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Does case airflow really matter much?

maizenblue

I have a friend with a liquid CPU cooler and a GTX 780SC that has a stock heat sink fan that vents out the back of the case. With that setup airflow from his case seems almost irrelevant. If you play a demanding game like BF4 at 1080p that GPU card fan ramps up and seems to do all the work of keeping the card cool while venting it out the back, regardless of case fan settings, while the liquid cooler keeps the CPU cool. The case fans seem to have very little if any effect on temps.

 

I mean if you put a side panel fan on the case and filled every other mounting spot with fans going full blast, would it really matter beyond maybe slightly decreasing the RPMs of the GPU fan(which I admit sounds like a jet engine on full blast).  Would that have any noticeable effect on the life and performance of the GPU, CPU, or motherboard?

 

It seems like experienced PC builders don't worry much about case airflow and just focus on looks and other features, and all this obsession with air flow and air cooling in a case is largely a waste that has no noticeable effect unless you are doing an air cooler and have a GPU with fans that vent inside the case.

 

Am I wrong on this?

CPU: Ryzen 7 3700x,  MOBO: ASUS TUF X570 Gaming Pro wifi, CPU cooler: Noctua U12a RAM: Gskill Ripjaws V @3600mhz,  GPU: Asus Tuf RTX OC 3080 PSU: Seasonic Focus GX850 CASE: Lian Li Lancool 2 Mesh Storage: 500 GB Inland Premium M.2,  Sandisk Ultra Plus II 256 GB & 120 GB

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It help keeps HDDs, motherboards, RAM, VRM Heatsinks, and various other things cool. 

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Yes. A million times yes.

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Yes. Else you run into thermal throttling and effectively make your machine as powerful as a potato (console).

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It matters, but it's overrated. 

 

Running my fans at 30% vs running my fans at 100% in a case with 8 fans I barely get a 3 degree temp difference. 

Ryzen 7600X | MSI Trio X 3080 | 3440x1440p asus vg34vql1b | Antec HCG 850 | 1TB WD Blue SSD | 500GB Aorus Elite | Asus B650 Strix A

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its a good idea to have some cold air in the front and some hot exhausts out the top or back, but its not worth going out and buying 5 £10 120mm fans (noctuas or corsairs etc) for and filling your case and dealing with all the wiring, as i speak im testing a hyper 212 on a bulldozer 8120 @4.2ghz 1.425v in a nzxt source 210 with the rear exhaust fan and no intakes,
  under stress test the most ive seen is 66*c so i can still push further (or reduce voltage, it did boot at 4.5) which for a compact case (considering what tis filled with) and an xfx 6870DD id say is good eveidence that its not something that you need to worry about too much.....unless your actually having problems or unless you like in india and its 30*c ambient (24*c here).

what im testing in (with the fan the other way round and both side panels on)

IMG1671


hardly the king of airflow.

-though i will say smaller more densly built systems require more airflow (cm elite 110 for example), airflow doesnt really matter if your running an itx system in a 900d...the next step up from that is your room and a test bench, a test bench in a room is the world biggest case (maybe a Ras Pi in the royal albert hall?)

this needs lots of airflow (304 with lots of hard drives packed together)

IMG 5092 zps9b93b1c2



this not so much.....

900d mitx installation

Falcon: Corsair 750D 8320at4.6ghz 1.3v | 4GB MSI Gaming R9-290 @1000/1250 | 2x8GB 2400mhz Kingston HyperX Beast | Asus ROG Crosshair V Formula | Antec H620 | Corsair RM750w | Crucial M500 240GB, Toshiba 2TB, DarkThemeMasterRace, my G3258 has an upgrade path, my fx8320 doesn't need one...total cost £840=cpu£105, board£65, ram£105, Cooler £20, GPU£200, PSU£88, SSD£75, HDD£57, case£125.

