How do case fans work?

[henkka_scorpio]

2 minutes ago, Or Aviram said:

 And I still think it makes sense to put the fan in the back as an intake, but then I don't know how I can balance the intake and exhaust...

So you have 2 fans in front and one in the back? Put the two in front as intake, and the back one as exhaust, rather more in than out. And for the radiator it doesnt matter much but id still prefer pushing air out.

[Or Aviram]

2 minutes ago, henkka_scorpio said:

So you have 2 fans in front and one in the back? Put the two in front as intake, and the back one as exhaust, rather more in than out. And for the radiator it doesnt matter much but id still prefer pushing air out.

This is what I did, but then the CPU temperature went up to 37 degrees, just like I told @2Fast2Quik.

[Or Aviram]

I think I figured it out, but I am not sure. I remember that when I built it, I did the start with a friend of mine. He touched the heat spreader of the CPU, which might make it a bit dirtier, thus hotter. My sister also didn't listen to me and touched it (she is so nice.....), which probably made it dirtier as well. I didn't have that isopropyl 99% rubber alcohol, so I couldn't clean it (though I will get it, because it's what you use to clean thermal compound). Do you think there is a chance that's why it is so hot?

 

Just so you will be notified:

@henkka_scorpio @2Fast2Quik @another random person

[Or Aviram]

Based on the fact that you don't answer, I will assume you don't know the answer... I will try to just overclock and use the computer, and if I will have any big problem I will clean it.

@henkka_scorpio @2Fast2Quik The fan configuration you told me to do is actually the same as the one the case came with, but at least now I understand the logic behind it.

[2Fast2Quik]

8 hours ago, Or Aviram said:

@2Fast2Quik And I still think it makes sense to put the fan in the back as an intake, but then I don't know how I can balance the intake and exhaust...

Never have the back as intake it won't work the way you think it will, for your temperatures, the case fans shouldn't affect them too much as literally the radiator is affecting it. Did you apply thermal paste? Q

[2Fast2Quik]

2 minutes ago, 2Fast2Quik said:

Never have the back as intake it won't work the way you think it will, for your temperatures, the case fans shouldn't affect them too much as literally the radiator is affecting it. Did you apply thermal paste? Q

Btw I live in Canada so I was up at 2 am replaying to you and I had to go to bed. 

 

Now what would do is take off your heatsink and reapply thermal paste.

 

Also do you have enough water?

[2Fast2Quik]

7 minutes ago, 2Fast2Quik said:

Never have the back as intake it won't work the way you think it will, for your temperatures, the case fans shouldn't affect them too much as literally the radiator is affecting it. Did you apply thermal paste? Q

Also what cpu us it, perhaps it's normal, some CPUs are hot af. Also your CPU temp isn't supposed to stay at the same temp idle, it's completely normal for it to get hotter.

[2Fast2Quik]

5 minutes ago, 2Fast2Quik said:

Also what cpu us it, perhaps it's normal, some CPUs are hot af. Also your CPU temp isn't supposed to stay at the same temp idle, it's completely normal for it to get hotter.

Your temps may also be fine, water coolers are supposed to cool under load not at idle which is why air coolers have cooler cpu at idle but water coolers have lower temps load. For example my 8320 idles 29 c when at load it is 56 c. To contrast my brother's water cooled 8320 is 35 idle but 42 load.

[Or Aviram]

@2Fast2Quik As I said, it's the i7 5820K, which is obviously hot because it has 6 cores. The cooler is the Corsair H100i GTX, which comes pre-filled and with pre-applied thermal pasted, so that isn't the problem. I didn't know watercoolers mainly perform well under load... I will just wait to get the graphics card and then check how it is under load.

 

I also had an idea of having the back on as an intake, the bottom one at the front an exhaust, and the top one in the front intake as well. back and top-front ones are very close to the radiator, so I think it will give a lot of airflow to the fans of the radiator, which will push air out AND makes the water in the radiator colder. The other air will be pushed through the other fan, which makes sure I won't keep hot air in the case. Do you think it will work even though I have an intake from the back? What's even the problem with that?

