Trying to improve my cooling...

[tinpanalley]

I 've got a CoolerMaster HAF-912. I want some cooler air circulating through this case. It's not cramped in there but I want to add more airflow. How do I determine what kind of fans are best? I'm not finding a lot of useful "keeping your PC build cool" articles online that talk about different fan quality. I currently have 10cm fans in the front and back bays. If you look at the site you'll see that there are 2 12cm spots on the top and one 12/14cm slot on the side. I also don't understand how to determine how many spots I have left for plugging fans in on my mobo (MSI B450 Tomahawk Max). Is there such a thing as a fan power splitter?

Thanks!

[PDifolco]

There are splitters, there are daisy chainable fans, and even better there are fan hubs so some ppl can put a gazillion fans on their rig

About airflow it's kinda "natural" : put intake fans where they can draw cool air, usually front, and exhaust to help hot air getting out, so top and back

To have a balanced flow put as many intake than exhaust (or 1 more/less)

For better airflow and less noise for the same cooling use bigger fans, usually 140mm if you can

As for fan quality impact on cooling it makes no big difference, but can make one regarding noise, as some are louder than others?; But again case fans usually only need to run slow at 800 to max 1200rpm and are pretty silent

My best suggestion for cheap good fans is that you buy a 3 or 5 pack of Arctic P12s or P14s "PWM PST" (so controllable and daisy chainable), they cost less than $10 apiece

 

 

[jaslion]

you can get splitters for more fans.

 

But in the haf get a better 200mm fan. Noctua makes some good ones.

 

Then basic if possible add the side fan and have a back top and back fan.

 

Other than that add nothing more.

[tinpanalley]

I have a particular question about this case...

The front fan I've never replaced goes right in front of the hdds on the front grill. I've always wondered how much air actually gets past them into the body of the case. Should I put another intake on the side panel? What would you say to a 140 on the side, a 120 on the front, a 120 on the back and a 200 on top.

(Currently the back 120 is dead)

 

As far as chaining, I was more concerned about plugging them into the mobo and how I identify the ones for fans. Will the manual say that or call it something else? However, since you brought up chaining, that offers an interesting alternative. So it doesn't get all complicated with wires in there if you do that?

[PDifolco]

11 minutes ago, tinpanalley said:

I have a particular question about this case...

The front fan I've never replaced goes right in front of the hdds on the front grill. I've always wondered how much air actually gets past them into the body of the case. Should I put another intake on the side panel? What would you say to a 140 on the side, a 120 on the front, a 120 on the back and a 200 on top.

(Currently the back 120 is dead)

 

As far as chaining, I was more concerned about plugging them into the mobo and how I identify the ones for fans. Will the manual say that or call it something else? However, since you brought up chaining, that offers an interesting alternative. So it doesn't get all complicated with wires in there if you do that?

Your case is friggin'huge and can host like 15 fans, get a fan hub

Move the 200mm fan (or the HDD ) so that it doesn't block air (best is to have the fan towards the bottom)

Then I'd put 2 or 3x140mm top, and 1x140mm back, you can add a couple bottom fans on intake as well

[tinpanalley]

3 hours ago, PDifolco said:

get a fan hub

I didn't even know what a fan hub was. Now that I've looked it up I have no idea where I'd put it in the case. Would I have to keep the back off, I don't get it?

I don't have a 200mm fan.

This image shows it best... I have a 120mm in the front (on the right of the image) and the hdds are in front of it. Then I have the one dead 120mm in the upper back (top left of the image). I don't think any can be placed on the floor because the PSU goes there. The top is completely free though. If I'm being honest, my main priority for these fans is quiet. The free ones that came with the case have always been noisy.

The available places for fans are...

 

 

 

[tinpanalley]

3 hours ago, PDifolco said:

To have a balanced flow put as many intake than exhaust (or 1 more/less)

Would it not make more sense (total novice here, I admit) to have more exhaust than intake? For the removal of as much hot air as possible?

3 hours ago, PDifolco said:

My best suggestion for cheap good fans is that you buy a 3 or 5 pack of Arctic P12s or P14s

Do they make packs of multiple sizes? That would be great.

[tinpanalley]

3 hours ago, jaslion said:

Other than that add nothing more.

Any concern about that front one having all my hdds in front of it? Can't move the hdds though...

[PDifolco]

15 minutes ago, tinpanalley said:

I didn't even know what a fan hub was. Now that I've looked it up I have no idea where I'd put it in the case. Would I have to keep the back off, I don't get it?

