Help with a major case of choice paralasys. I need a case with stupid high air-flow

[ThorntonStrolia]

So I think most options these days are better than what I have, but I am running a 3090, a 3070, and likely soon a 3080 as well or 3090. Depending on what I have room for. With the two current cards I cannot close my computer case, it just gets too hot, and under max load I am still nearing thermal throttle. The 3090 ram gets right up to the peak limits under load and I don't like that. They still don't make a water block for my specific cards yet so I am working with fan cooling still. I am looking at upgrading my CPU and ram as well so temps are only gonna get hotter, and I would like to be able to close my case up again in this life time.

I am looking at my options and just can't find a case I really like for the airflow. They all seem a little dainty to me. I am hoping maybe you all can help me out a bit.

Getting air in is not as big of a problem on my corsair 750d (my current case) but getting hot air out certainly is. I run all noctua 140mm fans all around and plan to go full noctua on the next build as well unless you think there is a better configuration. I know a lot of the magic can happen just by routing the air differently. I am also considering 3D printing a custom fan mount to run a fan right down the spines of the cards to hopefully blow hot air off the backs of them, especially where they are sandwiched together, but that won't get the hot air to exhaust, only off the backs of the cards so I still need something with a little more umph in that area.

There are a lot of "popular" high air flow options I am finding like the lian-li lancool ii mesh; the kinds of cases that pop up in the "best for 2022" lists, but I would rather hear the arguments made by someone who isn't just trying to sneak in an amazon affiliate link. No hate to those trying to get their bag, but I can't risk it on that basis.

Thank you so much in advance everyone!

[PDifolco]

Fractal Torrent comes to mind for your needs

 

[ThorntonStrolia]

25 minutes ago, PDifolco said:

Fractal Torrent comes to mind for your needs

 

That does seem like a great option. I like that it has the 3 fans on the bottom I can really force air right up and into the cards with, so it doesn't have to make a 90 degree turn with from the front. Any thoughts on a corsair 2 fan or 3 fan AIO on the front? Do you think that would slow down airflow coming in from the front of the case too much? It seems to me like those 180mm fans in the front are a big selling point for the air flow, but from what I am looking at it looks like a radiator with 3 140mm fans would fit and that might not be such a bad loss to front to back airflow

[jaslion]

46 minutes ago, ThorntonStrolia said:

That does seem like a great option. I like that it has the 3 fans on the bottom I can really force air right up and into the cards with, so it doesn't have to make a 90 degree turn with from the front. Any thoughts on a corsair 2 fan or 3 fan AIO on the front? Do you think that would slow down airflow coming in from the front of the case too much? It seems to me like those 180mm fans in the front are a big selling point for the air flow, but from what I am looking at it looks like a radiator with 3 140mm fans would fit and that might not be such a bad loss to front to back airflow

The torrent is an airflow and aircooler focused case. Aio's do poorly in it and ruin it's strength which is high airflow.

 

Any reason you want an aio? Plenty of air coolers that perform better than a 240mm rad.

[ThorntonStrolia]

5 minutes ago, jaslion said:

The torrent is an airflow and aircooler focused case. Aio's do poorly in it and ruin it's strength which is high airflow.

 

Any reason you want an aio? Plenty of air coolers that perform better than a 240mm rad.

Not specifically, outside of the fact that the one I have already has a mounting bracket for amd chips, although it is probably due for an upgrade anyway. I am not adverse to full air cooling, as long as the copious amount of heat flying off a 3090 and 3070 being right below it aren't going to interfere, given heat famously rises. It also seemed to me as though that PSU shroud doesn't leave much room for a tanky tower heat sink, but there might be more room than I am imagining.

[jaslion]

2 minutes ago, ThorntonStrolia said:

Not specifically, outside of the fact that the one I have already has a mounting bracket for amd chips, although it is probably due for an upgrade anyway. I am not adverse to full air cooling, as long as the copious amount of heat flying off a 3090 and 3070 being right below it aren't going to interfere, given heat famously rises. It also seemed to me as though that PSU shroud doesn't leave much room for a tanky tower heat sink, but there might be more room than I am imagining.

The heat rising thing is entirely negated the moment a small breeze happens. Let alone a hurricane like the fractal torrent has :p.

 

There is plenty of room in that case the biggest air cooler the nhd15 fits with ease.

 

What cpu are you cooling?

[ThorntonStrolia]

10 minutes ago, jaslion said:

The heat rising thing is entirely negated the moment a small breeze happens. Let alone a hurricane like the fractal torrent has :p.

 

There is plenty of room in that case the biggest air cooler the nhd15 fits with ease.

 

What cpu are you cooling?

Planning on a 5950x, although, I am nervous about the motherboard selection. My 3090 takes up 4 slots which makes fitting a 3070 or 3080 in a chore at absolute best. Although, if I am going full air cooled I can leave the 180mm fans up front and then I think the 140s down at the bottom will be thin enough that if I bend the cables down at the bottom of the case down, I can fit the 3090 in the middle slot and hopefully won't interfere with the fans at the bottom of the case... I hope. With my prehistoric 750D now, there is a good amount of room at the bottom of the case so I don't have to worry too much about clearance like that. In this case, if it does fit.... those bottom fans will be blasting straight into the 3090 by only like a cm which would be nice (I think, but also, it will cover like 2.5 of the bottom fans en their entirety)

[jaslion]

Oh then even something as simple as a sycthe fuma 2 or deepcool ak620 will do really well.

