Is my cooling configuration good enough

Joshuk · 18 Aug 2019 at 15:55

So this is my pc currently. It's running a Asetek 240mm 570LX Thick Radiator as the front intake and has the standard 120mm Phanteks Eclipse P350X extractor on the rear.

So my question is; when i'm gaming and it's slightly more demanding (witcher 3 is a great example), my pc is getting very hot and there's a noticeable drop it performance in the form of (occasional) very short freezes/jolts. The side of my case is noticeably hot to the touch which also getting pretty loud (HW Motitor is saying under about 50 degrees though) and my gpu is radiating a lot of heat. Is my current configuration adequate?

I have be quiet! Silent Wings 3 140mm PWM x2 spare which could be fitted as extra extractors along the top? But my real question I suppose is with regards to the front intakes, are they likely to be pulling enough air in?

Thanks a lot.

Joshuk · 18 Aug 2019 at 15:56

I'm not particularly technically minded with regards to my pc so if there's any other info that's helpful or any more pictures needed then i'll sort it out haha

dale1uk · 18 Aug 2019 at 16:11

Can you not configure your set up so that the Asetek is venting directly out of the case? As it is all the heat being pulled out of the cpu is being dumped back into your case and directly onto your gpu.

Ross Thomson · 18 Aug 2019 at 16:53

put a fan at the back of the rad blowing air towards the graphics card and put a fan at the top to blow air onto the VRMs a couple of arctic P12 pwm fans will about £6-7 each

Joshuk · 18 Aug 2019 at 16:58

dale1uk said:
Can you not configure your set up so that the Asetek is venting directly out of the case? As it is all the heat being pulled out of the cpu is being dumped back into your case and directly onto your gpu.

I didn't really consider that option and i'm not 100% sure if it's doable or not but I don't see why not, but then would I not be fighting the heats natural path up and out if I moved the exhaust to the fronts?

Ross Thomson said:
put a fan at the back of the rad blowing air towards the graphics card and put a fan at the top to blow air onto the VRMs a couple of arctic P12 pwm fans will about £6-7 each

The Asetek has 2 built in fans that are barely in the picture, both sucking in from all the way right in that picture, so I think I do have what you're saying already unless I've confused myself?

dale1uk · 18 Aug 2019 at 17:34

Joshuk said:
I didn't really consider that option and i'm not 100% sure if it's doable or not but I don't see why not, but then would I not be fighting the heats natural path up and out if I moved the exhaust to the fronts?

Ideally I'd be looking at mounting and venting it directly out of the top or rear of the case, but obviously that all depends if the case allows for it

Ross Thomson · 18 Aug 2019 at 17:34

they are pushing at the front of the rad. put one at the other side so it is pulling. What fans do you have with the rad, are they the crappy noise blocker ones?

Minstadave · 18 Aug 2019 at 17:41

Mount the rad in the top of you can, with your fans pushing through the rad and exhausting out the top. Then add your front intakes.

Joshuk · 18 Aug 2019 at 17:52

Sooo

Annoyingly there's definitely not room up there to make the rad an exhaust on the top and obviously no room at the back. Any other suggestions haha?

Ross Thomson said:
they are pushing at the front of the rad. put one at the other side so it is pulling. What fans do you have with the rad, are they the crappy noise blocker ones?

They are the standard ones that come with the Asetek they look ridiculously cheap, and hardly even spin straight by the look of them haha but no visible branding.

Joshuk · 18 Aug 2019 at 18:06

Ross Thomson said:
they are pushing at the front of the rad. put one at the other side so it is pulling. What fans do you have with the rad, are they the crappy noise blocker ones?

Just found it in my build specs, yes it's a Noiseblocker BlackSilent Pro Fan PLPS - 120mm PWM x2 over the rad.

doyll · 18 Aug 2019 at 18:10

With present setup you are pre-heating the airflow to GPU, and every degree warmer the air is entering GPU translates into same number of degrees hotter it will run. I would first remove all PCie back slot cover to increase back vent area around GPU, then switch radiator fans so they exhaust air from case instead of their pre-heating air going to GPU. This way the only heated air getting to GPU will be what might be coming in back vents from PSU exhaust.

Ross Thomson · 18 Aug 2019 at 18:19

Joshuk said:
Just found it in my build specs, yes it's a Noiseblocker BlackSilent Pro Fan PLPS - 120mm PWM x2 over the rad.

yes they are pretty poor. buy 4 arctic P12 pwn fans. stick three on the rad and one in the top blowing in to cool the VRM. The third rad fan will blow air to the GPU.

the air from the rad heats up by about 1-2C so won't make any real difference to the GPU cooling.

Joshuk · 18 Aug 2019 at 18:49

doyll said:
With present setup you are pre-heating the airflow to GPU, and every degree warmer the air is entering GPU translates into same number of degrees hotter it will run. I would first remove all PCie back slot cover to increase back vent area around GPU, then switch radiator fans so they exhaust air from case instead of their pre-heating air going to GPU. This way the only heated air getting to GPU will be what might be coming in back vents from PSU exhaust.

So have the 2 tops as intakes and the 2 radiator fans exhausts from the other side of the radiator, pushing outwards as an exhaust?

Ross Thomson said:
yes they are pretty poor. buy 4 arctic P12 pwn fans. stick three on the rad and one in the top blowing in to cool the VRM. The third rad fan will blow air to the GPU.

the air from the rad heats up by about 1-2C so won't make any real difference to the GPU cooling.

unfortunately again my case is limited, it can only fit 2 fans 120 or 140 in the front. Would 2 intakes on front and an intake on top not cause the airflow to get a bit stuck if that makes sense?

tyler_jrb · 18 Aug 2019 at 20:11

Personally you are better off with the asetek as a front intake as is. You will see the gpu temps rise by doing this but only marginally of a degree or two.

