Advice on Airflow

[Red_Hot_Poker]

Hello, new here to the forums but long time reader. I recently started to upgrade my pc from a cheap $300 basic tower. I have alot of things still needed to be upgraded and such but I'm wondering if my temps on my pc are higher then usual for the cooling setup I have.I was wondering if there was something I can do to improve airflow. I have 120mm intake in front, 120mm exhaust in the rear and 80mm fan on the side panel as intake to blow air right into the CPU fan.

I was wondering also if the side fan >>>Air>>> cpu fan is good for cooling the cpu faster. I have heard things such as the air between the two fans blocking the hot air from being blow out through the back exhaust fan. Any input would be appreciated.





Side fan that blows into the cpu fan.

 

[nd4spdbh2]

... see thoes pci slot covers... BE GONE! and get some negative pressure so it sucks in cool air over ur gpu!

 

[Red_Hot_Poker]

... see thoes pci slot covers... BE GONE! and get some negative pressure so it sucks in cool air over ur gpu!

Slots gone

hmm what do you mean "negative pressure over gpu", sorry new to all this...

 

[RIG RIDER]

Nice. I like the color.
Some wire management might help a little, not much.
Are you overclocking this at all?
If yes, then you might want to look at a better CPU cooler than what looks like a stock heatsink and fan.
Considering where your exhaust fan is, an ULTRA-120 would work well passive or active.
A top blow hole might help if the case top gets warm to the touch.
What are your temps now?
CPU?
GPU?
Mobo?
HDD?

 

[Red_Hot_Poker]

Nice. I like the color.
Some wire management might help a little, not much.
Are you overclocking this at all?
If yes, then you might want to look at a better CPU cooler than what looks like a stock heatsink and fan.
Considering where your exhaust fan is, an ULTRA-120 would work well passive or active.
A top blow hole might help if the case top gets warm to the touch.
What are your temps now?
CPU?
GPU?
Mobo?
HDD?

Well atm im not overclocking yet, because for some reason there is a bug with the new drivers in conflict with WoW. So i have it set to basics atm but will overclock in the near future. Seems to hardlock and I have to manually reset the pc every time, even with the Optimized clocking with coolbits.

Ya its the stock HS on the CPU, that is my next upgrade that im already planning just need to find a good one atm. After that i would guess Mobo and processor / HDD, but atm just wondering about temps

Ya the wires were worse then that, i need to get some cable ties and such to try to clean it up a bit...

Temps

 

[Red_Hot_Poker]

When idle with nothing running it sits at 29c. So I guess thats not too bad i have not tested it yet to see temps under max use. Will that side fan cause a prob with exhaust if i have it blowing directly into the cpu fan?

 

[nd4spdbh2]

Slots gone

hmm what do you mean "negative pressure over gpu", sorry new to all this...

what i mean is having negative air pressure ( a vacume inside the case caused by more exaust fans) so that air cool air will be pulled in through the open pci slot covers past the gfx card.... i have almost always done it this way and it works out VERY well... if you took all ur pci slots our its good but somtimes i will only take out the 2 covers below the gfx so it pulls air in even more directly on the gfx.

 

[terran2k]

what helped my gfx card's cooling was adding an exhaust blower in the slot below my card, it went from 51C idle to 45C idle.

 

[Red_Hot_Poker]

Hmm well should i take the 80mm fan off the side of the pc and mount it under the GPU as a second exhaust fan or keep it on the side to blow into the cpu like I have it now.

Btw thanks for all the advice sofar.

 

[archilochus]

to the Forums

From the looks of your pics, cutting out the fan grids on your case would be the most benificial. Increasing your air flow while reducing noise.

 

[Red_Hot_Poker]

Ok I will be sure to cut out that back fan grid, another question i have is this front portion under and on the sides of the temp display, there is that 120mm intake fan behind, if I cut that whole section out totally will it make that much a a difference? It might look a little silly with that cutout but airflow is my main concern atm.

 

[archilochus]

i have is this front portion under and on the sides of the temp display, there is that 120mm intake fan behind, if I cut that whole section out totally will it make that much a a difference? It might look a little silly with that cutout but airflow is my main concern atm.

Do you mean the clear plastic that looks like the mouth of the beast? "U" shaped part!
It should help, along with that frt.fan grid removal.. How is the plastic(clear) attached?

 

[Red_Hot_Poker]

Do you mean the clear plastic that looks like the mouth of the beast? "U" shaped part!
It should help, along with that frt.fan grid removal.. How is the plastic(clear) attached?

Yes im talking about the "U" shaped part sorry, thats what I was wondering on. The plastic peice is attatched to the case itself. Here is a better front view of the pc. The side plastic is only in place with metal clips and glue i think lol...

 

[archilochus]

Have you removed the frt bezel (the whole frt piece of the case) yet?

You'll need to do that, when you cut out the frt fan grid. When you take off the frt bezel you can get a better look at how the part you want to remove is attached.
As a test you can remove the frt fan grid, and the leave the frt bezel off. Then put the frt bezel on without the "U", and see what temps you get.

Here's a link to some stuff I did to my case. There are 3 pages of pics if you want to see if you can get any ideas, or have any Q's...

http://groups.msn.com/MOBYSHOME/_whatsnew.msnw

 

[Red_Hot_Poker]

Ok, thanks for the tips. I will cut out the back fan grid and cut out the front "u" grid and see how the temp changes. Or cut out the back and just take of the front cover to see how that affects the temps.

Thanks for the help.

 

[freakdiablo]

Just a little heads up, if your gonna be running using negative pressure, check the inside of your case every now and then for dust. I know from experience dust kills.

 

[Red_Hot_Poker]

Well i removed the back grid that was covering the exhaust fan and also removed the front grid that was covering the front intake fan. I have yet to remove the "U" grid on the front cover, but i did take the front cover off totally to check to see if it would drop the temp at all. I only noticed maybe one or drops in degree with the cover off then with the cover on. All though with the 2 grids off I have noticed a drop in about 4-5 degrees.

I'm still wondering though, is that 80mm fan on the side of the pc as an intake fan to blow air directly into the cpu fan a good idea, or should I try to mount in somewhere else to be more useful?

 

[archilochus]

Looks like the side fan is restricted by the grid on the side panel. See what you get with the side fan removed from the panel! And then with the holes in the side panel taped up..
My side panel has a 92mm passive hole lined up with the fan on the HS.

 

[enz660]

Hello, new here to the forums but long time reader. I recently started to upgrade my pc from a cheap $300 basic tower. I have alot of things still needed to be upgraded and such but I'm wondering if my temps on my pc are higher then usual for the cooling setup I have.I was wondering if there was something I can do to improve airflow. I have 120mm intake in front, 120mm exhaust in the rear and 80mm fan on the side panel as intake to blow air right into the CPU fan.

I was wondering also if the side fan >>>Air>>> cpu fan is good for cooling the cpu faster. I have heard things such as the air between the two fans blocking the hot air from being blow out through the back exhaust fan. Any input would be appreciated.





Side fan that blows into the cpu fan.

dude, all I gotta say is thise red LED's look super sexy....very badass, nice work

 

[Red_Hot_Poker]

Thanks for all the help guys, I think i have maximized the airflow for my current set up atm.

...ty for the comments on the Red Lights. I wanted to go for something different, I mean i always see blue and green lighted cases. I figure since my case was red why not go a head and throw some red leds inside =P, newegg ftw.

I'm thinking about paint the case black...don't know yet and would have to look into some case painting tuts...lol...