Better cooling in silent case

smilertoo

smilertoo

smilertoo

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Joined
4 Aug 2005
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Hi, i currently have a noctua hc12 cooler with 2 fans on; i recently changed my case from an antec1200 to a fractal design r4 to reduce noise but its increased temps due to restricted case airflow. Would a water cooler such as the corsair H100 be better attached directly to the top fan vents? or does it still require a decent airflow through the case?

Thanks
 
Noctua HC12 cooler? I know of no such beast. :confused:

R4 has plenty of airflow. 2x 140mm front intakes bring in lots of air. Add another 140mm in bottom and you have at least twice as much air as cooler uses. I have R2 modded to 140mm fans with a 980 cpu that maxes below 50c with 3x Handbrakes encoding at same time. That's a constant 100% load for extended periods of time. Even with all fans unplugged CPU stays above 72-75c.

Corsair water cooling is noisy, expensive and having all kinds of problems. New H100i released last week has all kinds of buyers complaining about problems. Older H100 has had problems for as long as it's been out.. same for H80.

Give us some more details and I'm sure we can get you cooled down. ;)
 
You're right, its an NH-U12P. What i'm after is to cool the cpu better without increasing case noise; I've already added a Corsair AF140 to the front intake and rotated the middle drive bay.
 
Well the U12P is not a great cooler. My CPU temps dropped more than 10c changing from U12P to Phanteks TC14PE and did it with less fan speed so less noise.

Fractal Design Define R2 on castor base with;
Intake = 2x Akasa FN053 front & TY-140 bottom.
Exhaust 2x FN053 back, top vents open.

Noctua NH-U12P using 2x TY-140 w/custom shroud/adaptor to cooler face; duct to top vent.
ET6 = 10% rpm @ 32c
100% rpm @ 48c
idle 720rpm @ 36-41c @ 22c encoding 1280rpm @ 67-70c mobo 37,50,55

PH-TC14PE w/ 2x TY-140 push/pull/duct to top vent
ET6 = 10% rpm @ 30c
100% rpm @ 50c front closed 21c ambient
idle 680rpm @ 37-35-39-34c 30-30-42c Encoding 1170rpm @ 59-58-60-56c mobo 33-43-44c
 
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Above tests were with 920 @ 3.55GHz with cooler blowing out top. (RAM as too tall for fan to fit with side on)

Now have lower RAM and front to back airflow and 980 which runs cooler than 920 did I tested 980 with cooler with same setup as on 920 and temps were 10c cooler than 920 temps. ;)

Top vents now have sound deadening panels back on them.
 
Another vote for the Phanteks TC14PE, I bought one the other week and its nice and quiet and does a very good job of keeping my 3570k cool at 4.5ghz.
 
If you want one of to top coolers:
Cooler size comparison
K2 . = . 140x128x158mm 146x154x160mm w/fans (Width x Depth x Height looking from front of case with motherboard laying flat)
D14 = . 140x130x160mm 140x158x160mm w/fans
TC14 = 140x134x160mm 140x159x171mm w/fans
SA . = . 147x123x160mm 151x149x160mm w/Fans
SB-E. = 155x105x164mm 170x130x170mm w/fans
Extreme 155x105x164mm 155x130x165mm w/fans Reason it's smaller is 140mm fan vs 150mm fan.
HE01 =. 140x119c160mm 140x38mm fan is loud; cools AMD very well but falls on on intel.

K2, D14 & TC14 are about same except for TC14 140mm fans & 31mm RAM clearance stack up to 171mm (my R2 is 165mm clearance and TC14 fits)

SB-E is widest by 15mm. Even wider with TY-150 fan = 170.

Extreme with TY-143 fans is still 151.5mm


Now that's only the very top coolers.. all within 2 or 3c of each other. There are another 20-30 coolers that are all within 8-10c of the best. Including yours
 
Have your CPU temps increased or just your case temps? Just wandering if the position of your motherboard sensors have changed in relation to your case fans in the new case which would potentially explain a degree or two in motherboard temp readings. If your CPU temps haven't changed then you dont have anything to be concerened about, but if they have by how much and is this actually affecting your PC in any way?
 
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