Case cooling

[jpk]

I'm thinking of adding two 120mm fans to my case. One on top replacing the 80mm there now and one in the side window which currently has no opening, I'll have to cut one. So, which way should I have the air flow go? In to supply cooler air or out to remove warm air? Thanks for your help.

 

[AmberClad]

I would go:

Side window - intake (fresh outside air to the video card)
Top fan - exhaust out rising hot air

 

[jpk]

Thanks much.

 

[jpk]

One last question. Should I position the side intake fan generally over the vid card as to blow air across the entire card or should I position it to blow air to the card's onboard fan. My card has a large plastic housing in which the fan resides. Should I try to remove the plastic housing or leave it in place? I would guess leave it in place and position the 120mm fan to blow across the card. Thanks again.

 

[AmberClad]

Yeah, the shroud is there to make sure air flows through the heatsink in a specific way and out the back. I don't know the exact layout of a GTX260 under the shroud, but I would surmise that if you remove that shroud, you'll end up with hot air blowing every which way, including into the case, instead of just through the heatsink fins and out the back. So I would leave it alone.

With my case, they cut the lower blow hole so that it's a bit to the right, and over the video card cooler intake area, instead of centered over it.

 

[jpk]

I'm not OC'ing anything but just want to get better airflow through the case. I'll get a better case later but for now I need to help things along a little bit because I think I was having some heat related issues. My case is similar in layout to the Lian Li PC-7 but without the holes in the front for the two 80mm fans. It has a small opening at the bottom of the front panel which really limits flow from those two fans. I'm hoping the 120's will help a lot.

 

[Eureka]

What are your temperatures? If your CPu stays below 60 and GPU below 90, you're good on cooling.

 

[jpk]

Don't really know. I haven't looked and I don't have temp software on my machine. I know I can probably see it under the bios but that's when the machine is not doing much processing. Is there software I can download to keep an eye on it? Thanks.

 

[Tullphan]

Originally posted by: jpk
Don't really know. I haven't looked and I don't have temp software on my machine. I know I can probably see it under the bios but that's when the machine is not doing much processing. Is there software I can download to keep an eye on it? Thanks.

CoreTemp, Real Temp, Everest...just to name a few.

 

[jpk]

I downloaded CPUID's HWmonitor. Just surfing my CPU temp reads 32C/94F and the GPU reads 50C/121F. Are those temps good? Again that's just surfing and general activity temps. I know those readings are well below where there's a problem but based on your experience, where the temps are now and if I were in a game could the temps get into a temp range of concern?

 

[jpk]

Just as an aside, my case has a HD cage that mounted in front of the two front case fans. I removed the cage and mounted my HD up in one of the 3.5" drive bays opening up that area for better air flow. It also made more room for the GPU card which is quite long.