Will I benefit from upgrading my case fans?

[drewgamer]

Hello TH peeps,

I recently did the "take off your side panel and blow a home fan into your case" test. While the fan itself didn't seem to do much in the way of cooling anything, having the side panel off did net me about 3 degrees (Celsius).

My case setup...
- Antec 1200 (original)
* 3 original front case fans (intake)
* 1 internal-bay Antec Tri-cool (blowing on the GPU's)
* 1 side Antec Tri-cool (intake)
* 2 original back case fans (exhaust)
* 1 original top case fan (exhaust)

All fans are running at their max speed...Performance > Noise for me

My question is, will I benefit (lower temps) from upgrading my case fans? Or have I just reached the max potential of this case? Would it be more prudent to just save the money I'd spend on fans and put it toward a better case?

Thanks,
Drew

PS: Also, I just ordered an H100. Will I benefit (again, lower temps) if I upgrade the fans on it?

 

[munyosz]

wow... you've got a lot of fans.

I have 3 fans:
-Front, intake: Cooler Master megaflow 200mm, 900 RPM, 110 CFM .
-Side panel, intake: Scythe Slip Stream 120mm, 1900 RPM, 110 CFM
-At the back,outtake , also used for H50 water cooling, EZCool, I don't know its spec. because it came with the computer.

All This keeps the following components at the following temperatures:
-Graphics card:GTX 560 Ti constant 30C at idle and 50-55C during GTA IV and Metro 2033 (both with maxed out settings)
-CPU: AMD 1055t, 6 core processor , 20-23C at idle, up to 35C on heavy use. I have never seen it go above 38C.

I use a fan controller though because the scythe fan is pretty loud and gets very annoying if my sound system is not in use/if not wearing headphones. I use the controller to turn off the scythe fan when i'm not gaming. With that fan off the GPU temp is a constant 60C during heavy load and around 30-35C at idle. My CPU is almost unaffected by the scythe fan.


P.S.: Don't use your 'home fan' to cool your computer The inside of your computer will become really dusty in a matter of hours.

 

[vollman1]

You will probably have to reconfigure your fans when you install the H100.

For best cooling you want to have the fans of the H100 pulling air into the case.

You will definitely benefit from upgrading the fans on the H100 or at least adding two more to get a push/pull configuration.

The set up I use in my HAF X is: H100 pulls air into top of case (4x120mm fans), front panel 200mm fan pulls air in, back 120mm fan exhausts, side 200mm fan exhausts.

 

[Deleted member 217926]

I have the same case with the exact same fan setup. 5 stock and 2 optional 120mm Antec TriCools + the 200mm top exhaust fan. Add the 140mm PSU fan and the graphics card is an external exhaust version and a 120mm fan on my Scythe Mugen 2 and yeah it's alot of fans. What exactly are you trying to cool? All my fans are on low and the case stays as cool and quiet as can be.

 

[drewgamer]

wow... you've got a lot of fans.

I have 3 fans:
-Front, intake: Cooler Master megaflow 200mm, 900 RPM, 110 CFM .
-Side panel, intake: Scythe Slip Stream 120mm, 1900 RPM, 110 CFM
-At the back,outtake , also used for H50 water cooling, EZCool, I don't know its spec. because it came with the computer.

All This keeps the following components at the following temperatures:
-Graphics card:GTX 560 Ti constant 30C at idle and 50-55C during GTA IV and Metro 2033 (both with maxed out settings)
-CPU: AMD 1055t, 6 core processor , 20-23C at idle, up to 35C on heavy use. I have never seen it go above 38C.

I use a fan controller though because the scythe fan is pretty loud and gets very annoying if my sound system is not in use/if not wearing headphones. I use the controller to turn off the scythe fan when i'm not gaming. With that fan off the GPU temp is a constant 60C during heavy load and around 30-35C at idle. My CPU is almost unaffected by the scythe fan.


P.S.: Don't use your 'home fan' to cool your computer The inside of your computer will become really dusty in a matter of hours.