[2Fast2Quik]

3 hours ago, Or Aviram said:

@2Fast2Quik As I said, it's the i7 5820K, which is obviously hot because it has 6 cores. The cooler is the Corsair H100i GTX, which comes pre-filled and with pre-applied thermal pasted, so that isn't the problem. I didn't know watercoolers mainly perform well under load... I will just wait to get the graphics card and then check how it is under load.

 

I also had an idea of having the back on as an intake, the bottom one at the front an exhaust, and the top one in the front intake as well. back and top-front ones are very close to the radiator, so I think it will give a lot of airflow to the fans of the radiator, which will push air out AND makes the water in the radiator colder. The other air will be pushed through the other fan, which makes sure I won't keep hot air in the case. Do you think it will work even though I have an intake from the back? What's even the problem with that?

 

I already gave my input about your idea, I will repeat, DO NOT DO THAT, EVER. 

 

The 2 fans in the front will do nothing because the air will literally go in circles making your pc louder and hotter. have you fan at the back as intake is also terrible because you won't have balanced air flow, the air has to flow throughout the case your method will literally have it only affect the top left corner. 

Your radiator is exhaust and if you make the rest of the fans intake then no hot air from the motherboard or gpu or hdd/ssd or ram is going to leave the case, WHICH IS WHY YOU NEED A BACK EXHAUST FAN.

 

Sorry for the caps, it's there for emphasis. I will repeat again, front fans intake, back fans exhaust, radiator exhaust, this should ALWAYS be the case, never change them. THere is a reason why back isn't intake. 

[2Fast2Quik]

6 hours ago, Or Aviram said:

@2Fast2Quik As I said, it's the i7 5820K, which is obviously hot because it has 6 cores. The cooler is the Corsair H100i GTX, which comes pre-filled and with pre-applied thermal pasted, so that isn't the problem. I didn't know watercoolers mainly perform well under load... I will just wait to get the graphics card and then check how it is under load.

 

I also had an idea of having the back on as an intake, the bottom one at the front an exhaust, and the top one in the front intake as well. back and top-front ones are very close to the radiator, so I think it will give a lot of airflow to the fans of the radiator, which will push air out AND makes the water in the radiator colder. The other air will be pushed through the other fan, which makes sure I won't keep hot air in the case. Do you think it will work even though I have an intake from the back? What's even the problem with that?

 

Do you understand?

[LogicalDrm]

I can't believe how much misinformation (or rather biassed crap) is floating in this thread. Let's begin scraping with my thoughts and experience. First I start by saying Master Case Pro comes with 3 fans, 1 rear exhaust and 2 front intakes by default. Which is most common fan config in normal size and shape case. Look at LTT video for reference:

On 4.6.2016 at 10:35 AM, another random person said:

Never put the fans to blow air out. My fans came like that too on my Deepcool case and I quickly flipped it around. Always remember cool air in and not hot air out. 

Also hot air from inside the case being blown through a RAD is a horrible idea. Radiators need cool air from the outside of the case.

 

Fans need to blow hot air out from the case. It hot air doesn't get exhausted, it will raise overall temp inside the case. PC should have either very many, very big passive exhaust holes (rare nowdays) or atleast one exhaust fan close to hottest components exhausting side. Usually its rear fan. Also rad can work just fine acting as exhaust. You get better temps by having it as intake but it doesn't need to be like that to work properly. Another note, it doesn't matter at all whether fans on rad or heatsink are used as pushing or pulling. LTT has also done video to prove this in past.

 

23 hours ago, Or Aviram said:

Did what you said. The idle temperature of the CPU at the start was 31 - 32 degrees, but I kept the computer open and went to eat, so I will know if it stays like that. It doesn't. When I came back it was at 37 degrees, so there must be something wrong. The CPU is the i7 5820K, which can get really hot since it's a hex-core CPU, but I am still planning to overclock it to something like 4.4 - 4.8 GHz, which I doubt I will be able to do like that. The cooler is the Corsair H100i GTX, which I heard can cool stuff very awesomely, so why is it so hot?

