now I just read that one much touch metal that is not painted, so wonder if I have perhaps damaged components since I have only touched the black-painted metal of the case?

 

[Vishera]

You're fine. Even if the paint was somehow interfering with your bodily de-charging, it won't completely stop it because at the end of the day there's still metal underneath it. I don't know about damaging turbulance, but if you put the 80mm fans on their highest speed and do the same for your GPU fan, I'd assume you'll be fine. Or, as I said, you could probably just take the fans off the GPU heatsink and let the 80mm fans draw the heat away from the card.

 

[Johan45]

It looks to me like you really shouldn't need the fans. The card will pull air from the side and exhaust out the back I/O, the PSU exhausts out the back so use the rad to exhaust out the front instead of dumping the warm air into the case. Just an option anyway

 

[Antisthenes]

Thanks for advice!

This is my first build, so I'm a noob, learning as I go, though I've seen my friend build my former gaming rigs many times. Really appreciate your help. It's actually fun to build a computer, though a bit nervewrecking the first time.

My friend never used an anti-static wristband and only touched the metalframe of the case every minute or so, but now I read that many people use wristbands, mats and argue about whether to have the pc unplugged or not. And that RAM is very vulnerable to static volt. While others don't care much about static at all. What's true?

While building I touched the metal of the case every minute or less, but did not hold the metal all the time. Handled RAM without being grounded. Build on a wooden table, standing on wood laminate. What's the chance of damage?

Think I will try without the two 80 mm exhaust fans, and use the radiator fans of the H80i as exhaust. Too noob to mess with the fans of the GPU. The GPU fans are 2.5-3 cm from the mesh case wall. But hope the 6700k will not get too hot, or else I must undervolt it.

 

[Vishera]

Question, is this your daily driver or is it strictly a travel PC?

 

[Antisthenes]

I will use it daily when traveling during the winter season, staying at different rented apartments for 2-4 weeks in each country, changing to an air cooler, a Cryorig C7 (and an undervolted cpu) when using airplanes.

 

[Vishera]

So then outside of winter traveling you have another rig? the only reason I ask is because I was going to bring up a few potential thermal issues if you were going to use it extensively every day, but if you're only going to use it on your travels then it shouldn't be a problem.

 

[Antisthenes]

I will use it every day, for high-end gaming.

Starting to regret buying the CM 110. It should have had an option for mounting the two 80 mm fans on the wall above the GPU.

 

[Vishera]

Return it? You might be able to find a better option in the Atx mini tower or MicroATX form factors as opposed to Mini ITX.

 

[Antisthenes]

Prefer not to return it. Not many other alternatives available right now in Norway, and I'm leaving soon. How serious are the thermal issues?

 

[Vishera]

Well your CPU isn't going to be as bad since it's watercooled. However, a GPU on air crammed into that tiny case....I don't like that. You're gonna be thermal throttling a whole bunch, and leaving the card hot enough to thermal throttle for too many extensive periods is going to yield some undesirable results. I had a single fan GPU that I overclocked quite extensively, talking 200MHz+ offset on the core and 400+ on the memory, but never thought to adjust the fan curve. Card was dead in 3 months. Now, if you aren't overclocking, then that's an easy situation to avoid, EXCEPT you're putting everything into a very tight space with little airflow.

 

[Johan45]

I would think the way the case/card are oriented the card fan is right next to the vents in the side of the case, really should be able to get lots of air

 

[Antisthenes]

Yeah, the change to air cooler when using airplanes on my journeys worry me a bit without dedicated exhaust fans. Really idiotic that CM didn't make a few more holes in the case for attaching the fans elsewhere. But was prepared anyway to underclock the 6700k when using Cryorig C7. One got to compromise when travelling.

 

[Antisthenes]

Just realised that if I use the two 80 mm as intake fans, and they run slower than the intake of the GPU fan, it will not harm the GPU, right? And when temporarily changing to the aircooler later, I exchange the radiator with a 140 mm exhaust fan in the front of the case. Shouldn't that work? A bit like seen here:

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum...110-mitx-budget-build-air-flow-questions.html

 

[Dlaw]

Okay, do you actually have these parts yet? If so, build it, install Windows, configure for high performance and run a stress test on each the CPU and GPU (should be done on every new build, in my opinion), and then both at the same time for at least a half hour for each test. If your CPU stays between 4 and 4.2GHz (doesn't throttle due to being too hot, these are the stock frequencies for the 6700K, right?), and it stays under ~95C, it's good. As long as your GPU doesn't throttle extensively (most air-cooled GPUs will throttle occasionally depending on usages), it's good. If either happens (extensively on the GPU means that it drops to below base clock and stays there for a while), then worry about fixing your cooling situation. If not, don't worry about it.

I personally like to use Intel's eXtreme Tuning Utility for it's stress test on the CPU, and Unigine's Heaven for the GPU. If you can run those together with no thermal issues, you have nothing to worry about.