My Q6600 runs about 38C at idle and 60C when running P95.
My top 9800GT runs about 40 idle and 62 full load
My bottom 9800GT runs about 45 idle and 72 full load

I'm actually supposed to be using a 2500k (which is supposed to run cooler) as soon as my replacement motherboard comes (last one suddenly died, never even got a chance to start OCing )

You will probably have to reconfigure your fans when you install the H100.

For best cooling you want to have the fans of the H100 pulling air into the case.

You will definitely benefit from upgrading the fans on the H100 or at least adding two more to get a push/pull configuration.

The set up I use in my HAF X is: H100 pulls air into top of case (4x120mm fans), front panel 200mm fan pulls air in, back 120mm fan exhausts, side 200mm fan exhausts.

The only spot I can see to mount the radiator is at the back of my case. That only leaves 1x120mm on the side and 1x200mm at the top for exhaust...which leaves 2x120mm fans intaking from the back and 3x120mm fans intaking from the front. Would that work?

I have the same case with the exact same fan setup. 5 stock and 2 optional 120mm Antec TriCools + the 200mm top exhaust fan. Add the 140mm PSU fan and the graphics card is an external exhaust version and a 120mm fan on my Scythe Mugen 2 and yeah it's alot of fans. What exactly are you trying to cool? All my fans are on low and the case stays as cool and quiet as can be.

2x9800GT in SLI (stock)
Q6600 @ 3.2ghz (being switched out for a 2500k as soon as my botherboard comes)

and for what it matters...
2x HDD
1x Optical Drive
1x Sound Card
1x Wireless Network Card

 

[davcon]

I have a 902 with the same stock fans in a similar set-up.
2x120 front intake
1 x120mm Tri-cool on internal bay mount
1x120 rear exhaust
1X200mm top exhaust
All run on low setting(quiet imo)and my temps are exceptional.
Cpu idles low to mid 30's increases to high 40's and mid 50's when gaming.
Gpu idles low 30's increase to 50's when gaming.
Ambient room temp is 23C.
i'd say you might have cabling issues(blocking airflow) or are in need of a cleaning.
Are you using a stock cpu cooler?

 

[catatafish]

What exactly are you trying to cool?

+1


I have an Antec Nine Hundred with two front adjustable speed fans, 1 in the rear and a big 200 up top.....all adjustable manually.

I've been running a boatload of stress tests using IBT after my OC to 4.5 and I notice virtually no difference in CPU temps when I turn all my case fans on low vs. high.

I'm still quite the n00b at this but I'm thinking the CPU cooler has TONS more to do with CPU temps than case fans. Am I right in assuming that case fans are for cooling the GPU, and providing more headroom for the CPU cooler?

Edit:
I'm running a 212 Evo on the CPU, no video card and the max temp recorded using the HWARE monitor thingie is 61C on the CPU with ambient room temperature 70F. Motherboard temp is parked at 21C and the altering the speed of my case fans do nothing to change the mobo temps or the CPU temps. Next week after GPU install I look forward to more testing.

 

[drewgamer]

So my new motherboard finally came and I got the 2500k + H100 installed, then realized my CD/DVD drive isn't compatible with the motherboard (it's a PATA optical drive LOL). So, now I have to wait until tomorrow to get a new optical drive (bleh).

I booted it up anyway to check out the bios (UEFI is awesome!) and checked out the monitor section. I noticed that the bios was reporting CPU temps at 17-18C and motherboard temps at 22-24C. How accurate is this?

 

[4Ryan6]

I ran across this when I was doing the cooling fan roundup, there's a lot of good info in there regarding case cooling.

I do want to share with Drew to be sure since you'll be using the H100 for CPU cooling, make sure you have airflow over the M/B voltage regulators, that's very important, the air cooler was indirectly supplying airflow over those regulators which will be gone now with the H100 in it's place

I'm presently water cooling my 2500K so I've come down a long road of discoveries regarding the 2500Ks overclocking capabilities, so welcome to overclocking world of the 2500K, it's quite a remarkable CPU, and I had to make provisions for airflow over my voltage regulators.

