Would a build like this have sufficient air cooling?

[stagerf]

http://pcpartpicker.com/user/ceraex/saved/BsK2FT

Hey guys. My brother said that I might want to look into water cooling for a 2-way SLI setup since it might get a little hot. I was wondering what you guys thought about the airflow in this system based on all of the choices I've made. I'm replacing all of the fans in the case, putting two 120 mm Noctua fans at the front and one 120 mm noctua fan at the back. The 780 Tis I'm getting are the ASUS versions with two fans each.

Do you guys think this will have sufficient airflow to keep temps below 80 degrees or should I implement a water cooling loop? Thanks in advance.

[Rorgash]

reference designed GPU's are quite good as well

[Askew]

For SLI I'd just use a pair of reference cards then all the heat will get blown straight out of the case and it won't be an issue, then if you want to watercool later on you have the cards that fit the most waterblocks which makes that situation super easy.

 

[Shd0w2]

First, what's this build for? and do you plan on overclocking?

[Enderman]

Nvidia cards run pretty cool. You should have no heat issues.

[WoodenMarker]

The Ghost isn't that good of a case for cooling in the first place. I'd suggest taking a look at the Arc Midi R2 instead. 

[Shd0w2]

@ceraex

 

I thought that playing on a 1920x1200 with two 780ti's is REALLY overkill, I decided to change you to a 4k

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($229.99 @ NCIX US) 

CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15 82.5 CFM CPU Cooler  ($99.95 @ Amazon) 

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-Gaming G1 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($286.98 @ SuperBiiz) 

Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-2400 Memory  ($143.10 @ Newegg) 

Storage: Samsung 850 Pro Series 512GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($399.99 @ Amazon) 

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Green 3TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($104.99 @ NCIX US) 

Video Card: PNY GeForce GTX 780 Ti 3GB Video Card (2-Way SLI)  ($599.99 @ Newegg) 

Video Card: PNY GeForce GTX 780 Ti 3GB Video Card (2-Way SLI)  ($599.99 @ Newegg) 

Case: Fractal Design Arc Midi R2 ATX Mid Tower Case  ($95.00 @ Amazon) 

Power Supply: EVGA 850W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($109.99 @ NCIX US) 

Optical Drive: Asus BW-12B1ST/BLK/G/AS Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer  ($50.98 @ Newegg) 

Monitor: Samsung U28D590D 60Hz 28.0" Monitor  ($616.87 @ Amazon) 

Case Fan: Noctua NF-F12 PWM 55.0 CFM 120mm  Fan  ($17.99 @ Amazon) 

Case Fan: Noctua NF-F12 PWM 55.0 CFM 120mm  Fan  ($17.99 @ Amazon) 

Case Fan: Noctua NF-F12 PWM 55.0 CFM 120mm  Fan  ($17.99 @ Amazon) 

Keyboard: Logitech 920-000914 Wired Slim Keyboard  ($59.99 @ Amazon) 

Total: $3451.78

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

I changed minimal things, so you still have the main things you wanted.

as well as higher speed ram for gaming, and the arc midi r2 because apparently it has better airflow.

[Guest Kloaked]

The Ghost isn't that good of a case for cooling in the first place. I'd suggest taking a look at the Arc Midi R2 instead. 

 

Yeah I was gonna say something similar. Dude is spending a lot on everything else but not the case D:

[Sauron]

As @WoodenMarker said, airflow in the ghost is almost inexistant. Get a different, more open one. Secondly, I wouldn't buy 780tis, they are way too expensive compared to a 780 or an R9 290. Consider those two options carefully, you'd spare 400$ and part of that could pay for a good custom liquid cooling loop on the cards. If you're determined to go for air, do as @Rorgash and @Askew said, get the reference design for nvidia cards (not for amd though, for amd you'd pretty much NEED the liquid cooling loop or a case with very high airflow and either way non-reference models).

[SovietOnion]

This should be sufficient, I'd recommend putting a side fan in as exhaust if possible. Getting two reference card to spit the heat out the rear of the case rather than blowing it into the case wouldn't be a bad idea as well. 

[stagerf]

For SLI I'd just use a pair of reference cards then all the heat will get blown straight out of the case and it won't be an issue, then if you want to watercool later on you have the cards that fit the most waterblocks which makes that situation super easy.

