H500i Cooling - expansion slot exhausts?

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Hey guys,

I have a H500i which I've just put together with my parts and to be honest, the cooling is naff.

I've already had to mod the case to fit in a 1080ti however I'm having to use slim fans to fit my NH-C14s in the case.

Now the H500i has 4 spare regular PCI slots below the GPU and 2 vertical slots.

Now I've seen the 'Expansion Slot Rear Exhaust Cooling Fans' that are about and have been for a long time but are there any better devices around that could enable me to make use of all the 'empty' expansion slots to improve cooling?
 
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Found a 'Gelid Solutions PCI Slot fan holder' that actually should help the airflow out into the GPU.

Hopefully, this aids with the cooling as the GPU should be drawing fresh air up from the bottom and in from the empty expansion slots.
 
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I've had good results just removing all unused PCIe slot covers to increase rear vent area so better front to back airflow so lower air temp entering cooler so fans spin slower and quieter. |Then fill front vents with good high pressure intake fans and blocking any opening in front not covered by intake fans so air they push into case has to flow on through case, not loop into front again and end up going in circles. Stock Aer F 120 are rated 1.24mm H2O @ 1500rpm (full speed) so might not be good enough. 2x 140mm fans will flow about the same as 3x 120mm fans, so 2x 140mm would be better. With 2x high pressure 140mm front intakes you won't need any exhaust fans. They will easily push air on out vents. You might be better airflow by blocking front half of top vent.

I like Phanteks PH-F140MP, and a 2-pack of them is £8.34 making each fan only £4.17 each.
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/two-...140mm-fan-radiator-performance-bu-003-pt.html

People like new Arctic P series fans (been out a couple years now). They are £5.95 each.
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/search?sSearch=arctic+p14

Below link is to simlpe guide airflow and how to optimize it, including how to monitor airlfow temp into coolers vs room.
https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/t...-i-put-my-temp-sensor.18564223/#post-26159770
 
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I've had good results just removing all unused PCIe slot covers to increase rear vent area so better front to back airflow so lower air temp entering cooler so fans spin slower and quieter. |Then fill front vents with good high pressure intake fans and blocking any opening in front not covered by intake fans so air they push into case has to flow on through case, not loop into front again and end up going in circles. Stock Aer F 120 are rated 1.24mm H2O @ 1500rpm (full speed) so might not be good enough. 2x 140mm fans will flow about the same as 3x 120mm fans, so 2x 140mm would be better. With 2x high pressure 140mm front intakes you won't need any exhaust fans. They will easily push air on out vents. You might be better airflow by blocking front half of top vent.

Ahh those fans are too thick for me, I picked up the only couple of 120 / 140 slims fans on OCUK. I have 2 corsair ML140s at the front for the moment, imagine they should be decent enough?

So maybe I could open up the slots on the back to allow the GPU to get fresh air and that'll do. Certainly gets warm with no fans on the top and top-rear under load so hopefully with them in place that should work.
 
Soldato
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Ahh those fans are too thick for me, I picked up the only couple of 120 / 140 slims fans on OCUK. I have 2 corsair ML140s at the front for the moment, imagine they should be decent enough?

So maybe I could open up the slots on the back to allow the GPU to get fresh air and that'll do. Certainly gets warm with no fans on the top and top-rear under load so hopefully with them in place that should work.
Don't understand. Only case fans you need are your ML140 front intakes. There is no reason to use any exhaust fans. Using both is similar to using push / pull fans on cooler or radiator, cooling is almost the same / is the same as same noise levels. Might be 1-2c lower with fans at full speed, but if you are like most of us our fans rarely if ever run full speed.
 
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Don't understand. Only case fans you need are your ML140 front intakes. There is no reason to use any exhaust fans. Using both is similar to using push / pull fans on cooler or radiator, cooling is almost the same / is the same as same noise levels. Might be 1-2c lower with fans at full speed, but if you are like most of us our fans rarely if ever run full speed.

Will give it a go with just the front 2 and with the exhaust and do some test runs to see if there's any difference, you may be right though!
 
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Rear exhaust + 2 front seems effective, certainly helps the cool air leave the case.

Installed the 'Gelid Solutions PCI Slot fan holder' and actually, that seems to be super effective at pulling air up from the PSU shroud/bottom of the case and also pulls air in from the open slots at the rear as well as forcing lots of air into the GPU.

Actually pretty happy with that product, very simple in practice, could see it being very handy if they sold stand-alone kits as people would be able to reuse spare fans.

I need to do some more testing but will come back with some results after stress tests :).
 
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Just to add my experience of owning a h500i. I found the included nzxt fans to be too noisy and through a few changes I ended up using BeQuiet Silent Wings 2 with two at front (140mm), one at back (120mm) and one at the top (140mm). The corsair fans I used at front previously moved more air but were slightly loud. Some have said that front fans in this case achieve nothing but I personally have not found this although I found it pointless to put front fans on a high fan curve. Most useful on high fan curve are the rear and top fans.
 
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Just to add my experience of owning a h500i. I found the included nzxt fans to be too noisy and through a few changes I ended up using BeQuiet Silent Wings 2 with two at front (140mm), one at back (120mm) and one at the top (140mm). The corsair fans I used at front previously moved more air but were slightly loud. Some have said that front fans in this case achieve nothing but I personally have not found this although I found it pointless to put front fans on a high fan curve. Most useful on high fan curve are the rear and top fans.

Yeah I've actually just reused the two stock h500 fans in a 'budget' build and they are insanely loud, I've got them at about 10% at the front and that's the max they can really go before they can become audible, the rear fan is running 80%.
 
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