Is my cooling configuration good enough

[Joshuk]

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]

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

 

[Joshuk]

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?

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?

 

[Joshuk]

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?

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]

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.

 

[Joshuk]

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?

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?

 

[Joshuk]

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?

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]

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.

 

[Joshuk]

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?

 

[Joshuk]

With all the fans in the pcie covers can go back in. They are vented anyway so won’t make much difference.

I would put both 140mm’s in the roof. Those radiator fans will be close to the gpu so it will still be of benefit to have both fans in the top.

I would if you can get decent radiator fans for the AIO. Like Corsair ml120 pro’s in black if you’re not wanting LED. Then silent wings for the rest where static pressure is not needed as much.

Ok that's ideal! I'll do that then! Thanks a lot for your help and thanks everyone else for some quality advice.

 

[Joshuk]

just as an update, as you can see I've fitted 4 new corsair ml20 pro's to the front in a push/pull config (pulling in so much more air than before) and I've ditched my stock rear 120 fan and attached the 2 silentwing 140's that I already had to the top as exhausts. When under strain the rear most of the 2 top exhausts seems to be pulling loads of hot air while the front of the 2 is pulling cool air so I might remove the further forward of the 2 at the top and add the 120 rear back in. But all in all it's been a great change and it's massively cooler even to touch than it was before.

 

[Joshuk]

Where is the pump for the Asetek? It shouldn't be at the highest point.

It’s an all in one so I thought it would only go in 1 way? It was built by overclockers for me though so I wouldn’t know. But particularly in this case it physically can’t fit another way can it? Because there’s no gap between the radiator and gpu.

 

[Joshuk]

Could it go up top in place of the 2 fans you have there? Advantages are pump would be below rad so no air entrapment in pump killing it, and would also keep rad's heated air away for GPU.

it only fits on the front