Inside a Livingroom Cabinet Gaming PC

[peanuts104]

So, pic related.  I have an i5 6600k on a mobo that can't OC with an RX 480 red devil as my HTPC.  The RX 480 red devil is a new addition.  It was a 1050 TI.  The temps were warm but tolerable with the 1050 TI in the cabinet.  Now that the RX 480 Red Devil is in there, well, it hit 90 degrees with powercolor's "advanced" (read: allows more power) bios.  I've just put it back on the factory bios from powercolor and it hovers between 1150 mhz and 1215 mhz, thermal throttling at will to control GPU temps, obviously with the cabinet closed.

 

I understand this is a harsh environment to put this box in.  And I would like to put the "more powerful" (for lack of a better term) bios back on the GPU.  So, the bottleneck at this point is cooling in this limited space.  So, I was thinking about a solution like link related:

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009CO543S/ref=s9u_wsim_gw_i1?ie=UTF8&fpl=fresh&pd_rd_i=B009CO543S&pd_rd_r=6d68ca0f-d741-11e8-bc3b-876f53a82273&pd_rd_w=0t2In&pd_rd_wg=Acp35&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=&pf_rd_r=MT0F64NGJ4K38KXJA8Y1&pf_rd_t=36701&pf_rd_p=d23224e5-e71a-4c76-8d64-9e904118b011&pf_rd_i=desktop

 

My questions are as follow:

 

1) Any experience with this?  Because I have no idea if these fans are good.  Review look good but IDK.

 

2) If I buy ONE set, do I do intake near the case intake, or exhaust near the case exhaust?

 

3) Is buying ONE stupid?  Should I just man up, buy two, make one intake and one exhaust for my cabinet for optimal living room PC cooling?

 

Any suggestions or advice are welcome.

[TVwazhere]

6 hours ago, peanuts104 said:

3) Is buying ONE stupid?  Should I just man up, buy two, make one intake and one exhaust for my cabinet for optimal living room PC cooling?

I would personally use one intake at the front and one exhaust at the rear. Having only one doesn't help a whole lot since having just intake doesn't leave hot air anywhere to go, and exhaust wouldn't have anywhere for the cabinet to pull cool air in from. It's just like a PC; you need both to make it work efficiently.

[peanuts104]

2 hours ago, TVwazhere said:

Having only one doesn't help a whole lot since having just intake doesn't leave hot air anywhere to go, and exhaust wouldn't have anywhere for the cabinet to pull cool air in from. It's just like a PC; you need both to make it work efficiently.

Yeah, I'm just worried about noise and I don't wanna drop $80 for both sets if I don't have to.  They also have single 120 fans:

 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B009COQYA0/ref=sspa_dk_detail_4?pd_rd_i=B009COAEUG&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_p=f52e26da-1287-4616-824b-efc564ff75a4&pf_rd_r=SZTW0FMRR7AY6ZRQ3806&pd_rd_wg=eo9Gq&pf_rd_s=desktop-dp-sims&pf_rd_t=40701&pd_rd_w=CaOYk&pf_rd_i=desktop-dp-sims&pd_rd_r=bc46092a-d772-11e8-8ab2-735607aeb124&th=1

 

It's such a small space I bet one of the singles on intake and one on exhaust would work just fine.  I think I'll do that.

[WoodenMarker]

Is there currently any openings in the cabinet for airflow? What are your temps outside of the cabinet?

 

Moved to Air Cooling.

[peanuts104]

17 minutes ago, WoodenMarker said:

Is there currently any openings in the cabinet for airflow? What are your temps outside of the cabinet?

Only a small one for cables, nothing substantial enough for the case fans to pull any meaningful air from.  I used to run it without a case when I just ran it off of intel HD graphics, but since I added the card, I wanted a little bit more protection, but I'm almost wondering if that would have been better. It's in the thermaltake core v1, and all the side panels have vent holes except for the windowed side panel.  Either way, getting some fans to help direct airflow in the cabinet itself should help some.

[toobladink]

I own this case - and noticed when I moved the glass panel to the top, I was getting significantly better thermal performance.

 

But it looks like you top and side panel are acrylic with no ventilation.. If you just want the case to hold the components nicely, just take off the side panels so it's much more open.

[peanuts104]

2 minutes ago, toobladink said:

I own this case - and noticed when I moved the glass panel to the top, I was getting significantly better thermal performance.

 

But it looks like you top and side panel are acrylic with no ventilation.. If you just want the case to hold the components nicely, just take off the side panels so it's much more open.

I'll test it like that but part of keeping the side panels on was to help with directional airflow from the case fans.  But I don't really care about dust build up with this system so I will give that a shot tonight.

 

Edit: Oh, and the top panel is ventilated. It just looks like that in the pic.

[WoodenMarker]

2 hours ago, peanuts104 said:

Only a small one for cables, nothing substantial enough for the case fans to pull any meaningful air from.  I used to run it without a case when I just ran it off of intel HD graphics, but since I added the card, I wanted a little bit more protection, but I'm almost wondering if that would have been better. It's in the thermaltake core v1, and all the side panels have vent holes except for the windowed side panel.  Either way, getting some fans to help direct airflow in the cabinet itself should help some.

If there isn't enough ventilation in the cabinet, more fans isn't going to help much. Have you tested temps outside of the cabinet? 

[peanuts104]

1 hour ago, WoodenMarker said:

If there isn't enough ventilation in the cabinet, more fans isn't going to help much. Have you tested temps outside of the cabinet? 

Temps are normal outside of the cabinet.  That's why I was going to add those fans though.  They aren't for the case, they are for the actual cabinet.  So I would put them in the back of the cabinet with one on intake and one on exhaust to help get air circulating in there.  I ordered a couple of cabinet fans and will probably make this my Saturday project...though maybe next Saturday because my weekend is filling up quick.

 

It should be noted that the only overheating issue is with games.  It doesn't get too hot when I'm just streaming stuff or watching movies on it.

[peanuts104]

So, update.  Installed the fans as one exhaust and one intake.  So far so good.  The card gets a little toasty on unigine heaven at 80c, but it's not hitting 90c, which is the main thing.  Should be good to go to game for extended periods of time.  Now I'm just waiting for 1080TIs to hit $300 so I can kinda game at 4k in my living room...