Fan control and optimising airflow

SwedishChef

SwedishChef

SwedishChef

Associate
Joined
6 Jan 2006
Posts
137
Hi all,

I need your advice on the best way to 1) reduce fan noise, 2) optimise the airflow. Here's the setup so far:

Coolermaster CM690 case with a Corsair H50 CPU cooler and a Gigabyte EX58-UD3R motherboard running an i7 920.

Rear: 1 x Corsair 120mm fan (intake) (CPU_FAN 4 pin)
Bottom: 1 x Coolermaster 120mm fan (intake) (SYS_FAN3 3 pin)
Front: 1 x Coolermaster 120mm fan (intake) (SYS_FAN1 3 pin)
Top: 1 x Apache 120mm fan (exhaust) (PWR_FAN 3 pin)
Left Side: 1 x Coolermaster 120mm fan (intake) (NB_FAN 3pin)

The PSU fan is plugged into SYS_FAN2 (4 pin). I did that due to fan wire lengths but I suspect I should try and plug the PSU fan cable into PWR_FAN instead?

I was expecting to be able to control all the fan speeds in the BIOS but it seems only the CPU_FAN and SYS_FAN2 has speed control. What are good solutions to control the others - is a front panel fan controller required?

As far as airflow goes I've mounted the cpu cooler with the rear fan as intake as Corsair recommend. Temps are ok but does the fan setup seem ok with only one exhaust? This is a postive pressure setup, am I right?

As you can probably tell, cooling isn't my area of expertise so any advice gratefully received! :D
 
Go a Scythe Kaze Master Ace Black 5.25inch Fan Controller
After having the same problem with my new build and having 5 fans pretty much running full blast all the time due to no control ad lots of noise its great to have this. I tend to just drop the fans to half speed as it takes the loud edge of it but keeps everything real cool. I looked into a lot of these controllers and thi seems to be the best, simplest and most effective. Hope it helps.
 
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I would block off the side fan completely, blue tac something over it temporarily and turn off the fan. Then retest, I think temperatures should be better.

Are the graphics card(s) exhausting hot air out the back? If so that's more fans throwing heat out and an argument for turning the h50 around. Is the psu at the top or base of that case, as I assume it has a fan and is also exhausting?
 
JonJ678 said:
Are the graphics card(s) exhausting hot air out the back? If so that's more fans throwing heat out and an argument for turning the h50 around. Is the psu at the top or base of that case, as I assume it has a fan and is also exhausting?
Click to expand...
No, the gfx card doesn't - it's just a single slot card. The PSU is at the bottom and has the fan either sucking in or exhausting out of the bottom. That may be a bit silly considering that near it is a case fan on the bottom sucking air in. Not sure about that setup.
 
JonJ678 said:
I would block off the side fan completely, blue tac something over it temporarily and turn off the fan. Then retest, I think temperatures should be better.
Click to expand...
I gave that a go but unfortunately it seems the fan is necessary to cool the Northbridge. After 5 minutes in Windows with no fan the system crashed. I rebooted and checked temps in the BIOS and MCH was at 50c. Normally with the fan it was 15c lower at least. Put fan back on and it was fine after that.

The Northbridge has heatsinks so it does make me think that maybe I should attempt to cool the case more. The H50 cooler is sucking air into the case over the radiator and gfx card doesn't exhaust the heat out either so that won't be helping. I might be better off taking the top fan off (an Apache 120mm) and adding it to the H50 radiator in a push-pull config and reversing the airflow so it exhausts rather than intakes perhaps? Hmm....
 
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