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Best fan config for nzxt h440?

Feroxhl

So I have ordered all my parts and they will becoming very shortly. #thedreamcomp... anyway, I bought 2 noctua nf f12 120mm fans to replace the fans on the corsair h105 rad. Also I went and bought the noctua NF A14 140mm to replace the nzxt fan on the back side.

 

What I was thinking for a well thought out fan setup would be:

 

Have the 3 stock nzxt fans that come on the front of the case run in push.

 

Have the 1 noctua a14 140mm on the back side run in push.

 

Have the 2 noctua nf f12s on the top, with the rad, run on pull.

 

*note: the computer will be sitting on top of my desk, so It will have good air flow from all sides.

____________

 

The concept is to use the scientific law that we learned in elementary school: hot air rises.

 

By taking the nice cool air from sides and using the "hot air rises" concept + having the top noctua fans pull out the hot air from the case. It should produce a very cool environment for the hardware inside. Also, I know that corsair prefers to have the fans on the bottom of the rad, then on top... but the noctua are just too ugly.... and I never saw any improvement from having the fans on the bottom or top, while watching fan benchmark vids running cooling tests with prime 95.

 

If you guys have any suggestions, comments, or questions.. I will be checking this thread fairly often, to review them. Thanks in-advance!

 

-Ferox

 

PS: also the computer is called hashtag, cause #yolo. 

 

 

 

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I would generally let the air flow from the bottom/front to the rear/top, so I would turn the rear fan around. What you're doing now is sending air in two directions against each other, which isn't really optimal.

My personal rig: http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/139780-zalman-my-first-build/

I use it partially as a Hackintosh. Don't judge me.

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Hmmm... that Tom guy has a point....so switch the a14 140mm fan on the rear of the case to pull instead of push. That should decrease the temp more.

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The H440 is a good case, but you'll find no matter what fans you use it still will get warmer on the inside.

I spent days trying to cool this case down, with Noctua AF14 & NF-P12, Corsair SP120 Performance.

 

Other than creating more noise than the original NZXT fans, the temps in the case barely changed.

Yes a GTX780ti non reference cooler will warm the case due it dumping more hot an in the case, but I wasn't expecting the echoing noise of the front fans.

 

Personally I would stick with the stock NZXT fans and water cool the system, even if you use a G10 for your video card.

Case isn't suited for proper air cooling in my opinion (Based on my days of testing, even used a Karken X60 on my CPU)

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The H440 is a good case, but you'll find no matter what fans you use it still will get warmer on the inside.

I spent days trying to cool this case down, with Noctua AF14 & NF-P12, Corsair SP120 Performance.

 

Other than creating more noise than the original NZXT fans, the temps in the case barely changed.

Yes a GTX780ti non reference cooler will warm the case due it dumping more hot an in the case, but I wasn't expecting the echoing noise of the front fans.

 

Personally I would stick with the stock NZXT fans and water cool the system, even if you use a G10 for your video card.

Case isn't suited for proper air cooling in my opinion (Based on my days of testing, even used a Karken X60 on my CPU)

I do agree with the case not being an all star air flow master case.... I realize that, but the noise damping is what I'm really after, as I have a roommate sharing the same room, and limiting noise is a priority. I do disagree though about keeping the nzxt stock fans, I have seen multiple people prove in IRL and Youtube vids (in this specific case aswell) that the noctua fans are quieter, more efficient, and better cooling then the stock nzxt fans. The strong points of this case is too look damn sexy and be quiet. Both of which i am content and only dropping 119$ on this case, I am blown away at the features of this case. Sure I might had too blow some pocket change to get aftermarket fans, to help with the cooling, but now I get a great case with a bunch of real quality features, and with good cooling. 

 

 

**note: I never got into using water cooling (except for rad of course), as this is my second build. So I have no experience in water cooling beyond self regulated rads. Also the whole fact of water running through tubes and into a pump in your comp with all your really expensive equipment that can get destroyed by a leak, kinda scares me to be honest 0:

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Im gonna have to agree with Schoolofmonkey here. This case isn't really worth the extra dough to make it ideal for aircool. Because with all the foam blocking the front, top, and sides, all you will get is a shit ton of air restriction and not enough circulation. I have the h440 myself and just keep the stock setup. SInce the front fans aren't sp fans, its better that you just open the front panel when you are gaming to keep cool air run through the case. If you want the case to be airflow optimized, you will need to replace the front 3 fans with sp fans (since there very little breathing room up front) in pull, top fans should be in push, rear 140 should be in pull, That will maximize airflow if you are going balls deep in spending cash in this rig. But honestly, I don't think its worth it. Just open the front panel when you are hardcore gaming and you should be good. 

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Yeah I've swapped my main rig back out of the H440, back into the Carbine 500R, used some sound insulator in the open grills and cut a hole for the side fan.