An AIO having to exhaust the entire GPU's heat will make more of a difference to temps from experience on the CPU side. When i used to run a front intake radiator it didnt make much difference to GPU temps.

Other than that just swap those fans out for some good quality noctua or corsair ML120 fans etc, especially on the top to vent the heat from the GPU. Possibly consider push/pull on the front for increased airflow?

Ross Thomson · 18 Aug 2019 at 20:21

Joshuk said:
unfortunately again my case is limited, it can only fit 2 fans 120 or 140 in the front. Would 2 intakes on front and an intake on top not cause the airflow to get a bit stuck if that makes sense?

Yeah you are completely missing what I’m suggesting you do lol. You have two fans on the rad at the moment. They are at the front pushing air though. If you put your hand at the other side you’ll notice the airflow isn’t that powerful. If you put another fan on the back of the rad you’ll get more airflow into the case and over the GPU.

Meddling-Monk · 18 Aug 2019 at 20:57

Dunno how to link an image from google drive, so just link here: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1QOd2UBV37326rCy1b9ppHFwqf_s8ggUu

If you look at the image compared to yours, you can see a blue and yellow fan case that's overlaid on your AIO that Ross Thomson and tyler_jrb is both (partly) suggesting you do, where after attaching the fans, it should in theory help increase the airflow to help with the situation inside your case. One blowing air above the GPU, and blowing air below the GPU.

However, of note, and to which I agree with here in your case, is that if you also look to the left of my linked image, you'll see the PCI slots that I've highlighted in red, which should be removed as per Doyll's suggestion, because it appears that your sole exahust fan at the back of the case isn't powerful enough to draw out the heat before more is generated by the GPU. And so if you remove the PCI slots under the GPU, this should help a bit more if you have more fans on the right pulling air through, since the warmed up air that your sole fan can't remove, can still escape more easily via the now open slots.

Have a go with Doylls suggestion first, as that costs nothing to do. If it still isn't enough, then grab some fans and attach to your AIO in the way shown in the picture I've linked. Any further suggested changes should be seen how those changes impact on the existing setup first.

Joshuk · 18 Aug 2019 at 20:58

tyler_jrb said:
Personally you are better off with the asetek as a front intake as is. You will see the gpu temps rise by doing this but only marginally of a degree or two.

An AIO having to exhaust the entire GPU's heat will make more of a difference to temps from experience on the CPU side. When i used to run a front intake radiator it didnt make much difference to GPU temps.

Other than that just swap those fans out for some good quality noctua or corsair ML120 fans etc, especially on the top to vent the heat from the GPU. Possibly consider push/pull on the front for increased airflow?

so keep the 2 radiator ones as they are, just upgrade fans, add one pulling on the other side of the radiator and then remove the rear and I could put my bigger 140mm silent wings at the top, rear?

Ross Thomson said:
Yeah you are completely missing what I’m suggesting you do lol. You have two fans on the rad at the moment. They are at the front pushing air though. If you put your hand at the other side you’ll notice the airflow isn’t that powerful. If you put another fan on the back of the rad you’ll get more airflow into the case and over the GPU.

oh goddd I finally understand what you mean there haha, sorry! That's actually a brilliant idea and I wouldn't have thought of that! I'll 100% do that.

Joshuk · 18 Aug 2019 at 21:26

Meddling-Monk said:
Dunno how to link an image from google drive, so just link here: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1QOd2UBV37326rCy1b9ppHFwqf_s8ggUu

If you look at the image compared to yours, you can see a blue and yellow fan case that's overlaid on your AIO that Ross Thomson and tyler_jrb is both (partly) suggesting you do, where after attaching the fans, it should in theory help increase the airflow to help with the situation inside your case. One blowing air above the GPU, and blowing air below the GPU.

However, of note, and to which I agree with here in your case, is that if you also look to the left of my linked image, you'll see the PCI slots that I've highlighted in red, which should be removed as per Doyll's suggestion, because it appears that your sole exahust fan at the back of the case isn't powerful enough to draw out the heat before more is generated by the GPU. And so if you remove the PCI slots under the GPU, this should help a bit more if you have more fans on the right pulling air through, since the warmed up air that your sole fan can't remove, can still escape more easily via the now open slots.

Have a go with Doylls suggestion first, as that costs nothing to do. If it still isn't enough, then grab some fans and attach to your AIO in the way shown in the picture I've linked. Any further suggested changes should be seen how those changes impact on the existing setup first.

Ok that's decent. So you'd suggest 4 120's from the front. With regards to the extractor at the top, would you just upgrade the rear one or would you take it out and put one on the top towards the back, have both or what?

I'm gonna remove those bits at the back now.

tyler_jrb · 18 Aug 2019 at 22:25

Joshuk said:
so keep the 2 radiator ones as they are, just upgrade fans, add one pulling on the other side of the radiator and then remove the rear and I could put my bigger 140mm silent wings at the top, rear?

Yes push/pull on the front radiator which will be a total of 4 fans. Then a good quality 140mm at the rear and as many fans in the roof as possible to help exhaust the heat which in the case specs says 2x 120mm or 2x 140mm.

Joshuk · 18 Aug 2019 at 22:30

tyler_jrb said:
Yes push/pull on the front radiator which will be a total of 4 fans. Then a good quality 140mm at the rear and as many fans in the roof as possible to help exhaust the heat depending on how many there are. Not sure what case it is.

Ok that’s great. The rear fittings below gpu are removed now, it does look like a good suggestion for sure. I’ll get x4 new fans for the front. Silent wings 2/3 120mm x4 sound good? And with regards to the roof fans, would you have both 140’s fitted on roof because the one that’s further forward seems like it might be sucking air out too early and before it gets to the gpu?