 

As for your 3090 this case about 10.5 slots of space.

[ThorntonStrolia]

9 minutes ago, jaslion said:

Oh then even something as simple as a sycthe fuma 2 or deepcool ak620 will do really well.

 

As for your 3090 this case about 10.5 slots of space.

Cool, well, if the 3090 doesn't fit perfectly then I won't be that far off from where I am now because I still have a slew of problems just not being able to find boards at an appealing price that have 3 spaces between the top and middle pcie lanes, so if worse comes to worse and I can't find a config I like, the 3090 goes to the top lane and additional cards can eventually run externally. I don't game so most of the drawbacks people fear of running external just don't scare me as much. Not ideal but I may also eventually be able to print something and setup a PCIe riser too. Theres options.... just not all of them pretty options lol.

 

Anyway, I am sold. Gonna get an order and then spend entirely too much time trying to upgrade my CPU without doing a fresh install of windows. Probably will only take 15 minutes of minor annoyance, but thats 15 more than I would like haha

[jaslion]

3 minutes ago, ThorntonStrolia said:

Cool, well, if the 3090 doesn't fit perfectly then I won't be that far off from where I am now because I still have a slew of problems just not being able to find boards at an appealing price that have 3 spaces between the top and middle pcie lanes, so if worse comes to worse and I can't find a config I like, the 3090 goes to the top lane and additional cards can eventually run externally. I don't game so most of the drawbacks people fear of running external just don't scare me as much. Not ideal but I may also eventually be able to print something and setup a PCIe riser too. Theres options.... just not all of them pretty options lol.

 

Anyway, I am sold. Gonna get an order and then spend entirely too much time trying to upgrade my CPU without doing a fresh install of windows. Probably will only take 15 minutes of minor annoyance, but thats 15 more than I would like haha

A cpu upgrade doesn't need a new windows install if you stay on the same board.

[ThorntonStrolia]

18 minutes ago, jaslion said:

A cpu upgrade doesn't need a new windows install if you stay on the same board.

Im changing from intel so the whole board is going. The reinstall will happen, as I would prefer it, but I don't have tons of time to reinstall all my work software sadly for probably some time now. Intel just doesn't perform as well for 3D rendering and simulation work as it used to. AMD 5950x and better are sorta generally reigning champs right now by more than a small margin in most cases. Theoretically I will just need to re-enter my windows license but I suspect a lot of configs are gonna be broken and certainly won't be a long term solution by any means

[thrasher_565]

sli ing is always going to be hot no matter what you do. the top gpu will suffer. the torrent on paper is the best thow no test have be done by filling other case full of fans...

 

the lian li evo allows for front fans, side fans, top fans and bottom fans but its really stooped the 140mm fans on the bottom barely fit... and block all aio on the bottom...

 

Phanteks Enthoo Pro 2 is probably a better case imo thow it might cost more to fill it with fans then the torrent with fans but atlest you can mount the aio on the side or up top give maximum air flow for the gpus

[jaslion]

3 hours ago, thrasher_565 said:

sli ing is always going to be hot no matter what you do. the top gpu will suffer. the torrent on paper is the best thow no test have be done by filling other case full of fans...

 

the lian li evo allows for front fans, side fans, top fans and bottom fans but its really stooped the 140mm fans on the bottom barely fit... and block all aio on the bottom...

 

Phanteks Enthoo Pro 2 is probably a better case imo thow it might cost more to fill it with fans then the torrent with fans but atlest you can mount the aio on the side or up top give maximum air flow for the gpus

Since op is opting for an air cooler with the torrent the torrent would still have the higher airflow here.

 

The rest you said fully agree. Things flat out will run hot no matter what. Op might actually be betternoff having the 3090 as the bottom card and the weaker onr as the top card

[ThorntonStrolia]

2 hours ago, jaslion said:

Since op is opting for an air cooler with the torrent the torrent would still have the higher airflow here.

 

The rest you said fully agree. Things flat out will run hot no matter what. Op might actually be betternoff having the 3090 as the bottom card and the weaker onr as the top card

6 hours ago, thrasher_565 said:

sli ing is always going to be hot no matter what you do. the top gpu will suffer. the torrent on paper is the best thow no test have be done by filling other case full of fans...

 

the lian li evo allows for front fans, side fans, top fans and bottom fans but its really stooped the 140mm fans on the bottom barely fit... and block all aio on the bottom...

