H200i Cooling Suggesstions?

[GMart84]

Hello,

 

I will keep this explanation to a minimum and ask my question:

 

Daughter's First Build Original

Core i3-6100, ASRock H270M-itx/ac, 8GB Corsair LPX, Toshiba 256GB Nvme, GTX 1060 6GB, 600W PSU, Cooler Master ML120R, and H200i Case

 

What We Ended Up With

Core i3-6100, ASRock H270M-itx/ac, 8GB Corsair LPX, 2x Corsair Force LS SSD, XFX RX-580 GTS, 600W PSU, Cooler Master ML120R, and H200i Case

 

The CPU stays relatively cool given the small 120 rad on it, and never gets above 70° C under load, the GPU, which is clearly bigger than the 1060 we were originally planning on using, is hitting 82° C regularly playing her favorite game Lego Worlds, which is not that graphically demanding.  This temp is worrisome for me.  It even warns her that continued use at that level can cause damage to the GPU.  I have tried multiple fan curves, with it hitting 100% at just 70° C and still the card gets there.  I have added an additional 120 intake fan to the lower section of the front of the case to try and increase airflow and all that did was delay the 82° mark.

 

What should I do, currently there are push-pull fans on the 120 Rad on the front, an extra 120 on the bottom of the front as an intake, a 120 intake on the top and a 120 exhaust on the rear.  Is there a better way I can set the up to help the GPU or is the space just really that limited in the case that this is what she is going to have to deal with due to the size of the card and the limited space in her case?

[TheGlenlivet]

Maybe try flipping the top intake fan to exhaust, but more importantly, can you set a custom fan profile for the GPU in afterburner?  

[narrdarr]

I would have the rad on the rear or top as exhaust with two intakes on the front

[GMart84]

@TheGlenlivet thank you for the suggestion on the fans.  I would have to move the rad to do that.  As for the afterburner custom profile, that was my first thought too, but even at 100% I hit the 82 degrees.

 

@narrdarr unfortunately the darn ead is too big to fit in either place with a it’s push pull fans.  I will see if changing it to just a single fan would help.  I may also come at this differently and 3D print a bracket that mounts it to the rear exhaust but keeps it away from all the interference.

[TheGlenlivet]

4 minutes ago, GMart84 said:

but even at 100% I hit the 82 degrees

Hmmmm.  Sounds like something ain't right there.  Have you cleaned the card?  Repasted it?  Even in a little case like that, if the fans are blowing 100% it shouldn't go up and sit at 82C...

[Zando_]

23 minutes ago, narrdarr said:

I would have the rad on the rear or top as exhaust with two intakes on the front

^^^ This. I built a rig with an R5 1600 and 980 Ti in an H200. R5 1600 at 4GHz, max voltage (1.44/45 or so IIRC) never broke 70C, it was cooled by an EVGA CLC 120 mounted as exhaust. Then the EVGA 980 Ti SC hit the high 70s, might have hit 80C but IIRC it didn't. I had two 120mm fans in the front to maximize airflow to the GPU (front fans and the AIO fan were BeQuiet SilentWings 3s). All around pretty good temps for such a small case. So definitely use the AIO as an exhaust and try and get 2 good fans for the front, should be able to get more airflow to the GPU and prevent the CPU from exhausting any heat into the case, since in such a small enclosure the GPU needs all the help it can get. 

[GMart84]

@TheGlenlivet I think you might be right, but I will try the relocation of a few fans and the rad first before I go down this road.  This card was brand new and the only reason we went with it is because some of the coding stuff my daughter wants to work on needs an AMD GPU.  I honestly have no idea what that was, but who am I to turn down the chance to go shopping for PC hardware.

 

@Zando Bob Which fan slot did you mount the EVGA CLC in as a exhaust, rear or top?  I agree.  I am used to working in much bigger cases and this was a nightmare for me to try and build it.  Maybe it is because I am a novice at all of this, but i liked the challenge.

[Zando_]

6 minutes ago, GMart84 said:

@Zando Bob Which fan slot did you mount the EVGA CLC in as a exhaust, rear or top?  I agree.  I am used to working in much bigger cases and this was a nightmare for me to try and build it.  Maybe it is because I am a novice at all of this, but i liked the challenge.

I mounted it in the rear, wanted to make sure the airflow was as smooth as possible, so I kept it in line with the front fans. Exhausting out the top seems like it'd slow down the airflow by trying to pull it out the top instead of just shoving it straight out the back where the front fans are sending it anyways. 

