New Case Fans, CPU cooler & help with fan arrangement.

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UberCanuber

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I recently bought a H440 along with with all new components and have been using it for a couple of weeks. I am going to buy a Phanteks PH-TC14PE so I can OC my cpu and was also looking at a new exhaust fan as I find the stock one a little loud.

I was thinking the Phanteks PH-F140HP fans as they would match, one for exhaust at the back and put one for exhaust at the top and putting the supplied nzxt 140mm fan up the top too. Are these all around case fans or just good for coolers?

Another dilemma I have is figuring out how to control them all so they are not running on 100% all the time (using the supplied hub). Would something like this work and just reroute the cables directly to my MB, even with the stock fans? GELID PWM 1-to-4 Splitter Cable
The included hub looks like
nzxt_h440_fan_hub.jpg
and can handle up to 10 three-pin fans, and a controller for the case lighting, so the supplied fans are 3 pin. Just not sure about all this.

Last thing I wasn't sure about was the fan arrangement, would it be better to have the 2 140s fans as intake at the front and 3 120s(stock) as exhaust at the top or vice versa?

Thanks in advanced!
 
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Karadjgne
Well, the bitfenix are quieter, have better static pressure (can't hurt either way) and higher cfm. I prefer 140mm over 120mm when possible, because at the same cfm, they are at lower rpm than a comparable 120mm, thus quieter. Reason for 2 vrs 3? Airflow. If you add the 3rd fan up top, its blowing air directly across the path of the upwards moving air, basically you are shoving it back into the case. You want the air to move the heat out, not recirculate it. Its the reason rear exhausts are useless in a top vented case. In a standard case, the heat rises to the top and is trapped by the lid, pooling there. add a rear exhaust, creates a vacuum, air and heat have somewhere to go now... out. In a top vented case such as your h440...
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i7Baby

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Fans are all fans. Some are better (and more expensive usually) than others. Noctua and Corsair make good fans too.

How many case fan headers have you on your mobo? Splitters work too. Or are you going to get a fan controller? eg http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=408&products_id=20625

With fans its good if you can figure out how to slightly pressurise the case by using a bit more oomph for air in than air out.
The difference between 3 x 120 fans and 2 x 140 fans won't be much if the all spin at the same rpm.
 
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UberCanuber

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I have the asrock z87 extreme 4 so it has:
- 3 x Chassis Fan connectors (1 x 4-pin, 2 x 3-pin)
- 1 x Power Fan connector (3-pin) (not sure if this is relevant)
I wont be using a fan controller as I have no front bay drives and would rather do it in the via fan curves.

I have heard corsair are good fans too! I couldn't deal with noctua i find the colours repulsive..

If the 120 and 140 fan configuration are basically the same while spinning at the same rpm, which one would be louder or that would be similar too? I could always grab 3 corsair performance 120s (or two 140s) for the front, as they will be quieter at a higher rpm and put the three stock fans at a low rpm on the top as exhaust, would that help increase the pressure in the case? as apposed to putting the higher performance fans as exhausts at the top and leaving the front stock.
 
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i7Baby

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Power fan is for a power supply.

Maybe you just add a splitter to one or more mobo headers eg http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=25679&cPath=1344

Spinning at same rpm, a 140 would be a bit louder (but noticeable?) than a 120 - tip speed is greater.

Air flow is good but there's no need for a hurricane. 2 x 120's at the front and one 120 at the rear is ok usually. Maybe more if you've really junked up the inside of your case or something's cooking in there. More fans = more noise.
 
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UberCanuber

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The reason I wanted more airflow is because this case I have (NZXT H440) is restricted with side vents and dust filters.

I think I will grab 3 Corsair SP120 PE (4 PIN) for the front intake and the Phanteks PH-F140HP (4 Pin) for my rear exhaust. I might place the stock nzxt fans (3 Pin) up top as exhaust on a low setting.

What would be the best way connections wise to control them (with software) in individual groups (front, top and back) using the available conenctions (1 x 4-pin, 2 x 3-pin)?
 
