Airflow dilemma

[vertical777]

hi everyone!
I have a thermaltake wing RS 301 case and I need some advice on airflow since this is a budget case, It kinda sucks really..
here's a link: http://www.thermaltakeusa.com/Product.aspx?S=1340&ID=1889

I have the following fans installed:
>120mm fan exhaust at the rear
>120mm fan intake in front (which really doesn't do much because of the bezel)
>80mm exhaust fan at the side, which is located infront of the cpu.. I made this exhaust so that the rectangular vent below can passively take air in, cooling the gpus(I'm in crossfire) I tried to make it intake, temps became worse.. wierd
>I can drill mounting holes for the small rectangular hole if needed, which is located infront of the gpu's

now, I'm thinking of having 2 fans intake at the side and one exhaust at the back, no fan infront because of the limited airflow
but as I discovered by experimenting an intake fan infront of the gpus is a lot worse than not having a fan infront of the gpu.. I dunno why

someone give me some advice
sorry for making yet another airflow/fan problem thread >____<

 

[treefrog07]

Put your CD/DVDRW in the top 5.25" bay and put one of these underneath it. I added one to my Antec P-160 to improve intake airflow over the CPU cooler, dropped my temps.

 

[JohnnyLucky]

Generally a fan mounted on the side panel is used as an intake fan to blow additional fresh air into the case.

treefrog07 made an excellent suggestion. I installed a Coolermaster version of the bay device in my Dragon Lord case. Here's a link to a few photos and an explanation of what I did:

http://www.johnnylucky.org/dragon-lord/index.html

 

[treefrog07]

Nice cable management JohnnyLucky.

 

[JohnnyLucky]

Thanks. It could be better though. When I did the original build I used a lot of zip ties. When I decided to rearrange the devices in the drive cages I had to cut all the zip ties. I kind of put things back together in a hurry. At least airflow is not blocked.

I just wish Lancool had placed the two ports for water cooling above the fan on the rear panel. That way the fan would have been lower and better aligned with the cpu fan. My Coolermaster HAF 932 has the two ports higher up and the alignment of the fans is perfect.

 

[vertical777]

are passive vents a bad idea? would they mess up airflow within the case?
is it preferable to make the case air tight so only the fans do the intake/exhaust?

I can't really make hard mods on the case because the whole thing is still under warranty, although I want to make some adjustments. >_<

another thing: blowing air directly to the gpu area seems to smother the hot air all over the insides of the pc...
I'm also concerned about my gpu temps, they go over 80 while running resident evil 5 benchmarks
ambient temp here is 26*C - 36*C

 

[saaiello]

Blowing air onto the GPU actually does the opposite it mixes the air in the case and lets the intake and exhaust fans do there job better. Without that fan on the side your case gets pockets of air that dont move with the fan in the side it helps cycle the whole case.

 

[vertical777]

okay I've done some adjustments, now 2 120mm intake fans are placed in front and an 80-mm fan intake on the side, and a 120mm exhaust fan at the back. I kept the rectangular vent open, now cpu temps are lower but gpu temps are higher I think the dang crossfire set-up traps hot air in between the cards :\

meh, I need a new case I'm saving up for Element S or the HAF 922, hopefully my components survive by then lol

*edit: cpu and the gpu on the underside is cooler, gpu on top became hotter... is a 88*C gpu under gaming load actually safe for say, 3hrs of gaming a day? the other gpu is 76*C under load. and the cpu is 56*C while gaming

 

[treefrog07]

Your CPU temp is fine, but your GPU temps are higher than I like. See if you can run all your case fans at full speed when you are gaming. Assuming your running the fans from the motherboard, check the software that came with your motherboard to install the fan control software that will allow you to adjust the fan speeds through the OS. If you want a great case at a reasonable price, check out the Cooler Master 690 series; there are two or three versions of the original 690 (~$60 at newegg), and a new Advanced version (~$100).

The link above is to a forum for CM690 case mods - there are a lot of good pics and ideas for performance, cooling, and cable management.

 

[vertical777]

mounted an intake fan beside the 2 gpus, the weird thing is the temps got higher >_<

 

[treefrog07]

If you have room between the HDDs and the top GPU, you could use zip ties to attach the 80mm fan to pull air from the front and across the top GPU toward the back.