Block up empty video card ports?

pilsburypie

pilsburypie

pilsburypie

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So I'm showing my PC a bit of love in the cooling department. I've ordered some better case fans, removed an unused HDD bay and tomorrow will be going to town on the dust.

Having not really had my head inside the case to often thinking about airflow until now, I'm wondering what the empty video card ports are doing. 2 out of the 7 are used for the GPU leaving 5 just open holes in the back of the case. By my calculations my case should be positive pressure so air should come out of these holes. Is that a good or bad thing or do I want the exhaust fan to take care of this?
 
Those aren't video card ports, they're slots and you need some blanking plates. And yes, they likely need to be closed for best airflow.

As for the dusting, get yourself a couple of cans of compressed air or a compressor to blow the dust out and have a fan blowing across the case to blow the dust away.
 
Make sure the pressure from the compressor isn't too high, you don't want to go shooting capacitors and fan blades off :p
 
My experience (and many others) is more often than not having case PCI slot covers lowers case temperatures. Reason is if there is enough intake airflow the hot air coming off of GPU is pushed out these openings instead of being sucked back into GPU or moving up and into CPU intake.
 
doyll said:
My experience (and many others) is more often than not having case PCI slot covers lowers case temperatures.
Click to expand...

This depends upon how the airflow is designed. If you're trying to go for positive air pressure, for example, it will cause problems. There is also the point that the blanking plates prevent small fingers poking things in.
 
Quartz said:
This depends upon how the airflow is designed. If you're trying to go for positive air pressure, for example, it will cause problems. There is also the point that the blanking plates prevent small fingers poking things in.
Click to expand...
How airflow is "designed" is dependent on what components and what fans are being used.. as well as were case is, what hdds are used, where cables are, etc.

Actually the opposite is true.
We must have positive case pressure air ito pushed air outof holes in case.
If we do not have positive case pressure, air will be drawn into case.

As for small fingers.. :eek: if they are getting to that area there will most likely be problems with other things.. like cables being pulled loose too. Small fingers need to be kept away from the back of computers... along with pet mice, rats, spiders, kittens, etc. :D
 
My case should be positive pressure. The 2 120mm intakes exceed the 140mm exhaust CFM by some way.

Seeing as there seems to be some saying cover the slots and some saying leave them open, I suppose I'll just have to experiment..... unless someone can promise (with no fingers crossed) they know the right answer.;)
 
Hey doyll - pretty good advice there. I may well use your case temp checking idea. Will get my misses to bring a temp probe back from work.
 
Positive should push air out the little holes in those I/O plates but Negative pressure will suck it in.

Negative runs cooler but get dustier so needs good filters.

Can of air or gas are crap and cost too much, the compressor is ideal.


 
pilsburypie said:
My case should be positive pressure. The 2 120mm intakes exceed the 140mm exhaust CFM by some way
Click to expand...

Hi, my FTO1 case with positive air pressure use's 2x180mm 900rpm fans top rear/bottom front + 120mm fan rear exhaust. But is now set as a extra intake fan you can feel the air coming out the PCI Slots.

I dont think 2x120mm would create enough pressure to give good positive case pressure but also you have 1x140mm fan as exhaust so its working against this.

I bought a BitFenix Raider case and fitted the optional 200mm fans rear top + front bottom for positive air pressue. As the 2x120mm front fans + 1x120mm rear fan were not very good at all for cooling. But made the case very quiet at the exspence of good air flow for cooling.

The BitFenix Raider is fitted with a fan controler even set at half speed about 500rpm you can just feel the air coming out the PCI Slots.

So pilsburypie have alook again at your air flow in your case, again l don't think your fan set up is giving you the best tempurature's for cooling inside the case..
 
Having experimented with both negative flow and positive flow (I say flow because the amount of pressure involved is extremely low) makes little to no difference in cooling ability. The key is how the air flows through the case.. what course it follows. Think of it as a stream. There are ebbs and flows, back flow, fans channels, etc. Obstacles in the stream change where and how the water flows.. rocks, logs, etc. Airflow through a case does the same things. We push or pull the air through case to supply cool air to components and remove heated air from components. There's lots of science involved, but when something as small as a sata cable can change the flow pattern it there is a lot of 'gut feeling' / 'magic' going on too. :D
 
doyll said:
Having experimented with both negative flow and positive flow (I say flow because the amount of pressure involved is extremely low) makes little to no difference in cooling ability. The key is how the air flows through the case.. what course it follows. Think of it as a stream. There are ebbs and flows, back flow, fans channels, etc. Obstacles in the stream change where and how the water flows.. rocks, logs, etc. Airflow through a case does the same things. We push or pull the air through case to supply cool air to components and remove heated air from components. There's lots of science involved, but when something as small as a sata cable can change the flow pattern it there is a lot of 'gut feeling' / 'magic' going on too. :D
Click to expand...

+1 but having very little case air pressure is not going to help.

BitFenix Raider case 2x120mm front fans + 1x120mm rear fan negative air pressure. The front fans are blocked straight away by HDD bays so
bang goes your case air flow what little you had.

Fitting the 200mm fans even turned down to about 500rpm both pulling air in[positive pressure] improved cooling. The top 200mm fan being
bigger cooled a wider area of the motherbroad. The front 200mm fan you could actually feel the air coming out the HDD bay and around the
side's my son's SSD + HD were a lot cooler.

A good tip is remove any bays you don't use to improve air flow, BitFenix Raider has two bottom HDD bays l removed the top bottom one to
improve case air flow.

It seems now a lot of case manufacrure's are using the least amount of case fans for cooling BitFenix is one to give a quieter case.

Again a tidy case cable's routed properly and any bays you don't use removed will improve air flow. It goes to show bigger fans even
turned down do improve cooling they may spin slower but they can still move a lot of air but also over a wider area.

How many members have fitted better fans to simply improve cooling l wonder?
 
OLDPHART said:
How many members have fitted better fans to simply improve cooling l wonder?
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I almost always change case fans. Only exception in years is Enthoo Primo.. which comes with 5x PH-F140SP fans rated 1200rpm, 82.1cfm, 1.33mm H2O & 19dBA. Definitely not the run of the mill case fans. :D
 
I will certainly give consideration to the flow of air. I have removed one HDD bay and am considering relocating my HDD and SSD to remove the other.

Both intakes are rated around 60CFM and the exhaust around 80CFM. Even if the intakes are hindered there has to be some positive pressure? I shall check the PCI vents to see if I have air expelled.
 
All depends on how restrictive the intake grills, filters, etc. are and how good the fans are. Most fan ratings, even if accurate, are almost worthless.. cfm rating is with fan on an open bench or hanging in open area.. and static pressure rating is when fan stops moving air.. neither is a condition I use fan in.. unless it's using one to blow air on me to keep cool. :D

Anything else, just ask.
 
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