Bigger cooler, same temps

[Relentless81]

Hi,

I thought I would post this as it's as interesting as it is strange.

In my current PC I used to have a Dark Rock 4 none Pro, I sold it and fitted the standard cooler, don't ask, I like messing around.

The standard cooler was terrible, much higher temps than the DR4 however today I fitted a Noctua D15S, a twin tower cooler much bigger than the DR4 and the temps are almost exactly the same give or take a degree as the DR4 so mid 60's when gaming for example

The pc hasn't changed at all, same fans, same case same 2600x CPU on stock clocks

I'm tempted to send it back because it also louder than the DR4, I regret selling it now. Did I expect too much? Part of me thinks my motherboard isn't maxing out the CPU fan for some reason, Noctua quote 1500 rpm but bios is reporting a lot less

 

[Relentless81]

You won't notice a big difference unless you really push the cpu, then the noctua should start pulling ahead.

Makes sense but I'm sure there is something off with the MSI CPU Smart fan curves they don't make sense at all

Did no one ever tell you size isn't important? Bigger does not always equal better, design > most other factors

Agreed, the D15S is a better design than the DR4

 

[Relentless81]

Figured out the fan curve, turns out it's 20c out for some ridiculous reason so setting max fan speed at 60c really means max fan speed at 80c

Makes a difference dropping everything by 20c on the curve but only by 3c or so. I kind of expected more from a much bigger cooler but nevermind

 

[Relentless81]

Cooling CPU is not just about the CPU cooler. Case airflow has to be matched to coolers' (usually CPU & GPU) airflow needs. If case is not matched cooler will likely end up using air warmer, sometimes much warmer than room ambient .. and every degree warmer the air into cooler is becomes same degrees hotter CPU / GPU will be. Below link is to basic guide to case airflow and optimizing it.
https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/t...-i-put-my-temp-sensor.18564223/#post-26159770

Interesting that you say that because I've done a fair bit testing over the last 24 hours and found that case fans matched to system temp netted better temps under gaming load over 30 mins. Matching the case fans to the CPU caused the CPU cooler to not have the air readily available when it needed it from the case fans as they were running at a significant lower speed when matched to the CPU but when matched to system they were at twice the rpm due to a system based fan curve setup to react to the case heated up by the GPU. The case fans were already supplying cool air preventing the spike in temp by a couple of degrees

 

[Relentless81]

Are you saying case fans run faster when mached / synced to GPU than when matched / synced to CPU? I'm not surprised you need case fans running faster. GPUs dump heated air in all directions, so they need more case airflow to move their heated air back and out of case. When I said case airflow / case fans need to be matched / synced to both CPU and GPU I probably should have said 'case fan airflow'. Case fans may not run same speeds as cooler fans. Case fan speed is based on airflow coolers need. This is why I monitor air temp into coolers and set case fan placement and speed to supply coolers with air only 2-3c above room temp. The best I can get some cases with very poor airflow is 4-5c above room temp.

No sorry, the GPU heats the case up and the case fans are matched to system temp. They are at about 1200rpm at 35c system temp iirc

When the CPU temp spikes the air flow is already there. If the case fans are matched to CPU in a gaming load they are running at a lower speed with the CPU cooler and when it spikes the case fans have to ramp up resulting in a higher peak temp