4 case fans - what do I need and where?

[P3tray]

Hello geniuses, I want your expertise. This is my first build using cheap parts and the performance & quantity of stock fans are shocking - why do they bother including them?

I'm looking for full set of case fans for the H510 Flow, my GPU is currently thermally throttling with the stock two case "fans". I'm aiming to overclock.

What would you recommend? I've seen the suggestions for the Silent Wings Pro 4, P14's and so on, but my case allows for either two 120mm or two 140mm case fans at the front, and either a 120mm or 140mm fan at the top. The rear exhaust fan must be a 120mm one (I think). Here's the manufacturer's product page.

I like the idea of my fans being future proof for when I finally get that much needed pay rise and buy myself a AMD 9995xtxtx GPU in 2027.

I'm not interested in lighting, but I don't object to it either. I'll take it as a bonus.

Some specs you might find handy:
GPU: MSI 6700xt Mech 2x 12GB OC
CPU: AMD 5600x
CPU Cooler: Arctic Freezer 34 eSports Duo
Motherboard: Asus PRIME A520M-A II
Case: NZXT H510 Flow
Power supply: Corsair 650w uhhh... I forgot the rest.

Love you all so dearly,
P3.

 

[P3tray]

You say your gpu is thermal throttling whats temps are you getting ? The best way to check this is to remove the case side panel on check temps before and after.


As for case fans the arctic p12/p14 offer the best value personally i wound put 3 in the front and whatever at the rear and top.

I'm getting a toasty 95 degrees celsius.

I'll take a look at the p12's and p14's.

I can't fit three at the front. Only two of either 140mm or 120mm.

 

[P3tray]

2 x 140mm front.
1 x 140 top.
1 x 120 mm rear may not be needed but wouldn't hurt.
Flip the PSU so the fan draws air from under the GPU and out the case.

Phantek SK or Arctics as mentioned.

I've not heard of the Phantek SK's before, I'll take a look. Thanks.

If you think the rear may not be needed I might as well just use the stock case fan for it.

 

[P3tray]

2 140mm in the front then and another rear but don't forget to try the gpu temps with side panel off which we be a goid indication its airflow needed.

Alright. I assume, from never having heard of this test before, that I'm checking if I need higher pressure fans to get around my case? Or am I an idiot who's interpreting this wrong.

I'll run the test after I've finished doing my work.

Do you have any software suggestions for gathering the GPU temps?

 

[P3tray]

Note that the idle temperature readouts at idle are probably different because I did the side panel on test after having had my PC booted for an hour and I had let it sit. The GPU fans are off at 40 degrees. For the side panel off I left it switched off for an hour.

GPU at idle (side panel on):

GPU playing Portal RTX for 10 minutes (side panel on):

GPU at idle (side panel off):

GPU playing Portal RTX for 10 minutes (side panel off):

Unsure if this is what you're looking for.

MSi Afterburner, HWinfo , HWmonitor all show the gpu temps.

You really need to test with the side panel off before you buy new fans. This could be a fault with the gpu because they normally do not get that hot.

I like to put faster fans in a case and control them threw the motherboard like the arctic p14 pst.

Msi afterburner can monitor all parameters cpu, gpu and fan speed but there are loads a quick Google .

 

[P3tray]

Here's a photo of the PC, in case you're interested.

MSi Afterburner, HWinfo , HWmonitor all show the gpu temps.

You really need to test with the side panel off before you buy new fans. This could be a fault with the gpu because they normally do not get that hot.

I like to put faster fans in a case and control them threw the motherboard like the arctic p14 pst.

Msi afterburner can monitor all parameters cpu, gpu and fan speed but there are loads a quick Google .

 

[P3tray]

@P3tray .

Looking at temps gpu temps max 72c are fine and you also have gpu 2 temp which is the junction temp so According to AMD, readings up to 110c is normal and is the reading from the hottest part of the card .

To Summarise everything is fine and your gpu is running at 72c under load which is good . Having the side panel of made no diffrence to gpu temp but did help with gpu 2 temp so it's up to you if you want to add more fans.

Isn't GPU temperature 2 the hottest part of the GPU? It hits 93 with the case side panel on and 85 with it off. I believe it begins to thermal thottle at 95 degrees. I could also be an idiot, which is highly likely.

 

[P3tray]

Basically it's a hotspot on the gpu die but not overall temperature and as mentioned its good up to 110c.

Gpu temp of 72c max is fine and wont throttle until much higher temps.

This mite explain it better.

What Is A Good GPU Temperature Range? (How Hot Is Too Hot?)

Keeping GPU temps low is critical for PC gamers.

screenrant.com

Does that mean I have room for overclocking in my current predicament?

I'll keep the two stock fans and use them as exhausts. I'd still like fill the front two ones with fans, but what size, model n' stuff do you recommend? I've done a lot of googling but I'm still unsure if I should prioritize air pressure or air flow, what the minimum amount of each I should have etc.

Also, it seems that the case fans only increase in speed in line with the CPU temp, is that of concern?

 

[P3tray]

Wouldn't consider overclocking unless you really want to push the limits of your gpu but there are plenty of guides if you wish to.

Fans get the p14 pst I mentioned for the front and then you can connect to your motherboard. Some motherboard and software will let you choose which sensor you can link the fans too but again research is needed, bit it's fine running of cpu temps if your fans speed are set correctly.

Do you have an opinion on the Phantek F140M25? They're new for November 2022 and I can get them with free shipping. I was looking through the Phantek products as @bimbleuk mentioned Phantek SK's yesterday.

