HELP with Fans and Fan Controller?

[JohnM0522]

Hey guys! This is my first post on the forums and I am in need of some slight help.

 

Before I get started, I figure people will ask, so for helping purposes, here is my build:

 

Core i5-4690k (CPU)

AsRock H97M PRO4 (MOBO)

ASUS R9 280X (GPU)

Corsair CX600 (PSU)

8GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 (RAM)

 

So I am currently using the stock fans that came with my Corsair Carbide Spec-02 case, and have been for about 6 months and often times when I am playing Counter Strike, my screen turns to brown/yellow lines and I need to restart my computer. This also happened within minutes of playing H1Z1 for the first two times, and so I figure that this is my graphics card crashing from overheating. (still not even sure why this happens)

 

I figured that the best bet was to take out the 2 stock fans and put in 3 Corsair AF120 Red LED fans (one at the front and 2 in top rear,) and 1 Corsair SP120 Red LED fan (in the front of my case to push air past the hard drive cage.) Finally, I would hook all these up to an NZXT Sentry 3 Fan Controller. So, here are my questions.....

 

1) Why does my screen do this; am I right about the graphics card overheating because of too little airflow in my case?

2) If so, are these fans fine to get for my case?

3) Do you have any recommendations for fan controllers besides the Sentry 3? (I do care about looks)

 

I will most likely be ordering these parts tonight or tomorrow (May 27/28) so quick answers would be very helpful. Thank you so much in advance guys

[dfsdfgfkjsefoiqzemnd]

The case with its 2 stock fans should provide enough airflow to keep a 280 from overheating. 

Use Hardwaremonitor or speedfan to check the temperatures the graphics card is running at. 

 

94°C seems normal for an R9 280X on Crysis and Furmark, so if it's running anything below 100°C and you're having those issues, it's not overheating that's causing them.

Actually, if you see it pass 100°C there's probably an issue with your card's cooling itself.  ATI's default fan profile tends to let the card run at a constant temperature under load and spin up or down the fans to maintain exactly that temperature.

 

Just start playing with those tools monitoring in the background and alt-tab to them when you're running into issues.  Or if you have 2 monitors, keep it on the secondary monitor and watch it while you're playing.

[JohnM0522]

The case with its 2 stock fans should provide enough airflow to keep a 280 from overheating. 

Use Hardwaremonitor or speedfan to check the temperatures the graphics card is running at. 

 

94°C seems normal for an R9 280X on Crysis and Furmark, so if it's running anything below 100°C and you're having those issues, it's not overheating that's causing them.

Actually, if you see it pass 100°C there's probably an issue with your card's cooling itself.  ATI's default fan profile tends to let the card run at a constant temperature under load and spin up or down the fans to maintain exactly that temperature.

 

Just start playing with those tools monitoring in the background and alt-tab to them when you're running into issues.  Or if you have 2 monitors, keep it on the secondary monitor and watch it while you're playing.

I have used Asus GPU Tweak and played some games with this running in the background and then checking the temps afterwards and it doesn't seem that it is crashingbecause of overheating (GPU tweak says it doesnt get above 70 degrees C) but the air exhausting out the back of my case does feel very hot. I am just really wondering because I do not want my card to go out quicker than it should because it gets too hot too often. I will test out HWMonitor, but even though, should I still get the new fans?

 

[dfsdfgfkjsefoiqzemnd]

My former 4870X2 used to run at 92°C all the time on its stock cooler, and the heat coming out the back of that was hot enough to be outright painful. 

 

Still, if you're worried you can always get an aftermarket cooler.  Arctic has a whole range, including one particularly suited for the 280X

 

If it's not the temperature, either your card is defective or perhaps (but very unlikely) isn't getting the correct voltage due to PSU output fluctuations under load. 

However my gut feeling tells me that either the card is defective or some parts of it do overheat even if the GPU temps are ok.  (a missing thermal patch could cause any individual chip or component to overheat really)

Let me clarify again that the statement above is just a gut feeling.

[JohnM0522]

My former 4870X2 used to run at 92°C all the time on its stock cooler, and the heat coming out the back of that was hot enough to be outright painful. 

 

Still, if you're worried you can always get an aftermarket cooler.  Arctic has a whole range, including one particularly suited for the 280X

 

If it's not the temperature, either your card is defective or perhaps (but very unlikely) isn't getting the correct voltage due to PSU output fluctuations under load. 

However my gut feeling tells me that either the card is defective or some parts of it do overheat even if the GPU temps are ok.  (a missing thermal patch could cause any individual chip or component to overheat really)

Let me clarify again that the statement above is just a gut feeling.

 

Ok then, I think that it really is from a defect in the card then. Problems like this are not particularly unheard of with the ASUS version of the 280x, so I honestly think I will just keep the card and deal with the minor disruptions every once in a while lol. I will just get 2 of the fans that I was planning on getting just to help out a bit. One last question for you, you mentioned that it MIGHT not be getting enough volatage. Is 600 watts enough for my entire build?

[dfsdfgfkjsefoiqzemnd]

Ok then, I think that it really is from a defect in the card then. Problems like this are not particularly unheard of with the ASUS version of the 280x, so I honestly think I will just keep the card and deal with the minor disruptions every once in a while lol. I will just get 2 of the fans that I was planning on getting just to help out a bit. One last question for you, you mentioned that it MIGHT not be getting enough volatage. Is 600 watts enough for my entire build?

 

600W is more than enough.  Single-GPU computers usually stay below 450W. 

 

The thing is that some power supplies may put out an inconsistent voltage on one or more rails, usually when they get older.  If that's the case, you can have all kinds of behaviour.

 

If you can get your hands on another card, try that and see if it helps.  If it does, it is your card indeed.  If it is the card and it has warranty, RMA it.

[JohnM0522]

Thanks for the help!  :lol: