What is the best choice for case fans to enhance the cooling of a Phanteks Enthoo Pro?

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Strantford

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Jan 24, 2017
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Hi everyone,
I have a Phanteks Enthoo Pro case that came with 2 pre-installed fans.
1 x 200mm front fan and 1 x 140mm back case fan. I believe both are Phantek fans and especially the back one must be a Phanteks PH-F140SP.

The cpu is cooled by a Noctua NH-U14s with a single push fan.
The noise is kept at low levels. With room temp at 28-29 degrees (summer conditions) the idle temp of the i7 is 31-32 degrees while at peak reaches 55-58.
The case has both hdd cages in as I have 4 hdds (2 sata & 2 ssd) which means that the front fan has obstacles on site.

I am planning to enhance the cooling / airflow capabilities of the case, in order to further reduce the temps (if possible) or maintain them at low level for longer time, while maintaining low noise.

1) What do you believe will be the best fan combination (positioning and types)?

I have read in various places that the front Phanteks fan, although capable of pushing a good amount of cmf (due to its size), it can do this only at higher speeds, hence at increased noise levels, plus it has limited static pressure capabilities, which mean it is difficult to push an adequate amount of room/ambient air through the hdd cages and into the case/gpu.

2) Currently I have purchased another fan (Phanteks PH-F140XP) which I plan to put on top (right above the cpu) at a pull duty to take hot air out of the case. Will this be adequate?

3) Is it better to put 2 such fans in the front (do they have better static pressure capabilities) and swap the 200mm on top (due to better cfm capabilities)?

4) Is the proposed fan (Phanteks PH-F140XP) good for such a duty, as a push/pull fan to get air in/out of the case fast? Especially for the inbound/pull duty it will have to get also through the hdd cages first.

5) What about Noctua NF-P14s redux and Noctua NF-A14 PWM? Are they better, worst or at the same league with the Phanteks PH-F140XP? I know the Redux one is much cheaper while the other two are approximately within the same price range.

6) Finally any other suggestions regarding fan purchases?

Thanks in advance
 
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Curlev

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Jan 20, 2017
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Start by using only one hard drive cage and mount one of the SSD´s in the SSD bracket behind the motherboard. In that case you will have a more open space for the air to move and maybe that will be enough for the temps to go down. If not u can always try and mount the 140 mm in the top as exhaust and see if that helps. If not you can buy one more 140 mm and put both of them in the front and only use the 140 mm in the back as exhasut, in that case one of the front fans will push air through the hard drives and the other one will have open path to push air into the case. Personally I would not use the 200 mm at all, but that is just me :D

This is just some tips and I can not guarantee it helps.

And.. Sorry for bad grammar, English is not my primary language.



 
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Strantford

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Jan 24, 2017
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Thanks Curlev,

This is my current configuration exactly, the primary ssd (o/s) is in the ssd bracket behind the mobo (the lower one), however it reaches 36-38 degrees on idle and 42-44 degrees at peak (nowadays that the weather becomes hotter - ambient temp is 28-29 degrees // with airconditioning ambient is at 25 and case temps drop at least 2-3 degrees - currently with a/c on the cpu is idling at 26-27 degrees when ambient is 26).

The other ssd (used for gaming) is idling at 17-19 degrees with peak at 33 (is at the middle of the lower hdd cage). The 2 hdds are idling at 38 degrees with peak at 45-46 (they are positioned at the top and lower position of the lower hdd cage, having the ssd in between).
So I was thinking of moving the primary ssd from behind the mobo, in the front, on the upper hdd cage in the hope of dropping its temps.

I am monitoring all temps with the latest version of HWiNFO64

Why wouldn't you use the 200mm fan? Due to capacity considerations (not able to push much air / not enough static pressure)? Wouldn't 1 200mm fan have higher cfm with lower noise compared to 2 140mm? In order for the 2 140mm to achieve the same cfm (if possible) they would have to work at much higher revs => more noise. No???

Don't apologize about your grammar, your text is perfectly clear and understandable for me, English is not my primary language either :)
 
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Curlev

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Jan 20, 2017
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When I read your first post I thought you were concerned for your CPU temps, that was why I voted for two 140 mm in the front. Because I guess that half of that 200 mm is obstructed by that single hard drive cage and if you would have two 140´s, one of them would be unobstructed by that cage and maybe more air will pass over the CPU.

But if u ask me, those temps (CPU and all hard drives + SSD´s) are perfectly fine.


 
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Strantford

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Jan 24, 2017
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I am mainly concerned about the hard drives.
In the old system (q6600 of 2007) which was heavily overclocked I have never ever monitored system temps, apart from the 1st year of the o/c and only the cpu temps.
Now with the current system I am monitoring the system temps and I thought that these temps are way to high for the hdds especially for the primary ssd. Since it does not have any moving parts, I thought having almost the same temps with the sata hdd is not logical.

While the 2nd ssd being at the front and only for gaming is idling at almost half the temp (17-19 degrees vs 36-38).
I don't know in the long run how these temps could affect the health and performance of the drives.
Unless of course the 2nd ssd (sandisk) monitoring sensor is wrong and the 17-19 degrees it reports as idle is bogus.

Also the gpu (RX480 8gb) is idling at 48-50 degrees (in hot weather) and peaking at 66-73 degrees (e.g. Witcher 3) but its fans never go above 50% revs (per HWiNFO readings).
CPU during gaming is peaking at 55-58 degrees (depending again on ambient room temp) but the cpu fan has not reached so far 100% revs (it has reached 70% so far).

I will wait for the new 140mm Phanteks to arrive and I will put it on top (right above the cpu) to pull air outside of the case to see if this will help the overall temps. Also I will try to remove the upper hdd cage and leave the primary ssd on the back of the mobo, to see if the 200mm will be able to blow more air directly at the gpu/cpu area.

Based on the placement of the fans, my understanding is that the front 200mm fan will blow air directly to the gpu, which own fans are pushing hot air outside through the back so a direct air flow corridor will be created. Whereas regarding the cpu, its hot air is pushed to the back (the Noctua fan pushes air through the cpu heatsink) and its pulled also by the back Phanteks case fan, outside of the case. So I believe the 2nd Phanteks on top will help also to remove the cpu heat faster outside of the cage thus not allowing heat to build up inside the case.
 
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Curlev

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Jan 20, 2017
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Okay... It is always good to have as low temps as possible. In your case I wouldn't be that concerned about it because your ambient are pretty high. I have around 20 degrees ambient and have similar temps to yours.

Try and laborate with the options u have and see if you can find the sweet spot.
 
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Strantford

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Jan 24, 2017
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Thanks Curlev

Indeed my main concern is for summer time period (June - mid September) when ambient temp in the room will vary between 29-32 without the use of a/c. During all other periods (or during summer with a/c usage) with the ambient room temp being 20-25 the case temps are at least 4-5 lower.

Although I read a really detailed and useful guide here about positive, neutral and negative airflow and to be honest I was confused (about how to set it up and to monitor what type of airflow you have every time for any given condition) and it seems a pain in the @ss ;-)

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/faq/id-3435423/tuning-fan-speeds-positive-negative-neutral-net-flow.html?_ga=2.223930204.632468387.1498475783-1175338141.1484814062
 
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Curlev

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Jan 20, 2017
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Well.. Same for me. In winter we have around -15 to -25 and summers around 20-30. I have my PC in a room where the sun can't reach so it is pretty easy to have around 20 degrees all the time.

Yeah. I have never tested all those pressure variants seriously. Usually I have 2 intake fans and 1 exhaust fan and that has worked fine for me for the last 15 years.
 
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