My 2020 build... also need some advice

[lapinobel]

This is my current build :

MSI Z390 ACES

Intel i9700K

16gb ram

several SSD's

Kraken X60

MSI RTX2080 Gaming Trio X

 

Cooling :

* 2 front intake 140mm NZXT (stock Kraken)

* 1 rear outtake Bequiet Silent Wings 2

* 1 bottom intake Bequiet Silent Wings 2

* 3 top outtake AER NZXT fans 140mm

 

PC runs fine, temps are pretty good too, but I always kinda hate it when I play games that the GPU fans start spinning quite a bit more and thus more noise is added. So I might consider going to a full custom watercooled loop (even though I have 0 experience). Just want to keep my pc as quiet as possible and especially not with fans going in overdrive when playing heavy games. 

 

Any advice? I don't mind swapping the whole cooling system and fan setup. So I need decent cooling performance without introducing heavy noise, really need to get this thing QUIET (my desk is in a corner of the living room).

[Guest]

Why would you go with custom water loops? You could get a AIO gpu cooler (very similar to a cpu cooler) and Just mount it on top with your other fans. Also pls fix that gpu sag

[Aereldor]

Custom fan curve.

[Aereldor]

Just now, Berkomeister said:

Also pls fix that gpu sag

Yikes, I just saw that. Also cable management 2/10

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, Aereldor said:

Custom fan curve.

Aren't 2080's always hot?

[lapinobel]

Thx for the tips. How could I fix the gpu sag? And cable management... well, not sure how I can improve this. 

[Guest]

Just pull all the cables back behind the case and ziptie them until you can't see as many cables. Also something like this would fix the gpu sag https://www.amazon.com/upHere-Graphics-Anodized-Aerospace-Aluminum/dp/B076GYL25H

[Aereldor]

5 minutes ago, Berkomeister said:

Aren't 2080's always hot?

Undervolting, turning the PSU so it's face down sucking air up from the bottom of the PC and not stealing airflor from the GPU. Changing config - radiator on top either with the fans pulling from the case towards the rad, or with the rad facing the motherboard with the fans pulling from the top, case fans in the front in pull config, and rear fan + GPU to push. Possibly mounting a fan under the GPU to pull air towards it from the PSU shroud too.

[Aereldor]

1 minute ago, Berkomeister said:

Just pull all the cables back behind the case and ziptie them until you can't see as many cables. Also something like this would fix the gpu sag https://www.amazon.com/upHere-Graphics-Anodized-Aerospace-Aluminum/dp/B076GYL25H

I just used a chopstick painted black

[Guest]

1 minute ago, Aereldor said:

Undervolting, turning the PSU so it's face down sucking air up from the bottom of the PC and not stealing airflor from the GPU. Changing config - radiator on top in pull, case fans in the front in pull config, and rear fan + GPU to push. Possibly mounting a fan under the GPU to pull air towards it from the PSU shroud too.

Didn't realize that psu shroud had holes on it. Also Push and pull radiator would be viable too

 

[lapinobel]

5 minutes ago, Berkomeister said:

Just pull all the cables back behind the case and ziptie them until you can't see as many cables. Also something like this would fix the gpu sag https://www.amazon.com/upHere-Graphics-Anodized-Aerospace-Aluminum/dp/B076GYL25H

I have to say I'm pretty used to building pc's (not that ultra pro builds) but I really have no way to "pull" the cables you see behind the case any more. My PSU cables are quite rigid, and for example the Kraken cooler has all these little wires quite a lot spread so no way to ziptie these together. Will see if I can improve it a bit. The GPU sag is something that bothers me indeed. 

 

Any advice on the fans itself? Better options?

[Guest]

Just now, lapinobel said:

I have to say I'm pretty used to building pc's (not that ultra pro builds) but I really have no way to "pull" the cables you see behind the case any more. My PSU cables are quite rigid, and for example the Kraken cooler has all these little wires quite a lot spread so no way to ziptie these together. Will see if I can improve it a bit. The GPU sag is something that bothers me indeed. 

 

Any advice on the fans itself? Better options?

You could put fans on both sides of the radiator and have a push-pull config. If you meant better case fans be quiet! would be a good option

[Guest]

Also I don't think those cables interrupt airflow. Fixing them would only improve the looks

[lapinobel]

Yeah but looks are important too

[Guest]

Just now, lapinobel said:

Yeah but looks are important too

True. Also do you have 4 Exhaust 2 Intake fans?

[Aereldor]

12 minutes ago, lapinobel said:

I have to say I'm pretty used to building pc's

It doesn't look like it. There's a bout a million ways you could manage the cable mess above the CPU cooler better, the messy twisted GPU power cable, and that weird arcing one under the GPU. Black zipties never fail.

