Small vs large cases an temperatures

[martward]

Hi all,

 

So I've been obsessing a bit about my temperatures since I got my new RTX 2060. Basically I was getting temperatures up to 80C whereas my previous card didn't get past 67 or 68. I've made a few changes:

- Taken out the drive bay in front of the intakes

- Flipped the PSU so it's pulling air from the bottom instead of from my case

- Swapped intake fans with Arctic P12s

These changes dropped my temperatures to about 69-72 degrees, which is more where I'd like them.

My current case is a Fractal Design Arc Midi R2, which has some thick filters on the front and the top, and is a rather large case overall. I was wondering whether switching to a case like the Corsair Carbide Air 240 or 540 would reduce temperatures. The 240 is smaller, but also the intake fans are closer to the GPU, plus if I have two intakes, a push/pull on a radiator and a separate fan as exhaust, wouldn't the air move way faster through the case, meaning it has less time to heat up inside the case?

 

Right now I have the two P12s as intake, running at 100%. I have a Hydro H75 with a push/pull configuration as exhaust and I have a 140mm fan from Fractal Design as exhaust in the top. Any other suggestions that could improve temperatures? 

 

Cheers

[PopsicleHustler]

Case cooling won't matter much if you have crap cooler on the GPU itself.

[homeap5]

Yes, I have one - setup fan curve in MSI Afterburner. These days producers are trying to made very silend graphics cards, but they overheat. So if you setup your fan curve proper (100% at 70 degree for example) , GPU temperatures drops.

[Mira Yurizaki]

I'm rambling on in my head with my engineering senses.

 

A smaller case would seem better for cooling overall, because the point of case fans are to "replace" the air in the case with cooler air. If there's less volume in the case, that's less air to replace in the same amount of time. In a larger case with more air in it, if the fans can't replace the air fast enough, then the air inside will warm up until some equilibrium is reached.

[Emanbaird]

2 minutes ago, Mira Yurizaki said:

I'm rambling on in my head with my engineering senses.

 

A smaller case would seem better for cooling overall, because the point of case fans are to "replace" the air in the case with cooler air. If there's less volume in the case, that's less air to replace in the same amount of time. In a larger case with more air in it, if the fans can't replace the air fast enough, then the air inside will warm up until some equilibrium is reached.

Yeah, it may seem cooler at first, until all the air reaches a certain temp, then you'll need more fans to move more air.

[PopsicleHustler]

1 minute ago, Mira Yurizaki said:

I'm rambling on in my head with my engineering senses.

 

A smaller case would seem better for cooling overall, because the point of case fans are to "replace" the air in the case with cooler air. If there's less volume in the case, that's less air to replace in the same amount of time. In a larger case with more air in it, if the fans can't replace the air fast enough, then the air inside will warm up until some equilibrium is reached.

Don't forget that bigger cases can have more fans and less restricted airflow. Also, small cases usually have restricted intake.

[Mira Yurizaki]

4 minutes ago, PopsicleHustler said:

Don't forget that bigger cases can have more fans and less restricted airflow. Also, small cases usually have restricted intake.

Needing to move more air internally offsets the advantage of having more fan mounts.

 

Also I ran a high-performance setup inside a sub 15L mini-ITX case (A Silverstone FTZ01) and thermal performance was basically the same as anything else and I didn't even have to crank up the fans.

[martward]

8 minutes ago, Mira Yurizaki said:

I'm rambling on in my head with my engineering senses.

 

A smaller case would seem better for cooling overall, because the point of case fans are to "replace" the air in the case with cooler air. If there's less volume in the case, that's less air to replace in the same amount of time. In a larger case with more air in it, if the fans can't replace the air fast enough, then the air inside will warm up until some equilibrium is reached.

That was pretty much what I was thinking yeah.

 

4 minutes ago, PopsicleHustler said:

Don't forget that bigger cases can have more fans and less restricted airflow. Also, small cases usually have restricted intake.

That most certainly doesn't go for the Arc Midi R2 though ^^. Ofcourse that's not indicative for all larger cases.

 

5 minutes ago, Emanbaird said:

Yeah, it may seem cooler at first, until all the air reaches a certain temp, then you'll need more fans to move more air.

Do you think you'd need more fans than in a larger case?

[Emanbaird]

1 minute ago, martward said:

That was pretty much what I was thinking yeah.

 

That most certainly doesn't go for the Arc Midi R2 though ^^. Ofcourse that's not indicative for all larger cases.

 

Do you think you'd need more fans than in a larger case?

While moving more air over the GPU may lower the average ambient, if the transfer from the chip to the cooler, to the air. is poor then no matter what you do temps will only drop a little. the air 240 should be fine, and while you could shove more fans in an air 540 you would most likely not see a very good increase in performance, do you have a blower style?

[martward]

11 minutes ago, Emanbaird said:

While moving more air over the GPU may lower the average ambient, if the transfer from the chip to the cooler, to the air. is poor then no matter what you do temps will only drop a little. the air 240 should be fine, and while you could shove more fans in an air 540 you would most likely not see a very good increase in performance, do you have a blower style?

No I have a Gigabyte Windforce OC 2060 6GB. I want to move to a smaller case and have a bit better airflow.

[Emanbaird]

I did a build with a 280x and a 2080, so i'd be surprised if the 240 lacked airflow for the 2060