Effectiveness of case fans

[turn_pike]

Atter the recent boom and bust of bitcoin I decided to let my 6870 mine when I'm not gaming. I live in Hawaii however and it can be quite rough for my graphic card which usually decide to hard-crash when it reaches 86-88 Celsius.

In normal weather my card usually goes up to 77-81 and cpu goes to about 65C when running prime95. Summer is coming up and I'm thinking about things I can do to improve the temperature situation, not just for bitcoin, which I'm not sure I will continue doing because of all the ASIC devices, but also for my other computing needs.

TL DR;
On a Xigmatek Asgard II case having the following fan spec:
Front Fan: 80/90/120mm x 1 fan is available.
Rear Fan: Preinstalled 120mm black fan x 1 (80/90mm fan is available)
Side Fan: 80/90/120mm x 2 fans are available.

how much improvement I can expect from installing side and rear fans ?

CPU: X4955 BE
GPU: 6870

 

[T_Yamamoto]

It say that a rear fan is preinstalled. Did you move that to the front? Side fans helps cool the GPU. The orientation of the fans will be determined by what kind of cooler it is. If its a blower (like the EVGA 680), then blow in. If its an open air design (msi twin frozer) then blow out. You could always water cool your GPU by modding a h60 onto it.

 

[dma0991]

Case fans are an indirect way of reducing the heat. That being said, don't expect a significantly lower temperature because it won't happen. What's the ambient temps in Hawaii?

Doing WC is a sure way of reducing the temps to an acceptable level. There are CPU and GPU AIO units in the market to make assembly easier. Either that, change the GPU heatsink to something beefier from Arctic Cooling, assuming that your GPU doesn't already come preinstalled with a 3rd party heatsink.

 

[turn_pike]

Ambient temp in my room is 25-28C.

The rear fan hasnt been moved.
Thanks for the info about blower vs open, I was unaware of the necessity of reversing the air flow depending on the design. My card has blower fan.

Basically I was wondering if there are some cheap ways to reduce the temp (up to 30-50 dollars). Otherwise I might as well buy a better case (any suggestion ?).
Later on I certainly will change my graphic card to something beefier but I am holding out for either a price drop or sudden arrival of the new generation. Dont really want to pay 250-300 USD for last year tech.

 

[dma0991]

Blowers are effective if you have poor case ventilation as it exhausts heat directly through the rear, downside is temps are usually higher. Open designs cools the GPU better but also raises case temps which might have a negative effect towards the CPU temps as well.

If case airflow is well managed, have sufficient intake/exhaust or do a negative/positive pressure arrangement, a better case is just an added expense.

Try getting GPUs that come without the reference blower design. MSI's Twin Frozr, Asus DirectCU are some examples of pre-installed aftermarket heatsinks should help it cool better.

 

[AustinInDallas]

-offtopic, is there a big temp difference between your summers and winters? I was under the impression is was paradise year round?

 

[turn_pike]

In the heart of winter, the temp will only go down to about 19C or so. So it's only about a maximum of 10-12C difference. That said, if you live here you will be acclimatized to the climate and wear jacket if temp goes to 20C. Tourists will laugh at you while strolling around bare-chested

 

[blastingcap]

Atter the recent boom and bust of bitcoin I decided to let my 6870 mine when I'm not gaming. I live in Hawaii however and it can be quite rough for my graphic card which usually decide to hard-crash when it reaches 86-88 Celsius.

In normal weather my card usually goes up to 77-81 and cpu goes to about 65C when running prime95. Summer is coming up and I'm thinking about things I can do to improve the temperature situation, not just for bitcoin, which I'm not sure I will continue doing because of all the ASIC devices, but also for my other computing needs.

TL DR;
On a Xigmatek Asgard II case having the following fan spec:
Front Fan: 80/90/120mm x 1 fan is available.
Rear Fan: Preinstalled 120mm black fan x 1 (80/90mm fan is available)
Side Fan: 80/90/120mm x 2 fans are available.

how much improvement I can expect from installing side and rear fans ?

CPU: X4955 BE
GPU: 6870

Are you getting subsidized electricity or something because otherwise it's probably not very profitable after accounting for direct electric costs at Hawaii prices (over 40 cents/kWh IIRC), plus the cost of extra a/c if applicable. Regular case fans will not cool things down by more than a couple of degrees, and that's if you get good ones with powerful static pressure and flow, not the el-cheapo sub-60 cfm/s fans. If you repurpose some powerful/loud server-grade fans, you might get another degree or two, at the expense of destroying your ears. In any case, better fans usually cost more, and the free-after-rebate ones will not help much if at all.

 

[AustinInDallas]

In the heart of winter, the temp will only go down to about 19C or so. So it's only about a maximum of 10-12C difference. That said, if you live here you will be acclimatized to the climate and wear jacket if temp goes to 20C. Tourists will laugh at you while strolling around bare-chested

totally understand. I spent a summer in Alaska...I wore a light coat the whole time, they wore almost nothing