Airflow and Cooling Ideas.

Tonux · 24 May 2011 at 21:09

Hi there!

So then, I have a Cooler Master Elite 335 Case, and with a fair amount of stuff crammed into it, 4 HDD, and a GTX470 which is fits fairly far back, and I had a tough job of working the HDDS around it. So, my gtx470 gets really hot, and I’m talking around 70 degrees celsius on idle. My friend was like, “Dude, you need a new case” but I don’t really have the money for a new case at the moment. So I was thinking about putting more fans in, now then, as this case can’t support fans in some of the places I need them, I was thinking about just drilling screw holes in the case, and putting a fan even where it’s not supposed to go.

Firstly, here is a nice picture of my case at the moment, if you see anything else that could be done to improve the airflow, feel free to tell me.

In that, you can see 2 fans (1 & 2) which use up 2 of the 3 fan ports on my mobo. (3) shows the air flow of the fan on the GTX470.

Here is what I would like to do:

At (4), I plan to put a fan there, because I have 4 HDD's, they are probably getting hot.
At (5), what I want to do is cut a hole, along with 4 screw holes around it, and have a fan their blowing air up into the GTX470. I have not decided on what size etc of the fan to go there (recommendations please). What I will also need to do is raise the bottom, the 4 rubber circles only raise it about a centimetre above the desk, I will probably use some Lego blocks there.

As I only have 1 spare fan port on the mobo, one of the fans (4 or 5) will have to use a Molex connector or something else.

I think that is all, I will be happy to provide any more information about my system. Please give me recommendations on fans, tools (for cutting) etc.

Thanks!
Tonux

blitzyuk · 24 May 2011 at 22:51

Hi

just wanted to say.

The way you want to put those new fans will more than likely increase the temperature of the gpu as the air you will be using to cool your 3 hard disks will be directed straight toward the gpu.

You could move the hard drives up and also use any spare 5.25" bays that way you could still put a fan at the front. only draw back in doing that is that the heat will be directed towards the cpu.

You could also if possible remove the fan at the rear of the case and rotate your cpu cooler so the air is expelled out through the psu and maybe install a fan at the top of the case in front of the psu to expell the heat from the hard disks.

That way you will have the front fan bringing in cool air and expelling the hot air out the top cooling the hard disks and also feeding cool air to the gpu. how does that sound?

Tonux · 25 May 2011 at 00:05

Hi, thanks for the reply!

I like that idea, I was thinking tho, even if I could rotate the cpu cooler (and I might not be able to) would the hot air from it damage or cause any harm the the psu? Or does it not matter if it gets hot?

Thanks!
Tonux

blitzyuk · 25 May 2011 at 00:16

Im not an expert but it could decrease the life expectancy of the psu but it all depends on how hot the air is from the cooler, do you have the cpu running at 100% a lot.

Im sure though if psu's werent able to cope with the heat why would they mount them at the top of the case in the first place.

Tonux · 25 May 2011 at 00:37

SpeedFan is showing about 36C on idle. It only really goes to 100% when playing games, and that’s not for extensive periods of time. I have to go now, I will take a closer look at the cpu cooler tomorrow and see if I can rotate it, might have to get some thermal paste as well.

Thanks for your help!
Goodnight

Tonux.

beefybarn · 25 May 2011 at 05:34

Just mount a fan in the front of the case and see how you go. If still to warm cut one in the roof infront of the psu as heat rises.

OLDPHART · 25 May 2011 at 17:20

You need a fan at the case front bottom[No4] that alone will help with your temps and tidy your cables up as well.

Tealc · 25 May 2011 at 18:46

Yes agree Position number 4. As a guess I'd say you could get a 140mm fan in that slot. You might want to remove the restrictive grille there though as I reckon only 40% of your airflow would actually get through those little holes and into the case, the rest would just buffet against the metal. Get a compass and draw a 132mm ish circle and then cut or snip away at the metal until you get a hole. Line with u-channel or not.

The front fan will cool your hard drives but will also provide cooler air to the graphics card. I would imagine you have negative pressure in your case having only exhaust fans going on so the front grille is probably already giving you some cooling so you'll just be increasing that airflow.

A bottom fan slot would certainly provide fresh air to the graphics card but may not be necessary.

Tonux · 25 May 2011 at 19:14

Hey there!

Thanks for all the feedback, what I will do is put a fan in (4) and do a before and after comparison with the temps. I will also cut the grill. It may take awhile to get the fan in, so I will post back once its installed and let you guys know how it went.

Thanks for all the help!
Tonux

blitzyuk · 26 May 2011 at 00:54

hi all.

if you noticed that his gpu is running at 70C when idle.
i would have thought leaving the 3 HDD's where they are and putting a fan at pos no 4 wouldnt actually decrease the temperature of the gpu that much.

lrlcr · 26 May 2011 at 13:18

I'd put a 120/140 in the side to bring cool air into the gpu fan. Better than the bottom as hopefully you have more space on that side.

Tonux · 26 May 2011 at 17:03

Well i have a 120 on the way, so when it gets here, ill try it and do some comparison.

Tonux

ivan165 · 26 May 2011 at 22:28

335 cooling mods

i had one and made some mods with a 10 quid dremmel device

take out the 3.5 hard drive bay and stick the hard drives in the 5.25 bays with adaptors

make some new holes with said dremmel for 120 mm fan

nice flow of air from front fan ,good downblast from two 120 mm akasa + 80mm (i think) onto hot card (faulty possibly)

the mod dropped mobo etc temps quite a bit ...graphics card was still cooking but that was the card.defo get a 120mm on the front it helps !

4 x 120 mm fans + 1x 80/92mm fan ........worked but should have used the fan money for better case ie larger lols :rolleyes:

hope that helps you

ivan165

Tonux · 27 May 2011 at 19:14

Thanks ivan165! I will try some of that.

What I was going to do was do a bungee mod with 2 of the HDDs, and get rid of the other 2 (they were never really used). But, I didn’t have any of the cord, so I used some garden wire, which works for now. Also, I put a fan in at the front, which annoyingly didn’t come with any screws, I know a friend who’s got some spares, but until then, I used garden wire again, so yeah, all a bit messy.

Piccies:

It has helped the temp a little bit, dropping about 10C. I will get another fan and put it at the top when I have time.

Thanks!
Tonux

scrlk · 27 May 2011 at 19:16

Front intakes are really fantastic for reducing case temps.

(anyone see the pun?)