I don't have a 200mm fan.

This image shows it best... I have a 120mm in the front (on the right of the image) and the hdds are in front of it. Then I have the one dead 120mm in the upper back (top left of the image). I don't think any can be placed on the floor because the PSU goes there. The top is completely free though. If I'm being honest, my main priority for these fans is quiet. The free ones that came with the case have always been noisy.

The available places for fans are...

 

 

 

Ok so put 3 fans front, 2 tops and 1 back

Use 140mm ones, set speed to 800rpm and they shoudl be pretty silent

Case fans can usually be screwed or stuck with double sided adhesive on the *back* of the case so you rout your cables without making a mess in the case

 

12 minutes ago, tinpanalley said:

Would it not make more sense (total novice here, I admit) to have more exhaust than intake? For the removal of as much hot air as possible?

Do they make packs of multiple sizes? That would be great.

Fans setup is a unending subject of discord lol

Imo it doesn't change much, but that's ok if you put 1 more on exhaust

Packs are always same size but you could get say 3x120mm and 3x140mm 

4 minutes ago, tinpanalley said:

Any concern about that front one having all my hdds in front of it? Can't move the hdds though...

Put the HDDs on the highest position possible, some cool air will make it through the bottom

Do you need the old fashioned big trays for 5.25" stuff ? If not remove them if possible

[tinpanalley]

8 hours ago, PDifolco said:

Do you need the old fashioned big trays for 5.25" stuff ? If not remove them if possible

The top ones have my BD, DVD, and flash memory readers and yes, I do use them.

The hdds are in the middle and bottom. I would say probably about 40-45% of the front fan is blocked by drives but they're all about 1.5"-2" away from where the fan sits. So I suppose air does get in there anyway.

 

Someone told me 200mm are not ideal and to stick with 140mm. THey also said to always do intake on top and front and side and to onyl exhaust out the back. Thoughts?

[jaslion]

11 hours ago, tinpanalley said:

Any concern about that front one having all my hdds in front of it? Can't move the hdds though...

No it's fine the case was made with this in mind. The side fan is enough to entirely cool even a 3090.

 

This case has a now none existant type of airflow where it has a fan hole specifically for cooling a gpu as best as possible. Then the cpu will be taken care off by all the other airflow.

[jaslion]

11 hours ago, tinpanalley said:

I didn't even know what a fan hub was. Now that I've looked it up I have no idea where I'd put it in the case. Would I have to keep the back off, I don't get it?

I don't have a 200mm fan.

This image shows it best... I have a 120mm in the front (on the right of the image) and the hdds are in front of it. Then I have the one dead 120mm in the upper back (top left of the image). I don't think any can be placed on the floor because the PSU goes there. The top is completely free though. If I'm being honest, my main priority for these fans is quiet. The free ones that came with the case have always been noisy.

The available places for fans are...

 

 

 

Yeah here you want the 200mm (noctua makes great ones) as an INTAKE it being an out right now is messing up the airflow of the case.

 

Then the back fan is fine BUT the top one you want in the back position.

[tinpanalley]

6 hours ago, jaslion said:

a fan hole specifically for cooling a gpu as best as possible

Which one is that?

6 hours ago, jaslion said:

Yeah here you want the 200mm

Where is 'here'?

 

6 hours ago, jaslion said:

Then the back fan is fine BUT the top one you want in the back position.

You lost me here...

[jaslion]

21 minutes ago, tinpanalley said:

Which one is that?

Where is 'here'?

 

You lost me here...

The side panel is for the gpu fan.

 

The 200mm fan is in the front

The top panel has space for multiple fans. The new top one should go in the back position as an out fan

 

[tinpanalley]

1 hour ago, jaslion said:

The 200mm fan is in the front

 

Ok, I see, I hadnt noticed that a 200 was an option on the front.

So youre saying 200 in the front, 120 on the side, 2 x 120 on the top and a single 120 on the back for exhaust? Seems like a lot of intake and very little exhaust.
I was just reading this.

[jaslion]

28 minutes ago, tinpanalley said:

Ok, I see, I hadnt noticed that a 200 was an option on the front.

So youre saying 200 in the front, 120 on the side, 2 x 120 on the top and a single 120 on the back for exhaust? Seems like a lot of intake and very little exhaust.
I was just reading this.

