EVGA Hadron Air Overheating

Jacob Williamson

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Jul 24, 2014
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Now before you say anything, I understand it's a small case. Overheating is something I generally expected, which is why I went sort of overkill on the CPU cooling. I use a ZALMAN CNPS9500A-LED 92mm 2 Ball CPU Cooler, seen here

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118223

and, after a romp of BF4 on Ultra settings, my temperatures read 100C+, causing the game to crash.

My rig set up:

EVGA 780ti

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814487003&cm_re=EVGA_780ti-_-14-487-003-_-Product

Intel i7 4770k

Hadron Air (obviously)

z87 mini ITX mobo

1 SSD and 1 500GB seagate hard drive

What are some possible solutions to my heating problem? Is liquid cooling an answer? Help me tom'sHARDWARE...you're my only hope!
 
Solution
Right, I'm pretty sure that your issues are caused by several issues and it's possible the combination is what's causing you problems.

First, the biggie. I'm fairly confident your cooler is on the wrong way around. 99% of air coolers with a single fan provided use this fan as a push-fan, meaning it should be at the front of the heatsink, pushing air out of the back. This image would suggest yours is no exception. Turning it around should make a substantial difference but at a glance this might not be as easy as it seems (see point two)- on the plus side it does give you the chance to check how well the cooler is seated. If you can't point it upwards then I'd try pointing it to the rear of the case, it's not ideal but it's better...

Rammy

Honorable
Sadly liquid cooling is not the solution, unless you feel like doing some modding, and even then it's fairly questionable benefit.

At risk of being entirely unhelpful, your original choices about the build have potentially hurt your performance. The Titan cooler GTX780Ti would certainly have been a better option for this case, as it is known to have poor graphics card cooling provision. It's quite possible that your graphics card is pushing a lot of heat into your case, and diminishing the performance of your CPU cooler, when the blower-style would have ejected much of it.

Anyway, there isn't a lot you can do about that now, but it is something that might cause you problems whatever you do from here, so lets move onto stuff you can actually do.

  • ■ Is your CPU cooler pointing at the rear of your case or upwards? In most cases, you'd point it at the back, but in the Hadron you point it up at the exhaust fans.
    ■ What motherboard are you using? You don't say and this will make a difference to which potential coolers you can use.
    ■ Do you have an overclock applied? Obviously if you do, remove it. It's obvious, but it only adds to the heat and system stability.
    ■ Have you checked the thermal paste/reseated the CPU cooler? It's an easy think to make a poor job of and it can wildly skew results. Always worth a go as it's a cheap fix.
    ■ Set the case fans to the maximum, if you haven't already. It's perhaps not easy to live with due to noise, but for getting things working it can only help.
    ■ Leave the side off, see how it does. If it works fine, then it would suggest that you are having issues with heat build-up.

The Hadron is super limited in terms of cooling options, and 90-93mm fan based tower coolers are basically your best option, and you already have one of those. The largest cooler I've seen in a Hadron off the top of my head is an Arctic Freezer 13, but I think that's going to be motherboard dependant.
 

Jacob Williamson

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Jul 24, 2014
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I'll start off by saying thank you. That was an excellent write up, and I'm happy you took the time to answer my question. This is my first rig, and the air flow was something I was new to. With all the parts I put in my case, I just decided I would "put the biggest, best cooling option in, and it would probably work out". Unfortunately I'm a dumbass and this was not the case (literally). For future reference, here's a photo of my build.

http://imgur.com/JEGUJKD

Next, I'll start off by going down your check list.

    1. CPU Fan direction. My Zalman is pointed up into the exhaust fan, as you can see in the picture (unless somehow the fan is upside down, which could possibly be my problem).

    2. This is my motherboard. http://

    3. I've never overclocked my computer for the explicit purpose of avoiding overheating. Also most of my components are powerful enough to avoid overclocking entirely [unless I decide to start rendering DNA].

    4. I have not checked that. You're right, that's certainly worthing checking out. Now I'd imagine though that if the thermal paste was getting iffy, then my idle temperature would be rather hot as well, right? At the moment, just with a few Chrome tabs open, my CPU is bouncing around 60C. So, maybe that is too hot.

    5. How do I alter the speed of my fans? Is that just in the BIOS? Can I do that from Windows?

    6. Already done. My side has been taken off, and I'll try BF4 soon to get back to you.



I understand my options are limited. Let it be known that I am willing to mod my case. I've got plenty of experience modifying electronic cases, re-soldering components (although I don't imagine it will come to that), and managing space. What I don't have experience in is cooling knowledge, which is why I came here. I've found solutions like this http:// that I would be willing to try, I just want to make sure that is my only exhaustible option before I break out the dremel and the Mike's Hard, you know?

