Fan Orientation

[ReturnoftheMack]

Hey Everyone, I have a corsair 760t with a Swiftech h240x mounted up top cooling the CPU. I have 2 gtx 980s with the kraken G10 AIO coolers on them. I have one mounted in the back and one mounted on the bottom of the case.

 

My question is, how should I orient the fans on the radiators for the H240x and the 2 kraken g10s(using the Corsair H55 in push/pull)? Any help is appreciated and I am trying to achieve the best temps possible. Thanks!

 

[ReturnoftheMack]

Pics of setup.

[ili199]

If you put the H240X to blow out of the case and all other fans to blow in to it you get some nice positive air pressure so you wont get much dust in the case.

If you can put a DIY dust filter on the H55 in the back that would help for the dust to.

 

BTW your system looks so sexy...

What are the full specs?

[ReturnoftheMack]

Full System Specs:

Asus z97 Sabretooth Mark S

Intel 4790k @ 4.7

2x GALAX HOF GTX 980s @ 1550mhz in SLI

Corsair AX 860i

16GB Corsair Dominator @1833

1TB Samsung 840 EVO(OS, games)

1TB WD Black(storage)

 

On to the topic at hand, wouldn't having both H55s blowing into the case be a lot of excess heat over the motherboard etc? I was thinking of the following scenarios:

 

All exhaust except for the front intake fans or

H55s as exhaust, H240x and front fans as intake?

 

I honestly just dont know what would be the best here.

[brandishwar]

On the H55s, since those are high-fin radiators, you'll want the fans mounted in push in both instances. For the H240x, pull is pretty much your only option, I think. As for the heat off the radiators, it could be a potential concern, but as long as you have enough fresh air coming in the front, it shouldn't make a significant difference. Since it looks like you have Corsair SP120s on the H55s, you also don't need those in push/pull. It's not going to make really any difference to temperatures. Push will be plenty on both.

[Faceman]

Full System Specs:

Asus z97 Sabretooth Mark S

Intel 4790k @ 4.7

2x GALAX HOF GTX 980s @ 1550mhz in SLI

Corsair AX 860i

16GB Corsair Dominator @1833

1TB Samsung 840 EVO(OS, games)

1TB WD Black(storage)

 

On to the topic at hand, wouldn't having both H55s blowing into the case be a lot of excess heat over the motherboard etc? I was thinking of the following scenarios:

 

All exhaust except for the front intake fans or

H55s as exhaust, H240x and front fans as intake?

 

I honestly just dont know what would be the best here.

Hey there, beautiful looking system, absolutely love the look of the dim white LEDs and white sleeved cables.

 

As a long time G10 owner and someone who helps a lot with them, they do expel a ton of heat.  Because of this, you generally want them as exhaust.  Having them as intake means you are pushing a ton of hot air into your chassis, and while it might not show up on the core GPU temps, the VRM temps are definitely much higher.  Some people have reported as much as a 15C temp swing by switching from intake to exhaust, but they are using cases like the H440 or Define R5 which are notorious for bad airflow.  Also, not all, in fact very few Nvidia cards allow for VRM temperature monitoring.  I am not sure about Galax though and am curious if you can monitor VRM temps in GPU-Z?

 

For airflow, there is no one-size-fits-all.  Everyone chassis, everyone's room airflow, everyone's ambient, everyone has it different.  There are some general rules that apply, but in order to get the best results, some trial and error must be done.  One of these general rules is to have your G10 radiator fans set to exhaust.

 

For the sake of neatness and cohesiveness, is it possible to mount both H55s in the front of your chassis?  If so, I would do that, and have them as front exhaust, then set your H240X and rear fans as intake.  You do have a full tower case and the tube length of the H55 isn't the longest, so this might not be possible and you should maybe stick with your current setup.

 

If you would like to keep your setup as is, then I would try both H55s as exhaust, with everything else as intake.

 

Only trial and error will be able to give you the best temperatures for your situation, so it is hard for me to say how it should be, I can only give you advice based on my experience with helping people with their G10s.

 

One last thing I could recommend if you keep your setup as is would be to add another fan inside of your chassis blowing directly into the GPUs.  I would take a 140mm fan and place it vertical or upright on top of the HDD tray.  Maybe place it on top of a little piece of cardboard that is painted black, or something more elegant so it blends in with your beautiful build.  Having more airflow blowing directly down both of your GPUs will help the VRMs.

 

On my Phanteks Enthoo Pro, there are built in fan mounting holes into the HDD cages, so you can see that I have two fans mounted there, and they blow directly into my GPU.  I only have one GPU though.

 

 

[ReturnoftheMack]

Thanks for the detailed feedback. The cards do not allow for VRM monitoring. I did go ahead and put these on the VRMs themselves: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007XACV8O/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1.

 

The VRAM have a nice heat spreader on them already so there was no need to do anything with those. Last night i removed the HDD cage to allow free airflow from the front intake fans and switched both H55s to exhaust. Unfortunately, the tubes are not long enough to reach the front of the case, that would be ideal.

 

I played Dragon Age I and ran heaven for about 20 minutes. The temps got to the mid 50s with some spikes to about 57-58 in DAI(All max settings with 4x AA on 2560x1440). I did buy some copper shims but I didn't install them as it seemed like the baseplate made good contact with the gpu as the TIM was spread out well. I am wondering if I should re-mount with a copper shim and if you think this might decrease temperatures at all?

[Faceman]

Thanks for the detailed feedback. The cards do not allow for VRM monitoring. I did go ahead and put these on the VRMs themselves: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007XACV8O/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1.

 

The VRAM have a nice heat spreader on them already so there was no need to do anything with those. Last night i removed the HDD cage to allow free airflow from the front intake fans and switched both H55s to exhaust. Unfortunately, the tubes are not long enough to reach the front of the case, that would be ideal.

 

I played Dragon Age I and ran heaven for about 20 minutes. The temps got to the mid 50s with some spikes to about 57-58 in DAI(All max settings with 4x AA on 2560x1440). I did buy some copper shims but I didn't install them as it seemed like the baseplate made good contact with the gpu as the TIM was spread out well. I am wondering if I should re-mount with a copper shim and if you think this might decrease temperatures at all?

Hey there, I would have replied sooner but I didn't realized you responded.  You need to quote or "@" me to let me know that you have replied, otherwise I don't get a notification.

 

 

If this is your PCB, then it is the VRMs that already have a heat sink on them.  The VRMs are on the right of the GPU die with that long heatsink covering them.  The VRAM, which you don't really need to be concerned about are the 8 black chips that surround the GPU die. It can't hurt to add those aluminum heatsinks to them, so peace of mind, better safe than sorry.

 

You don't need a shim for this GPU.  Those temperatures are very good considering you are playing at 1440p and with a 1550Mhz OC, so it looks like everything is working well!