Improving airflow/cooling of Fractal Core 500?

[Kaitlyn]

I've got a new build with

 

• Fractal Core 500 case
• ASrock B450 Gaming ITX motherboard
• Ryzen 2700x CPU w/ stock cooler

 

I was investigating the sort of obnoxious fan noise from the CPU which would constantly spike up RPM and then drop it after a few seconds, which is annoying since it's not gradual or more constant/long-lived.

 

Anyway - I removed the case piece (so open sides+top) and had the computer sitting on my desk. On idle the CPU temp was about 31c. Rendering a video in Davinci Resolve spiked the CPU to 74.25. I **THINK** this is totally fine/reasonable?

 

When I put the case back on, I couldn't get idle temps to drop below 38c and rendering same video gave me just under 80c - so basically +7 (or more) degrees across the board.

 

I do a bunch of work in Lightroom, Photoshop, and DaVinci Resolve. So I will have a range of short lived intensive tasks (merging, applying complex adjustments, etc.) but also long-lived ones (exporting bulk files, rendering video, etc.)

 

Anything I can do to improve cooling/airflow that ISN'T watercooling? I thought this slightly-larger Core 500 case with good reviews would have good airflow cooling support for me...

[Klemmbrett]

What is your current fan setup on the case, so what fans blowing air in and out and where are they located ?

[SpiralOut]

Do u have any case fans on it?

[Kaitlyn]

1 minute ago, Klemmbrett said:

What is your current fan setup on the case, so what fans blowing air in and out and where are they located ?

 

Stock rear chassis fan - so I believe it's 140mm exhaust?

 

Stock cooler fan blowing up through top of case (it's very close to rear fan, not sure whether most of the CPU exhaust is out back or top)

 

PSU intake on bottom, exaust on that side port

 

Zotac GTX 1070 dual fans with the grill in front of it but the fans are least active so far.

[Kaitlyn]

1 minute ago, SpiralOut said:

Do u have any case fans on it?

Just the standard "Silent Series R3 140mm fan". I've heard mixed messaging about adding 1 or even 2 fans to the top.

 

One of the main things I wonder right now is how much air is being sucked in - and from where... PSU I believe sucks+blows out so that's sort of a clsoed system. Top should be exhausting air, so only other place is beside the GPU which either the GPU will spit out the air, or if they aren't running, then ambient outside air MIGHT get sucked in?

[Klemmbrett]

3 minutes ago, Kaitlyn said:

Stock rear chassis fan - so I believe it's 140mm exhaust?

 

Stock cooler fan blowing up through top of case (it's very close to rear fan, not sure whether most of the CPU exhaust is out back or top)

 

PSU intake on bottom, exaust on that side port

 

Zotac GTX 1070 dual fans with the grill in front of it but the fans are least active so far.

Can you make some pictures ? 

[Jurrunio]

Add a pair of 140mm fans on the top as intake then.

[Kaitlyn]

6 minutes ago, Klemmbrett said:

Can you make some pictures ? 

https://imgur.com/a/kIBc4qL

 

[Kaitlyn]

3 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

Add a pair of 140mm fans on the top as intake then.

How would that work - especially the rear fan - as intake when the CPU right below it is acting as exhaust blowing straight up?

[Jurrunio]

2 hours ago, Kaitlyn said:

How would that work - especially the rear fan - as intake when the CPU right below it is acting as exhaust blowing straight up?

CPU fans blow downward (stock coolers) or to the side (tower type), so better have the rear as exhaust so the top fans can help the CPU cooler.

[Kaitlyn]

25 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

CPU fans blow downward (stock coolers) or to the side (tower type), so better have the rear as exhaust so the top fans can help the CPU cooler.

Ah, doh.. that makes sense for the cooler, haha.

 

I ended up placing an order for 2x Noctua NF-A14's. I'll see how things change with them installed before I consider swapping out the cooler...

[Guest]

Maybe your better of with replacing your case to a tower desktop model? 

[Kaitlyn]

5 hours ago, Christiaan21-03 said:

Maybe your better of with replacing your case to a tower desktop model? 

I liked the idea of a small case, but it's something to consider. I've also heard that the smaller cases, when you add the air cooling, can actually be more efficient because the amount of air to circulate is less so i.e. it takes less time to replace all air in the case with fresh air?

[Guest]

Well to be honest i'm not sure. So far I've seen setups like yours, used for extreme gaming, combined with fluid cooling not on air. If your day to day usage involves a lot of video editing it might prove usefull to get a larger setup but again i'm not sure how the airflow in your case works. Its a small space with a lot of heat generators when doin rendering and stuff so indeed if your blowers are powerfull enough it should get out the warmth easily. The case looks like its fitted for good cooling and if your temps won't reach around 80 for prolonged periods of time i'm guessing your safe enough with your current stats.

An extra fan maybe above the psu ( if there's space ) pointed inwards towards the gpu and cpu that will help with pushing the heat out or maybe an extra fan outside the case on the outlet of the gpu though you say that the gpu doesn't generate a lot heat so that might be not so helpful  

another option might be to mail the case builder to see if they can provide you with more suggestions about how to keep your case cool 

 

[Dr Dogbreath]

This itx case's ability to use four 140mm fans as an option to more standard smaller fan arrangements benefits by enabling to shift large volumes of air at lower rpm and thus lower noise levels. Further, the majority of the heat generated by my selected 1080ti "blower" card is ejected directly out the rear rather than into the inner spaces of the case where other components could be affected. A big bonus of using CPU air cooling (NH-D15S) is that it forces cooler air directly across the VRMs, assisting a stable CPU overclock in an otherwise "compromised" densely concentrated component build.