Gaming Build Check

Conclusion · 5 Aug 2012 at 16:07

Bacon? said:
Facing up since the down slots are awful, and the fan is intake.

Could you provide me few pictures of your fans setup if possible

honosuseri · 5 Aug 2012 at 16:27

Conclusion said:
Is your PSU fan facing up or down? Also is your bottom fan set as exhaust or intake?

Mount the PSU fan up unless you want to cut the PSU vents in the bottom of the case and install a dust filter. If you want a fan at the bottom mount it as intake. There is a dustfilter underneath to catch dust, just make sure you clean it from time to time

You do have a nice gaming rig there. Ok I would have used a modular PSU and I favour the Coolermaster 612S over the matterhorn but it's not a major issue.

The Z9 is a good case as is. It's common for people to make slight modifications over time though. I already suggested removing the blanking plates in the optical bay, cutting out the hexagonal mesh is slightly more extreme but it does improve airflow and reduce noise. These mods are good as they are free

I have both fans as exhaust on the ceiling of the case. You don't technically need fans on the side panel as it's mostly mesh. My ceiling fans are pulling air through the side panel and the front panel. The downside is that dust can get into the case through the side mesh, so it's common for people to rig up some kind of dust filter on the side panel to help keep the dust out.

I like having the fan controller and the extra 2 fans did help my temps but they weren't that bad in the first place if im honest, ok yes it looks cool that i can dim the LEDs on the fans and turn on or off the bitfenix LEDs but it's not an essential upgrade.

Bacon? · 5 Aug 2012 at 16:43

Conclusion said:
Could you provide me few pictures of your fans setup if possible

My camera ran out of battery so it might take a while before I can take any pics.
But what do you need explaining?

Question for Hono, I am thinking about replacing all the fans in the Z9 for some quieter more powerful ones, what would reccomend, I need 5 and max budget of £50.

Conclusion · 5 Aug 2012 at 16:54

honosuseri said:
Mount the PSU fan up unless you want to cut the PSU vents in the bottom of the case and install a dust filter. If you want a fan at the bottom mount it as intake. There is a dustfilter underneath to catch dust, just make sure you clean it from time to time

How do I know which way the fan is exhaust and intake?

honosuseri said:
You do have a nice gaming rig there. Ok I would have used a modular PSU and I favour the Coolermaster 612S over the matterhorn but it's not a major issue.

I see that the Coolermaster 612S can have dual fan on the heatsink with quick snap fan bracket feature, but Alpenföhn only provided two clips which only can be used on one fan, is there any other options which I can mount two fans on the heatsink?

honosuseri said:
The Z9 is a good case as is. It's common for people to make slight modifications over time though. I already suggested removing the blanking plates in the optical bay, cutting out the hexagonal mesh is slightly more extreme but it does improve airflow and reduce noise. These mods are good as they are free

I'll remove the blanking plates in the optical bay and will get the tools to cut out the hexagonal mesh which will improve airflow

honosuseri said:
I like having the fan controller and the extra 2 fans did help my temps but they weren't that bad in the first place if im honest, ok yes it looks cool that i can dim the LEDs on the fans and turn on or off the bitfenix LEDs but it's not an essential upgrade.

How many fans is there in your case? Where are the fans placed at as well as either exhaust or intake?

honosuseri · 5 Aug 2012 at 18:22

One side of the fan will have a guard over the fan blades. The air comes out that side of the fan. Sometimes they put a lil arrow on the side of the fan to show the direction the air is moving.

You'd need another pair of fan clips to mount another fan to the matterhorn. Ideally you want to add the exact same fan. The 612S is quieter and it's easier to mount the fan, the matterhorn actually cools better slightly because it's fan isn't designed to be "silent". Don't worry about it too much. You're not using the intel stock heatsink which is the main thing

I currently have 5 fans in my Z9 now. Two 140mm bitfenix spectre pros in the ceiling (exhaust) and the 3 Zalman LED fans are at the front & bottom (intake) and rear (exhaust). I ditched the black and white fan as i dont want to mount a fan on the side panel. I do want to move one of the 140mm fans to the front as an intake. I don't want to waffle on too much about the setup now, as I am writing an end user review for the Hydra Pro and my thoughts and pics I would rather post to that thread than put them here....im sure you can understand that

Trusty · 5 Aug 2012 at 23:43

3/4 fans is fine, 2 exhaust fans at the top and rear, 1 intake fan. Intake fans hardly cool your components really, you want to focus on shifting the hot air out. The one fan on your Alpenföhn is fine as well, if you can, i would personally mount it so the fan is pushing air over the fins of your cooler and out the back of the case facing the rear exhaust.

Conclusion · 6 Aug 2012 at 10:22

honosuseri said:
You'd need another pair of fan clips to mount another fan to the matterhorn. Ideally you want to add the exact same fan. The 612S is quieter and it's easier to mount the fan, the matterhorn actually cools better slightly because it's fan isn't designed to be "silent". Don't worry about it too much. You're not using the intel stock heatsink which is the main thing

I'll see how the temperature goes when I overclock the i5 3570K to 4.5GHz, if I was going for dual fans on the heatsink, using zip tie will be a appropriate way?

Trusty said:
3/4 fans is fine, 2 exhaust fans at the top and rear, 1 intake fan. Intake fans hardly cool your components really, you want to focus on shifting the hot air out. The one fan on your Alpenföhn is fine as well, if you can, i would personally mount it so the fan is pushing air over the fins of your cooler and out the back of the case facing the rear exhaust.

I've the same fans setup as in the image,

http://i.imgur.com/rnTWe.jpg

Is my CPU fan facing the right way to push the air out the back of the case?

honosuseri · 6 Aug 2012 at 10:34

That fan setup is fine. The RAM is in the wrong slots, the 2 RAM modules should be in the same coloured DIMM slots

Conclusion · 6 Aug 2012 at 10:41

honosuseri said:
That fan setup is fine. The RAM is in the wrong slots, the 2 RAM modules should be in the same coloured DIMM slots

Is my current CPU fan blowing the fan out to the back or front?

So one stick RAM in either white and blue and the other one with the matching colour of the first one?

You must have good eyes to see the RAM in the wrong slot as part of it is covered by the CPU fan

honosuseri · 6 Aug 2012 at 11:18

The heatsink fan is pushing air through the heatsink towards the back of the case, i think i can make out the guard between the heatsink and fan. To make sure all you have to do is look at the fan on the heatsink. If you can clearly see the blades (like you can on the other fans in the pic) then you are good. If you can see the thin bars that act as guards you need to flip it around.

The mobo manual does say to use DDR slots 1 and 3 for dual channel......stick the RAM in the white slots in other words

Conclusion · 6 Aug 2012 at 11:52

honosuseri said:
The heatsink fan is pushing air through the heatsink towards the back of the case, i think i can make out the guard between the heatsink and fan. To make sure all you have to do is look at the fan on the heatsink. If you can clearly see the blades (like you can on the other fans in the pic) then you are good. If you can see the thin bars that act as guards you need to flip it around.

The mobo manual does say to use DDR slots 1 and 3 for dual channel......stick the RAM in the white slots in other words

Thanks for your help, will repost back after overclocking the i5 3570K