Shall I get more fans when I get GPU?

danlightbulb · 31 Jul 2016 at 20:09

Hi all,

When I built my PC, I got the Phanteks P400 case, and the Matterhorn CPU cooler.

The P400 case came with 2x120mm fans - installed as one intake at the front and one exhaust at the rear. I changed this so both fans were at the front, however the front can take 2x140mm fans instead of 120mm ones.

I am thinking that when I get my GPU (likely an RX480) I may get more fans. My motherboard has 3 system fan headers, 1 cpu fan header and 1 cpu-opt header which I don't know if I can plug a standard fan into that?

I could simply get 1x120mm extra fan for the rear exhaust.

Or I could move one of the front fans to the rear, the other front fan to the CPU cooler as an extra fan on that, and then get 2x140mm fans for the front.

Would my second option be overkill? I think what I would like to achieve is to be able to keep the fans quiet whilst having good airflow. Would more fans, larger fans, spinning slower achieve this?

I have heard GPUs can reach 80+ Celcius, which has prompted the question. I'd rather have more fans spinning quieter than a few fans spinning loudly, if that's the way it works?

danlightbulb · 31 Jul 2016 at 22:31

Does it make sense to have a fan on both sides of the cpu cooler?

danlightbulb · 2 Aug 2016 at 21:10

I have already moved the back fan to the front - did that straight away when I built pc. I don't think I can have a 3 front fan setup without removing part of the bottom of the case - if you look at the picture above you can see the PSU shroud is in the way of having 3 fans at the front. I could however try and remove the bit that is stopping this, or go for 2x140mm at the front instead?

There seems to be differing opinions on whether a rear exhaust fan is required or not. I don't have one currently as I moved it to the front.

danlightbulb · 4 Aug 2016 at 15:24

Im getting system temps of 12-14 degrees above room temp (at idle) but this is due to the memory overclock. At 2133mhz i was getting only a couple of degrees above room, but at 3200mhz the cpu and system temps jumped 10 degrees.