So true, I always used £30-40 cases until buying my Fortress a few years back - best move I ever made, such a difference in quality.
Need help with GTX 570 SLI overheat issue
- Thread starter phil777776
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So true, I always used £30-40 cases until buying my Fortress a few years back - best move I ever made, such a difference in quality.
Same here, until I bought an Antec P180 when it first came out...I think it's about 7-8 years old now, lasted through three fairly major upgrades so far.
Yeap, lots of longevity in cases, and they can make so much of a difference to your system overall.
My HAF-X has been great for cooling, as well as cable management.
And if you want to Tri SLI in this case, you can easily.
And the Fortress is another great case I agree. Really good for graphics card cooling. And overall cooling of your system as well.
My HAF-X has been great for cooling, as well as cable management.
And if you want to Tri SLI in this case, you can easily.
And the Fortress is another great case I agree. Really good for graphics card cooling. And overall cooling of your system as well.
- Joined
- 13 Oct 2011
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- 12
Yesterday I read and considered the replies from friday night and decided to take a chance on the Xigmatec. I held on to one of the f12 fans, and installed it over the GPUs as an intake fan. I also persisted with a plastic wedge between the GPUs to aid air flow. Instantly there was marked improvement to previous. Without making any further effort, the top GPU temp only rose to the very high 80s, which was better than I originally would have settled for. By manually setting fan speeds to max, that temp drops to low to mid 70s. In short, it seems like problem solved!
I did appreciate (and now have a greater understanding of) the thought process that says a quality case is an essential investment, and I did consider whether I should have attempted to wait till xmas where I may have been able to afford the types that many on here were recommending. However, it was frustrating to have spent so much in recent months and be still unable to 'use' it to it's full potential. I don't have any intention to upgrade anything else for probably a good 2 years or so, and so I just wanted to 'get by' for now as quickly as possibly and felt there was a good chance the Midgard would allow me to do that and it has. So in short, while it may not be the best case, or meet all my future needs, it's been the right case for me right now, and I'm happy with my decision.
I just want to thank everybody who offered some advice or opinions in this thread. Even the ones I didn't necessarily act on, I appreciate the attempt to help out. Special thanks to Diggsy who really pushed to highlight the importance of the case, and continued to advise as my situation progressed, and to Surveyor for the simple yet effective suggestion of the wedge which I believe has also improved my airflow.
I'm a 'casual' gamer in the sense that with work and married life I only get a few hours per week to play games, so I've never had the time to really get into the 'overclocking' side of things as I just want to use my time to play rather than tweek every last fps out of my setup, so when I hit this problem I was coming from a very inexperienced and uneducated position to try and solve it. That's why I really appreciate everyone taking the time to help out, and I hope you understand why I went with the more basic option, and it was definitely not a case (no pun intended) of me disregarding the common consensus that a top level case would have been a more worthwhile purchase.
Anyhoo, while the main issue is now resolved, I would like to ask two more questions about my setup, and as they are related to cooling I think I can get away with it!
1. The Midgard allows for the bottom mounted psu to be installed fan up or fan down. I went with fan down without really understanding the difference. As It took me a good while to route the cables suitably around the case, and tidy them as tightly as possible, I won't be swapping it around any time soon, but if the common consensus says 'fan up' would be much better than I'll look to do it over the xmas holidays.
2. I've been using MSI afterburner to monitor temps and manually change fan speeds during testing. What is the common consensus towards managing fan speeds while gaming? Does everybody let them on 'auto' unless they have cooling issues, or is it recommended to use the like of MSI A to pump up the fans during gaming sessions to keep things running cooler? My current plan would be to switch on fans to 85% when gaming and switch it back to auto when finished. Difference in temps would probably be around 89 degrees on auto to 82 degrees on 85%. Thoughts?
I did appreciate (and now have a greater understanding of) the thought process that says a quality case is an essential investment, and I did consider whether I should have attempted to wait till xmas where I may have been able to afford the types that many on here were recommending. However, it was frustrating to have spent so much in recent months and be still unable to 'use' it to it's full potential. I don't have any intention to upgrade anything else for probably a good 2 years or so, and so I just wanted to 'get by' for now as quickly as possibly and felt there was a good chance the Midgard would allow me to do that and it has. So in short, while it may not be the best case, or meet all my future needs, it's been the right case for me right now, and I'm happy with my decision.
I just want to thank everybody who offered some advice or opinions in this thread. Even the ones I didn't necessarily act on, I appreciate the attempt to help out. Special thanks to Diggsy who really pushed to highlight the importance of the case, and continued to advise as my situation progressed, and to Surveyor for the simple yet effective suggestion of the wedge which I believe has also improved my airflow.
I'm a 'casual' gamer in the sense that with work and married life I only get a few hours per week to play games, so I've never had the time to really get into the 'overclocking' side of things as I just want to use my time to play rather than tweek every last fps out of my setup, so when I hit this problem I was coming from a very inexperienced and uneducated position to try and solve it. That's why I really appreciate everyone taking the time to help out, and I hope you understand why I went with the more basic option, and it was definitely not a case (no pun intended) of me disregarding the common consensus that a top level case would have been a more worthwhile purchase.
