Can the Phanteks Evolv Shift (not the Air model) be Air cooled?

[Radium_Angel]

Picked up the case and some parts with it for cheap. The case is beautiful but with those glass sides, air flow is...minimal and even under modest loads the temps on the Ryzen 5 2600 and GTX 660 get to be too much.

I  have read the reviews on it, but everything I've run across went full water cooling.

I'm not there yet (might...might go an AIO for the CPU) so I was wondering if anyone had successfully air cooled one of the beautiful cases.

 

PS. I have a GTX 1050 Ti I could run if that would run cooler. 75watt draw, doesn't require a 6pin connector like the current 660.

[HanZie82]

Tbh that case is made with water-cooling in mind, so there is almost no room above the CPU to have the heatsink for an aircooler.
Water-cooling just takes the heat so it can dissipate in a different location.

So the A.I.O. on the CPU might be a necessity to make the case work. Looks like the GPU can get some cool air from outside.

But this is all from watching pictures on the googler so i can be very wrong.

 

[Deli]

Even AIO is bad idea for this case. Pump on top, rad at the bottom. Water cooling loop with a separate reservoir will be fine.

 

There is about 82mm height for an air cooler. For top down air cooler. You want a 20mm gap so there is enough room for the CPU fan to suck air down. So the max height of air cooler would be around 60mm. A relatively low power CPU will be fine. I tried a R5 3600 with a Noctua L9x65. Reduce the power limit to 70w(stock is 88w) in Ryzen Master. It'll run fine and quiet. But the all core boost will reduce to ~3.7Ghz.

[Radium_Angel]

3 hours ago, Deli said:

Even AIO is bad idea for this case. Pump on top, rad at the bottom. Water cooling loop with a separate reservoir will be fine.

 

There is about 82mm height for an air cooler. For top down air cooler. You want a 20mm gap so there is enough room for the CPU fan to suck air down. So the max height of air cooler would be around 60mm. A relatively low power CPU will be fine. I tried a R5 3600 with a Noctua L9x65. Reduce the power limit to 70w(stock is 88w) in Ryzen Master. It'll run fine and quiet. But the all core boost will reduce to ~3.7Ghz.

I'm definitely not ready for a custom water loop

Currently, with the sides off, temps are ok, I have the GPU facing outward (the fans face away from the mobo) and I just put in a fan controller and a front (top part) mounted fan, which blows across the mobo and CPU.

The CPU fan is the stock one with the Ryzen 5 2600, which is a Wraith stealth, which is 54mm high, I will try a moderately stressful game with the cpu-side on, and off, and see if I can live with the temps.

 

Since it's running *nix, I don't think I can reduce the power with anything but that CPU is "only" 65 watts anyway.

[Radium_Angel]

An update to my own topic:

 

That extra front fan, and a change from the GTX 660 to the GTX 1050 Ti, plus the side panel over the video card side, has resulted in no increase in temps under moderate load (not like I saw before I made the changes) so quite pleased with the air cooling.

 

Now, the other panel is still off, the one over the CPU side, but that faces the wall as it is, so it may not be a big deal. Further tinkering on that may be required.

[Deli]

1 hour ago, Radium_Angel said:

An update to my own topic:

 

That extra front fan, and a change from the GTX 660 to the GTX 1050 Ti, plus the side panel over the video card side, has resulted in no increase in temps under moderate load (not like I saw before I made the changes) so quite pleased with the air cooling.

 

Now, the other panel is still off, the one over the CPU side, but that faces the wall as it is, so it may not be a big deal. Further tinkering on that may be required.

I have a Asus Strix GTX1070 inside. The GPU cooler from the Strix is a bit overkill for a GTX1070. So it runs ok inside this case. Although I won't put a high power card inside. If I don't mind the CPU fan spins up more. I can run the R5 3600 without reducing the power limit. You can absolutely build a decently powerful system with air cooling only.

[Radium_Angel]

2 hours ago, Deli said:

You can absolutely build a decently powerful system with air cooling only.

It really is a pretty case. Beautiful. Something that looks more like a work of modern art, than a PC case, it's a shame the "air" sides are impossible to find for sale, because that would solve this issue for good.

As it stands, I'm quite happy with it, though routing all the small cables (power, fans, fan controller, etc) was...taxing. Anyway, thank you for your help today.