How to set up my fans in my case?

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carterdarter

carterdarter

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I understand how negative and positive air pressure works but it confuses me on how to actually set up. So I have an Aerocool Dead Silence Cube. The fans I have is a Hyper 212 EVO, 120mm and a 200mm (200mm can only go in front but which roation).

Also I have the mesh cover on top for more airflow.
Edit: Could someone also explain this "PWM" thing to me and if I need any fan splitters or PWN splitters or whatever.

Thanks :)
 
Solution
Moonstick2
The third will most likely work best.

Warm air rises, so an intake at the top is unlikely to be bringing in much in the way of cold air.

There is a LOT of discussion about the best configuration and little in the way of consensus. Generally speaking, a continual front to back flow appears to offer the best cooling more often than not. Having the passive vent in the top will at least prevent warm air being trapped there. The 200 mm should be blowing at least some cool air towards the graphics card.

It also matters where your PC is, and the ambient temperature. It's still not clear how drastically different your GPU temps are compared to what you think you should be getting.

I'l admit that I was considering that case but was a little...
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fatboyslimerr

fatboyslimerr

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Positive pressure is better as it means air should be forced out of your case. Negative pressure would draw air in to your case, possibly through holes that don't have dust filters and so cause more dust accumulation in your components.

You should be fine running the 200mm fan as intake, blowing into the case, and the 120mm fan as an exhaust. PWM is pulse-width modulation signal, which gives the ability to adjust the rotation speed on the fly without changing the input voltage delivered to the cooling fan. Normal non-PWM fans can only adjust speed by increasing or decreasing voltage.
 
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carterdarter

carterdarter

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What I was doing with the hyper 212 EVO is shooting the warm air from the CPU heatsink out the back (works very effectively) but the graphics card doesn't get much air and performs hotter than it should. Also I don't want TWO 120mm doing exaust because that has no advantage? I was thinking of putting a 120mm in the top but I am not sure whether I should pull in air from the top or blow air out the top. Should I pull in air so my graphics card can pull in cooler air.
 
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Moonstick2

Moonstick2

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It sounds as if you have the 200 mm fan that came with the case, the EVO212 with its 120 mm fan and nothing else (except probably the PSU fan). If so...

The 212 EVO might be cooling the CPU effectively, but it doesn't sound as if it is cooling the case very effectively otherwise your graphics card wouldn't be getting so hot.

Fans on heatsinks cool those components. Fans on cases bring in cool air or expel hot air. I'm going to leave out the positive/negative pressure argument.

The EVO212 is not exhausting hot air, it's blowing air through the heatsink that then arrives vaguely in the direction of the rear vent. You want the 200 mm set to intake and a 120 mm case fan at the rear exhaust as a minimum.


If you do have a 120 mm fan over and above the EVO212 and its exhausting out the rear, the 200 mm fan is intake, the roof vent is in and the GPU is still overheating, what GPU do you have and what temperature is it hitting?
 
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carterdarter

carterdarter

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I currently have the EVO fan pulling hot air from the heatsink and pulling it out towards the back of the case. I might have the 120mm putting cold air in to the case for the graphics card. I might also try putting the evo fan on the other side see if that helps. I have an MSI GTX 970 but I had to use a custom fan curve to get the temps that usual people with the card get so I don't get the "0DB" performance I was promised because of my case cooling.

Ok so fan set-ups to try:
200mm to intake cool air from the front of the case
120mm to intake cool air from the top of the case
EVO Fan to intake air from cold air produced by 120mm

200mm to intake cool air from front of case
120mm to intake cold from the exaust
EVO fan to intake cold air produced by exaust

200mm to intake cool air from front of case
120mm to push hot air out the back of the case
EVO Fan to take cool air produced from 200mm from front of case

200mm to intake cold from front of case
120mm to push hot air out the top of the case
EVO fan to push hot air out the exaust

EDIT: 200mm to push hot Air out the front of the case
120mm to pull cold air from top of the case
EVO to push hot air out the exaust
(This one seems to help the most with general case cooling helping the Graphics Card.)

Any others to try?

 
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Moonstick2

Moonstick2

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The third will most likely work best.

Warm air rises, so an intake at the top is unlikely to be bringing in much in the way of cold air.

There is a LOT of discussion about the best configuration and little in the way of consensus. Generally speaking, a continual front to back flow appears to offer the best cooling more often than not. Having the passive vent in the top will at least prevent warm air being trapped there. The 200 mm should be blowing at least some cool air towards the graphics card.

It also matters where your PC is, and the ambient temperature. It's still not clear how drastically different your GPU temps are compared to what you think you should be getting.

I'l admit that I was considering that case but was a little put off by how cool it might operate due to the front inlet design and the hard drive cage practically blocking the intake fan, but I was coming from a case with a full-mesh front so perhaps more paranoid about it.

Try the third option, and the others if you like, then post back your actual temperatures including room temperature and people will advise if it looks reasonable or not.

Just occurred to me - one rule of thumb that I use to gauge how well a case is cooling overall is to watch how quickly the CPU and GPU temperatures drop from their highs after running a while at full load. e.g. my GPU maxes around 80 C and then when I stop whatever was loading it the temperature drops to 50 C within ten seconds or so (off the top of my head - must measure it properly). It continues to drop obviously, just more slowly (the smaller the difference, the slower it will cool as you might expect). For me at least, that suggests that the case is getting heat away from the graphics card fairly well. Maybe see what yours does.

Also see if this thread is of any help to you.
 
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Solution
carterdarter

carterdarter

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That helped massively as I have two monitors set up. To be honest the fan speeds it runs at for me is fine, I will do what the thread expects and if it doesn't change then I will take action to see whether it is faulty or not.

I guess I don't have to upgrade my fans, this helps largely. The fan speeds it runs at (44% at idle) keeps it at 39c idle and under 70c (after I customised the fan speed in MSI Afterburner) and since I am not that sensitive to sound I don't mind. I might just try to change my fan position slightly or just upgrade my 120mm to a Corsair JetFlo. Thanks dude!

EDIT: I will make some changed like power management settings and stuff to help with idle temps.
 
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