Anyhoo, while the main issue is now resolved, I would like to ask two more questions about my setup, and as they are related to cooling I think I can get away with it!
1. The Midgard allows for the bottom mounted psu to be installed fan up or fan down. I went with fan down without really understanding the difference. As It took me a good while to route the cables suitably around the case, and tidy them as tightly as possible, I won't be swapping it around any time soon, but if the common consensus says 'fan up' would be much better than I'll look to do it over the xmas holidays.
2. I've been using MSI afterburner to monitor temps and manually change fan speeds during testing. What is the common consensus towards managing fan speeds while gaming? Does everybody let them on 'auto' unless they have cooling issues, or is it recommended to use the like of MSI A to pump up the fans during gaming sessions to keep things running cooler? My current plan would be to switch on fans to 85% when gaming and switch it back to auto when finished. Difference in temps would probably be around 89 degrees on auto to 82 degrees on 85%. Thoughts?
I'm glad that you have your heat problem under control Phil, and for not much outlay.
I'm not sure about the orientation of your power supply, I just have mine with the fan so that it draws air in then back out of the psu. So facing downwards. I can't really see it making much of a difference facing up, as hot air raises and that it should just exit out of the top of your case.
If you are going to face it down tho, make sure there is good clearence between the bottom of your case and the psu fan. It's no good if it's sucking carpet.
This should explain setting up AB and fan curves: http://www.overclock.net/ati-cooling/646422-how-adjust-your-fan-curve-msi.html
I'm not sure about the orientation of your power supply, I just have mine with the fan so that it draws air in then back out of the psu. So facing downwards. I can't really see it making much of a difference facing up, as hot air raises and that it should just exit out of the top of your case.
If you are going to face it down tho, make sure there is good clearence between the bottom of your case and the psu fan. It's no good if it's sucking carpet.
This should explain setting up AB and fan curves: http://www.overclock.net/ati-cooling/646422-how-adjust-your-fan-curve-msi.html
Phil, glad to hear you got everything sorted mate. And you're more than welcome 
Who knows how many times I've had to ask for help on here!! It's what the forum is all about really.
To answer your new queries...
1 - The PSU facing down is absolutely fine. As above, make sure you have a little bit of clearance for it to draw in air, but other than that it will be perfect. Mine faces down too. Just don't forget to give the filter a clean regularly (same applies to any other filter in the case, as dust build up will affect airflow a lot)
2 - Personally if your temps are remaining in the mid 80's when gaming I would leave it on auto, but it's a personal choice really. I could not stand the noise from the fans running too fast, but perhaps you're not so bothered. Either way, you are well below the recommended max operating temp of 97c... http://www.nvidia.com/object/product-geforce-gtx-570-us.html (click on Specifications and scroll to the bottom)
Oh and finally, would love to see some pics of the inards of the new case now mate, and if you took any of the old too. Would be great to compare the two
EDIT - btw I hope you carefully positioned your HDD out of the way of the airflow through to the GPU's?
Who knows how many times I've had to ask for help on here!! It's what the forum is all about really.To answer your new queries...
1 - The PSU facing down is absolutely fine. As above, make sure you have a little bit of clearance for it to draw in air, but other than that it will be perfect. Mine faces down too. Just don't forget to give the filter a clean regularly (same applies to any other filter in the case, as dust build up will affect airflow a lot)
2 - Personally if your temps are remaining in the mid 80's when gaming I would leave it on auto, but it's a personal choice really. I could not stand the noise from the fans running too fast, but perhaps you're not so bothered. Either way, you are well below the recommended max operating temp of 97c... http://www.nvidia.com/object/product-geforce-gtx-570-us.html (click on Specifications and scroll to the bottom)
Oh and finally, would love to see some pics of the inards of the new case now mate, and if you took any of the old too. Would be great to compare the two
EDIT - btw I hope you carefully positioned your HDD out of the way of the airflow through to the GPU's?
Last edited:
- Joined
- 13 Oct 2011
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- 12
Hi again.
Fan Position: I'll definitely leave it down then as it's much easier to leave it as is, thanks. The case is, and will be staying, standing on a desk so no worries about carpet here. Aside from the clearance the case itself allows for (an inch max) I've not considered giving it any more. Is this 1 inch clearance gap sufficient, or should I prop it up further?
Fan Management: Thanks for that link, Robin. I think I will set AB up to run automatically like that seeing at the option is there. I'm not hugely bothered by fan noise as I'll just turn up the game volume or put in the ear phones.
As for the current case, I haven't taken any pics, but if it's not too long to wait, I can probably look to do so next weekend. Sadly I didn't take any pics of the old set up, as once I had done the testing and resigned myself that the old case was at fault, I didn't think they would be necessary to show anyone. You're right though, it would have been a good comparison. There is about 5 drive slots in the new case, so I put my two HDDs in the top and bottom ones to keep the centre space free for air flow. I know what you're saying about the placement of these slots being counter productive to air flow, but thankfully it doesn't seem to be affecting me enough to cause any problems.