Much cooler and makes less noise than the H440 using the same Noctua fans.

 

Using the H440 as the HTPC now, looks good there too..

 

Its a nice looking case, but the cooling isn't up to par.

I'm sure if you use a GPU with a reference cooler temps should be better as they blow all the hot air out the back.

But in all honestly there is really no reason to replace the front fans on the H440.

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Best fan config is pretty much what you have. 3x 120MM's pulling fresh air into the case at the front, 1x 140MM pushing air out the case at the back and 2x 120MM's pulling air through the rad at the top and out the case. I side with Linus, pull config on rads is easier to clean. One thing tho, the H440 has very limited ventilation and the case will still get hotter than most people would like even with all Noctua F12's for example. Especially if you're going to be overclocking your CPU and GPU.

Bert & Ernie before squirting spermie. 

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The only chassis fan im replacing is the rear fan, which is recommended. I'm keeping the front 3 stock fans. Also if you are keeping the stock corsair fans on a h105....u r doing it wrong.... If there is one place in a computer that you should worry about static pressure, it's the rad fans. So buying after market fans built for great static pressure, you are gonna see a massive difference in cooling temps over the stock corsair fans. Also, I'm not a pc extreme enthusiast, which means I'm gonna OC, but not past what's recommended. My gtx evga 780 in this rig is professionally OC and I'm only going to OC my cpu (i5 4690k) to what would be suggested.

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The H440 is a good case, but you'll find no matter what fans you use it still will get warmer on the inside.

I spent days trying to cool this case down, with Noctua AF14 & NF-P12, Corsair SP120 Performance.

Other than creating more noise than the original NZXT fans, the temps in the case barely changed.

Yes a GTX780ti non reference cooler will warm the case due it dumping more hot an in the case, but I wasn't expecting the echoing noise of the front fans.

Personally I would stick with the stock NZXT fans and water cool the system, even if you use a G10 for your video card.

Case isn't suited for proper air cooling in my opinion (Based on my days of testing, even used a Karken X60 on my CPU)

Yeah, ever since I moved over to the h440, my temps went up about five degrees. It's a warm case, but it won't cause overheating

CPU -AMD R5 2600X @ 4.15 GHz / RAM - 2x8Gb GSkill Ripjaws 3000 MHz/ MB- Asus Crosshair VII Hero X470/  GPU- MSI Gaming X GTX 1080/ CPU Cooler - Be Quiet! Dark Rock 3/ PSU - Seasonic G-series 550W/ Case - NZXT H440 (Black/Red)/ SSD - Crucial MX300 500GB/ Storage - WD Caviar Blue 1TB/ Keyboard - Corsair Vengeance K70 w/ Red switches/ Mouse - Logitech g900/ Display - 27" Benq GW2765 1440p display/ Audio - Sennheiser HD 558 and Logitech z323 speakers

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  • 2 months later...

http://pcpartpicker.com/b/qTsYcf

 

This person threw 3 fans up top, 1 in the back, and 2 in the front to add to his rad for push-pull, and his temps are very low. Sometimes throwing 20 bucks or so on fans is worth the aesthetics of the case. If you use SP fans in the front like I intend to, you should have even better results.

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Im gonna have to agree with Schoolofmonkey here. This case isn't really worth the extra dough to make it ideal for aircool. Because with all the foam blocking the front, top, and sides, all you will get is a shit ton of air restriction and not enough circulation. I have the h440 myself and just keep the stock setup. SInce the front fans aren't sp fans, its better that you just open the front panel when you are gaming to keep cool air run through the case. If you want the case to be airflow optimized, you will need to replace the front 3 fans with sp fans (since there very little breathing room up front) in pull, top fans should be in push, rear 140 should be in pull, That will maximize airflow if you are going balls deep in spending cash in this rig. But honestly, I don't think its worth it. Just open the front panel when you are hardcore gaming and you should be good. 

 

Thanks for the advice, think I might just pull my front panel off for gaming now, makes a lot of sense really for very little effort (even though my graphics card and CPU temps are fine anyway).

Motherboard: Gigabyte Z97X-Gaming 7 .:. Processor: Intel Core i7-4790k @ 4.7GHz .:. Graphics Card: MSI GTX 770 Twin Frozr OC 2GB


Storage: 1x 250GB Samsung 840 Evo, 1x 1000GB WD Blue .:. RAM: 4x4GB G.Skill RipjawzX 2133MHz .:. CPU Cooler: Cryorig R1 Ultimate


Case: NZXT H440 Black/Red .:. PSU: Corsair CX600M .:. Fans: 5x 120mm AeroCool Dead Silence, 1x 140mm AeroCool Dead Silence

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The H440 does not have the best cooling but I personally love it.

It's even worse to use an AIO since they don't perform a lot better than a good air cooler.

In fact using an air cooler in this case is better than an AIO because with an AIO you restrict the airflow even more with the radiator.

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