 CASE:-NZXT S340 Black, CPU:-FX8120 @4.2Ghz, COOLER:-CM Hyper 212 EVO, BOARD:-MSI 970 Gaming, RAM:-2x4gb 2400mhz Corsair Vengeance Pro, GPU: SLI EVGA GTX480's @700/1000, PSU:-Corsair CX600m, HDD:-WD green 160GB+2TB toshiba
CASE:-(probably) Cooltek U1, CPU:-G3258 @4.5ghx, COOLER:-stock(soon "MSI Dragon" AiO likely), BOARD:-MSI z87i ITX Gaming, RAM:-1x4gb 1333mhz Patriot, GPU: Asus DCU2 r9-270 OC@1000/1500mem, PSU:-Sweex 350w.., HDD:-WD Caviar Blue 640GB
CASE:-TBD, CPU:-Core2Quad QX9650 @4Ghz, COOLER:-OCZ 92mm tower thing, BOARD:-MSI p43-c51, RAM:-4x1GB 800mhz Corsair XMS2, GPU: Zotac GTX460se @800/1000, PSU:-OCZ600sxs, HDD:-WD green 160GBBlueJean-A
 CASE:-Black/Blue Sharkoon T9, CPU:-Phenom2 x4 B55 @3.6Ghz/1.4v, COOLER:-FX8320 Stock HSF, BOARD:-M5A78L-M/USB3, RAM:-4GB 1333mhz Kingston low profile at 1600mhz, GPU:-EVGA GTX285, PSU:-Antec TP550w modu, STORAGE:-240gb  M500+2TB Toshiba
CASE:-icute zl02-3g-bb, CPU:-Phenom2 X6 1055t @3.5Ghz, COOLER:-Stock, BOARD:-Asrock m3a UCC, RAM:2x2GB 1333mhz Zeppelin (thats yellow!), GPU: XFX 1GB HD6870xxx, PSU:-some 450 POS, HDD:-WD Scorpio blue 120GB
CASE:-Packard Bell iMedia X2424, Custom black/red Aerocool Xpredator fulltower, CPU's:-E5200, C2D [email protected]<script cf-hash='f9e31' type="text/javascript"> /* */</script>(so e8500), COOLER:-Scythe Big shuriken2 Rev B, BFG gtx260 sp216 OC, RAM:-tons..
Gigabyte GTX460, Gigabyte gt430,
GPU's:-GT210 1GB,  asus hd6670 1GB gddr5, XFX XXX 9600gt 512mb Alpha dog edition, few q6600's
PICTURES CASE:-CIT mars black+red, CPU:-Athlon K6 650mhz slot A, COOLER:-Stock, BOARD:-QDI Kinetiz 7a, RAM:-256+256+256MB 133mhz SDram, GPU:-inno3d geforce4 mx440 64mb, PSU:-E-Zcool 450w, STORAGE:-2x WD 40gb "black" drives,
CASE:-silver/red raidmax cobra, CPU:-Athlon64 4000+, COOLER:-BIG stock one, BOARD:-MSI something*, RAM:-(matched pair)2x1GB 400mhz ECC transcend, GPU:-ati 9800se@375core/325mem, PSU:-pfft, HDD:-2x maxtor 80gb,
PICTURES CASE:-silver/red raidmax cobra (another), CPU:-Pentium4 2.8ghz prescott, COOLER:-Artic Coolering Freezer4, BOARD:-DFI lanparty infinity 865 R2, RAM:-(matched pair)2x1GB 400mhz kingston, GPU:-ati 9550@375core/325mem, PSU:-pfft, HDD:-another 2x WD 80gb,
CASE:-ML110 G4, CPU:-xeon 4030, COOLER:-stock leaf blower, BOARD:-stock raid 771 board, RAM:-2x2GB 666mhz kingston ECC ddr2, GPU:-9400GT 1GB, PSU:-stock delta, RAID:-JMicron JMB363 card+onboard raid controller, HDD:-320gb hitachi OS, 2xMaxtor 160gb raid1, 500gb samsungSP, 160gb WD, LAPTOP:-Dell n5030, CPU:-replaced s*** cel900 with awesome C2D E8100, RAM:-2x2GB 1333mhz ddr3, HDD:-320gb, PHONE's:-LG optimus 3D (p920) on 2.3.5@300-600mhz de-clock (batteryFTW)
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It makes a huge difference, not only in noise, but also performance.

A good airflow case, can make a 15°C difference in both GPU and CPU temps, against case with restricted airflow.

GPU and CPU temps are not all that it is to it, HDD, RAM, Motherboard, and even the PSU, gets affected in performance, stability and lifespan.