 

10 minutes ago, Berkomeister said:

You could put fans on both sides of the radiator and have a push-pull config. If you meant better case fans be quiet! would be a good option

Best fans are Noctua. They make black ones now even though I liked their weird chocolate vanilla colour scheme

[Guest]

Just now, Aereldor said:

It doesn't look like it. There's a bout a million ways you could manage the cable mess above the CPU cooler better, the messy twisted GPU power cable, and that weird arcing one under the GPU. 

 

Best fans are Noctua. They make black ones now even though I liked their weird chocolate vanilla colour scheme

Oh yeah, forgot noctua.

[lapinobel]

Aereldor, I've been assembling my own pc's for years but I would never consider myself as good as I want to be and I can always learn. Like I said, the PSU cables are very sturdy (might get some cablemods) and those wires above the cpu are just difficult to manage. The GPU cable is really an eyesore I know.

 

@Berkomeister : got 4 exhaust, 2 intake yes. Suppose it's not ideal.

[lapinobel]

[paddy-stone]

32 minutes ago, Berkomeister said:

Also pls fix that gpu sag

Doesn't look like sag to me, if you look closer the picture is taken at an angle that makes it appear like sag.

[lapinobel]

Well, it sags a bit to be honest but it's quite a sturdy GPU. It's maybe 0,5cm from the pci slot to the other end of the card. Cleaned up the little cable at the bottom (moved because I moved the bottom fan) and re-arranged the ones at the cpu cooler a bit as far as possible. But the GPU cables are still messy, and the fan cable at the top right just has no hole to pass through closer to the mainboard. So no way to hide this better.

 

Anyway, my point was getting a more quiet pc. I have a feeling my case fans aren't the quietest on the market (especially the AER ones often sound loud to me). I use "Argus Monitor" for custom fan profiles and while I do get the casefans nice and quiet, I still get way too much noise when gaming (mainly from the gpu). With the case open, it stays quiet so pretty sure it's not getting enough cool air or warm air just doesn't get out well enough. That's why I mounted the top exhaust fans hoping it would get rid of the warm air better.

 

So would a push/pull radiator and getting rid of the top exhaust be a better option?

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, lapinobel said:

This is much better. I'm assuming you couldn't squeeze those cables on top of the cpu cooler between the heatspreaders and ram

[paddy-stone]

Ahh yeah, I can see the VERY slight sag now...

 

I'm not familiar with the NZXT CPU cooler, where do all the wires go? I'm guessing that the big wire goes to a HUB or USB power? and the other wires go to a HUB/controller? if so I'd cable them all together to go with the thicker wire and route that through a hole more left, so approx middle of the leftmost fan at the top.

[jones177]

To be straight with you.  I would not do anything now.

 

There does not seem to be a good hybrid solution for it. Water cooling the hole system would be costly and may not gave you the performance  results that you want.  What I would do is plan and save for a next gen solution.

 

 Also look for other solutions for noise. 

I had a noise issue with my EVGA XC 2080 ti. With a thermometer I found that the air below the card was hot while the air above the card was cool. I had to add a fan to get that air circulating and the card dropped 5c under load and that ended the noise issue. 

 

Learn at what temps your GPU downclocks.

To give you an idea my XC 2080 ti down clocks in 10c increments and that is 74 to 84c, 64 to 74c and 54 to 64c. 

With the fix mentioned above I run between 72 and 74c but to get better performance I need to be below 64c. Some people run below 64c but not with standard water solutions. For a hybrids it is usually a push-pull setup to achieve it. 

 

Test your harward. See what temps you need to achieve the performance you want and then buy. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[lapinobel]

Thanks for all the tips and info. I re-arranged some stuff so it looks a bit cleaner now, but I could really do with some custom PSU cables to get it to look nicer. I'm more and more pulling away from the RGB stuff (even though I keep it muted and single/two color most of the time). So might change for all black fans (Noctua's). I did some testing yesterday with high front fan speeds, case open and closed etc. Conclusion: gpu usually stays around 70°C at high load with around 65%-70% fan speed which is kinda loud on the MSI RTX2080. But this also makes me conclude that airflow in the case is sufficient since even with an open case the GPU stays (kinda) loud under load. So my guess is the RTX2080 and the cooling system of the MSI is just what it is (loud/hot).

 

Should test some more if the top exhaust do make a difference, but I have a feeling these do not make that much of a difference keeping the gpu cooler. I have no way to get more air onto the GPU as it is, the only thing I might change is putting the rad up top to get more airflow from front over card, but I doubt this will make a big difference since with open case temps/fan speeds of the GPU stay about the same. There is pretty little space between the bottom of the GPU and the PSU shroud, so I can imagine (hot) air kinda gets trapped below the GPU heating it up.

 

Let's hope the RTX3080 is cooler. This is mainly why I considered putting a watercooled (custom) setup in, this would keep the GPU cooler and would allow me to control the fan speed of the rads to keep it silent, but it does have a high cost of course installing a custom WC setup (let alone my 0 experience with hard tubing etc)