Triple-fan setup for HAF912 Plus?

[anthropolyte]

Afternoon all. I just finished building a new gaming rig for myself - everything's working fine, but the AMD FX-8350 CPU is sitting at 38C idle temperature with a Hyper 212 Evo attached. Under load this goes up to around 45C.

This seems a bit higher than other people have reported with the Hyper 212 (although it's obviously still ok in general), so I just wanted to check and make sure the fan setup I have in the case is appropriate.

Currently the kit is as follows:
CPU: AMD FX-8350
MB: Asus M5A97 Evo R2.0
Cooler: CM Hyper 212 Evo
Case: CM HAF 912 Plus
GPU: Sapphire Radeon 7870 OC
RAM: Corsair Vengeance 2x4GB 1600MHz
Primary HDD: Samsung 840 Pro SSD
Secondary HDD: WD Black 2TB
PSU: Corsair Builder CX750M

Case fan setup:
Front: 200mm Coolermaster (Intake)
Rear: 140mm Coolermaster (Exhaust)
Top: 200mm Coolermaster (Exhaust)
CPU: Stock Hyper 212 Evo fan, oriented to push air through the cooler towards the rear of the case

I think this should produce "negative" pressure inside the case, and given that there's a fair amount of air being pushed through by the front fan, I'd expect the temperatures to be a little lower than they are.

Any suggestions on improving things?

 

[AMD Radeon]

well, based on my experience, negative pressure is not a good idea

make the airflow balanced or positive pressure

 

[anthropolyte]

I think I might be overthinking it on the negative vs positive pressure aspect actually. The HAF 912 is a pretty "open" case, with a fair amount of mesh surface. Additionally the side case fan isn't installed, so in reality, negative pressure really isn't going to happen.

I guess I should be thinking about airflow in general - with the case fans set up the way they are, is that going to direct airflow appropriately to cool everything inside the case?

 

[AMD Radeon]

#1 make sure you follow this article for cpu cooler
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/thermal-paste-heat-sink-heat-spreader,3600.html

#2 put your pc in a cool room, with AC, or in basement
any sophisticated cooler and fan cant help if you put the pc in warm/hot environment

#3 managing fan and airflow inside case is easy
only need a simple imagination and logic. avoid over-thinking

 

[anthropolyte]

I reapplied the thermal paste on the CPU after putting on a little too much originally, using the "pea" method. It reduced the temperature a little, but only 2-3C. The location of the PC is restricted for me - it's currently on a wooden board with open airflow to all sides, but it is in my living room. There's nowhere else to put it.

I guess given that the airflow direction appears to make sense given my fan setup, this is basically as good as I'm going to get - is 38C idle in a 25C room a reasonable temperature?

 

[AMD Radeon]

yes it is reasonable for 8-core AMD

for comparison, i5 sandy non-OC with 212 EVO stays 37C at idle, room temp 27C

 

[anthropolyte]

Ok, good. I think that's my question answered then - thanks very much!