Need help badly with Heat related issues on May 2013 build. Kind of long post

[devnulllore]

Hi,

 

I built a gaming PC last May and one thing I insisted on including was some noise matting and an extra cooling pack. I currently have an ASETEK 550LC 120MM Water Cooling System for my CPU (which BTW I want to thank everyone here for recommending it, it got some of the highest ratings I have ever seen and the 100% PC front to back warranty against leakage is great).

 

Other that that I have 6 Enermax T.B.SILENCE 120mm LED Twister Cooling Fans, 2 intakes in front, 2 push/pull on my radiator, one top exhaust and one side intake basically blowing on the video cards. I also have an Asus assembly fan, very small, blowing out off the chipset.

 

So last year we had a moderate summer and I only needed to turn on the AC twice. So far this year it's been ok but today it's kind of hot and I have no AC this year. My bios has been raising my fan speed periodically where it never has before. Temps are not too bad with the exception of my SLI setup. I'll get to that in a minute.

 

I swore when I built this system I would never have to open the case and blow a floor fan into it again but it's looking like I may need to do this if I can't find some kind of alternative.

 

My SLI setup is getting very hot, especially the top card, which makes sense. If I run EVGA Precision and up the fan curve I can keep them in a moderate zone but the fans run fast and loud.

 

I really feel like this is my ambient temp.

 

All said and done I don't think I can add any more fans or remove the sound proofing and I don't think they will make any difference. I know I've seen many pictures of builds better than mine where people use external fans so can anyone think of any alternatives before using one?

 

I have not included my specs because of the length of this post so if you want them I will be glad to post.

 

Thanks,

 

(SIG BROKEN)

 

devnulllore

[tim_s]

I would like to know your specs.

[Hum]

open case + floor fan

[T3X4S]

I will say this.  A couple of well placed fans can out perform a bunch of fans.  If fans are placed improperly, a vacuum can make fans spin faster which means get louder= work hard = perform less.

In Texas, I have a push/pull on the CPU Corsair H80i, 1 case fan @ the bottom of the case for intake & then the video card fans....thats it & it never gets too hot. (ambient temps are 72, and maybe 75 inside when its 105 outside...)




I would pull 1 video card, and a lot of those fans & check your temps.

1 intake, 1 outflow & your water setup....

I think you have all those fans working against each other.

Chipset fan ?    are you OCing like crazy or something ?  Unless you are trying to OC - that much airflow is completely unnecessary

Ever notice when you put 1 fan behind another with airflow in 1 direction it really increases performance ?  Its like 1 + 1 = 3 .... efficiency ;)

 

 

[devnulllore]

I will say this.  A couple of well placed fans can out perform a bunch of fans.  If fans are placed improperly, a vacuum can make fans spin faster which means get louder= work hard = perform less.

In Texas, I have a push/pull on the CPU Corsair H80i, 1 case fan @ the bottom of the case for intake & then the video card fans....thats it & it never gets too hot. (ambient temps are 72, and maybe 75 inside when its 105 outside...)

I would pull 1 video card, and a lot of those fans & check your temps.

1 intake, 1 outflow & your water setup....

I think you have all those fans working against each other.

Chipset fan ?    are you OCing like crazy or something ?  Unless you are trying to OC - that much airflow is completely unnecessary

Ever notice when you put 1 fan behind another with airflow in 1 direction it really increases performance ?  Its like 1 + 1 = 3 .... efficiency ;)

 

 

OK, I will do some work with that and see if I can find a configuration that's working better than this. One thing to mention, and I think this is biased, I talked with Cooler Master about the case, the HAF 922, and they suggested the fan setup I have now. Of course this is objective as they have no idea what I have installed. I did notice my HD bays are full and probably not allowing much airflow past them.

 

The chipset fan came with the MB, the Asus Sabertooth Z77 so I figured why not use it. Speedfan recognizes it as System Fan 2 and the temps are great.

 

I may need to open the case and use the floor fan temporarily until I find a better setup for the fans though.

 

Thanks,

[devnulllore]

open case + floor fan

[devnulllore]

open case + floor fan

While I am going to follow up with T3X4S  post I am going to use this fan method if it gets too hot in the meantime. I've found in days of searching many overclockers do this, however I do not overclock at all so I probably shouldn't have to.

Cheers,

I would like to know your specs.

Hi,

 

OK, my spec sheet got lost and I can't remember some of the details right now so I am going to do a new one right from my inventory. I will post it later today. Sorry for the wait.

 

Cheers,

[andrewcrawford]

Ive been working on system recently that is like your it is overheating, the reason being is the fan placement is poor and the tower itself isn't the best, post a picture of your case from all angles there might be a way to help cool it without opening but depends on the case.

[+Anarkii Subscriber²]

We get pretty intense summers here in Australia (40+ degrees Celsius) and so AC is a must in the summer months. 
What I can recommend is that using a SLI setup with no real gap between video cards always saw my temps go to the high 80c-90c range when playing games (even crappy games like WoW). 
The first thing I did when I noticed this was space out the cards. I had 3 slots in my old Mobo, so I had it setup as x-_-x instead of x-x-_. Temps dropped by 20c because those cards could then breathe. I have since moved on to a single card.

In regards to general airflow, make sure the tower is set up high, and not on the carpet or floor in the corner of your room. Have it on your desk, or slightly elevated off the floor. Make sure you have a intake fan(s) at the bottom of your case sucking in cold air, and your water cooling solution at the top of the case, blowing hot air out the back of your case at the top. In some cases alot of heat issues arise from the case fans being incorrectly installed and blowing air out rather than sucking it in or vice versa. 

Anyway as others have said, take a couple of pics of your setup. In most cases a simple move of the pc case to another location can drop temps significantly.

[CG-88]

Yeah definitely post some pictures of the inside of your case etc so we can get a better understanding of where any possible issue might be.

 

When I first built my computer I was so excited as it was the first one I had done in years that I just plugged all the cables in without care. Then when I redid them all, hid them etc to make them tidy and invisible I saw temps drop by 5 degrees ambient which is just with cables!!!

 

I have tested different fan setups, and on my old case there was a time when I had 4 fans, that could out perform 1 single intake, and 1 single exhaust.

At the moment I have 2 120mm on front as intake, 2x140mm fans going from front to back for the cpu cooler, 1 fan rear exhaust, 2 140mm top fans exhaust, 1 200mm side intake for the gfx and its the coolest I have ever seen my rig.

 

Post pics!

[xrobwx71]

 

 

 

Hi,

 

OK, my spec sheet got lost and I can't remember some of the details right now so I am going to do a new one right from my inventory. I will post it later today. Sorry for the wait.

 

Cheers,

Use this to grab your specs. http://www.hwinfo.com/

After you install it and run. Choose the report function then choose short text report and copy to clipboard. It works great!

 

 

 

 

[tim_s]

Just an obvious question but what surface and location is the tower resting on in your setup?

[devnulllore]

Hi,

 

Just got back on my PC after going over the case specs with Cooler Master. We got rid of some cheap fans that ran only up to 600 rpm, not even sure how I decided on those. I replaced all the case fans with a series of Enermax T.B.SILENCE 120mm Twister Cooling fans. After adjusting the fans curves via the bios by dropping the upper limit on each step by 10% my system is running way cool now. I still have the heat problem with my top SLI card but I alleviate that by running EVGA's Precision X and doing the same with the fan curve. I just have one issue. When I built it I was rushed to tie up my wiring so although my two front case fans blow across the HD's I think it is baffled by the wires and I plan to spend a few hours some day to fix that.

 

Thanks,