SOLVED INTERNAL CASE TEMPS

[bww794]

I just finished building my new PC from the ground up and I have one main question that I couldn't seem to find on the web, then a couple secondary questions about my rig and some solutions to things I'm not happy about.

Main Question: what is considered average internal case temperature? What is considered on the hotter side and what is considered superbly cool? Not the temperature of any individual component, just ambient air inside the cases 6 walls. I am now curious because this is the first case (EVGA DG-87) I have owned with a temp sensor built into the case. It is on the end of a tail that comes from the front I/O with the rest of the connectors. Without altering the fan curve in the BIOS, I have seen this probe report 30c just doing 2K@165hz gaming. I upped the curve just a little on 6 of the fans attached to a chassis fan header (the one intaking air from the front of the case) and saw internal case temp drop to 27-28c doing the same activity.

Secondary questions:
1.what would be the ideal place to have this sensor without it looking tacky? Warm air rises and there's nothing at the bottom of the case save for the PSU so it's sort of pointless to have it down there and the front temp readout will not be indicative of anything important.

2. my current setup has 2x 360mm rads with 12 fans in push/pull. I assembled it all using 2 Silverstone 1->8 fan hubs. I assumed the BIOS wouldn't much like not having something plugged into the CPU fan header so one of the hubs is plugged into that. Well apparently because of the HUB, the BIOS gets a CPU fan speed error so right now I have the BIOS set to ignore it. The problem is, this prevents the use of a fan curve for temps if you're ignoring the headers temps. I was thinking of just moving this hub to a chassis fan header and still having the CPU header on ignore, but this will only ramp up if the cases temp gets high... If anyone can offer an ideal solution, I would be forever grateful. Component temps are great, I just don't like the computer not functioning the way it did in my mind before I started building it. Build pics attached.

Case: EVGA DG-97
Mobo: ASUS Zenith Extreme
CPU: 1950x
Cooling loop: EK blocks, rads and D5 pump/res combo
GPU: EVGA 1080ti FTW3
RAM: 16gb Ballistix DDR4 2666 (shoulda gone faster, I know lol will rectify later)
PSU: EVGA 1000w 80+ platinum

Thanks in advance for advice/recommendations folks!

 

[EarthDog]

Case temps will vary wildly from machine to machine... no way to really give a good idea there.

As far as sensor placement, i typically want to know intake and exhaust temps. If the sensor is used for fan control, id use it as exhaust as intake temps wont vary much in general. If its just for show, id still put it on intake.

I assume you have a front intake, top/rear exhaust?

 

[bww794]

yes, front intake, top and rear exhaust. its a wild case so there's actually a large area behind the motherboards I/O shield and then a door with 2 fans build into it to conceal all of the cables and route them out of a slit cleanly (i will eventually set the case sidefacing on a wider desk for presentation and route the cables down through a grommet in the desk).

But I'm not so much asking what this cases internal temp SHOULD be, just what is considered respectably cool in the cooling game (especially as relates to the health of the components inside it). It's funny I've never worried about this stuff before until I have equipment that puts a number in front of me and I start getting paranoid lol "is this good or bad!?!? "

 

[EarthDog]

I wouldn't worry about it, honestly. I would imagine so long as things are around 30C you should be fine.

 

[Blaylock]

Case internal temps aren't that critical so long as you have adequate airflow. A great way to test that is to game for an hour or so for the internal temps to rise and stabilize, then remove the side cover and continue gaming for another hour. If you see more than a 2-3°C drop than you could use additional (or just better) airflow.

In my old case I had the sensor right next to the CPU to use just as a visual. Now that case is being utilized as my NAS case (see NASgul build) and the sensor sits on my Raid controller to let me know if it's getting over worked (never really moves lol).

 

[bww794]

Thanks for the responses! can anyone address the issue of having copious amounts of fans and how to have the BIOS not throw a fit and allow the fan curve to ramp up based on cpu temp versus case temp?

 

[EarthDog]

Honestly, id set them all to low/static speed. You have enough cooling i dont imagine the fans need to ramp up in the first place...i mean, it will lower temps a few C, but if temps are in order, why have it go up unnecessarily?

 

[bww794]

idk, I'm just weird lol. Sorta bothers me when things don't work as intended, even if I would never do anything outside of stress testing to make it get hot enough to ramp up at all.

