New build- Need Fan advice

[Khory]

To start here is my build

 

I have the radiator front mounted with the NZXT fans set up for push/pull. The thought is that with that case the intake could use as much help as possible.

 

The top (2x140) and rear (1x120) are air flow fans set up as exhaust. I have these set on a fan curve that rises gradually with GPU temp (for now).

 

I have yet to OC the CPU but so far temps on that are great. The GPU however gets a little high. It hits 70C on the Heaven benchmark and 74-78C in real world usage on games like Overwatch, Witcher 3, and Destiny 2. I use a custom fan profile in EVGA Precision that puts the fans to 80% at 70C and goes up from there until it maxes out should the card hit 90C. I can live with these temps if I have to. If a different fan setup can improve upon this then I definitely want to take advantage.

 

Any suggestions on what I could change to improve the thermals of the GPU without buying or replacing hardware? I am considering either changing the top front to an intake OR removing it completely (might be interrupting the flow of cool air before it reaches the gpu area). I'd appreciate any guidance you may have. Thanks.

[Devin92]

so basically you are pushing fresh air into the radiator and then exhaust it into the case? if this is the situation then this is the reason why GPU is running hot, it does not have fresh cool air intake. the air the GPU get is pretty much at the CPU temperature which probly is around 40 degree already.

I would move the radiator to top of the case, and then add two intake fan at the front of the case, leave the rare exhaust as it is. in this way you have fresh air intake AND a positive air pressure inside your case.

[Khory]

Top mounting the radiator is not an option in this case.

[xc3ll]

2 minutes ago, Devin92 said:

so basically you are pushing fresh air into the radiator and then exhaust it into the case? if this is the situation then this is the reason why GPU is running hot, it does not have fresh cool air intake. the air the GPU get is pretty much at the CPU temperature which probly is around 40 degree already.

I would move the radiator to top of the case, and then add two intake fan at the front of the case, leave the rare exhaust as it is. in this way you have fresh air intake AND a positive air pressure inside your case.

Pretty much what I was gonna say

Another thing: Try to maximize airflow from front to back while minimizing airflow from front to top. But don't expect too much. Your setup is pretty good already, so you might get a few percent overall cooling efficency, but mostly you are making trade-offs between CPU-temp, GPU-temp and noise.

 

And: Good software-fan-curves help a lot! But it takes a lot (!) of testing, to get them right. I have only 4 controllable fans in my case and needed a spread sheet and almost 6 hours, but it was worth the while: Got -2C on GPU, -7C on CPU without increasing the overall noise-output. But I nerded out over this: Even considering the distance of my case to the wall to reduce sound-reflections....

[Khory]

1 minute ago, xc3ll said:

Pretty much what I was gonna say

Another thing: Try to maximize airflow from front to back while minimizing airflow from front to top. But don't expect too much. Your setup is pretty good already, so you might get a few percent overall cooling efficency, but mostly you are making trade-offs between CPU-temp, GPU-temp and noise.

 

And: Good software-fan-curves help a lot! But it takes a lot (!) of testing, to get them right. I have only 4 controllable fans in my case and needed a spread sheet and almost 6 hours, but it was worth the while: Got -2C on GPU, -7C on CPU without increasing the overall noise-output. But I nerded out over this: Even considering the distance of my case to the wall to reduce sound-reflections....

I'll keep that in mind about the front to top air flow. I do suspect that a lot of the intake is being removed from the case by this fan. I think I will experiment with the front top fan. My first attempt will be to disable the top front fan completely, cover that slot with the sound proofing panel the case came with, and see what happens. If i'm lucky air flows front to back unimpeded and I see an improvement. If not, I plug the fan back in and I try something else.

 

I will continue to work on my fan curves too. I think they are pretty good mix of temp to noise. Nothing is dire, just trying to squeeze what extra I can.

[Zusafek]

6 hours ago, Khory said:

To start here is my build

 

I have the radiator front mounted with the NZXT fans set up for push/pull. The thought is that with that case the intake could use as much help as possible.

 

The top (2x140) and rear (1x120) are air flow fans set up as exhaust. I have these set on a fan curve that rises gradually with GPU temp (for now).

 

I have yet to OC the CPU but so far temps on that are great. The GPU however gets a little high. It hits 70C on the Heaven benchmark and 74-78C in real world usage on games like Overwatch, Witcher 3, and Destiny 2. I use a custom fan profile in EVGA Precision that puts the fans to 80% at 70C and goes up from there until it maxes out should the card hit 90C. I can live with these temps if I have to. If a different fan setup can improve upon this then I definitely want to take advantage.

 

Any suggestions on what I could change to improve the thermals of the GPU without buying or replacing hardware? I am considering either changing the top front to an intake OR removing it completely (might be interrupting the flow of cool air before it reaches the gpu area). I'd appreciate any guidance you may have. Thanks.

I have this exact case. Though I'm not liquid cooling. One thing I did do however is flip the PSU over so it pulls the air from inside the case and exhausts it out. My top fans I put as intake to bring more fresh air in but set at a slower fan curve. My xfx rx480 rs stays at 71c during heavy gaming or even mining.