 

Phanteks Enthoo Pro 2 is probably a better case imo thow it might cost more to fill it with fans then the torrent with fans but atlest you can mount the aio on the side or up top give maximum air flow for the gpus

No doubt things will run hot. Just trying to get it to back away from 90c on the backs of the graphics cards, especially the 3090 who I know for sure has vram modules on the back of the card and I can tell the vram VERY much does not like being at 90c. Graphics glitches galore after the vram hits 88c. The GPU temp it's self is actually very good but the backs of the cards don't get much love, just a flimsy shield and possibly a thermal pad, and if I close the case then the CPU actually gets too hot even with the AIO from ambient temps.

[thrasher_565]

1 hour ago, ThorntonStrolia said:

No doubt things will run hot. Just trying to get it to back away from 90c on the backs of the graphics cards, especially the 3090 who I know for sure has vram modules on the back of the card and I can tell the vram VERY much does not like being at 90c. Graphics glitches galore after the vram hits 88c. The GPU temp it's self is actually very good but the backs of the cards don't get much love, just a flimsy shield and possibly a thermal pad, and if I close the case then the CPU actually gets too hot even with the AIO from ambient temps.

i no there are fins you can add weather or not there enough i dont no. you think they make a back plate with fins of some sort. i my self like the vrms on the back only because they made a double sided water block witch looks cool imo im weird like that thow.  3080 also have the vrms on the back and maybe the 6800? or the hot vrms for that matter.

 

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/393936302760?hash=item5bb86ef2a8:g:NGYAAOSwCXxiCoO7

 

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/363827556236?hash=item54b5cfef8c:g:WFkAAOSwci9ic0Rc

 

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/255591222856?hash=item3b826c8e48:g:zd0AAOSw19FisAdw

 

i heard that replacing the thermal pads can help too.

Edited June 30, 2022 by thrasher_565

[thrasher_565]

4 hours ago, jaslion said:

Since op is opting for an air cooler with the torrent the torrent would still have the higher airflow here.

 

The rest you said fully agree. Things flat out will run hot no matter what. Op might actually be betternoff having the 3090 as the bottom card and the weaker onr as the top card

your basing that off of gn test witch the case came with 5 fans most other case dont come with fans lets alone 5 and when he dose add fans its only 2 in front and 1 in back.

[ThorntonStrolia]

28 minutes ago, thrasher_565 said:

i no there are fins you can add weather or not there enough i dont no. you think they make a back plate with fins of some sort. i my self like the vrms on the back only because they made a double sided water block witch looks cool imo im weird like that thow.  3080 also have the vrms on the back and maybe the 6800? or the hot vrms for that matter.

 

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/393936302760?hash=item5bb86ef2a8:g:NGYAAOSwCXxiCoO7

 

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/363827556236?hash=item54b5cfef8c:g:WFkAAOSwci9ic0Rc

 

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/255591222856?hash=item3b826c8e48:g:zd0AAOSw19FisAdw

 

i heard that replacing the thermal pads can help too.

I have looked at quite a few of those options. They look quite good and I have heard the same about the thermal pads which is probably the quickest easy bandaid fix. The issue I am having is the Aorus 3090, the only one I could get my hands on at the time, has a different hole pattern than most other cards. I could be wrong, given that I have not taken my cards back plate off, but just visually it looks like any backplate sink I find will require some degree of modification and it also would take up too much room to continue using the card in the bottom position. It would basically have to be on top which then bars me from using my second card, at least until I can consider the option of an external GPU enclosure which I don't love but given that this is for summing RT and Cuda cores and not for gaming performance, it shouldn't be that big of a deal

[tkitch]

almost no case will support 3 GPUs, because 9 PCI Slots doesn't really happen in cases, outside of Mining Rigs.

(Also more than 9 slots if you leave any gaps between the cards for airflow.)

[ThorntonStrolia]

1 minute ago, tkitch said:

almost no case will support 3 GPUs, because 9 PCI Slots doesn't really happen in cases, outside of Mining Rigs.

(Also more than 9 slots if you leave any gaps between the cards for airflow.)

In all likelihood a third card will be done with a riser or externally in the end. I have no use for the monitor inputs so it is pretty much useless to bother attempting to mount it to the rear of the case if not absolutely necessary. 3D printing a mount for the card and case placement is a different discussion though. 3 cards is definitely a chore of it's own that will not be coming soon. Bigger issue right now is just exhausting the hot air so I can actually close the case and it seems to me so far that the fractal is up to the task

[thrasher_565]

7 hours ago, ThorntonStrolia said:

In all likelihood a third card will be done with a riser or externally in the end. I have no use for the monitor inputs so it is pretty much useless to bother attempting to mount it to the rear of the case if not absolutely necessary. 3D printing a mount for the card and case placement is a different discussion though. 3 cards is definitely a chore of it's own that will not be coming soon. Bigger issue right now is just exhausting the hot air so I can actually close the case and it seems to me so far that the fractal is up to the task

the evo alows another card on the side not grate but best you can do unless you want to diy mount it. mnpc tech also sell an adapter to mount any gpu to a fan but if dose cost a bit imo

 

w/e you it wont be as good as water cooling.

[ThorntonStrolia]

26 minutes ago, thrasher_565 said:

mnpc tech also sell an adapter to mount any gpu to a fan but if dose cost a bit imo

Thats actually really cool