 

You are talking about idle/low load temps. Which don't matter for anything else but really basic troubleshooting. High idle temps would indicate that cooler isn't properly mounted. Also all temps will raise inside the case after PC has been running for awhile. Its coolest right after you boot it when temps go from room temp to normal idle operating temp. After that all hot air which is circulating inside the case will slowly raise temps of the components. Run some benchmarks or stress tests to see if you actually have issue with cooling. Having multiple cores shouldn't have that big of effect compared to quad-core CPUs.

 

H100i is beefy cooler, but like all Corsair ones, it may have issues with mounting hardware. Yours seems to be alright but I can't tell before you post some stress test temps.

 

22 hours ago, Or Aviram said:

I think I figured it out, but I am not sure. I remember that when I built it, I did the start with a friend of mine. He touched the heat spreader of the CPU, which might make it a bit dirtier, thus hotter. My sister also didn't listen to me and touched it (she is so nice.....), which probably made it dirtier as well. I didn't have that isopropyl 99% rubber alcohol, so I couldn't clean it (though I will get it, because it's what you use to clean thermal compound). Do you think there is a chance that's why it is so hot?

Nothing is hot so far. Hot temps with Intel CPUs would be over 80C. We are talking about normal idle temps here. As for touching CPU heatspreader, really doesn't matter that much. Touching thermal paste would be different as it might leave some spot with too thin layer of paste. And you don't need any kind of isopropyl alcohol to clean simple body crease. Just clean, soft paper towel works just fine.

[Or Aviram]

1 hour ago, LoGiCalDrm said:

I can't believe how much misinformation (or rather biassed crap) is floating in this thread. Let's begin scraping with my thoughts and experience. First I start by saying Master Case Pro comes with 3 fans, 1 rear exhaust and 2 front intakes by default. Which is most common fan config in normal size and shape case. Look at LTT video for reference:

 

Fans need to blow hot air out from the case. It hot air doesn't get exhausted, it will raise overall temp inside the case. PC should have either very many, very big passive exhaust holes (rare nowdays) or atleast one exhaust fan close to hottest components exhausting side. Usually its rear fan. Also rad can work just fine acting as exhaust. You get better temps by having it as intake but it doesn't need to be like that to work properly. Another note, it doesn't matter at all whether fans on rad or heatsink are used as pushing or pulling. LTT has also done video to prove this in past.

 

 

You are talking about idle/low load temps. Which don't matter for anything else but really basic troubleshooting. High idle temps would indicate that cooler isn't properly mounted. Also all temps will raise inside the case after PC has been running for awhile. Its coolest right after you boot it when temps go from room temp to normal idle operating temp. After that all hot air which is circulating inside the case will slowly raise temps of the components. Run some benchmarks or stress tests to see if you actually have issue with cooling. Having multiple cores shouldn't have that big of effect compared to quad-core CPUs.

 

H100i is beefy cooler, but like all Corsair ones, it may have issues with mounting hardware. Yours seems to be alright but I can't tell before you post some stress test temps.

 

Nothing is hot so far. Hot temps with Intel CPUs would be over 80C. We are talking about normal idle temps here. As for touching CPU heatspreader, really doesn't matter that much. Touching thermal paste would be different as it might leave some spot with too thin layer of paste. And you don't need any kind of isopropyl alcohol to clean simple body crease. Just clean, soft paper towel works just fine.

Have you even read the whole discussion? @2Fast2Quik already told me that stuff.

But at least now I can watch that LTT video they were talking about.

 

I can't run stress tests yet, because of my graphics card. But when I will I will update that thread.

[LogicalDrm]

11 minutes ago, Or Aviram said:

Have you even read the whole discussion? @2Fast2Quik already told me that stuff.

