Should I Buy A Fan Controller?

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helpiveimploded

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May 13, 2014
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Hi guys,

This may seem like a bit of a stupid question, for which I apologise, but my situation requires some advice from someone who knows more than me about airflow.

I have a Noctua DH-14-cooled 2500k running at 4GHz and a pre-OC R9 280x housed in a Corsair Graphite 600t, for which I recently bought the door with the mesh insert. I get relatively good temps already - my CPU temps are between 30c and 60c (at about 23c ambient), my GPU temp range is about the same, but I wanted to see if I could get them any lower. I decided to stick a couple of side intake fans on, one taking in air near the GPU and another near the CPU.

Having no fan controller, I plugged them straight into the PSU, meaning they're running at 100% all the time. My temps actually went up when I did this. So I'm thinking that perhaps their CFM is disrupting the air flow because it's too high, so if I plugged them into a fan controller instead, I might be able to "merge" their airflow with that of the case.

So, to summarise, the main questions are: does airflow work the way I've described? Would a fan controller help? Or are my temps the best I can expect given the ambient temperature?

Thank you in advance for whatever help you can give. If possible, I'd like to warrant my purchase of the fans, which are otherwise useless. Incidentally, the fans are Zalman ZMF3s, so bonus question: if I can't use them for side intake perhaps I could replace the back exhaust fan with one, if the Zalman fans are better than the stock 600t fan.
 
Solution
ubercake
Your temps are in a great range as it stands.

Fans = noise with a controller or not. As a rule, I recommend people use as few fans as necessary to maintain acceptable temps while minimizing noise.

Every case's airflow is different. Unless you're trying to break a low-temp record, I wouldn't put forth the effort to figure out what needs to be done with the side fans. Your temps before the side fans were added were more than fine. If the fans on the sides increased your temps, remove them and enjoy.

With regard to replacing the rear stock fan with one of the Zalmans.... I'd give it a try. See which gives you the better performance/noise ratio and stick with it.
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Plusthinking Iq

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Sep 11, 2013
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sounds like you have got too many intake fans. balance the airflow to a slight positive preasure, with fanspeed and\or fan orientation.
side fans works best as exhaust if you got a aftermarket gpucooler. cpu benefit less from sidepanel fans.
do not your motherboard have fan headers with fan control software?
 
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ubercake

ubercake

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Oct 28, 2009
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Your temps are in a great range as it stands.

Fans = noise with a controller or not. As a rule, I recommend people use as few fans as necessary to maintain acceptable temps while minimizing noise.

Every case's airflow is different. Unless you're trying to break a low-temp record, I wouldn't put forth the effort to figure out what needs to be done with the side fans. Your temps before the side fans were added were more than fine. If the fans on the sides increased your temps, remove them and enjoy.

With regard to replacing the rear stock fan with one of the Zalmans.... I'd give it a try. See which gives you the better performance/noise ratio and stick with it.
 
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Solution
H

helpiveimploded

Reputable
May 13, 2014
4
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4,510
Many thanks to you both for your advice. It's very much just a case of "I don't have any money but I really want to do something to my PC", to be honest. Since putting the mesh insert into the door, the temps have dropped about 6c, so I thought that might indicate that I might be able to lower it even more with fans in that area. What I may do instead is replace the top 200mm fan with the two Zalman fans; that way I can connect them to the MB (which, to answer your question, Plusthinking IQ, had no remaining fan headers on it).

It's just a little sad where you get to the point where the only changes you'll see in your PC are likely incremental, and even then for a hefty cost. Bring on quantum computing! (also, while I'm asking for stuff, make it really cheap)
 
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ubercake

ubercake

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Oct 28, 2009
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Don't do it!!!! The 200mm top fan is much quieter than the smaller 120mm. And, who knows, a 200mm will probably move as much or more air than the two 120mms. You could put the 120s in the top and find a little bit better cooling, but they are definitely going to add noise. 200s are nice and quiet.

I know it sucks since you already forked out the bucks for the fans, but you already have a good thing going with your temps without a change.
 
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