Should taking side off increase or reduce temps?
- Thread starter Calneon
- Start date
My PSU is hot to the touch and is quite close to the GPU, could that be affecting it? There doesn't seem to be much exhaust from the PSU and the fan is turning quite slowly, is that normal?
I tried to take off the side fan because it is quite thick, but you need an alan key to do that which I couldn't find. Im testing now between turning it on and off.
I tried to take off the side fan because it is quite thick, but you need an alan key to do that which I couldn't find. Im testing now between turning it on and off.
Associate
my temps drop by like 5-10c with side panel off
Only way low speed side fan could get air to between cards is if there were exhaust flow through motherboard.
Here you see effect of laminar airflow and lack of it.
Side fan messes that straighter more ordered airflow so when you stopped side fan airflow got more organized but when you opened side airflow got more disordered and broke down to short airflow loops.
Ok i understand, but why then do cases have a side fan if it disrupts the airflow?
Caporegime
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- 12 Mar 2009
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- 26,776
I'm not sure, I've got a 120mm fan on the side of mine and a smaller 80mm fan cooling the hard drive bays. I've turned these off and my temperatures got hotter so I'm assuming it depends what fans and case you're using and how big it is?
Soldato
Side panel case fans are for show mostly (especially if around the gpu area)
There are a few cases that are designed with intake on side and extract at front/back but not many.
In most good cases, removing the side will increase temps as the 'wind tunnel' effect is broken.
As an example - my office workstation is a cheap but well layed out foxconn case with a 80mm intact and 80mm extract (plus 120mm psu extract)
When I take the side off my Passive cooled and OCed 8800gs (600/1880/900) gpu goes up 20c @ load
There are a few cases that are designed with intake on side and extract at front/back but not many.
In most good cases, removing the side will increase temps as the 'wind tunnel' effect is broken.
As an example - my office workstation is a cheap but well layed out foxconn case with a 80mm intact and 80mm extract (plus 120mm psu extract)
When I take the side off my Passive cooled and OCed 8800gs (600/1880/900) gpu goes up 20c @ load
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the front to rear standard airflow is probably quite powerful and efficient, but as soon as you add a side fan directly opposite the CPU, this airflow is disrupted...this has been proven.
all these additional fans are for show only, plus they look blingy..
at home, the best way to cool your house in a heatwave is to have the backdoor wide open and another window wide open upstairs...but you cant ventilate your house, if you only have the backdoor wide open... because you're not getting a cool draft passing through the house and up the stairs,(because the air pressure upstairs is too high).....in fact, cool air wont even enter the downstairs!
like this, my house ventilates in only a few minutes, especially if it's breezy outside, this breeze outside is the same as your 120 mm case fans.
intake at the back door.........exhaust fan upstairs, i think the clue is.... this air has to pass freely through the house and not rammed in, injected etc... but allowed to move as it wants.
now, all our pc hardware is still running too hot, yes; this is because you aint supposed to be overclocking it are you
...sorry, but its true..... add to this, our midi cases arent big enough inside.... not enough air volume inside, they're like tiny little sweaty/humid ``Sauna rooms``....
solution, it's expensive, but buy a big case only.... the Lian A71 or similar, but a tiny cramped A17 ( mine) or an Antec 300... well there you go, c'est la vie!
intake fans.... low speed,...........exhaust/cpu fans..... high speed
BUT DONT.........have the twin intake fans running at high speed..
sorry to keep going on about this, but i'm still worried about it, i think i've over engineered my case
http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2349995440105369285wkenLE
take a look at mine, i think i've gone over the top.... there's far too much intake, these need to be running at low speed.... feel free to comment
all these additional fans are for show only, plus they look blingy..
at home, the best way to cool your house in a heatwave is to have the backdoor wide open and another window wide open upstairs...but you cant ventilate your house, if you only have the backdoor wide open... because you're not getting a cool draft passing through the house and up the stairs,(because the air pressure upstairs is too high).....in fact, cool air wont even enter the downstairs!
like this, my house ventilates in only a few minutes, especially if it's breezy outside, this breeze outside is the same as your 120 mm case fans.