If I may digress with a short story of sorts, last june I purchased Witcher 2 to play on holiday and expected it to run on my 18.4" laptop on minimum specs, but it was just too much for it and gameplay was very stuttered so I gave up on it, but it made me think about how best to play games going forward. My desktop PC was a touch faster but I saw an opportunity to upgrade a few components and dived in without too much thought. I upgraded the mobo, cpu, psu, RAM and OS and it seemed like everything was well. I restarted the Witcher 2 and max specs were possible, but I then realised my basic monitor was only capable of 1280x1024 and I felt it was holding back the power of my new kit. I decided to hold off on playing tw2 until I got a better monitor to maximise the experience. As I was researching monitors, I started to ask myself if I'd go with a 3d ready one, as while it was extra, it would somewhat future proof myself as I had seen 3d gaming briefly and thought it would be fun to have that at home, so I took the plunge on a 23" 120Hz model which looked fantastic when set up. I then realised that while my set up was now close to perfect, running tw2 in 3d saw frame rates drop to the low 20s. I could play it, but it was far from optimal. So I decided then to push the boat out one last time for a second Gfx card in order to run SLI and get what for me was my perfect setup. Once I put that in, all was great, for 10 mins, and that's what brought me here. The point I'm making is, yesterday I managed to sit down for 2 hours and play TW2 in 3d on high settings and it was an utterly gorgeous and immersive experience and to be honest it was everything I hoped it would be. It's taken me about 5 months on and off to reach this point, and while it was far more effort and cost than I could have possibly anticipated, I'm feeling it was worth it, and once again I'd like to thank those who replied here for helping me cross the finish line.
Fan Position: I'll definitely leave it down then as it's much easier to leave it as is, thanks. The case is, and will be staying, standing on a desk so no worries about carpet here. Aside from the clearance the case itself allows for (an inch max) I've not considered giving it any more. Is this 1 inch clearance gap sufficient, or should I prop it up further?
Fan Management: Thanks for that link, Robin. I think I will set AB up to run automatically like that seeing at the option is there. I'm not hugely bothered by fan noise as I'll just turn up the game volume or put in the ear phones.
As for the current case, I haven't taken any pics, but if it's not too long to wait, I can probably look to do so next weekend. Sadly I didn't take any pics of the old set up, as once I had done the testing and resigned myself that the old case was at fault, I didn't think they would be necessary to show anyone. You're right though, it would have been a good comparison. There is about 5 drive slots in the new case, so I put my two HDDs in the top and bottom ones to keep the centre space free for air flow. I know what you're saying about the placement of these slots being counter productive to air flow, but thankfully it doesn't seem to be affecting me enough to cause any problems.
If I may digress with a short story of sorts, last june I purchased Witcher 2 to play on holiday and expected it to run on my 18.4" laptop on minimum specs, but it was just too much for it and gameplay was very stuttered so I gave up on it, but it made me think about how best to play games going forward. My desktop PC was a touch faster but I saw an opportunity to upgrade a few components and dived in without too much thought. I upgraded the mobo, cpu, psu, RAM and OS and it seemed like everything was well. I restarted the Witcher 2 and max specs were possible, but I then realised my basic monitor was only capable of 1280x1024 and I felt it was holding back the power of my new kit. I decided to hold off on playing tw2 until I got a better monitor to maximise the experience. As I was researching monitors, I started to ask myself if I'd go with a 3d ready one, as while it was extra, it would somewhat future proof myself as I had seen 3d gaming briefly and thought it would be fun to have that at home, so I took the plunge on a 23" 120Hz model which looked fantastic when set up. I then realised that while my set up was now close to perfect, running tw2 in 3d saw frame rates drop to the low 20s. I could play it, but it was far from optimal. So I decided then to push the boat out one last time for a second Gfx card in order to run SLI and get what for me was my perfect setup. Once I put that in, all was great, for 10 mins, and that's what brought me here. The point I'm making is, yesterday I managed to sit down for 2 hours and play TW2 in 3d on high settings and it was an utterly gorgeous and immersive experience and to be honest it was everything I hoped it would be. It's taken me about 5 months on and off to reach this point, and while it was far more effort and cost than I could have possibly anticipated, I'm feeling it was worth it, and once again I'd like to thank those who replied here for helping me cross the finish line.
Glad to hear you finally got to do some proper gaming!!
To answer your question, the inch of room below the case is more than enough.
And the HDD's placed top and bottom is probably about the best way to have them, so no issues there either.
Oh and as for pics, don't worry, I was just curious to see what you had done with the new case.
To answer your question, the inch of room below the case is more than enough.
And the HDD's placed top and bottom is probably about the best way to have them, so no issues there either.
Oh and as for pics, don't worry, I was just curious to see what you had done with the new case.