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UberCanuber

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Out of curiosity, why did you recommend the 2 140mm fans apposed to 3 120mm fans?

Would a fan with higher static pressure such as Phanteks- PH-F140HP work well because of the restricted intake (Noise dampening padding leaves only a 1cm gap then air has to come from side vent, also has a dust filter)?
 
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Karadjgne

Karadjgne

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Well, the bitfenix are quieter, have better static pressure (can't hurt either way) and higher cfm. I prefer 140mm over 120mm when possible, because at the same cfm, they are at lower rpm than a comparable 120mm, thus quieter. Reason for 2 vrs 3? Airflow. If you add the 3rd fan up top, its blowing air directly across the path of the upwards moving air, basically you are shoving it back into the case. You want the air to move the heat out, not recirculate it. Its the reason rear exhausts are useless in a top vented case. In a standard case, the heat rises to the top and is trapped by the lid, pooling there. add a rear exhaust, creates a vacuum, air and heat have somewhere to go now... out. In a top vented case such as your h440, that doesn't happen. Any heat rising, goes up and out, the exhaust fans help that. If you add a rear exhaust, you hamper that process, especially in the area from the cpu-back. Add in a front top intake and that screws up the airflow even further, now you have a direct sideways path... recirculation.

Yeah, lower the intake, the better, top exhaust only in vented cases, makes for more efficient airflow, lower case temps, more efficient cpu cooling

You want to keep a 'positive' pressure in the system, as far as that's able with vents all over, This means your intakes push in more air than the exhaust takes out, net affect is any open fan slots, slits in case, mobo rear I/O slots all act as an exhaust, air is pushing out wherever it can. A 'negative' system with more exhaust than intake is called a vacuum and unfiltered air will come through every possible crack and slit, filling your case with dust a whole hell of a lot faster.

So, 2x 140mm intakes and a 140/120mm exhaust with the 120mm governed by the 140mm. Means you get slightly more intake than exhaust when the fans are set at around the same fan curve, you can even lower the exhaust somewhat, as the heat will rise naturally, and you just want to help it along, not force it.
 
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UberCanuber

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Thanks for the long answer Karadjgne, I will make my purchases today! Very helpful information.

 
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wayne curlew

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I just read your reply about case cooling and want to ask you about my case and fan set up I am about to do. You definitely seem to know a lot about case cooling and it all makes sense so please take a look at my parts list and let me know what fan set up would be the best for a really good positive pressure air flow system in this build. The case comes with 3 fans already 2 intake behind the hard drive bays and 1 rear top for exhaust all 120 mm. my parts list ------ >http://pcpartpicker.com/user/veloglider/saved/qFDj4D
 
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Karadjgne

Karadjgne

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I would take the rear exhaust and slap it n the bottom, in front of the psu as bottom intake. Put the 2x 140mm as top exhaust. 290x are notorious for large amounts of heat, so that bottom intake is perfect for blowing that straight up. Use that on 1 header, front 2x on a splitter, 2nd header, exhausts on a splitter 3rd header.

After that. It's all going to be on the fan curves. Asus suit II (i use it on my pc) does a decent job with fan extreme, it reads bios temps, so pretty accurate. Just be wary of the monitor supplied, the temps on it are usually not accurate (at least for me). For accurate temps on an Intel, use realtemp, coretemp or speccy.
 
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wayne curlew

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wayne curlew

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thanks it took awhile and a lot of ready and research before I picked the parts. This is all new to me my system now is an older Alienware which I upgraded with more ram and a better graphics card and sound card. As for my fan set up what if I leave the 3 that come with it in their same place and take the 2 140 I am going to buy, put one up top and one bottom like you suggested. that will give me rear upper exhaust and top exhaust then I will have the 2 behind hard drive bays pulling air in as well as bottom? Also as far as you talking about fan curves that's all foreign language to me I have no clue about that and the realtemp, coretemp or speccy
 
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Karadjgne

Karadjgne

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Ah, ok.
First, you want to try and keep pairs af fans matched, it just makes things easier. Since you have the 2 intake 120mm, that makes a good pair for 1 fan header. Use another header for the pair of 140mm you are buying, and use both as exhaust up top. That leaves you with the stock rear exhaust fan, and I would put that as bottom intake instead of rear exhaust.