Thanks again for all your help!
 

Alex Kelly

Honorable
Sorry about my response, I was feeling a bit lazy and I'm sorry, I'm glad he cleared it up. those idle temps are way too high though. If the PC is off for a while and cools down, what are your idle temps when it first turns back on? That temperature could clarify whether the heat is being cause by a buildup of hot air inside the case or dodgy thermal paste, incorrectly installed cooler etc. You can change the speed of your fans if they are PWM through your motherboards utility in windows or an application like speedfan.
 

Jacob Williamson

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Jul 24, 2014
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I just let my computer shut down and cool down completely. Currently, now that I've restarted, the temperatures are bouncing around 54C to 74C. Not sure why they're bouncing around or if that means anything.
 

Alex Kelly

Honorable
That definitely isn't normal. It should be around 40C max at idle.. try re applying thermal paste and remember the side that the label is on the fan is the side that the air will be blowing. the side without a sticker/label is the intake side. :) I'm not familiar with that cooler but I know those temps are really really high for idle. I never let my CPU get over 70C under load, but that's in a mid tower. But yeah, try re applying thermal paste and making sure the fans are pointing the correct way and get back to us :)
 

Rammy

Honorable
Right, I'm pretty sure that your issues are caused by several issues and it's possible the combination is what's causing you problems.

First, the biggie. I'm fairly confident your cooler is on the wrong way around. 99% of air coolers with a single fan provided use this fan as a push-fan, meaning it should be at the front of the heatsink, pushing air out of the back. This image would suggest yours is no exception. Turning it around should make a substantial difference but at a glance this might not be as easy as it seems (see point two)- on the plus side it does give you the chance to check how well the cooler is seated. If you can't point it upwards then I'd try pointing it to the rear of the case, it's not ideal but it's better than you have now.

Secondly, your motherboard wasn't a great pick for the case it went into. This is always tricky at ITX, far more so than you might think, and it can have some awkward ramifications. The connectors along the top of the board potentially clip/block your exhaust fans, reducing their impact, but this is a relatively trivial issue and might only be worth a degree or two. The bigger issue is that the CPU socket location on most MSI boards is too close to the PCIe slot - compare this to the ASRock equivalent. This limits your cooler selection, might prevent you from flipping your cooler around as it's asymmetrical, and even if it does fit you have the fan nearly flush against the backplate of the graphics card, limiting it's effect.
Compare your picture with a large space up at the top and a small gap between the graphics card and CPU cooler, with this build, which has the aforementioned Arctic Freezer 13. Due to a better motherboard layout, it looks a lot more comfortable.
None of that info is helpful to your plight and I apologise, but it might put a few things in perspective and help anyone else with similar issues searching these types of thread.

Thirdly the aforementioned graphics card issue. It's a big card, and it's going to throw around a decent amount of heat. EVGA themselves will point out that any of their cards will work in the Hadron Air (more or less), so I assume they are more confident than I am, and it's possible if you can get the CPU cooling working better in itself that the graphics card will be less of a potential problem.

Onto solutions -

  • ■ Flip the CPU cooler, check the seating of the cooler too. If that's not possible, try it facing the rear of the case, but you might need to look at alternatives.

    ■ Fans. There's not a lot you can do here really, but if your fans are connected directly to your motherboard you should check in your BIOS that they are set to their maximum. It's also possible to replace the fans with higher airflow versions, but this will likely make a fairly small difference.

    ■ Replacing components. It's not ideal by any means, but if the setup you have right now isn't working, and isn't going to work, then this might be the best option.
    The easiest option is to get a new case with less limitations which fits everything you have already, the Fractal Design Node 304 springs to mind. Main downside is you'll need to buy a PSU too.
    The other alternative is to replace the motherboard. It's an expensive component and is arguably the most annoying thing to replace, but going for a Z87/Z97 with a better layout might make a massive difference and might even give you the headroom to overclock. If this is never going to be a priority, there's always H87/H97 options too, which will keep costs down.

    ■ Finally, there is modding. Google will show you various mods for this case, like the one you linked earlier, and this one. It's certainly a labour of love, and probably not the best way to get your machine up and running.

The reason I assumed you were overclocking is that the main (sole) function of a Z-series motherboard and a K-series processor is their overclocking ability. It certainly is possible to overclock in a Hadron Air, as I've seen solid results posted here before, but if you are struggling then it's obviously a no-no.
 
Solution

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