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Case cooling for 290

doodah

doodah

doodah

Caporegime
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
28,960
Location
London
I am a little worried about my 290 which sits in my main rig which is used for mining. It's at 94C right now. I have two front intakes that came with my Fractal Design R4 (they are very quiet so probably don't push much CFM), one Corsair AF120 as an exhaust on the side and a BitFenix Spectre PRO as an exhaust at the back. Considering upgrading them, perhaps the two front ones. Should I go for CFM or static pressure in this situation? Any recommendations?
 
Is it a reference cooler on the card? If so why do you have your side fan as an exhaust fan? Should put it as an intake so it is blowing air onto/towards the card. If I was one with an aftermarket cooler on it and it was dumping huge amounts of heat in your case then yea an exhaust fan would be ideal but not on reference coolers lol.
 
Have you got fans in the top? Put some in there, and either take the one out of the side and leave it as an air intake, or turn the fan around so it sucks air into the case.

This will give you cool air coming into the case under the 290, which it will then heat and throw out against the side panel, and the fans in the top and the back will exhaust it.

Leave the fans in the front. They will cool the drives and help put pressure in the case which should help airflow out the top and back.

Ideally, have your motherboard control the fans so that they can speed up as the 290 warms everything up, and spin down when the 290 isn't working.

The way the MSI has it's cooling fins across the card means that it throws the hot air against the side panel, so you want to encourage it out the top and back (where it wants to go anyway), rather than fighting that flow by trying to pull hot out air down and out of the side panel exactly where the MSI's fans are trying to pull cool air in.
 
My advice, which did miracles for my R290 Windforce, is to set your case so it works with negative air pressure.

My Antec P280 is designed to work best that way, not sure about your Fractal Design R4 though.
 
Thanks guys. I have plenty of slots - two at the top. I'll leave the front two intakes, turn around the side intake to in rather than out and add some fans at the top as exhausts. There is also a slot at the bottom. So for the fans I will buy shortly, should I go for CFM or static pressure?
 
xibinim said:
Thanks guys. I have plenty of slots - two at the top. I'll leave the front two intakes, turn around the side intake to in rather than out and add some fans at the top as exhausts. There is also a slot at the bottom. So for the fans I will buy shortly, should I go for CFM or static pressure?
Click to expand...

I have been on a mission to cool my 290 Gaming as well, it was hitting 80c on occasion but would hover around 77c most of the time.

I ended up buying a Bitfenix Outlaw from OcUK, only £40 quid. Just installed everything and it hasn't gone past 65c/50% fan at 120fps :) very happy. It is a budget case but is inverted motherboard so I have 2 x apache akasa fans blowing air directly onto it and a big 140mm on the side panel sucking hot air away from it, this setup is doing a great job so far.
 
It's no wonder the card gets so hot, all the fans inside the case aren't doing much of a job. The two front intakes were designed with noise in mind so by the time the air gets to the back of the GPU/side of the HSF you can't really feel its effects - plus some of the flow is blocked by the hard drive cage. I have turned the side fan around so it's blowing cool air into the problem area but again this can be barely be felt when you put your hand in there. I have an old fan at the bottom blowing up but this would struggle to move a feather.

I have ordered a high CFM/static pressure Akasa fan for the side vent and some fairly high CFM fans for exhausts at the top, plus a spare for either at the bottom or manually placed. Ended up spending as much as the case would cost but I really can't be bothered to swap my whole rig, if the new fans don't work I will get the Bitfenix Outlaw (great suggestion by the way) and then at least I have all the fans ready for it.
 
Hi, I have 1X120 front intake, 1X 120 intake bottom, 1X120 rear exhaust + Psu exhaust, Corsair H100 with 2X120 exhaust on top, my Msi R9 290 Gaming idles, when browsing at 29\30c and when flat out looping Heaven 4 maxes at 75c with 53% fan, quiet and cool. Hope this helps and gives you some ideas. Oh all at stock and in a Zigmatek ****guard black edition case. :)
 
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Bit of an update. I have been mining scrypt-jane coins for the last few weeks so temps are usually lower anyway. Back on normal scrypt now; with my door and windows closed, the temp is at 93!! That's with two front intakes, a big side intake over the 290, intake at the bottom, exhaust at the back and two exhausts at the top. All that extra cooling for 1 degree :(:o:p. It must be this case!
 
xibinim said:
Bit of an update. I have been mining scrypt-jane coins for the last few weeks so temps are usually lower anyway. Back on normal scrypt now; with my door and windows closed, the temp is at 93!! That's with two front intakes, a big side intake over the 290, intake at the bottom, exhaust at the back and two exhausts at the top. All that extra cooling for 1 degree :(:o:p. It must be this case!
Click to expand...

Make your side intake exhaust!! Then you should see temp drops. You need to suck out the heat the card is dumping in the case. Also remove any spare pci brackets around the card allowing it more room to breathe. Ensure you have a highly positive pressure case (more intake fans than exhaust) and hot air around the card will be pushed out the pci brackets and any other gaps in the case.
 
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