Airflow advices needed!

[rrraisis]

Hi everyone, 
A couple of days ago I finished building my first gaming pc and I'm really enjoying it. 
The only thing is that I noticed that temps go pretty high during gaming, especially on the cpu side. After an hour playing fortnite the cpu went over 80C and the GPU around 75. If I remove the side panel (which is in tempered glass) temps go reasonably down and with a little tweaking with fan speeds I was able today to get stable 60/65c both on cpu and gpu. Now I ask myself, how would be the best way to improve my airflow?Is this an airflow related problew or should I just swap the stock CPU cooler for something better? (the cpu is actually the main problem, as regarding the gpu I can easily get good temps with the fans at only 50% speed) 
The case, probably not one of the best out there, came with a stock 80mm fan as exhaust - a pretty cheap one - and I have the chance to replace that with a 90mm good fan and add two 120mm fans as intakes. Would this be a better call than spending this money on a cpu cooler? Regarding the cooler the case only has about 140mm clearance.

 

My specs

 

Thank you in advance! 

[Senzelian]

I think you're facing two problems:

1. Your CPU cooler is not directing the warm air it generates in the direction of your rear fan, but instead spreads it out inside the entire case.
2. You have no intake fan, which means the CPU and GPU are recirculating a lot of the already warm air inside your case.

I really recommend to get a fan for the front and a CPU cooler that directs the air towards the rear.

Doesn't need to be anything special and a single fan will be enough for the front, but that should help a lot with temps. 

 

I can recommend the Arctic P12 fans if you don't want to spend a lot on fans.

They also have some nice CPU coolers.

 

[Gorgon]

Looks like there's little to no venting in the front of that case so you've got a ton of heat inside that case with nowhere to go. You could try a 120mm fan in front but that 80mm fan at the back would have to run pretty fast to get the air changes you need to get the heat out.

 

A 90mm fan at the back would likely help. You could try a 120 in the front also and try moving the 120mm to the top as it looks like there's a mount there. Or the "ugly" option. Mount the 120mm fan in the front and remove the front cover when gaming.

 

Edit - Nope - looks like the top vent is just marketed as a "vent" and no mention of a top fan mount so it is likely just too close to the VRM and RAM for the 25mm clearance needed to mount a fan there.

 

Shame really. You've got some good bones there. Decent Gold Power Supply, Good b450 motherboard, RX580, 1660 (non AF?) and DDR4-3600. Personally I wouldn't spend too much more on that case but save up for a bit and replace it with something with a mesh front and at least a 120mm exhaust fan at the back. All the RGB Bling on the front won't make up for having to take a drill to the front to get decent airflow.

[Demonic Donut]

3 hours ago, rrraisis said:

Hi everyone, 
A couple of days ago I finished building my first gaming pc and I'm really enjoying it. 
The only thing is that I noticed that temps go pretty high during gaming, especially on the cpu side. After an hour playing fortnite the cpu went over 80C and the GPU around 75. If I remove the side panel (which is in tempered glass) temps go reasonably down and with a little tweaking with fan speeds I was able today to get stable 60/65c both on cpu and gpu. Now I ask myself, how would be the best way to improve my airflow?Is this an airflow related problew or should I just swap the stock CPU cooler for something better? (the cpu is actually the main problem, as regarding the gpu I can easily get good temps with the fans at only 50% speed) 
The case, probably not one of the best out there, came with a stock 80mm fan as exhaust - a pretty cheap one - and I have the chance to replace that with a 90mm good fan and add two 120mm fans as intakes. Would this be a better call than spending this money on a cpu cooler? Regarding the cooler the case only has about 140mm clearance.

 

My specs

 

Thank you in advance! 

60-65 is where I would expect the CPU to run with the stock cooler. And even 70s are normal on GPUs

 

Airflow is indeed your issue. Being cheap you're looking at $20 for some decent fans that will make it better, not sure how much better. Does the front panel seem really restrictive?

 

If you want a fun DIY... Isn't that side panel acrylic? Drill a few holes carefully and mount a 140mm or even 200mm intake fan. Assuming you have clearance to the GPU.

 

[rrraisis]

14 hours ago, Senzelian said:

I can recommend the Arctic P12 fans if you don't want to spend a lot on fans.

They also have some nice CPU coolers.

 

Yeah I was looking to that model as an intake. Could get two of them for less than 20€! Regarding the cooler I was looking for something that wouldn't break the bank... do you have any advice? Spending about 80€ for a nh-c14s and 20€ on fans wouldn't make so much sense, if you ask me. At that point maybe the best decision would be just swapping the case with something better.

14 hours ago, Gorgon said:

Looks like there's little to no venting in the front of that case so you've got a ton of heat inside that case with nowhere to go.

This. Running some benchmark with the panel I was able that the stock cooler is able to cool down the heat generated by the cpu. When both the cpu and gpu are on load it's just too much for it to be handled.

14 hours ago, Gorgon said:

A 90mm fan at the back would likely help. You could try a 120 in the front also and try moving the 120mm to the top as it looks like there's a mount there. Or the "ugly" option. Mount the 120mm fan in the front and remove the front cover when gaming.

