New to building, opinions on my setup would be great :)

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firks

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May 29, 2014
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Hi guys!

so yeah as the title says, im new to custom pc's. ive had my rig for a little while now, which was actually built for me but im now going to take the reigns etc.
so i just thought id ask to see if its a decent set up for air flow and what i can do to improve the cooling.

so, ive got a cm storm trooper case with a h80 mounted to the rear for cold intake, front 2 fans are mounted sideways for intake, and i have the stock 200m on the top for exhaust. with regards to top mount exhaust, is 1x 200mm megaflow better than 2x 140mm vipers for example? i know bigger is quieter and normally more cfm but i didnt know if vipers may be more efficient exhausts without being too loud seeing as they are 110cfm each. btw who knows if the stock 200mm is a megaflow or not?

my psu is a enermax naxn 80+ 850w with the fan facing upwards, which is intaking air i believe. i have looked into cold vs hot load temp testing on the psu and the difference is very minor on psu performance it would seem, so im thinking fan facing up is best. plus it looks better :p

iam running sli evga superclocked 780's. im not sure if the fans on these intake or exhaust, can someone answer that?

i have just bought some akasa viper fans to replace the h80 fans, and i was also thinking about putting one 140mm viper at the bottom of the case for intake. that sound like a good idea?

fair few questions so answers on those and some advice would be brilliant!
i'll try to do a air diagram when im home, to better explain what the setup is like atm.

thanks guys :)

edit: here is a link to diagrams of my setup. each pic is titled and described.
http://s1317.photobucket.com/user/Nathan_Firkins/library/pc%20build?sort=9&page=1

i think that option 2 or 4 would be best
 
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Karsten75

Karsten75

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I'm not going to answer your questions specifically, I'm just going to point out a few things (and probably start a controversy). :)

When designing case airflow, you want to pllan it such that the intake is more than the exhaust. This is called "Positive Pressure" and if the intake fans are screened with filters, it keeps the case cleaner and slows down dust build-up inside your case.

Secondly, you really should consider the noise levels. Too many fans and you have a really noisy rig, which in the long run gets really irritating.

Video cards typically have fans that suck in air and then they vent through slots to the outside of the case - so they add to the "negative" (exhaust) part of the airflow equation.

I can not imagine that you would mount (or that anyone would design) a PSU in such a manner that it would exhaust hot air into the case.
 
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firks

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May 29, 2014
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thanks for the swift reply :)
yeah that what i was aiming to do.
yeah, as it stands now i would say that its pretty quiet on low but i normally have it on max or nearly max on the fan controller. louder but not hugely louder. when its under load though and they are on full, then its loud. one of the reasons im wanting to experiment. i can live with a louder rig i guess because i wear surround headphones, but id prefer it not to be as loud as it is under load.

ah ok, thanks for clearing up the gpu Q.

ive seen that people mount psu's both ways now that ive looked, but i suppose it depends on whether the psu fan is intaking or exhausting. im pretty sure that mine intakes, especially since it has a mesh casing, where the power switch is.

one of my bigger concerns is whether or not i should keep my front fans side mounted, or if i should rotate the hdd rack so they are facing front.
 
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Karsten75

Karsten75

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Not sure I understand everything, re-reading your post. Consider that you want "airflow" - not air coming in all over and not having a clear flow path to exit.

Also, I'd never mount an intake fan on the bottom of any case of mine- I always think that's where a vacuum cleaner works to suck up dust. :)

If you have a flow (front-to-back or back-to-front) it does not really matter whether the fans suck in air from the side or directly from the front. If you don't have vent holes on the side, then I think the fans are not effective.

Personally I have moved as much as I can to closed loop water cooling in my new builds. I have the radiators near the top or the back (in one I have it on the front due to space issues in a small case) and I try and keep the traditional front-to-back/top air flow. The Fractal cases I have have little vent slots on the side of the front panel and even with the fans facing front, there is sufficient airflow to keep things nice and cool (and quiet).

I mount my PSU on the bottom, with the intake fan facing down (there is ventilation there) and the outlet to the back. I recon that the PSU fan is slow enough to not suck up too much dust through the filter on the bottom.
 
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firks

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May 29, 2014
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i understand, well i assume i can have better airflow than i have currently, but if im just wondering if i have a good amount of cold intake too. ive just added a link of pictures of my current setup and those that i was thinking of doing.

thats true, there is a dust filter, and i wasnt sure how much dust would be under the tower really.

i have thought about integrating water cooling, but tbh at this time i dont want to spend that much because i want to get a 2560 x 1440 haha.

 
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Karsten75

Karsten75

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Having looked at your pictures, I'd wonder if the GPU with the fan in between those cards (top) is running hotter than the bottom one?

I'd also wonder if I turned my front fans so they push air directly into the case, and reverse the back fan to pull the air out if that might not drop temps.

Personally speaking, I wouldn't push air in in 3 or 4 places. I think the airflow inside our case might be interesting to observe.
 
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firks

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May 29, 2014
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yeah on gpu is hotter, but ive been told that thats a normal thing when youre running sli. it never goes more than than 9- 10c hotter than the other card under load. ive never had more than 75-76c from the hottest card.

i have turned the front fans now so i'll see what that does. the h80 cpu cooler is recommended by corsair to have intake from the rear so i guess it would give slightly higher mobo temp. if i switched it, i would just get slightly lower mobo temp and slightly hotter cpu temp.

yeah im just gonna have to experiment a bit with the fans
 
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