'experienced' builders are companies (and shops) that try to make costs as small as possible, and it's good for their business to have you there looking for support, earlier than expected.

its a good idea to have some cold air in the front and some hot exhausts out the top or back, but its not worth going out and buying 5 £10 120mm fans (noctuas or corsairs etc) for and filling your case and dealing with all the wiring, as i speak im testing a hyper 212 on a bulldozer 8120 @4.2ghz 1.425v in a nzxt source 210 with the rear exhaust fan and no intakes and under stress test the most ive seen is 66*c so i can still push further (or reduce voltage, it did boot at 4,5) which for a compact case (considering what tis filled with) and an xfx 6870DD id say is good eveidence that its not something that you need to worry about unless your actually having problems or unless you like in india and its 30*c ambient (24*c here).

I agree with this, people buying 8 noctua fans because they think they need them is silly. I mentioned on my answer that airflow is very important, and it is. But to have good temperatures, you also need an efficient thermal design. A case overloaded with fans, it's not going to make a difference if the design is not efficient, you can have 8 fans, but if the air near the important hot components is not taking benefit of all that airflow it becomes useless. You can have a small and very efficient well ventilated small form factor enclosure, and have outstanding temps.

A good example would be a case like the Cooler Master N200, it's compact, but if you mount enough fans it becomes a efficient cool little box.

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I agree with this, people buying 8 noctua fans because they think they need them is silly. I mentioned on my answer that airflow is very important, and it is. But to have good temperatures, you also need an efficient thermal design. A case overloaded with fans, it's not going to make a difference if the design is not efficient, you can have 8 fans, but if the air near the important hot components is not taking benefit of all that airflow it becomes useless. You can have a small and very efficient well ventilated small form factor enclosure, and have outstanding temps.

A good example would be a case like the Cooler Master N200, it's compact, but if you mount enough fans it becomes a efficient cool little box.

thanks man, redid my post if you want to use it as an example of what you said. (thermal density  FTW)

-ooh never saw that case before, will look it up, cheap 350d rival maybe..

Falcon: Corsair 750D 8320at4.6ghz 1.3v | 4GB MSI Gaming R9-290 @1000/1250 | 2x8GB 2400mhz Kingston HyperX Beast | Asus ROG Crosshair V Formula | Antec H620 | Corsair RM750w | Crucial M500 240GB, Toshiba 2TB, DarkThemeMasterRace, my G3258 has an upgrade path, my fx8320 doesn't need one...total cost £840=cpu£105, board£65, ram£105, Cooler £20, GPU£200, PSU£88, SSD£75, HDD£57, case£125.

