Side intake fan useless?

[SteveGrabowski]

So I installed a side 120mm intake fan into my Antec GX500 to try to draw some cool air into my GTX 970, and it seems to make no difference whatsoever. I have it set as an intake (I can feel the suction when I put my hand by the fan from the outside) and it's even going full blast since I had to plug it into a molex connector (my board doesn't have much in the way of fan headers). The only difference I notice is that my computer is louder now, as it is a 74.48CFM fan (Rosewill RFA-120-WL). In runs of Firestrike within 10 minutes of each other the temp is actually 1.0C higher on my 970 with the fan vs without it but the card is still boosting the same and giving me the same Firestrike score within the margin of error (10148 without, 10146 with). So if it's not making my GPU any cooler and it's not causing it to run at boost clocks more often all I can conclude is that the side fan is causing turbulence and really is useless. It is just making my computer louder for nothing. Anyone else have this experience installing side intake fans?

[blackadder]

Make it exhaust first. About a 1c-3c is about all you'll get.

[Senzelian]

So I installed a side 120mm intake fan into my Antec GX500 to try to draw some cool air into my GTX 970, and it seems to make no difference whatsoever. I have it set as an intake (I can feel the suction when I put my hand by the fan from the outside) and it's even going full blast since I had to plug it into a molex connector (my board doesn't have much in the way of fan headers). The only difference I notice is that my computer is louder now, as it is a 74.48CFM fan (Rosewill RFA-120-WL). In runs of Firestrike within 10 minutes of each other the temp is actually 1.0C higher on my 970 with the fan vs without it but the card is still boosting the same and giving me the same Firestrike score within the margin of error (10148 without, 10146 with). So if it's not making my GPU any cooler and it's not causing it to run at boost clocks more often all I can conclude is that the side fan is causing turbulence and really is useless. It is just making my computer louder for nothing. Anyone else have this experience installing side intake fans?

You should use it as an outtake to get the warm air from your GPU out of the case (that only applies if you don't have a reference cooler)

[SteveGrabowski]

Make it exhaust first. About a 1c-3c is about all you'll get.

 

Really? I have always heard side exhausts starve the GPU for air and make it run hotter.

[Senzelian]

Really? I have always heard side exhausts starve the GPU for air and make it run hotter.

 

You need a lot of positive air pressure. Something like tripple 120mm fans at the front to push the air really into the case and under your GPU.

And maybe also an intake at the bottom can be very helpful.

[SteveGrabowski]

You need a lot of positive air pressure. Something like tripple 120mm fans at the front to push the air really into the case and under your GPU.

And maybe also an intake at the bottom can be very helpful.

 

My case has no bottom mount, but I have two of the same 74.48 CFM intake fans for front intakes and then three much lower RPM fans for the top and back exhausts by the CPU. I would think three high airflow 120mm fans as intakes and three low airflow 120mm fans as exhaust would create somewhat positive pressure.

[blackadder]

Really? I have always heard side exhausts starve the GPU for air and make it run hotter.

worth a try

[blackadder]

My case has no bottom mount, but I have two of the same 74.48 CFM intake fans for front intakes and then three much lower RPM fans for the top and back exhausts by the CPU. I would think three high airflow 120mm fans as intakes and three low airflow 120mm fans as exhaust would create somewhat positive pressure.

i have just about the same set up? what are your temps room,pc,gpu,and cpu?

also try to take the side panel off and see if temps really decrease by that much.

[RazrLeaf]

My case has no bottom mount, but I have two of the same 74.48 CFM intake fans for front intakes and then three much lower RPM fans for the top and back exhausts by the CPU. I would think three high airflow 120mm fans as intakes and three low airflow 120mm fans as exhaust would create somewhat positive pressure.

Not necessarily with the restriction that the intakes have due to grills, mesh, and hard drive cages. What model of 970 do you have, and where is the fan placement relative to the GPU? It's also possible that you're at the limit of the GPU cooler itself, since the 970 is such a low wattage card, and most manufacturers have given it an overkill heatsink.

[SteveGrabowski]

Not necessarily with the restriction that the intakes have due to grills, mesh, and hard drive cages. What model of 970 do you have, and where is the fan placement relative to the GPU? It's also possible that you're at the limit of the GPU cooler itself, since the 970 is such a low wattage card, and most manufacturers have given it an overkill heatsink.

 

My 970 is the EVGA SC ACX 2.0 model. It's one of the hotter 970s, and ran 72C without the fan, 73C with it. Ambient is about 70F or so and either way the GPU fan gets to 27% max. The fan is very close to the side of the card, mostly just under it (I had to tie the PCIE cables to my HD cage to make sure they don't hit the blades. I'll flip the direction of the fan to see if it does anything and come back in a few minutes.

[SteveGrabowski]

You should use it as an outtake to get the warm air from your GPU out of the case (that only applies if you don't have a reference cooler)

Running Firestrike right now, but after setting the fan as an exhaust my idle temp on my GPU has gone up 4C.

[SteveGrabowski]

Temps ran 74C with the fan as an exhaust, the fan speed jumped to 31%, and the Firestrike score was basically the same (10140). Running the control with the fan disabled right now to see if I get my original results back.

[blackadder]

Temps ran 74C with the fan as an exhaust, the fan speed jumped to 31%, and the Firestrike score was basically the same (10140). Running the control with the fan disabled right now to see if I get my original results back.

27% fan speed is pretty low, you can set a more aggressive fan curve to get better gpu temp. 

[SteveGrabowski]

Temp was down to 73C, fan speed 28%, Firestrike score 10133 this time with the fan disabled (most of the variance in scores comes from my CPU). I'm just going to take it out and keep the fan as a backup since it is doing absolutely nothing for temperatures.

[SteveGrabowski]

27% fan speed is pretty low, you can set a more aggressive fan curve to get better gpu temp. 

 

I just got the fan to lower the temperature a bit without having to do that, since 970s drop back down to base clock beyond a pretty low power limit and I didn't want to waste power on the fans.

[SteveGrabowski]

Thanks everyone for the help!

[Mick Naughty]

As most open air coolers are horrible when it comes to case temps, I would run it as an exhaust. Quality fans and airflow is what's gonna make a total difference. It's only gonna run so cool before it won't go any lower.

[SteveGrabowski]

No difference even running Firestrike with the side panel off.  :lol:

[blackadder]

No difference even running Firestrike with the side panel off.  :lol:

geez, guess you got it as good as it will get.

[Rouge]

I have the EVGA SSC version and at stock base settings HWmonitor would show about 74-79C, fans hitting about 60%.......

 

I changed it with EVGA precision and now I just run the fans at 40% (minimum) at 40C or below and then ramp up +10% to 50C, +10% to 60C and max it at 100% at 70C

The GPU temps didn't go over 65C, after installing a 120mm Medium Speed Yate Loon Fan in the side as an exhaust the GPU is rarely over 55C, and runs around 23C idle.

 

I think the problem I was having was the temps building up and then the fans having to get the hot air out of there, but not doing it fast enough.

I flipped the side fan to intake and it didn't seem to make a difference, makes me figure it's just about air flow