Hardware The big air cooling investigation

Any thoughts or opinions of the use of conduit to channel the air to the CPU?

 

I really don't think that will help unless you have a case with bad air flow. Would be interesting to see some tests though!

 

I have recently purchased an R3 due to all the positive reviews, and i was wondering what was the best fan layout! Good article.

 

Great read! thanks !

 

I am using a Lian Li A05nb, so obviously not a normal cooling setup, I also have 2x12cm fan grill cut in the roof which further adds to the mix. From reading monster threads and doing my own testing, my dual roof intake nets the best results for my graphics card and the A05nb's back to front cooling works well with my CPU which has a megahalems sitting on it.

I was debating moving back to my R3 because I wanted a bit more silence and possibly another few hard drives internally. After reading this I am dying to give it a go, I just need to go back to my parents and grabbing it from the loft My only issue is with my megahalems in place, the side intake seemed a bit pointless as it was basically blowing half of its air a few mm's straight onto the top of my cooler :/

 

I just bought an Antec P280 ! And my third GTX 460 started to fry ( even with a fan on a rope aimed at it ! ).

I put the card into my HTPC and it's fine ( 59 C @ 98% load ).

So how large an effect does the orientation of the graphics card make to cooling ?

I am wondering if "raising" the centre card with a PCI-E cable will allow more air to circulate.

Thanks for a great article, I have all six fans as exhaust, leaving air to enter the rear grilles as needed.

dunx

P.S. Four NMB 120x38 server rack fans to play with today !

 

What a brilliant article, thank you!

 

Can you show a picture of your case inside?

 

great article, especially useful for me with an R3. turns out i have a middle-ish efficient cooling setup because i blocked my side vent off for quietness

 

BRING BACK THE 38mm case fan!

 

Enjoyed that, I'm a fan.

 

No... it's work in progress, as I hate the way the GPU power leads are routed... looks way too messy
I have removed the "hot" GPU as I need it running 24/7, and 87 degrees was way too hot.
I guess being upright is far better for cooling a GPU ? as in my HTPC where it is 27 degrees cooler.

dunx

P.S. It's sat at CPU 64 / GPU1 54 / GPU2 49 and Google will show you the massive space inside, my P6T6 WS looks lost in there...

 

Actually I have quite a pile of scrap acrylic here... I wonder if building an air-con conduit fitted with a server fan to blast the GPU's with fresh air ? One benefit of a comically large PC case !

dunx

 

I have a similar problem with my Antec P190 and a ThermalRight Ultra 120 eXtreme. I found with a bit of fiddling though I was able to mount the 200mm side intake fan on the OUTSIDE of the case (still acting as an intake), and even keep the filter on it too.

Not ideal of course since it looks a bit odd, and I wouldn't do it if there was anyone around who might stick their fingers near the unprotected fan blades, but for me it works well and helps to keep the graphics cards cool.

 

Perhaps someone should play with a CFD package...

dunx

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcYppAs6ZdI&feature=fvwp&NR=1

It was a great article - cheers!

 

First article I've read every word of in a long time on this site, great to see a return to investigative led posts, this must have taken you ages!

I didn't quite understand what was being said about the front roof fan though... it makes it sound like you only used it as an intake, whilst the rear was set as an exhaust, this seems pretty odd to me, did you try with both as exhausts?

I'm running a TJ-09 with 6 fans, just finished modding the front intake to a 180mm air penetrator, this article is making me wonder if a single air penetrator in the roof would be better than the two 120mm fans...

 

Something that should've been i the article, really.

Anyway this discussion is as old as building PC's is (well, my first ones didn't have fans...heck the first one didn't have a heatsink)

Think logically, try to visuallise the airflow, it's not that difficult.

The R3 for instance has it's entire front full of harddrivebays. No wonder the traditional Lower-front-in-high-rear-out doesn't perform well. The side intake cirkumvents this, and the results show this.

Buiding silent is a different show though, you'll avoid open grilles and top-vents as these usually point in your direction. You trade performance for sound, really.

The coolest PC I ever say had a side panel modded full of 30mm delta's. Amazingly cool and well audible through two closed doors

 

Sorry, in truth I thought I covered this in there, but I cant actually see it - so much to say, something was bound to get lots I suppose. We did try the front roof mount as an exhaust, but it gave poor results as its positioned in front of the CPU cooler, so all it does is steal air from the CPU cooler fan.

 

Nice article lovin you guys!