 

Thanks for the advice—I knew it had an exhaust but I thought two fans would cool the GPU more efficiently. I guess it makes sense now though to have the heat removed from the case entirely.

 

First, what's this build for? and do you plan on overclocking?

 

The build will be for gaming / video editing / level creation in source and UE4 / programming.

@ceraex

 

I thought that playing on a 1920x1200 with two 780ti's is REALLY overkill, I decided to change you to a 4k

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($229.99 @ NCIX US) 

CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15 82.5 CFM CPU Cooler  ($99.95 @ Amazon) 

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-Gaming G1 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($286.98 @ SuperBiiz) 

Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-2400 Memory  ($143.10 @ Newegg) 

Storage: Samsung 850 Pro Series 512GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($399.99 @ Amazon) 

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Green 3TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($104.99 @ NCIX US) 

Video Card: PNY GeForce GTX 780 Ti 3GB Video Card (2-Way SLI)  ($599.99 @ Newegg) 

Video Card: PNY GeForce GTX 780 Ti 3GB Video Card (2-Way SLI)  ($599.99 @ Newegg) 

Case: Fractal Design Arc Midi R2 ATX Mid Tower Case  ($95.00 @ Amazon) 

Power Supply: EVGA 850W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($109.99 @ NCIX US) 

Optical Drive: Asus BW-12B1ST/BLK/G/AS Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer  ($50.98 @ Newegg) 

Monitor: Samsung U28D590D 60Hz 28.0" Monitor  ($616.87 @ Amazon) 

Case Fan: Noctua NF-F12 PWM 55.0 CFM 120mm  Fan  ($17.99 @ Amazon) 

Case Fan: Noctua NF-F12 PWM 55.0 CFM 120mm  Fan  ($17.99 @ Amazon) 

Case Fan: Noctua NF-F12 PWM 55.0 CFM 120mm  Fan  ($17.99 @ Amazon) 

Keyboard: Logitech 920-000914 Wired Slim Keyboard  ($59.99 @ Amazon) 

Total: $3451.78

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

I changed minimal things, so you still have the main things you wanted.

as well as higher speed ram for gaming, and the arc midi r2 because apparently it has better airflow.

Thanks for the recommendation. The entire purpose of this build, in fact, was to make it ready to upgrade to a 4k monitor. And despite the releases of affordable 4k monitors, they're all on TN panels and have slight color issues. I was waiting for a 4k IPS-panel monitor to be released at an affordable price before upgrading.

I agree, though, it's a little overkill. If you think that Samsung's 4k monitor is good, though, I'll go for it. Otherwise I might just not get the second GPU.

[Askew]

Thanks for the advice—I knew it had an exhaust but I thought two fans would cool the GPU more efficiently. I guess it makes sense now though to have the heat removed from the case entirely.

 

The aftermarket coolers do cool the GPU more efficiently, it's just that they dump all the heat into the case rather than exhausting it so it is free to affect the cooling of other components (the top GPU will be taking hot air from the bottom GPU and blowing it through it's heatsinks).

 

However, the cooler on the current top end nvidia cards is pretty good, and you can run the GPU at full speeds using it without any issues, the only thing is that the reference coolers are a bit louder than the aftermarket ones that's pretty much the only difference you're going to actually notice.

 

With a pair of reference cards, both cards will be free to draw in cool air from your case that's blown in by your front intake fans, and pass it over the heatsinks and blow all the hot air out of the exhaust vent on the PCI bracket.

[stagerf]

@Shd0w2

Also, are you sure the 2400 MHz is worth it? I got the 1866 MHz RAM because it had good timings (9-9-9-24) and games tend to do best at 1866 MHz (source

).

Other than that, looks like a good case and all. And I would reply sooner but I'm doing this all on a phone in the middle of nowhere (no internet here—just cell reception).

[Shd0w2]

@Shd0w2

Also, are you sure the 2400 MHz is worth it? I got the 1866 MHz RAM because it had good timings (9-9-9-24) and games tend to do best at 1866 MHz (source http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dWgzA2C61z4 ).

Other than that, looks like a good case and all. And I would reply sooner but I'm doing this all on a phone in the middle of nowhere (no internet here—just cell reception).

I've heard that 2400mhz or HIGH mhz over latency is good for gaming.