 

[P3tray]

Wouldn't consider overclocking unless you really want to push the limits of your gpu but there are plenty of guides if you wish to.

Fans get the p14 pst I mentioned for the front and then you can connect to your motherboard. Some motherboard and software will let you choose which sensor you can link the fans too but again research is needed, bit it's fine running of cpu temps if your fans speed are set correctly.

Do you have any experience with Phanteks M25 140mm fans? @bimbleuk mentioned Phantek SK's yesterday and I think these offer much better value for money than anything else I can see. They'll cost me £39 for a 3 pack with free shipping from OCUK. I'll use two at the front and one as the top exhaust and re-use one of the stock case fans for the rear exhaust. My spare extra stock case fan will make a great discussion piece for guests, I'm sure.

 

[P3tray]

I thought my message didn't send, but I had to click page two of the thread. My apologies.

 

[P3tray]

No experience but seem good for the money and you should be able to connect them to a argb/drgb header on your motherboard which you have 2 of them

2 x AURA Addressable Gen 2 header
2 x AURA RGB headers

Awesome, thanks. I'll get to buying them on Monday unless anyone else on this thread has opinions or concerns.

I appreciate your help @mickyflinn. Also thanks to @bimbleuk and @Haz123. You're all awesome.

 

[P3tray]

This has been a very informative read, thanks for posting OP. I'm in the same situation of replacing stock fans and may follow your lead with those Phanteks.

You have the b450 tomahawk which doesn't have an argb header , you will either need a fan hub or get rgb fans.

Correct, but they do a white and a black version (that's the link for the 140mm black ones) without RGB for £10 less with the 3 pack, or £3 less each with the singles.

I know I said I don't care for RGB, but then I thought "Why not?" with those fans - as the specs are the same with or without and it's just two hours overtime for something slightly nicer.

 

[P3tray]

Phanteks are good value and I've built several P500A cases with them recently.

Phantek to use a non-standard RGB connector witht their fans but the triple fan pack comes with an adapter to use the standard 3 pin ARGB 5V connector. So you can daisy chain the Phantek fans together and plugin to a single 3 pin ARGB header or buy the Phanteks Digital RGB fan controller at ~£22 if your motherboard doesn't have one.

The SK fans are good free flow case fans. The M series would be better for mounting on air and water coolers.

Thanks for the advice again @bimbleuk, but how do I go about deducing if fans are designed for cases vs coolers? All I can see is that the SK's are worse than the M25's in nearly every way:

All I can see is that the operating voltage varience, mean time between failures & fan weight is better on the SK's. I'm not sure how to interpret cable length, but 5.5cm of cable should be pleanty (P.S. WTF do they mean by 21.65in? That's 55cm! Did nobody proof read it?!)

The promo images for both even show them both case mounted (though I do understand it's easier to market RGB fans in a case than on a cooler). What am I missing? What's the secret?

 

[P3tray]

The flow figures are not reliable because there's no standard way to test fans. Having said that as you are comparing 2 fans from the same brand looking at the max air pressure that's the biggest difference between them.

The SK do look more like a general fan which could work on a cooler and as a case fan as the blades are still quite swept. The M series have a bit more aggressive fan blade profile and probably a stronger motor.

Look at the Corsair AF series fans and you can see the smaller blades with less sweep and bigger gaps which moves more air in a case position.

I can see a clear difference between the fans (left is SK's, right is M25's). They both have equal blades, on first glace I thought that the SK's had more triangular fans because of the smaller stem diameter, but I'm second guessing that they're equal. The SK's seem to be closer together and have a more swept appearance though, no need to second guess? I'm not trying to criticize, just trying to learn. Apologies for being a pain. I appreciate your help.

 

[P3tray]

These days it's getting harder to tell them apart due to better design and consumer understanding. I hadn't really looked at the M series and assumed it was a high static pressure series but as you say the SK look more like a high pressure fan at a glance.

The general rule is more sweep, closer gaps that require a more rigid fan blade and a stronger motor for high pressure fans. High flow fans used to just have a simpler fan blade and a high fan speed.

I've got an old 120 mm fan from way back marketed as the highest flow case fan called the Thunder or something. All they did was sell a fan that runs up to 7000 RPM!!

Maybe Gamer Nexus will start to post a series of fan test as they invested in an expensive fan testing rig.

I think I'll take the risk and get the M25's, I can get them for the nearly same price (£26 instead of £30 for non-rgb), I get over double the warranty, they look nicer, and on a basic paper level they claim to perform better.

I shan't be bench marking them, but at the end of the day we are discussing case fans, there isn't a miles worth of difference between the two (?).

I'll either get to buying them tonight or tomorrow depending if anyone has closing comments they'd like to add.

 

[P3tray]

Heads up I've purchased both the Phanteks M25 120mm D-RGB and Phanteks M25 140mm D-RGB three pack in white and replaced all my case fans. The case looks awesome. I may or may not do a followup post showing new temps - probably no better - but hey. Cost me £53 total. I also took the opportunity to fit my IO shield (something has to go wrong on your first build! I also regret my choice of RAM and motherboard chipset, at least AM4 is dead).

 

[P3tray]

I now realize that this is completely useless without recording the frame rate. Oh well.

 

[P3tray]

I did some fan curves, my fans now actually hit 100% speed.

Yeah, my GPU runs at the hottest UK temperature on record during a Kerball Space Program descent.