 

Edit - Nope - looks like the top vent is just marketed as a "vent" and no mention of a top fan mount so it is likely just too close to the VRM and RAM for the 25mm clearance needed to mount a fan there.

Yeah on the top would probably don't fit. Maybe if I replace the 80mm stock fan with a 90mm one I could then move the 80mm to the top as an exhaust, kinda on the left side. Could be needed a couple of holes but if I already have the 80mm then might be worth a shot.

The front panel is solid and cannot be removed completely, since there are cables plugged for the front I/O. And maybe at that point I'd rather leave the side panel open that the side panel 

Stupid question: if I get the 120mm fan, where should I then be mounting it, inside the case or between the front panel and the case? 

14 hours ago, Gorgon said:

Shame really. You've got some good bones there. Decent Gold Power Supply, Good b450 motherboard, RX580, 1660 (non AF?) and DDR4-3600. Personally I wouldn't spend too much more on that case but save up for a bit and replace it with something with a mesh front and at least a 120mm exhaust fan at the back. All the RGB Bling on the front won't make up for having to take a drill to the front to get decent airflow.

Is the af version, but I wasn't somehow able to find it on pc part picker... About the case choice I actually didn't care that much about RGB, just wanted something compact so that I'd be able to move it to the city where I study as long as this whole corona story will end. If you have any advice about compact mini tower matx cases I'd be glad to take them into account.

 

11 hours ago, Demonic Donut said:

If you want a fun DIY... Isn't that side panel acrylic? Drill a few holes carefully and mount a 140mm or even 200mm intake fan. Assuming you have clearance to the GPU.

The side panel is unfortunately tempered glass.

 

So, summing it up: If I want to stick to this case I should get 2x120mm fans like the arctic P12 (could 1 be sufficient, since the heated zone is more on the cpu side?) and a 90mm fan (any recommendation?) to replace the 80mm stock one that then I could move to the top with less to no DIY. This would cost me about 30€ if I get two P12s. What would be a decent cpu cooler lower then 145mm (I checked the case specs, it says up to 147 clearance) that's not too expensive?

 

Thank you guys for your patience, and sorry for my bad English

[Demonic Donut]

@rrraisis  There are some decent coolers in the $50 range. Not sure if it's worth it for you though. I'd try to fix case flow first. My stock 3600 cooler performed acceptably, especially with gaming.

 

 

I'm not familiar with mini cases so I can't help you there.

 

As far as exact mounting position, I'm not sure without seeing the case. You want the fans to be sealed as much as possible, between the outlet and inlet sides, for the best airflow and temps.

 

For example my case has terrible front fan mounts. Air bypasses through the empty 5.25" bays above the fans and goes back into the fan inlet. Causing air to short cycle and not flow through the case.

 

If you post pictures I can maybe help more with fans.

 

Are there no stock 120mm fans? If not, I'd get 2 and not 1 new 120mm.

 

Also, you could try tuning in bios to adjust clock speeds and vcore voltages.

[popaye]

15 hours ago, rrraisis said:

Hi everyone, 
A couple of days ago I finished building my first gaming pc and I'm really enjoying it. 
The only thing is that I noticed that temps go pretty high during gaming, especially on the cpu side. After an hour playing fortnite the cpu went over 80C and the GPU around 75. If I remove the side panel (which is in tempered glass) temps go reasonably down and with a little tweaking with fan speeds I was able today to get stable 60/65c both on cpu and gpu. Now I ask myself, how would be the best way to improve my airflow?Is this an airflow related problew or should I just swap the stock CPU cooler for something better? (the cpu is actually the main problem, as regarding the gpu I can easily get good temps with the fans at only 50% speed) 
The case, probably not one of the best out there, came with a stock 80mm fan as exhaust - a pretty cheap one - and I have the chance to replace that with a 90mm good fan and add two 120mm fans as intakes. Would this be a better call than spending this money on a cpu cooler? Regarding the cooler the case only has about 140mm clearance.

 

My specs

 

Thank you in advance! 

 

You must change your Case. I suggest Lian Li O11 Air.

You must change Cooler. I suggest Be Quiet Dark Rock Pro 4

After this everything gonna be allright!

[Senzelian]

1 hour ago, rrraisis said:

Yeah I was looking to that model as an intake. Could get two of them for less than 20€! Regarding the cooler I was looking for something that wouldn't break the bank... do you have any advice? Spending about 80€ for a nh-c14s and 20€ on fans wouldn't make so much sense, if you ask me. At that point maybe the best decision would be just swapping the case with something better.

I can suggest the be Quiet Pure Rock and the Arctic Freezer 34. (There are also black versions of the Freezer 34)

I don't know the case you're using right now, but a swap would probably help. I wouldn't do it without testing how a new CPU cooler and an intake fan would do.

 

19 minutes ago, popaye said:

You must change your Case. I suggest Lian Li O11 Air.

You must change Cooler. I suggest Be Quiet Dark Rock Pro 4

After this everything gonna be allright!

You might aswell suggest a fridge. A fridge is cheaper.