Thinking of adding some case fans.

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king3pj

king3pj

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I have been using this NZXT Case with only the two stock fans for a few years now. I added a second 970 in SLI a couple months ago and with the summer heat and more graphically intense games like Witcher 3 I'm starting to hear my GPU fans kicking up pretty high.

My GPU temps never get above 80 and my i5-4690k with Hyper 212 EVO seems to max out in the low 60s so nothing is in dangerous territory. Still I'm thinking that a couple extra case fans couldn't hurt.

The top of the case currently has 1 intake fan blowing almost directly on the side of my Hyper 212. The Hyper 212 also blows directly into the rear exhaust fan so my CPU is covered pretty well but there isn't really anything near the GPUs.

I want to buy a couple more fans but I wanted to get some clarification first. An obvious choice would be to put another fan in the open slot near on top right next to my current stock intake fan. Again, this would be closer to my CPU than the GPUs though.

There is also a fan spot on the side of the case that you open to get at all your parts. I don't have blower style GPUs so they are both dumping their hot air in this area. This opening is basically right on top of my GPUs and it seems like a great place to put an exhaust fan. It seems like sucking the hot air in this area away from my GPUs and out of the case would maybe have the biggest impact of anything I could do.

Here is the problem though. The power supply cables for the GPUs stick straight out in this direction with very little give. They actually touch the opening where I would need to put a fan when I close the case. I'm not sure what I could do in therms of cable management to be able to put a fan in here that wouldn't be hitting wires.

Until checking out the website for my case to try and see whether I need 120mm or 140mm fans I didn't even know my case had a spot for front intake fans. From their picture I can see that there is room for two of them by the hard drive bays. I find this strange though because the front of my case is solid. How can they call these intake fans when there is no opening in the case for them to draw air from?

Should I put two fans there even though they wouldn't really be blowing air in from outside the case? I guess that would still create airflow but I don't know how much it would help with a closed front case.

Sorry, I know this post is too long but I've never added fans to a case before. I would appreciate it if someone could look at the picture on the website I linked to and tell me where to put fans and whether they should be intake or exhaust.

Also, I don't know what fans to buy. It looks like I need 120mm fans. I don't need any fancy lights and I don't want to break the bank. Quiet is obviously ideal but I would rather have fans that get the job done than silent operation.
 
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Onus
Take a look at http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835209005 and note the significant discount if you buy more than one. These are three-speed fans. I've used them. They are almost inaudible on "Low" but do get loud on "High." They have a tiny switch on them. Versions with LEDs on them are available, for a little more. If you would rather not have to mess with a switch dangling off of them, you can try http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835200028 which comes with a speed controller (one per fan) you can mount in place of a PCI slot cover.
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MarkW

MarkW

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I suggest a couple of things here. First of all, I try to keep the temps of my GPU below 80c.

If you do not already have afterburner, download it.

I would set the GPU fans to run at 50% at 60c, 65% at 70c, 70% at 75c, 80% at 80c, and 100% at 85c.

Second, I just did this a few days ago, and it makes a world of difference. Buy 3 of these:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KFCQT6M?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00

And buy 1 or 2 of these:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KFCRIQM?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00

The first 3 are case fans. Put 2 on the front of your computer case to pull cool air in. The 3rd one goes on the rear of the case, and is to pull the warm air out.

The other fan or two are to replace the fan on the 212 EVO. I have only replaced the one fan the 212 EVO came with. I am still debating if a second fan will be useful.

Not only will these fans blow more air, they will do so silently, and they come with a 6 year warranty. They are rated at 150,000 hours, which is 17.1 years. You will never hear your computer fans again with these installed. They are the best of the best out there. And the ones I linked are black, industrial rated fans. Most people remember the Noctua tan and brown fans. They still have those. These are the next step up.

 
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Onus

Onus

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The front fans most like draw in air from openings around the front bezel.
There ought to be a way to reroute your PCIe power cables toward the front of your case (e.g. into the cable management opening there, then out the lower one to the PSU). Add one or two front fans as intakes, and/or the side fan as an intake. Turn the top fan around to be an exhaust; hot air rises.
 
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king3pj

king3pj

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So you think I should replace the rear exhaust that came installed in the case with one of these instead of just adding more fans? I suppose I could do that.
 
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king3pj

king3pj

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I did put as many of the cables into the case's power management system as I could. The problem is that the GPUs' power supply ports point directly at the the side vent. The cable is pretty stiff so it sticks straight out in that direction no matter which way I route the cable. I suppose I could force it to bend out of the way but I didn't know if the added stress on my GPU would be safe.

Another option would be to use the molex adapters that came with my GPUs. These are not stiff like my PCIe cables and I could easily get everything out of the way. I thought using the 6 pin cables was strongly advised instead of the molex adapters though.

I also thought it was weird that the top fan was an intake instead of an exhaust. That's the way it came installed from the factory though. When I hold my hand above the opening I don't feel anything. When I hold my hand in front of the rear fan I can clearly feel the air blowing on it.

Looks like adding the two fans intake fans in front of the hard drive bays is something that definitely needs to be done. I also just noticed from that picture that there is a fan vent on the bottom of the case right next to the power supply. Would it be worth adding a fan here and if so should it be blowing in or out of the case? My computer is sitting on carpet so even with the risers built into the case I'm not sure how effective a bottom fan would be.
 
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Onus

Onus

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I'd add a fan or two first; replacing a working fan is something you might wait to do. You could always move that rear fan (if it is low speed) to the front, and put a new, better one in its place. If you simply toss that rear fan into a box somewhere, in no time it will begin to breed, and you will end up with all kinds of spare parts :).
If the fans seems noisy, sometimes it is case vibration, which can often be fixed by getting some of these: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA3TR22Z5149 to mount the fans.