 CASE:-NZXT S340 Black, CPU:-FX8120 @4.2Ghz, COOLER:-CM Hyper 212 EVO, BOARD:-MSI 970 Gaming, RAM:-2x4gb 2400mhz Corsair Vengeance Pro, GPU: SLI EVGA GTX480's @700/1000, PSU:-Corsair CX600m, HDD:-WD green 160GB+2TB toshiba
CASE:-(probably) Cooltek U1, CPU:-G3258 @4.5ghx, COOLER:-stock(soon "MSI Dragon" AiO likely), BOARD:-MSI z87i ITX Gaming, RAM:-1x4gb 1333mhz Patriot, GPU: Asus DCU2 r9-270 OC@1000/1500mem, PSU:-Sweex 350w.., HDD:-WD Caviar Blue 640GB
CASE:-TBD, CPU:-Core2Quad QX9650 @4Ghz, COOLER:-OCZ 92mm tower thing, BOARD:-MSI p43-c51, RAM:-4x1GB 800mhz Corsair XMS2, GPU: Zotac GTX460se @800/1000, PSU:-OCZ600sxs, HDD:-WD green 160GBBlueJean-A
 CASE:-Black/Blue Sharkoon T9, CPU:-Phenom2 x4 B55 @3.6Ghz/1.4v, COOLER:-FX8320 Stock HSF, BOARD:-M5A78L-M/USB3, RAM:-4GB 1333mhz Kingston low profile at 1600mhz, GPU:-EVGA GTX285, PSU:-Antec TP550w modu, STORAGE:-240gb  M500+2TB Toshiba
CASE:-icute zl02-3g-bb, CPU:-Phenom2 X6 1055t @3.5Ghz, COOLER:-Stock, BOARD:-Asrock m3a UCC, RAM:2x2GB 1333mhz Zeppelin (thats yellow!), GPU: XFX 1GB HD6870xxx, PSU:-some 450 POS, HDD:-WD Scorpio blue 120GB
CASE:-Packard Bell iMedia X2424, Custom black/red Aerocool Xpredator fulltower, CPU's:-E5200, C2D [email protected]<script cf-hash='f9e31' type="text/javascript"> /* */</script>(so e8500), COOLER:-Scythe Big shuriken2 Rev B, BFG gtx260 sp216 OC, RAM:-tons..
Gigabyte GTX460, Gigabyte gt430,
GPU's:-GT210 1GB,  asus hd6670 1GB gddr5, XFX XXX 9600gt 512mb Alpha dog edition, few q6600's
PICTURES CASE:-CIT mars black+red, CPU:-Athlon K6 650mhz slot A, COOLER:-Stock, BOARD:-QDI Kinetiz 7a, RAM:-256+256+256MB 133mhz SDram, GPU:-inno3d geforce4 mx440 64mb, PSU:-E-Zcool 450w, STORAGE:-2x WD 40gb "black" drives,
CASE:-silver/red raidmax cobra, CPU:-Athlon64 4000+, COOLER:-BIG stock one, BOARD:-MSI something*, RAM:-(matched pair)2x1GB 400mhz ECC transcend, GPU:-ati 9800se@375core/325mem, PSU:-pfft, HDD:-2x maxtor 80gb,
PICTURES CASE:-silver/red raidmax cobra (another), CPU:-Pentium4 2.8ghz prescott, COOLER:-Artic Coolering Freezer4, BOARD:-DFI lanparty infinity 865 R2, RAM:-(matched pair)2x1GB 400mhz kingston, GPU:-ati 9550@375core/325mem, PSU:-pfft, HDD:-another 2x WD 80gb,
CASE:-ML110 G4, CPU:-xeon 4030, COOLER:-stock leaf blower, BOARD:-stock raid 771 board, RAM:-2x2GB 666mhz kingston ECC ddr2, GPU:-9400GT 1GB, PSU:-stock delta, RAID:-JMicron JMB363 card+onboard raid controller, HDD:-320gb hitachi OS, 2xMaxtor 160gb raid1, 500gb samsungSP, 160gb WD, LAPTOP:-Dell n5030, CPU:-replaced s*** cel900 with awesome C2D E8100, RAM:-2x2GB 1333mhz ddr3, HDD:-320gb, PHONE's:-LG optimus 3D (p920) on 2.3.5@300-600mhz de-clock (batteryFTW)
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thanks man, redid my post if you want to use it as an example of what you said. (thermal density  FTW)

-ooh never saw that case before, will look it up, cheap 350d rival maybe..

Just saw your edit. 

The design of the case and the airflow it's what matters, as your examples show.

On the first picture, adding more fans can potentially cool things better, but the difference won't be as much, expect 1-3°C, unless the user lives on a very hot environment.

The second picture doesn't show a Node 304, I can't tell what case that is. But it's pretty packed, and the design will need a bunch of high performance fans. The last picture makes me lol.

Check out the N200, for a mATX budget system, it's hard to recommend another case, even the Fractal Core 1000 sits behind, it has less ventilation and a ugly top PSU. Pricing is pretty similar.

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So what is an acceptable temp for a GPU to run consistently at under full load? I focus on GPU because its the most expensive component in my PC by a large margin. I know for EVGAs precision X you can set the fan speed on the GPU to keep the card under a certain temp(or reduce the clock speed to keep it under a certain temp). Using automatic settings my GTX 780SC runs at about 72C with the fan speed at about 70% when Im playing BF4. Is that an acceptable temp or should I increase the GPU fan speed? I have a graphite series 230T case that has the fans running 100% all the time. If I let the card do its own thing it lets the card hit 80C. 80C seems a little hot to me.

 

Again, at least with this GPU the case fans seem largely irrelevant and temps are basically changed by my GPU fan settings.

CPU: Ryzen 7 3700x,  MOBO: ASUS TUF X570 Gaming Pro wifi, CPU cooler: Noctua U12a RAM: Gskill Ripjaws V @3600mhz,  GPU: Asus Tuf RTX OC 3080 PSU: Seasonic Focus GX850 CASE: Lian Li Lancool 2 Mesh Storage: 500 GB Inland Premium M.2,  Sandisk Ultra Plus II 256 GB & 120 GB

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