I'm running an Antec 900/2 and I did a case mod and added a 140mm side fan, strategically positioned it inputting air directly at my GPU intakes, it seems to me every case manufacturer never seems to locate the side fans in the right location, at least not for my needs they don't.

That fan addition was specifically to supply fresh outside air directly to the GPUs, from all my discoveries with case airflow sometimes the only resolution is to mod the case, unless you are cooling completely outside the case, like my water cooling setup presently is, all internal CPU cooling solutions depend on airflow.

My CPU is water cooled my GPUs are air cooled, but when my CPU was air cooled, I had used first a Cooler Master hyper 212+, then a Noctua NT-D14, then a Thermalright 120 Extreme, for all the air coolers I had an air tunnel directly across in line with the heat sinks intake, giving a solid crossflow of air from the upper front of the case directly through to the rear exhaust fan.

That setup supplied the most efficient cooling results for an air cooling setup, I'm sharing this because it may end up helping someone with a cooling problem, and regarding the thread title, "Will I benefit from upgrading my case fans?", it does fall into sometimes you will and sometimes you won't.

Any CPU cooler has to have a flow of air to do it's job, cut that airflow and heat increases, that's a fact even with the cooler like the H100, from my radiator cooling discoveries the best cooling setup has been a single pull fan mounted with a shroud pulling air through the radiator, it would seem a push / pull would be better, but the pushing fan motor body is blocking seriously needed airflow through the radiator.

Tip; For a 120mm fan the cheapest shroud is an old 120mm fan, that you cut out the fan motor spider and use the old 120mm fan frame for a fan shroud.

Depending on how far you intend to overclock your 2500K, keeping it cool will be your limiting factor for a 24/7 rock solid overclock.

Well I've wasted enough of your time, have a great day! Ryan

 

[Samtastic06]

Hey there Drew, i am a very Newcomer to the site and just overall computing basics, so i wont try and talk out my behind. I had a stock case with my old old compaq, i had 4 fans running, and my temps were still dangerously high. im talking 80 degrees and my fans could have flown to the moon with those RPM's. I had just recently upgraded to a Coolmaster 430 Elite Case, it has space for 6 120mm fans. I had 3 running, and my temps were very stable. I also only had the "stock" persay CPu heatsink on, and it worked well. So i would say, if you didnt have alot of airflow space in your old case, i would imagine that even a little bit of disturbance can have all of that air just trapped inside that case, with no where to really go, regardless of having 3 exhaust fans. So for what i could think, just upgrading your fans, may not actually make alot of sense, seeming that if the inside of your case becomes an air pot, then youd pretty much just be adding un needed hot air into the middle of that case. I hope this made any kind of sense, and hope that it would help just a tad bit.

 

[drewgamer]

I ran across this when I was doing the cooling fan roundup, there's a lot of good info in there regarding case cooling.

I do want to share with Drew to be sure since you'll be using the H100 for CPU cooling, make sure you have airflow over the M/B voltage regulators, that's very important, the air cooler was indirectly supplying airflow over those regulators which will be gone now with the H100 in it's place

I'm presently water cooling my 2500K so I've come down a long road of discoveries regarding the 2500Ks overclocking capabilities, so welcome to overclocking world of the 2500K, it's quite a remarkable CPU, and I had to make provisions for airflow over my voltage regulators.

I'm running an Antec 900/2 and I did a case mod and added a 140mm side fan, strategically positioned it inputting air directly at my GPU intakes, it seems to me every case manufacturer never seems to locate the side fans in the right location, at least not for my needs they don't.

That fan addition was specifically to supply fresh outside air directly to the GPUs, from all my discoveries with case airflow sometimes the only resolution is to mod the case, unless you are cooling completely outside the case, like my water cooling setup presently is, all internal CPU cooling solutions depend on airflow.

My CPU is water cooled my GPUs are air cooled, but when my CPU was air cooled, I had used first a Cooler Master hyper 212+, then a Noctua NT-D14, then a Thermalright 120 Extreme, for all the air coolers I had an air tunnel directly across in line with the heat sinks intake, giving a solid crossflow of air from the upper front of the case directly through to the rear exhaust fan.