Can you check if your front fan is 200mm. The stock front fan is 200mm normally. You can then put that at the top as an exhaust.

 

Dont forget the 120mm fan on the sidepanel if it fits with your gpu there

 

More intake than exhaust is fine just means air will find the most efficient way of exiting and this case is set up to exhaust from the back and top. Which is exactly where you want it.

 

The haf is based on a front intake and 2 fan exhaust. The side fan can be introduced without any worries there.

[tinpanalley]

1 hour ago, jaslion said:

Can you check if your front fan is 200mm.

It's not. It's only 120mm.

Just want to double check... are you saying the two top fans are for intake or exhaust?

[jaslion]

3 hours ago, tinpanalley said:

It's not. It's only 120mm.

Just want to double check... are you saying the two top fans are for intake or exhaust?

Im saying there should only be one top fan located at the back that should be exhaust

[tinpanalley]

3 hours ago, jaslion said:

Im saying there should only be one top fan located at the back that should be exhaust

Ok, got it. So when you talk about TOP fans, the actual top of the case, you mean that those are intake. It's just the one on the back that is exhaust. Do I understand you now??

 

Let me ask you, since you have so much more knowledge about this than me... are CPU coolers necessary?
This is the inside of my case...

 

[Dogzilla07]

@tinpanalleyDo not get 200mm fans (any, even the Noctua which is the best in its class). They are inferior to 120/140mm fans in this situaton.

 

2 x 120mm in the front as intake , 1 x 120mm at the back  as exhaust, and 1 whatever on the top as exhaust will work best.

 

As for which fans I second the option of 3-4x Arctic P12 PWM PST fans (PST means they come with integrated splitter so u can daisy chain them to the motherboard). You might need some more splitters, an extender, or a fan hub like mentioned depending on if the cables can reach.

 

A cheap ~10 eur fan hub would probably be the easiest/safest option, with which u can run all fans through the hub, and then the hub is connected to the main CPU fan header on the motherboard, and u can set a nice ~1200-1250RPM speed and voila, perfection.

[Ralfi]

11 hours ago, Dogzilla07 said:

You might need some more splitters, an extender, or a fan hub like mentioned depending on if the cables can reach.

Arctic manufactured 600mm extension cables for the Bionix P120 ARGB fans & sent them to me once they were ready (the original extension cables were too short & they acknowledged that).

 

I dare say they’ll have extension cables for the more mainstream/popular P12 PST series of fans in future, if they don’t already. Might pay to contact them on Social Media.

[tinpanalley]

5 hours ago, Dogzilla07 said:

@tinpanalleyDo not get 200mm fans (any, even the Noctua which is the best in its class). They are inferior to 120/140mm fans in this situaton.

 

2 x 120mm in the front as intake , 1 x 120mm at the back  as exhaust, and 1 whatever on the top as exhaust will work best.

 

As for which fans I second the option of 3-4x Arctic P12 PWM PST fans (PST means they come with integrated splitter so u can daisy chain them to the motherboard). You might need some more splitters, an extender, or a fan hub like mentioned depending on if the cables can reach.

 

A cheap ~10 eur fan hub would probably be the easiest/safest option, with which u can run all fans through the hub, and then the hub is connected to the main CPU fan header on the motherboard, and u can set a nice ~1200-1250RPM speed and voila, perfection.

Thanks for the concise advice. What kind/brand of air cooling for the cpu would you recommend?

I need to make some measurements I guess to see if I need extension or hub help. I don't know the route I'd be trying to connect through so I don't know how long I'd need. What I do know is my mono has 4 fan headers. But I'd need more than 600mm to get to the front from any of them.

[Dogzilla07]

27 minutes ago, tinpanalley said:

What kind/brand of air cooling for the cpu would you recommend?

Where you buying from, website/ or country at least ?

 

Thermalright, ID-Cooling are the most cost-effective brands

[tinpanalley]

3 minutes ago, Dogzilla07 said:

Where you buying from, website/ or country at least ?

 

Thermalright, ID-Cooling are the most cost-effective brands

I'm in Canada. We have a pcpartspicker Canada, newegg canada is fantastic, and of course Amazon. Anything that is cost effective and also considered high quality? Not that the 3600 needs tonnes of help. I don't OC at all.

[Dogzilla07]

DeepCool AK400 from Amazon should be fine at $45 canadian

 

https://www.amazon.ca/DeepCool-Performance-Cooler-Dynamic-Bearing/dp/B09PCWK7SP/