But at least now I can watch that LTT video they were talking about.

 

I can't run stress tests yet, because of my graphics card. But when I will I will update that thread.

I have read most of it. But your questions were left bit open. What prevents you running tests without GPU? Temps with it will be few degrees higher if you run Aida64 and Heaven simultaneous for few hours. But we would get good baseline already from CPU.

[Or Aviram]

1 hour ago, LoGiCalDrm said:

I have read most of it. But your questions were left bit open. What prevents you running tests without GPU? Temps with it will be few degrees higher if you run Aida64 and Heaven simultaneous for few hours. But we would get good baseline already from CPU.

I don't even know what GPU it is... It's some old GPU my aunt gave me to check if it works, and it can limit the CPU. I am also not going to use Aida 64 because I want to use it when I overclock and it only has a 30 days free trial, and I don't want to pay for it. Maybe I can use Cinebench, but I am pretty sure it's also GPU depended... Is it?

[LogicalDrm]

51 minutes ago, Or Aviram said:

I don't even know what GPU it is... It's some old GPU my aunt gave me to check if it works, and it can limit the CPU. I am also not going to use Aida 64 because I want to use it when I overclock and it only has a 30 days free trial, and I don't want to pay for it. Maybe I can use Cinebench, but I am pretty sure it's also GPU depended... Is it?

Most stress tests are either GPU or CPU stressing. Aida can do both, but you can also limit it for just CPU. Most people use it for only CPU anyway. As for other options, if you prefer using Aida for OC only, maybe try Asus RealBench or OCCT. Both are CPU intensive, or rather only for CPU. Cinebench has tests for both CPU and GPU.

[Or Aviram]

46 minutes ago, LoGiCalDrm said:

Most stress tests are either GPU or CPU stressing. Aida can do both, but you can also limit it for just CPU. Most people use it for only CPU anyway. As for other options, if you prefer using Aida for OC only, maybe try Asus RealBench or OCCT. Both are CPU intensive, or rather only for CPU. Cinebench has tests for both CPU and GPU.

Ok, so I will. I just need to first of all get an operating system. I will tell you when I will test it.

[Mira Yurizaki]

I feel like there is a lot of misinformation, or at least "my way or the highway" type of thinking.

 

Does there absolutely need to be an exhaust fan? No. As long as cool air is entering the system, it will lower the overall temperature of the system. You don't leave a window open with a fan blow out when you have the AC on all the time do you? My case setup, due to how tight things are, is intake only and it doesn't have any problems keeping things cool compared to larger cases. Then again, there are plenty of egress points for air.

 

But ultimately the important thing with air cooling is air is moving.

[2Fast2Quik]

@M.Yurizaki and @LoGiCalDrm thank you for adding some more facts into this thread, I believe his question has been answered now. However quick question was there anything wrong with the I formation I was providing him?

[Mira Yurizaki]

I don't think there was anything wrong per se, but it's not good to think some way is the way for all use cases. As long as you have air flowing over the good bits, that's what's important. It doesn't matter how it's done.

 

Here's my case. The FTZ01 has three fan mounts, two in the video card compartment, one in the motherboard compartment. The video card fans are intakes because my card is a blower, so it exhausts air out. No brainer there for airflow. The motherboard one is an intake. If it was an exhaust, I'd have the following problems:

• Chances are airflow will seep in from the vent holes near the I/O panel, bypassing the motherboard entirely and getting sucked out of the fan.
• There's no clean way to filter this vent hole anyway, meaning it's going to let dust in.

If it's intake, then the following happens:

• The fan blows air right onto the CPU cooler and the motherboard itself.
• I can add a filter on the fan to minimize dust

Here's a diagram to illustrate this point:

 

[2Fast2Quik]

3 minutes ago, M.Yurizaki said:

I don't think there was anything wrong per se, but it's not good to think some way is the way for all use cases. As long as you have air flowing over the good bits, that's what's important. It doesn't matter how it's done.