That setup supplied the most efficient cooling results for an air cooling setup, I'm sharing this because it may end up helping someone with a cooling problem, and regarding the thread title, "Will I benefit from upgrading my case fans?", it does fall into sometimes you will and sometimes you won't.

Any CPU cooler has to have a flow of air to do it's job, cut that airflow and heat increases, that's a fact even with the cooler like the H100, from my radiator cooling discoveries the best cooling setup has been a single pull fan mounted with a shroud pulling air through the radiator, it would seem a push / pull would be better, but the pushing fan motor body is blocking seriously needed airflow through the radiator.

Tip; For a 120mm fan the cheapest shroud is an old 120mm fan, that you cut out the fan motor spider and use the old 120mm fan frame for a fan shroud.

Depending on how far you intend to overclock your 2500K, keeping it cool will be your limiting factor for a 24/7 rock solid overclock.

Well I've wasted enough of your time, have a great day! Ryan

Wow that's a lot of info

I finally got everything setup with the fans in a push/pull for the H100 (they are pulling air in from the case and sending it out the back). I've got the 2500k OC to 4.0ghz @ 1.2v.

Temps are about 28-30C idle and i think 38-42C testing Prime 95. Thermostat in the hall ranges from 20-21C. I'll have to check again on the temps when I get home cause I'm not 100% sure about them, but I think that's close.

I'm not sure what you mean by voltage regulators though Motherboard temps are reading 22C

Hey there Drew, i am a very Newcomer to the site and just overall computing basics, so i wont try and talk out my behind. I had a stock case with my old old compaq, i had 4 fans running, and my temps were still dangerously high. im talking 80 degrees and my fans could have flown to the moon with those RPM's. I had just recently upgraded to a Coolmaster 430 Elite Case, it has space for 6 120mm fans. I had 3 running, and my temps were very stable. I also only had the "stock" persay CPu heatsink on, and it worked well. So i would say, if you didnt have alot of airflow space in your old case, i would imagine that even a little bit of disturbance can have all of that air just trapped inside that case, with no where to really go, regardless of having 3 exhaust fans. So for what i could think, just upgrading your fans, may not actually make alot of sense, seeming that if the inside of your case becomes an air pot, then youd pretty much just be adding un needed hot air into the middle of that case. I hope this made any kind of sense, and hope that it would help just a tad bit.

Thanks for that bit of insight. I've got an Antec 1200 right now (pretty big/open case) so I think I will just save the money I'd spend on new fans and put it towards a bigger/better airflow case.

 

[Samtastic06]

I bouhgt my Coolmaster Elite 430 for 49.99 online at Tigerdirect.com. It still is compatible with uATX and ATX mobos. It gives me the option for 5 more fans, it gives more space, and it costs the same as 2 decent fans( or so i think) I have actually been running my setup now for 3 days, its very new, and the inside temps according to Speedfan are(in Celsius) 5 Degrees for CPU 33 for fan 1 30 for my HDO(i beleive hard drive) and 5 for my GPU, i have an APU and those graphics are the ones im running. I am nat all sure if these temps are too cool, or not good at an idle state, but thats what i have, i have 2 fans blowing in at the bottom, and 2 blowing out at the top. My case is a tad noisy due to my fans being a little old, but i wont complain. Definitely checking on new cases is probably good for you, it can help you get a new look for your whole system, and it helps increase space inside so you have more airflow to work with. Good luck choosing your upgrade dude.

 

[Samtastic06]

And PS, i didnt see what kind of case you have..my bad. Thats actually not a horrible case. i dont know if you looked into it all, but there are liquid cooling kits out there that help decrease heat inside of your case. You may be able to take away some of your fans and set one up, while decreasing noise and temp at the same time. I myself am thinking about putting a liquid cooler on just my CPU for now, see how it works. So just a thought, but your case doesnt seem too horrible, maybe next time id actually look at your products before throwing my two sense in.