 

[EarthDog]

I think that hub is confusing things.

Pretty sure there are fan controllers on the market which can accept those fans (pwm) and plug into the mobo (via usb) to read and react to cpu temps. Maybe an Aquero brand...bht im swimming out of my lane here a bit.

But yeah, id set it and forget it. No reason that system needs to ramp up.

 

[Blaylock]

Have you tried plugging the hub into a different fan header? If it's throwing an error and you told it to ignore it, it would make sense that the curves aren't working as planned. If you get an error for not having a CPU fan plugged it (this does happen with some boards) then try plugging just the rear exhaust into the CPU header. Your board is a high end board so I'll assume it allows the user to define different curves for each header.

 

[bww794]

Have you tried plugging the hub into a different fan header? If it's throwing an error and you told it to ignore it, it would make sense that the curves aren't working as planned. If you get an error for not having a CPU fan plugged it (this does happen with some boards) then try plugging just the rear exhaust into the CPU header. Your board is a high end board so I'll assume it allows the user to define different curves for each header.

I'm pretty sure I just had an epiphany and figured it out, but I'm gonna call SilverStone after lunch and confirm with them. The fan hub is 1 to 8 with only 1 of the 8 supporting speed detection and wouldn't you know it, of the 2 headers I didn't use on the HUB, the speed detection one is one of them. Now I am just hoping that by moving one of the fans over to that header on the hub, it will communicate with the header on the motherboard and stop throwing the fan speed error when trying to POST. Then I have to hope that the 1 header that supports the speed detection drives the other 7 so that the fans spin in sync and not 1 fan going faster than the other 5. Which poses another question: do fans operate in terms of percentages or speeds in RPM? That is to say, if there were ever a scenario where the header tried to drive one of the EK Furious Vardar's up to 100% (3000rpm), would it try to drive the Corsair LL series fans to 3000rpm as well, or just drive them at their own 100% (1500rpm)?

 

[Blaylock]

I don't know if your fans are PWM driven or voltage driven but either way the hub will not try to make a 1500RPM fan go 3000RPM. LOL Consider it more of a percentage of full speed. Whether it's via Pulse frequency or a number of voltages usually 5-12v. In other words at 75% the 1500RPM will spin at 1125RPM and the 3000RPM will spin at 2250RPM.

 

[bww794]

I don't know if your fans are PWM driven or voltage driven but either way the hub will not try to make a 1500RPM fan go 3000RPM. LOL Consider it more of a percentage of full speed. Whether it's via Pulse frequency or a number of voltages usually 5-12v. In other words at 75% the 1500RPM will spin at 1125RPM and the 3000RPM will spin at 2250RPM.

Perfect! then I won't have to flip the hubs around lol. Thanks for the clarification on that. All 12 (6 EK Furious Vardar, 6 Corsair LL120) are PWM

 

[bww794]

Perfect! then I won't have to flip the hubs around lol. Thanks for the clarification on that. All 12 (6 EK Furious Vardar, 6 Corsair LL120) are PWM

spoke with SilverStone. making sure a fan is plugged into the 1 speed detection header will fix the issue and allow me to turn cpu header monitoring back on. However, he was insistant that the lower rated fan be chosen stating that all fans will spin at the same speed and if the 3000rpm fan was chosen, it would not bode well for the 1500rpm... think he's right or full of it?

 

[Blaylock]

I would follow the manufacturers recommendation. He certainly understands how their products work more than I do. Run the 1500RPM in the #1 spot and all should be well.

 

[bww794]

I would follow the manufacturers recommendation. He certainly understands how their products work more than I do. Run the 1500RPM in the #1 spot and all should be well.

Then that's what I'll do. Thanks! looks like i just bought 3k rpm fans for nothing lol oh well... live and learn.

 

[trents]

With multiple PWM fans running off the same header it may be smart to make them all the same model fan (or at least one with very similar specs) so that they will all run at about the same speed. That would give you more precise control since fans that differ drastically in their power parameters will respond differently to the same PWM signal level. Those hubs can't be tuned for the individual connections. All the connections will receive the same PWM signal from the motherboard header. The hub is just a splitter to allow multiple fans to run off one motherboard header.