intake at the back door.........exhaust fan upstairs, i think the clue is.... this air has to pass freely through the house and not rammed in, injected etc... but allowed to move as it wants.
now, all our pc hardware is still running too hot, yes; this is because you aint supposed to be overclocking it are you
...sorry, but its true..... add to this, our midi cases arent big enough inside.... not enough air volume inside, they're like tiny little sweaty/humid ``Sauna rooms``....solution, it's expensive, but buy a big case only.... the Lian A71 or similar, but a tiny cramped A17 ( mine) or an Antec 300... well there you go, c'est la vie!
intake fans.... low speed,...........exhaust/cpu fans..... high speed
BUT DONT.........have the twin intake fans running at high speed..
sorry to keep going on about this, but i'm still worried about it, i think i've over engineered my case
http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2349995440105369285wkenLE
take a look at mine, i think i've gone over the top.... there's far too much intake, these need to be running at low speed.... feel free to comment
I think another problem with mine is that I have dual fans on my CPU heatsink which run at 1300RPM, while my extractor fan at the back only runs at 700RPM. This means that the other 700RPM can't escape and is blowing back towards the front of the case.
Millions of people are smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol heavily but are those any good?
Just think of it how it can be possible that anything sells if it just has big enough advertises regardless is there anything true or even logical in those or how spamming can be so productive as it is.
So is it any wonder that badly/non working features and snake oils can sell like "Jesus" in modern society which instead of teaching people to think teaches them not to think?
CPUs would actually have really nice heat output per size but they would "burn out" before I would start feeling warm.
Millions of people are smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol heavily but are those any good?
Just think of it how it can be possible that anything sells if it just has big enough advertises regardless is there anything true or even logical in those or how spamming can be so productive as it is.
So is it any wonder that badly/non working features and snake oils can sell like "Jesus" in modern society which instead of teaching people to think teaches them not to think?
CPUs would actually have really nice heat output per size but they would "burn out" before I would start feeling warm.
YES!
i think we've all been suckered in by hype/bling, without there being any scientific research first..
i.e i very much doubt that you need dual fans on a heatsink, you just need to blow cold air through the heatsink's grills at high speed, BECAUSE the exhaust fan on the rear panel will draw that air out the case ( especially if it's directly in line........ yes, the exhaust fan needs to be at the same speed as the cooler's or faster.
the exhaust fan wants to be running faster than all the rest...i'd say something like
intake fan ( two).......500
cooler fan.................1400
exhaust fan..............1500
roof fan....................300
the fan to watch out for is the roof fan, this fan isn't really needed and will draw cool air away from CPU COOLER....so maybe only 200rpm
basically you want the exhaust fan to create a pressure drop inside, which sucks cold air in the front...... the front fans make this process easier.
to be honest, i think the front fan is only really there to cool the HDDs; but in my case, my single HDD is above the fans....with its own little 80mm fan....or even a smaller fan!
the big mistake may have been, i should've either designed my own case or brought the bigger A-71....but i needed to save money!
i think the A-17 looks tremendous assembled, but i'll need to monitor its cooling
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Soldato
Not to gatecrash someone's thread, but I wanna thank you for writing that. I took my side fan out just now to see if it would make a difference. I fitted it to the rear instead to give me 2 exhaust fans. My case/motherboard temp went down from 36 to 31. I didn't test it without the side fan and without the extra exhaust fan to see what the temp would be, but either way, you helped me think of a way to get better cooling.
i removed the front two fans today and moved them back towards the front grill..... away from the graphics card, i moved them about 2.5 ''. .... this is the 4th bloody time that i've moved them 
...........
loads of work, it took 2 hours to redo them! it now looks a bit better, that lower fan was only 2'' away from the card and this bothered me.......too much swirling on its front edge...they were also, too close to the exhaust.
i want a cool draft entering the case and not rammed in like a hurricane
...........loads of work, it took 2 hours to redo them! it now looks a bit better, that lower fan was only 2'' away from the card and this bothered me.......too much swirling on its front edge...they were also, too close to the exhaust.
i want a cool draft entering the case and not rammed in like a hurricane