CoolerMaster Centurion 5 - ditch it or tweak it?

Atrax · February 26, 2015

So, I have this ancient Centurion 5 I got few months back when I was building my new PC.

I have one 80mm fan in front for intake and one 120mm for rear exhaust. They are some noname cheapo fans, pretty silent in general as I mounted them with silicon plugs. But they generate very bad airflow. When at 100% I can barely feel any air comming out of the exhaust fan and the PSU exhaust.

The GPU is dispersing a ton of heat while gaming, it gets to 82C after 2hrs of Dying Light for example, and the CPU goes to 62, which I think should go down, specially GPU. The GPU fans spin up to 90% and it's very loud at that speed, I would liketo keep it at 65% max.

I guess I should first try to upgrade the fans, do I need pressure fans or airflow ones? I've read tons of forums on this topic, but different people have different opinions on this. The fans on the case also have obstructions in front or behind them, so I should use pressure fans? Other people say that for cases I should use airflow ones like CM JetFlo or something.

I do plan to cut out the mesh on the rear fan mount and install a 120mm gril from my old PSU to enable better airflow, so I guess I could use an AF fan there.

There is also a side mount for a 80mm fan nex to CPU. I was thinking about setting it as exhaust to disperse out some of that GPU heat, cause after a while my side panale gets really warm where the GPU is.

For the AP fans I had in mind the new Silencio from CM, and for AF a JetFlo. They are arround 15$ US in my country so that's kinda affordable.

I woukd like to give this case another chance because I really don't like the idea of spending 150-200$ for a new gaming case right now. I also did some work on silencing the config, it outputs 38db at full load during gaming, since I have headpbones for gaming I don't need it to be silent. At idle it's almost silent.

So if someone has some suggestions or advice, I would appriciate it.

Oh, I forgot, the rig is Asus P8Z68 V-Pro, i7 2600k@4.0 GHz stock cooler, Powercolor R9 280x, Coolermaster SilentPro M 600W.

blackadder · February 26, 2015

How much do you want to spend?

Atrax · February 26, 2015

How much do you want to spend?

You mean for a new case? I'd first like to try with upgrading the fans and configuring them properly, those Silencio and JetFlo are around 15$ a piece, so some 50$ in total would be OK I think to at least somewhat improve the cooling. Noctuas and such are out of the option because they are 35-40$ a piece and that's not even remotely affordable here.

There is a very slim choice here for decent mid-tange fans, so...

blackadder · February 26, 2015

You mean for a new case? I'd first like to try with upgrading the fans and configuring them properly, those Silencio and JetFlo are around 15$ a piece, so some 50$ in total would be OK I think to at least somewhat improve the cooling. Noctuas and such are out of the option because they are 35-40$ a piece and that's not even remotely affordable here.

There is a very slim choice here for decent mid-tange fans, so...

the budget choice. 4 fans! the cougars i hear are good, i'll find out in a few days when i get them.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835553009

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103052

decent fans

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835209050

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA4S82FM0243

did you want 120mm or 140mm?

Edit: the ones you said are good too.

Atrax · February 26, 2015

the budget choice. 4 fans! the cougars i hear are good, i'll find out in a few days when i get them.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835553009

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103052

decent fans

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835209050

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA4S82FM0243

did you want 120mm or 140mm?

Edit: the ones you said are good too.

So, bottom line, I should go with the pressure optimized fans, you think. Ok.

These from newegg aren't available here, not even that CoolerMaster, and shipping to me would be a copule of fans worth so it's not worth it

I need one 80mm front and one 120mm back, and maybe one 80mm for side panel, only I'm not sure how to configure it.

I'll have to go with the Silencio for 120mm, and see if they are available in 80mm, if not I think I could find some Arctic or Fractal in that size.

Cheers

LogicalDrm · February 27, 2015

I went to ditch road myself Went to NZXTs Hades which is air cooling oriented case. I had bit problems with GPU getting hot.

Atrax · February 27, 2015

I went to ditch road myself Went to NZXTs Hades which is air cooling oriented case. I had bit problems with GPU getting hot.

Same as me, the GPU is on the higher side of temps and really loud, and if you keep the fan at 65% which keeps it semi-silent, it gets to 90-95C and throttles down.

I think I might actually cut out a hole on the side panel where the GPU is because most of the air it is dispersing hits that part of the panel. The rest of the temps seem to be fine, just that freakin GPU.

I actually decided to go with the Blademasters from CM. They seem to be very good all arround performers, high airflow, high pressure, just not very silent at full speed. I don't mind since I'm not building a silent PC, and I'm thinking they won't be any louder than the cheap-o fans I have installed now.

I'll for sure go with a new case in a couple of months, after summer maybe, but till then I have to tame this bastard. I was thinking about Zalman Z3 or something in those lines, nothing too fancy. Just nice cooling and decent cable management.