Advice needed for cooling this heat-disaster PC down a bit?

[Akagi]

Hi guys, so my PC is set up like this at the moment with a 200MM and a 120MM intake at the front, and a 120MM exhaust, and 240MM push/pull AIO exhausting out of the top.

Any suggestions as to how I could improve this?

I run Folding@Home the GPU's are at 100% load. They have Sapphire Tri-X coolers which dump hot air into the case.

In this heat my GPU's are sitting at 94*C (#0) and 77*C (#1) and my CPU is sitting at 70*C because of the heat generated by the GPU's, and it nudges 90*C if I stress it to 100% with Prime Blend while the GPU's are running.

The fans I currently have are a total hodge podge, theres a cheapy Xigmatek in the drive bays, a cheapy Corsair exhaust fan at the back, the upper-most radiator fans are Akasa Venom Vipers, the lower ones are an old H60V2 AIO fan which looks like an SP120 only gray, and a Scythe slimline (to clear the RAM) and the 200MM is an Antec BigBoy 200 which only runs at the slowest setting.

Is there much to be gained by retiring the whole lot and replacing with a matching set of better fans? Should I completely reverse the setup and have the top and rear as intakes, and the front exhausting?

Hmmm...

 

[Akagi]

Any chance of mounting an exhaust fan on the case side panel over the GPUs?

You could then put a piece of cardboard horizontally to divide the inner volume just above the GPUs. They get fed cold air from the 200mm intake and the side exhaust pulls the hot air out. The divider stops hot air from the GPUs getting near the CPU cooler etc.

How are your fans controlled?

I have a windowed side panel on this 600T, when things get really bad I just remove it completely and run with the side of the case open. You used to be able to get a side panel insert which was mesh and allowed you to mount FOUR fans on the side panel, so I might see if I can get one of those...

Then I could try front, top, and rear as intakes, and four exhaust fans on the side. That would be novel... It would be like a space heater!

A divider is a good idea, I hadn't thought of that. I'll mull that over.

They aren't really controlled at all. Some of them are plugged straight into the motherboard 3 pin headers or powered straight from molex adapters, some are plugged into the cases integrated fan controller which is whacked all the way up to max.

Get more air in there. I don’t know if changing the rads to the front will give you anything.

if it runs that hot check your air flow from the front fans. If you’re front panel is solid it will restrict fresh air coming in.

you maybe can try bringing air in through the tap Rads and get a quite powerful rear fan going to extract the heat.

tbh your step up is pretty standard. Failing the above - leave your case open.

Front panel is mesh with filters. Maybe the intake fans dont have enough static pressure to overcome that? Its quite possible because one of the intake fans is just a cheapy, and the other is the Antec, but it only works on the slow setting, so it doesn't spin very fast.

Might try flipping the fans around at the top, but I didn't think a single 120MM exhaust fan would cut it?

I do sometimes leave the case open when things get bad! Haha

 

[Akagi]

Look at replacing high rpm fans with slower, higher flow rate ones to avoid turbulence inside the case?

The multi fan side panel sounds like a plan.

Its just seeing if I can actually find one!

I have removed the side panel window now, so I have a side panel with a big hole in. It looks OK actually.

 

[Akagi]

Do you actually need push/pull on the aio? Could be that those fans are too powerfull and are "pulling" all your intake air straight up meaning it doesn't actually flow over the GPUs?

Does the bigboy not work on higher speeds? If so may just be worth replacing that with a 120mm or 140mm - probably flow more air.

Arctic P12 / P14 are decent cheap fans if you are looking at replacements - although if replacing all of them it may be cheaper to replace the case!

Probably not, I just had two spare fans kicking about so I put them on.

The bigboy is broken. I removed the three speed controller to try and wire it into my fan controller, it didn't work, so now its just on the slowest speed forever.

I was looking at the P12's funnily enough!

I think the case is fine for airflow, at least it looks like it should be? I recon its just the fans / configuration that need changing.

 

[Akagi]

It looks very dusty in there, giving it a good clean would probably help.

It isn't dusty in the places where it matters. Heatsinks, fan blades, and radiator are all clear of dust.

Rigged up another exhaust fan as a test... Might flip it around the other way so its an intake.

 

[Akagi]

Flipped it around and the top GPU has decreased by about 3 degrees. Thatll do for now while I think about buying fans...

 

[Akagi]

Buy a bigger case you absolute noob.

R00d.

Haven't you got some automotive mesh lying around? I'm sure you could fill the window with that.

I don't but good plan, I could easily do that. Brain not in gear today

 

[Akagi]

I cant put my AIO at the front. Theres no mounting points and no space for me to make them, without cutting up the case with a dremel. Not sure the hoses would reach either!

 

[Akagi]

Hmm, ill try moving the drives. Wherever i put them they will be blocking some airflow though sadly.

The little plastic drive plinth is removable, i could remove that and put the drives where that is, or possibly have them hanging from the ODD bays.

Tbh its the CPU im most concerned about temps wise.

Adding the intake on the side has dropped my top GPU temp by a few degrees. Hard to say how much of an impact exactly, because the ambient temps have dropped now.