 

Here's my case. The FTZ01 has three fan mounts, two in the video card compartment, one in the motherboard compartment. The video card fans are intakes because my card is a blower, so it exhausts air out. No brainer there for airflow. The motherboard one is an intake. If it was an exhaust, I'd have the following problems:

• Chances are airflow will seep in from the vent holes near the I/O panel, bypassing the motherboard entirely and getting sucked out of the fan.
• There's no clean way to filter this vent hole anyway, meaning it's going to let dust in.

If it's intake, then the following happens:

• The fan blows air right onto the CPU cooler and the motherboard itself.
• I can add a filter on the fan to minimize dust

Here's a diagram to illustrate this point:

 

Thank you for that detailed explanation, I will remember this the next time I help someone on this forum, thank you.

[Cyracus]

I can't decide if this thread is funny or depressing

[LogicalDrm]

28 minutes ago, 2Fast2Quik said:

@M.Yurizaki and @LoGiCalDrm thank you for adding some more facts into this thread, I believe his question has been answered now. However quick question was there anything wrong with the I formation I was providing him?

Not in my opinion. There was another user posting biassed opinions without facts.

[Or Aviram]

On 6/5/2016 at 4:10 PM, LoGiCalDrm said:

Most stress tests are either GPU or CPU stressing. Aida can do both, but you can also limit it for just CPU. Most people use it for only CPU anyway. As for other options, if you prefer using Aida for OC only, maybe try Asus RealBench or OCCT. Both are CPU intensive, or rather only for CPU. Cinebench has tests for both CPU and GPU.

I stress tested it with OCCT. The CPU voltage was at 1.040 volts, and the profile of the H100i was at balanced, which is balanced between quiet and performance. I did the test with small data set, because they said that's used to generate heat, which is what we want, and it tested all 12 threads. The maximum temperature was 62C, and the current value was 60 - 61 C (I have no idea when it jumped to 62, but that's what it says). For me it looks fine. I heard you should go with 1.3 volts (at least with the kind of task I do) on that CPU, so I am planning to just put it there and see how much I can overclock, I am pretty sure it shouldn't be too hot, mainly if I will set the H100i profile to performance (which is super loud, so I doubt I will do it for something other than testing, but I also doubt I will get to 100 CPU usage). If you think the temperatures aren't suppose to be like that, so tell me, but I am pretty sure they are fine...

 

But there is one thing that concerns me... When I put my hand where the back fan is (which is set as an exhaust), the air I felt was really cold... Maybe it's because I don't have a graphics card that generates much heat, but maybe the hot air goes through the fans attached to the radiator, which is not good...

[2Fast2Quik]

49 minutes ago, Or Aviram said:

I stress tested it with OCCT. The CPU voltage was at 1.040 volts, and the profile of the H100i was at balanced, which is balanced between quiet and performance. I did the test with small data set, because they said that's used to generate heat, which is what we want, and it tested all 12 threads. The maximum temperature was 62C, and the current value was 60 - 61 C (I have no idea when it jumped to 62, but that's what it says). For me it looks fine. I heard you should go with 1.3 volts (at least with the kind of task I do) on that CPU, so I am planning to just put it there and see how much I can overclock, I am pretty sure it shouldn't be too hot, mainly if I will set the H100i profile to performance (which is super loud, so I doubt I will do it for something other than testing, but I also doubt I will get to 100 CPU usage). If you think the temperatures aren't suppose to be like that, so tell me, but I am pretty sure they are fine...

 

But there is one thing that concerns me... When I put my hand where the back fan is (which is set as an exhaust), the air I felt was really cold... Maybe it's because I don't have a graphics card that generates much heat, but maybe the hot air goes through the fans attached to the radiator, which is not good...

The majority of your heat is from the cpu, your gpu at idle is going to be cool and thus barely any heat generated. However your cpu temps seem a bit hot, Google some temps for ur cpu.