Fans on my first build...so confused.

Throshinn

Honorable
Oct 12, 2012
7
0
10,510
Hey!

I have some questions about fan control.

First off, here is my PC build:
MB ASUS|P8Z77-V PRO Z77
VGA MSI|N680GTX LIGHTNING GTX680
PSU CORSAIR | AX1200I 1200W RT
CPU INTEL|CORE I7 3770K 3.5G 8M R
SSD 240G|INTEL SSDSC2CT240A3K5 R
MEM 4Gx4|CORSAIR CMZ16GX3M4X1600C9
WATER COOLER CORSAIR| CWCH100 R
CASE CORSAIR OBSIDIAN 650D
OS WIN7 64BIT
HDD- 1 TB WD Black Caviar
Opt Drv- ASUS...

Overview
This is my first build, so forgive me if there’s an obvious solution to my issue lol. I use my PC for gaming (gw2, BF3 allot) and otherwise just as a media source (movies, DL’s, and browsing). The system is not over clocked, as I have no clue how to do that yet lol and I really don’t think I need to do so at the moment (performance seems amazing to me!)

Fan placement:
I went with the rear fan as an exhaust (120mm), the front fan intake (200mm), bottom fan blowing towards rear (200). The h100 radiator is mounted inside the case (top grill), I have the two 120mm fans underneath it, pulling air through the rad and into the case.

I know there is a pile of forums out there on fan positioning push/pull etc.. I chose this pretty much because I was overwhelmed and it seemed ok lol. But I am very much open to suggestions on changes I should make to it.

Question(s):
Right now I’m super confused on how my fans should be operating. Ideally I think they should be at higher speeds when gaming and then slow off during use of media? If so, should this be done manually or automatically?

Once I know how my fans should be operating, what is the best way to apply the settings?
Should I use software that came with my MB (Fan Expert 2), corsair link that came with my PSU or MSI afterburning that came with my GPU (I think these 3 programs may interfere with each other too)? Or apply setting in the BIO’s?

Not to sure what to do with the GPU fans as well, how are those setting changed or does it just do its own thing lol?

I did have 4/5 of the fans plugged into the h100 controller, but recently I placed them into proper MB ports as I hoped to gain more control and not need to enter the case as frequently. If its best though, I will use this controller.

Any knowledge you can share would be greatly appreciated!!!
Thanks very much,
Cheers!
 

t53186

Distinguished
First, the h100 fans show blow out of case. does not matter what side of the radiator, just blow out.

You are correct that it's a good idea to provide more cooling under heavy load. FanExpert does a decent job. You can use present fan profiles (temp goes up, fan speed goes up) or create custom profiles.

Corsair link is a good product, I use it to control my H80 radiator fan and four case fans. Be careful with this, check out the forum at http://goo.gl/xJt1e the production release of firmware and software works consistently well, the beta is still a beta.

It help to use monitoring software to determine what cooling needs to be implemented in your case. Try speed fan it monitors temps as well.

The GPU does it's thing on it's own. But you can use the included software fro custom control. It will not affect your bios or interfere with other fan controls.
 

Throshinn

Honorable
Oct 12, 2012
7
0
10,510


Hey, thanks for replying!

My thoughts on the H100 was to have the fans below the radiator, pulling air into the tower. I figured drawing cool air over the coils would assist dropping the temperature of the coolant , and aid in cooling other components.

If I were to flip the fans as you suggest, would that not blow the warmer air from in the tower over the coils potentially increasing the coolants temperature ?

 

t53186

Distinguished


The most effective cooling it to push air out of the case incoming air either forced in by fans or a result of negative pressure in the case. Usually it's best the push in more ambient air to create a positive pressure in the case. By using the h100 pushing in, it would force warm air in, not out.

I have a I7 3930k hex core being cooled by an H80 with only 1 fan and even when all cores are at 100% utilization temp never gets higher than 55 C.