[narrdarr]

53 minutes ago, GMart84 said:

Which fan slot did you mount the EVGA CLC in as a exhaust, rear or top?  I agree.  I am used to working in much bigger cases and this was a nightmare for me to try and build it.  Maybe it is because I am a novice at all of this, but i liked the challenge.

 

45 minutes ago, Zando Bob said:

I mounted it in the rear, wanted to make sure the airflow was as smooth as possible, so I kept it in line with the front fans. Exhausting out the top seems like it'd slow down the airflow by trying to pull it out the top instead of just shoving it straight out the back where the front fans are sending it anyways. 

i personally feel that a top mount for the aio would be best. Using SP fans everywhere. But as stated before the rear should be fine.

[Zando_]

6 minutes ago, narrdarr said:

 

i personally feel that a top mount for the aio would be best. Using SP fans everywhere. But as stated before the rear should be fine.

Why top vs rear though? Is that a more natural airflow pattern? 

[narrdarr]

23 minutes ago, Zando Bob said:

Why top vs rear though? Is that a more natural airflow pattern? 

you are correct sorta.

1. the air goes where you tell it to go.

2. i think you mean, is the path of least resistances for the air.

3. this path creates the least resistances for the hot air of the gpu to get out of the case while still letting the cpu aio to get the air it needs

[narrdarr]

ghetto job drawing in paint LOL

[Tristerin]

Thermal Dynamics are a som-uh-bish...

 

Redid my machine over the holidays...max temps in sig...just follow laws of thermal dynamics and it should always work out.  Radiator as intake...is not optimal at all.  At all.

[GMart84]

@narrdarr @Tristerin @Zando Bob Thank you for all the input.  Will definitely reconfigure and retest.  I am also thinking that the two fans on the rad aren’t helping at all as the air isn’t getting enough time to transfer any heat really in such a small rad.  The drawing while basic is very nice. Actually making me think about making a nice one in photoshop to help explain to my daughter what we are doing.

 

as for the reason it is where it is, well the damn tubes are so stiff on this cooler that I couldn’t get it to mount any where else nicely.  I am going to have to disassemble and re install the cooler to get it in a different place.

 

Tristerin, if intake is bad then why is the tower 900 that I have in my main build seemingly set up to pull in on both rads?  Maybe I am just being dumb, (likely) or is it the dual chamber design of the case that allows that?

[narrdarr]

2 minutes ago, GMart84 said:

@narrdarr @Tristerin @Zando Bob Thank you for all the input.  Will definitely reconfigure and retest.  I am also thinking that the two fans on the rad aren’t helping at all as the air isn’t getting enough time to transfer any heat really in such a small rad.  The drawing while basic is very nice. Actually making me think about making a nice one in photoshop to help explain to my daughter what we are doing.

 

as for the reason it is where it is, well the damn tubes are so stiff on this cooler that I couldn’t get it to mount any where else nicely.  I am going to have to disassemble and re install the cooler to get it in a different place.

 

Tristerin, if intake is bad then why is the tower 900 that I have in my main build seemingly set up to pull in on both rads?  Maybe I am just being dumb, (likely) or is it the dual chamber design of the case that allows that?

the i3 isn't going to give off enough heat anyways. i would just use one fan one rad.

[Tristerin]

19 hours ago, GMart84 said:

@narrdarr @Tristerin @Zando Bob Thank you for all the input.  Will definitely reconfigure and retest.  I am also thinking that the two fans on the rad aren’t helping at all as the air isn’t getting enough time to transfer any heat really in such a small rad.  The drawing while basic is very nice. Actually making me think about making a nice one in photoshop to help explain to my daughter what we are doing.

 

as for the reason it is where it is, well the damn tubes are so stiff on this cooler that I couldn’t get it to mount any where else nicely.  I am going to have to disassemble and re install the cooler to get it in a different place.

 

Tristerin, if intake is bad then why is the tower 900 that I have in my main build seemingly set up to pull in on both rads?  Maybe I am just being dumb, (likely) or is it the dual chamber design of the case that allows that?

Wrong is subjective - optimal is the goal (imho).  Optimal is as much cold air in as possible, exhausting as much heated up air as quickly as possible.  Having a radiator as intake is not optimal because you are taking the air and heating it before it enters the case, where it now spins the hotter air around the now hotter components.  Doesn't mean it wont work as it is, doesn't mean the temps will be "bad" either - just isn't optimal. 

