Cooling questions

[Nalyk]

Built a new computer.  Super stoked, but didn't realize how much heat the new GPU's were putting out, or well I did, but it didn't click I guess?

 

Case: Meshify 2

7600x

6950xt

MSI B650-P wifi

&...ram can give kit if necessary but don't think it is.

 

Either way, description to follow.

 

1. Inital set up.(whoops!)

This has been fixed.  I ran occt and was getting some temp spikes of like 91-92 failry consistently, with a peerless assassin 120. and thought okay, I messed something up.

Which I did, I put way too much paste on, put the fans on backwards,

 

1.5 Proper thermal paste application & cpu fans set to exhausted out the back.

After fixing all of the above and changing the "handed" ness of the cooling tower, giving a little more breathing room between the gpu and cooling tower I ran occt again, was getting temps of like 74-78 or so. No additional fans.  Fans were plugged into the meshify's fan controller with the fan controler plugged into the CPU fan socket.

 

2.Fans foward

Once I realized I needed more cooling potential (and a gpu bracket) I ordered 3 more thermalright 120's. (I ordered the fans before i ran occt just fyi)

 

I mounted all of the fans foward to push more air into the case, but the 3rd fan was blowing essentially directly onto the side of the cpu heatsink.

 

Ran Occt again, temps spiked up to high 80's with a peak of 91-92.

 

3. Off-set fans

Remounted the 3rd fan further to the rear of the case, but where it is now behind the heatsink, I'm not entirely sure it's doing very much just blowing air in to have it exhausted out the back. 

 

Ran occt again and my temps were better but still higher than set-up one after I reseated the heatsink, say 80-83 on average with spikes of 91-93

 

Plugged the CPU fans into the CPU fan socket seperate from and the fan controller.  Fan controller plugged into a sysfan header. 

 

Question

What gives? Suggestions? Thoughts?  Should I ditch the 3 top fans entirely? Move the back one somewhere else?

 

[filpo]

11 minutes ago, Nalyk said:

What gives? Suggestions? Thoughts?  Should I ditch the 3 top fans entirely? Move the back one somewhere else

Have you mounted the PA120 the wrong way? depending on what way you mount it your cpu temps could go up or down drastically. I would try turning it around 180 degrees and then trying it like that (but still keeping the fans exhausting out the back with one fan at the front of the heatsink and one in the middle)

[SorryBella]

4 minutes ago, Nalyk said:

What gives?

Textbook case of more airflow doesn't equal more better. I would've suggested to not get any extra fans in the first place, but you can try to salvage it by mounting the top mount as exhaust and turn the back one slower and back to chassis mount. Also try without it on at all.

[TeraSeraph]

I would have the top two rear fans as exhaust and intake at the top front fan. The front fans should be intake, while the CPU cooler should be facing the rear exhaust fan. This should give you balanced flow through the system and the best heat management.

 

As for why situation 1 was better I have no idea? I'd have to see the thermals in the case. I have a thermal camera that I use specifically for testing case flow under load and at idle when experimenting. My best guess is that your CPU cooler was drawing in cool air from the top area rather than sucking up hotter case air?

Situation 2 and 3 are very high pressure and I honestly wouldn't be surprised if hot air was stagnating in the back of the case with the single rear exhaust trying to keep up with 5 other fans pushing air inside.

[filpo]

3 minutes ago, TeraSeraph said:

I would have the top two rear fans as exhaust and intake at the top front fan. The front fans should be intake, while the CPU cooler should be facing the rear exhaust fan. This should give you balanced flow through the system and the best heat management.

I'd just do number 2 with all intake and one exhaust out the back. But then again a balanced case could also benefit as it might be more efficient at moving heat away from the heatsink

[TeraSeraph]

3 minutes ago, filpo said:

I'd just do number 2 with all intake and one exhaust out the back. But then again a balanced case could also benefit as it might be more efficient at moving heat away from the heatsink

I edited my comment to address why I don't like 2 and 3 for fan setups. High pressure doesn't always mean that it's good for exhaust flow, even if there's big openings in the case things can stagnate/recirculate. Getting air out is just as important as feeding it in.

[Mihle]

If you have the setup as number 3, the fan at the top and furthest back should definitely be blowing out of the case rather than in to the case.

If you have it blowing in to the case the air would just go out the exhaust fan on the back without going through any heatsink and potentially also stop some of the air that comes from the front from reaching the exhaust fan and going through the heatsinks.

[Whatisthis]

Airflow from front to back, and bottom to top. Don’t intake through the top or the back. Don’t exhaust through bottom or front.

 

that’s the conventional setup that almost always works well. And if you have extra vents/fan mounts at the top toward the front, just don’t put a fan there or even block it so the front intakes can do their job.

[Nalyk]

These are my results now that I've switched the top left fan to exhaust. 

 

My averages over 30min are good, but those high's still worry me. 

[TeraSeraph]

2 hours ago, Nalyk said:

These are my results now that I've switched the top left fan to exhaust. 

 

My averages over 30min are good, but those high's still worry me. 

Something you have to realize is that you're almost never going to see the temps produced by a stress test, the whole point of the stress test is to see if your system is stable at it's highest load and how your thermal management is working. My 13600K will hit 92-95C during a Cinebench R23 multicore run but I'm fully aware that it's never going to see those temps in actual use, and it is not throttling even when pushed to it's limits. Unless you're getting up to +90C average during normal use I would not be concerned, 76C during a stress test is awesome. 

[Nalyk]

2 hours ago, TeraSeraph said:

Something you have to realize is that you're almost never going to see the temps produced by a stress test, the whole point of the stress test is to see if your system is stable at it's highest load and how your thermal management is working. My 13600K will hit 92-95C during a Cinebench R23 multicore run but I'm fully aware that it's never going to see those temps in actual use, and it is not throttling even when pushed to it's limits. Unless you're getting up to +90C average during normal use I would not be concerned, 76C during a stress test is awesome. 

Thanks.  Wondered if I wasn't reading too much into the spikes.  Glad I did repaste though, I really did put too much on the 1st time around.  and 74 is much better than the high 80's I was getting.  During gaming I tend to average around 65 or so.