Now, fan curves are very important. You can have all kinds of cooling fans, but if the curves are off, you don't get what you want out if the fans. There are several components in a pc that create heat, gpu, CPU, chipsets, VRMs. The objective with a fan curve is to set the fans to remove that heat as quietly and efficiently as possible. In order to do this you will need accurate temps. This is where coretemp, realtemp and speccy come into play. 2 other programs are prime95 and furmark. Prime95 will drive up the CPUs temps to about as high as they will go, this is a good thing. Furmark does the same for a gpu. So you run prime95, set for small fft's, and monitor the CPU temps over 1/2 hour or so. Notice what your case fans do with all the excess heat your CPU is putting out, use speccy to monitor this. Then run some furmark tests and watch the fans again. Now you'll have a baseline to work with.
If you think your fans allow too much heat to remain in the case, you can adjust the settings to spin the fans faster, or sooner etc. This is a fan curve. It's when exactly your fans actually start doing some work, not just spinning to supply some air. All of the above are freeware, and easily googled.
Under prime95, temps under @70C are good, under furmark, gpu under @80 is good.

On that note, while a very good cooler, the 9i, is only aittle better, much quieter, than a stock cooler, is eas designed primarily for small form factors like htpc's, so don't be surprised if that heats very fast and exceeds 70C. If CPU temps go to 90+, shut the prime95 down and use the mixed test or large ffts as they are nit so CPU intensive.

Hope that helps some.
 
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wayne curlew

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wayne curlew

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ok now I am definitely confused, anyhow so now your telling my my 9i cpu cooler may not be adequate enough as well? Any suggestions on a cpu cooler that will work for my system
 
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Karadjgne

Karadjgne

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well that honestly depends on what you really want to do with it. If you want higher OC with very low noise then a noctua nf-d14 or 15 would be good, for good average oc, a coolermaster hyper212 evo or plus is good, if you are not inclined to air-coolers and want liquid closed loop, then a thermaltake water 3.0 pro or corsair h80i for mid range (about 4.3-4.5) or a double radiator like nzxt kraken x60, thermaltake water 3.0 extreme, corsair h100i is good. Of course that's all depending on IF you want to OC very much. The 9i will handle a very small OC, maybe 4.0 at most, which is barely above the stock turbo setting.

Pretty much, you need to do some reading. JohnnyGuru, HardOCP, TomsHardware, Overclockers.uk and others all have good topics, forums, reviews on just whats what in a cooler. FrozenPC (I think) did a fantastic review on about 100 popular coolers with decibel levels for fans, cooling ability, etc. Once you decide just how far you are willing or want to go, then go from there.

The 9i is a great little cooler, don't get me wrong, but its a Volkswagen motor in the Porsche you are building.
 
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wayne curlew

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wayne curlew

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as you can see I don't have an OC cpu and don't plan on overclocking. I do love to play games and want the best performance I can get with what I have. This build is def better then my HD6970 graphics card now with old i7 cpu. I just want good solid reliable components that work and will last. I want to make sure my case is cool so all the components will last a long time without any problems. if you look at my parts list I did upgrade my cpu cooler to the hyper 212 evo and will be taking the fans from the case and using 2 of those on it in a push pull. I am upgrading the case fans with Noctua to reduce noise as well since the noctua are far better then the stock fans and I believe the case fans are better then the fan that comes with the cooler. I plan on taking out one of the drive bays as it will not be needed use 2 fans in front case not where they are now behing the bays, use 1 fan rear exhaust, one 140 fan bottom intake and a 140 up top for exhaust.
 
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