 

[Akagi]

I dont want to get a bigger case really, this one is already huge and incredibly heavy when loaded up! Perhaps theres one which is a similar size but with a better internal arrangement?

Ill have a look...

 

[Akagi]

The fan on the side is an intake blowing over the top GPU at the moment, it made no difference as an exhaust, but as an intake I immediately saw the top GPU temp drop by a few degrees.

The perspex window has been removed, otherwise the fan wouldn't achieve a great deal.

Its a cooler day today and my CPU is sitting almost idle browsing forums at 27 degrees!

As for what the fans are:
Front intake 200MM Antec BigBoy 200
Front intake 120MM Xigmatec Orange Line
Side intake 120MM Xigmatec Orange Line
Rear exhaust 120MM Corsair "stock" fan
Top push exhaust 120MM Corsair SP120
Top push exhaust 120MM Scythe SlipStream Slim
Top pull exhaust 120MM Akasa Venom Viper
Top pull exhaust 120MM Akasa Venom Viper

 

[Akagi]

Thanks, given me lots to think about! The 200mm is stuck on the slow setting too as mentioned previously, so i guess its not achieving much.

The green strips are bits of wall showing through the empty gaps where the pci-e blanks were before i removed them.

 

[Akagi]

personally i would stop wasting time with F@H. That would stop your temp issues straight away.

What makes you say its a waste of time? Im sure Stanford do good work, and every source I can find suggests that it does make a difference. Ive been doing it on and off since 2012 and im one of the top contributors to OcUK's team.

Its nice to feel like you're helping in some small way, and its also nice to watch the numbers go up and down, and chart when you are going to overtake people and move up in rank.

Are you able to lay the case flat? The double GPU will be churning out a lot heat. So ideally you want that to go out of the case ASAP. So lay your case flat then you can get a fairly rapid fan to get those heat off to the side panel which is now your top panel. Then you can rearrange the Radiator to be at the front panel to bring cool air through push and pull - this should give you lots of nice fresh air into the case then the remainder as exhaust fans. You can set the fans directing airs from the radiator to the GPU to go a bit faster than the ones facing CPU and RAM that way to balance out the air distribution a bit.

Sadly the case isnt flat sided and it would take up too much room on its side as well. The AIO also can't go in the front.

Seriously has nobody suggested spending £40 on a better case rather than spending on fans (pick up somethng that fits 5-6x 140mm fans and has drives at the back on MM for cheap) ? Or really, just put it in a cardboard box or leave the side open.

Also don't know what the GPU's are and how old are they but could potentially undervolt them a bit without losing performance (or minimal hit of few%).

Re-pasting the GPU's can sometimes drop temps by 5-15c as well depending on how badly it was done and how long ago. If you run F@H for a long time it's easy for the paste to dry out if they sit that hot.

People have suggested that, but surely the case isnt that bad? There are plenty of fans. To get a case with more space around the GPU's id need a full tower, which would cost a fair bit more than £40.

The GPU's were overclocked at one point prior to this thread, they are now at stock clocks and volts.

Both have nearly new paste, and one even has new fans.

Ive bought a 200MM static pressure optimised fan for the front. Just waiting on that to arrive.

Ive also noticed that there is barely any temp difference if I have the radiator fans running flat out or on a lower speed. Could that be because they are mismatched?

 

[Akagi]

Since a couple of people have asked the GPU's are R9 390 Nitro 8GB cards.

The CPU is a 2700K @ 4.6GHz. Moons ago it was at 5GHz but ive dropped the clock speed and voltages.

The case is a Corsair Obsidian 600T if that is useful info for anyone.

 

[Akagi]

Because in 20 years its wasted a lot of electricity for pretty much no results of note.

Again, what makes you say that? Do you know what results there have been? What papers have been published? What researchers have called on those papers to aid in their research, etc?

In fact, don't worry, its not important or relevant.

 

[Akagi]

Because I used to be a structural biologist.

I'll ping you a PM because I was trying to find out how useful the F@H stuff was and could only find positive stuff.

 

[Akagi]

I do also use the PC for gaming.

The 780T is the spiritural successor to my 600T. I would probably use it if I built a new PC. Nice case.

TBH its fine now because the ambient temp has plummetted. Its cold here now.

 

[Akagi]

Good point, I think it runs 8x/8x in CFX.

 

[Akagi]

Then again, you're approaching territory of new case very quickly.

New fans -10-20
Pcie riser 20

Sell old case locally for £15

Buy new/2nd hand one for £60.

I'd keep an eye on MM/bgrade.

My MM access got stripped from me with dishonour many years ago, and as yet the MM dons have refused to let me back in...

 

[Akagi]

New Phantecs 200mm static pressure fan in the front, and faffed around with the drives.

Now I can see the horrid snakes nest of wires which was conveniently masked before.

I may concede and buy a new case soon though, because this one is starting to come apart at the seams now, every plastic part is very brittle, etc, I keep accidentally snapping clips and stuff, the door catches keep falling out, the clippy things on the top to hold the top mesh on have stopped working, rubber grommets here and there have gone hard and fallen apart, etc...

Honestly though, it has done well, it is probably 10 years old, has been through house moves, been to LAN parties, had tremendous amounts of heat going through it sometimes 24/7 over the years!