 

Note - optimal is also a Case by Case basis (literally lol).  Ive seen some where optimal configuration was intake through bottom, exhaust out the top only etc.  But if it works and temps are within operating ranges it cant be "wrong"

 

My testimony is this above, using my own cases and testing - if you look in my sig, my personal rig sports 14 fans (its nearly dead silent) and runs exceedingly cold in a 20c ambient temperature room for a 125w processor.  However my ryzen system runs very cool as well...has only 5 fans total in the system (but its a 65w processor) and runs the CPU on a 120 AIO - It never crests 60c when stress testing. 

[GMart84]

@Tristerin Thank you for taking the time to help me understand that.  I was sitting there thinking I was going to have to redo the cooling system on my Tower 900 as all the fans pull in except for the ones on the top that exhaust out.  Basically ambient in the room is 21° C and the idle of the CPU is 25° C running with load temps staying pretty reasonable (65-75° C).  You are probably right that the system could be optimized but that sounds like another month of rewiring and tubing.

 

Your temps are awesome by the way, if I brought the vCore down my guess is the temps would follow but it isn't dangerous.

 

[GMart84]

@Tristerin @narrdarr  I wanted to really express my gratitude for helping me with this!  Over the weekend, we completely re-did the wiring and fan set up in my daughter's case and the improvements were profound.  The i3 is actually staying cooler longer with a single pull fan on it, pulling air out through the rear exhaust.  we put two fans as intake on the front with a rather aggressive fan curve on them and one intake on the top.  The GPU is now running a stock fan curve and staying @ about 75 degrees C under full load.  While still warm, it is not hitting the 82 degrees that caused it to thermal throttle itself.

 

So now we have the i3 topping out at 55-60 degrees under 100% load, and the GPU topping out at 75 degrees.  So 8 degree improvement on the CPU and 7+ degree improvement on the GPU!

[Tristerin]

1 minute ago, GMart84 said:

@Tristerin @narrdarr  I wanted to really express my gratitude for helping me with this!  Over the weekend, we completely re-did the wiring and fan set up in my daughter's case and the improvements were profound.  The i3 is actually staying cooler longer with a single pull fan on it, pulling air out through the rear exhaust.  we put two fans as intake on the front with a rather aggressive fan curve on them and one intake on the top.  The GPU is now running a stock fan curve and staying @ about 75 degrees C under full load.  While still warm, it is not hitting the 82 degrees that caused it to thermal throttle itself.

 

So now we have the i3 topping out at 55-60 degrees under 100% load, and the GPU topping out at 75 degrees.  So 8 degree improvement on the CPU and 7+ degree improvement on the GPU!

Awesome to hear!  Thanks for the update!  Thermals are a pain, though I find the challenge fun.  This weekend I dropped in 2 more fans into my Ryzen rig and did a push pull setup on my 120 AIO just to see (as rear exhaust now instead of Push AIO as top exhaust...my thermals are even better @ 45c 1 hour under full load. 

 

The next challenge, should you accept - is getting the PC dead quiet, yet exceedingly cold bwuahahahaha If you care of have the budget for trying fans out...I hate tinkering PCs...cause it robs muh wallet!

[narrdarr]

1 hour ago, GMart84 said:

@Tristerin @narrdarr  I wanted to really express my gratitude for helping me with this!  Over the weekend, we completely re-did the wiring and fan set up in my daughter's case and the improvements were profound.  The i3 is actually staying cooler longer with a single pull fan on it, pulling air out through the rear exhaust.  we put two fans as intake on the front with a rather aggressive fan curve on them and one intake on the top.  The GPU is now running a stock fan curve and staying @ about 75 degrees C under full load.  While still warm, it is not hitting the 82 degrees that caused it to thermal throttle itself.

 

So now we have the i3 topping out at 55-60 degrees under 100% load, and the GPU topping out at 75 degrees.  So 8 degree improvement on the CPU and 7+ degree improvement on the GPU!

thanks for the update

Progress has been made.

Congrats.

did you try the top fan as exhaust too?

 

 

[narrdarr]

Oh yea where are the picture of the new rig? @GMart84 I want to see it.

[GMart84]

@narrdarr  I will take some tonight, I was just happy to have it working nicely this weekend and my daughter took advantage of testing to play games for about 8 hours this weekend.

[GMart84]

@narrdarr  Here you go!  My Daughter's First Build!  I am very proud of her even though I had to redo some of the cooling stuff, other than that she did most everything in the build.

 

She is getting into coding so her Kano Harry Potter wand is right there and it has pretty much been in use everyday since Christmas when we finished it up and gave it to her.

 

 

Cable management could be better, but to be honest she is just happy to have it all working at this point.  One thing she doesn't like is that the RGB effects on the CoolerMaster stuff is not controllable via software so she need that ugly box in the case.