Efficient case fan setup

Trojan Horse · 5 Jul 2020 at 17:10

I have a Corsair 300R:

2x 140mm front in take
2x 140mm top exhaust
1x 120mm rear exhaust

Alpenfohn K2 Mount Doom Heatsink:

1x140mm middle, 1x 120mm front, both intake and exhaust through the rear

All of the case fans are Arctic F14/12 and the K2 ones are stock.
Can anyone recommend a better setup?

Reading the Noctua stats it seems my Arctic ones are better (vs. Redux range), I am not sure what would be a good upgrade

Trojan Horse · 5 Jul 2020 at 19:54

PieEater said:
Perhaps start off with why you feel you need to upgrade, I assume you are not happy with certain temperatures, which ones in particular?

Personally with an air cooler I would suggest you may be better off with just the front intakes and the rear exhuast along with removing any spare metal at the back below the exhaust (blanking plates etc.) so you have a direct front to back airflow bringing in cool air and blowing out the heated air. The top exhuasts may seem like a good idea but may in fact be inturrupting the optimal front to back airflow

When you're at this level of cooling you are best checking out doyll's guides this one is just an overall but covers the baiscs - https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/t...-i-put-my-temp-sensor.18564223/#post-26159770

Yep, I am not happy with my CPU temps and I am not 100% sure what is causing them (Heatsink, Delid LM, case flow) so I wanted to refresh everything in one go. My GPU temps and frames are excellent ever since I UV and OC'd my Vega 64 (never exceeds 63c on Furmark), but the GPU HBM is hitting 80c so I think airflow would help

I didn't actually realise blanking plates would hinder airflow... I couldn't be bothered grabbing them so I just screwed in a spare Ethernet PCIe to cover it lol. I will remove the spares and see if it helps.

My logic behind the top fans are that my CPU basically sits under my desk and there is a lot of space on top but the rear is like 5-10cm away from the wall.

I post more detail about the CPU heatsink here - https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/threads/alpenfohn-k2-liquid-metal-upgrade.18892432/#post-33742261

Case setup here:

Trojan Horse · 5 Jul 2020 at 19:56

EsaT said:
Unless front fans are running clearly faster than exhausts, there's negative pressure with air getting sucked out without actually having cooled anything.
Especially second top fan farther from rear just can't get heated air to exhaust.

so you think removing the top fans will fix it?

also is there any fair way to test if there is negative pressure? i could always smoke and see the clouds go

Trojan Horse · 5 Jul 2020 at 20:06

koolpc said:
Dont like that setup in your case. Very crowded for a start.

well then make some suggestions

Trojan Horse · 5 Jul 2020 at 20:13

koolpc said:
Buy a better case and a better CPU cooler

the Alpenföhn k2 mount doom is one of the best

what case then? I think you excel in being helpful - the 300R is a well reviewed case

I followed the fan setup here, which had many punters saying that it was a good setup
https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/threads/fan-placement-in-carbide-300r.18558140/