Edit: Install a bottom fan as an intake. Put your PC on a piece of fiberboard or plywood so the bottom openings are muffled by carpet.

 
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king3pj

king3pj

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Thanks for all the help are there any other recommended fans to purchase instead of the professional grade ones mentioned above? I'm sure those are great but I was hoping to spend somewhere closer to $10 per fan instead of $23.

Like I said before, silence isn't my biggest concern so if I can save a little bit of money by going with something that is a little bit louder that but still effective I would rather go in that direction.
 
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Onus

Onus

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Jan 27, 2006
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Take a look at http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835209005 and note the significant discount if you buy more than one. These are three-speed fans. I've used them. They are almost inaudible on "Low" but do get loud on "High." They have a tiny switch on them. Versions with LEDs on them are available, for a little more. If you would rather not have to mess with a switch dangling off of them, you can try http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835200028 which comes with a speed controller (one per fan) you can mount in place of a PCI slot cover.
 
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king3pj

king3pj

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Sorry, I just read this post again. The side fan should be an intake? I thought an exhaust would make sense here since two GPUs are pumping out hot air in this area. It seems like an exhaust in the area would help get the hot air out right at the source instead of letting it travel through my case.

If I make the side fan an intake all of my exhaust will be at the top of the case. The rear exhaust and the two top fans are all touching each other. Would it be a good a idea to have all 3 of my exhaust fans in the same section of the case?
 
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MarkW

MarkW

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You want air to flow naturally. Front to back flows right over the CPU and over the video card.

When you start adding fans at the side or top, they interrupt the natural front to back airflow. There are some unique situations where sometimes a top fan or a side fan will help, but normally they cause more trouble than they resolve.

I added the second fan at the front pulling cool air in to help make sure there was enough airflow. It will also help with the positive pressure which should help keep more dust out.

And having the rear fan pulling more air out (by using something like a Noctua fan) will help pull warm air out the back faster, reducing the temps inside the case.

My entire thought process by replacing all the case fans with Noctua fans was this:

1) Replace the cheap Cooler Master fan that died one week after the warranty ran out.
2) Use fans that are still 120mm, but that move more air.
3) Use fans that are nearly silent
4) Use fans that are not likely to fail in this computers lifetime.
5) Increase total airflow throughout the case cooling the hardware inside better.
6) Increase the cooling on the CPU cooler by increasing the airflow through the 212 EVO cooling block.

3 Noctua case fans, 1 Noctua Cooler Block fan, and the job is done. I went with the Noctua Industrial fans, which are black, and use 3 phase motors.

The tan/brown fans still use single phase motors. My case it 100% black, and I wanted the fans to be black too. So for me, the extra $20 or so was worth the upgrade. The entire project cost me just over $100.
 
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king3pj

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I ended up buying 4 Rosewell 120mm fans and trying to install them last night. I got the additional top exhaust and bottom intake fans on easily. I'm having trouble with the front intake though. Here is a link to NXZT's website where you can see how the case is laid out on the inside.

https://www.nzxt.com/product/detail/117-source-210-elite-case.html

First I think I will only be able to add 1 front intake even though I bought and planned on using two. I can fit the bottom one in between my SSD and front bottom fan mount location. The front intake just above that doesn't seem to have room with my 3.5" HDD in the bay.

The real problem is that I can't attach the screws though. I don't see an easy way to take the front panel off the case so I can have easy access to the screw holes for the fan. With both sides of my case open I can see the screw holes on the inside of the case.

Basically it looks like I need to mount my front intake fans from the inside of the case while the other two fans were just a matter of lining up the fan with the case holes and using my screwdriver on the outside of the case.

The screws provided with these fans were only long enough to go through one side of the fan. I can't use my screwdriver to connect it to the case because the other side of the fan is in the way. Are there longer screws I can use that will go through both sides of the fan and into the case? I think that is the only way I will be able to get this connected.

I realize that this isn't very clear but I'm having a hard time describing what the problem is. Maybe I can take some pictures tonight if that would help. I just know there has to be an easier way to connect the front intake case fans.
 
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king3pj

king3pj

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I'll have to mess with it again tonight but I didn't see how to remove the front panel. Do you think I would have to remove my optical drive first since it sticks through the front panel?

The new fans seem to have helped slightly. I tested with Witcher 3 since that is the game that drove my temperatures up the highest. Before one GPU would be about 80 and the other would be 77-78 and my CPU would be in the low 60s.

Last night my hotter GPU maxed out at 78 and the cooler one maxed out at 76. My CPU cores all maxed out in the mid 50s. So there was some improvement but it wasn't as big of a change as I was expecting.

I also have quite a bit more fan noise now. Since the drive bay cage was so close to the front intake mounting location I just set one front intake fan in without actually screwing it on for testing purposes. It seemed to be pretty steady but obviously I wouldn't want to leave it this way permanently.

I only had an available motherboard header for the top exhaust fan so the other two are currently connected to molex cables straight from my power supply and running at full blast. I'm planning to buy this cheap 3 way splitter so my motherboard can ramp all 3 of my new fans down when I'm not under load to hopefully reduce the noise a little.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812162059

Will that work for my purposes or do I need to buy a fan controller? I'd rather not if I don't need it since I don't want to worry about connecting sensors and all that.

On the other hand. If I only saw marginal temperature improvement with the two intake fans running at 100% I may see even less gain if I let the motherboard turn them down.
 
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