How Cool is your Case?

[hagbard]

No, I'm not asking about your custom paint job, I want to know what temps your getting from your motherboard readings in your case. Name your case, number of fans in addition to the power supply fan, your room temp, and your motherboard temp.

Case: Elan Vital T-10 with two fans;
Room temp: 20c
MB temp: 23c

My theory is that the more fans a case comes with, the less efficent it is to begin with (thus the need for additional fans).

 

[Dantzig]

Case: Antec SX1030 with 4 80mm fans, drive cooler, and slot fan.
Room temp: 75F
Mobo temp: 78F (100% CPU utilization for 8+ hours)

 

[hagbard]

Supports my theory. 75f=23c/78f=25c. One degree difference, with far more cooling (I have no other cooling that a cpu fan).

An interesting experiment would be if you disconnected two of your case fans, then give the results. That will show how efficent the case *itself* is at keeping the motherboard cool. Are the two extra fans there to maximize cooling, or are they there because the case itself isn't very effective at cooling without them? Such an test would help answer that question.

 

[Dantzig]

I've never bothered running with less than 4 fans to see what difference it would make. I also have a lot of components in my system that can produce a good deal of heat.

1 GHz TBird OC'd to 1.2GHz @ 1.825v
Motherboard bus speed @ 109MHz
GeForce2 GTS @ 230/385
Maxtor 40GB 7200RPM HD
Maxtor 40GB 5400RPM HD
Toshiba 12x/40x DVD
Ricoh 6x4x24 CD-RW

To make your test accurate, you would need to equip each case with the same cooling and put the exact same components in each case. The efficency of a case depends on the airflow that it can support. If you do things like get cables out of the way and cut off fan guards, then most cases will be the same if equipped with the same cooling and components. At least that is my theory

 

[SendTrash]

22C... that is with 2 fans... front and intake over CPU... but my computer is kidna idle right now

 

[Spoooon]

I too have an Elan Vital T-10. But I have 4 fans. I cut a 120mm and 80mm blowhole into the side panel. My case temp is room temp.

Case temp: 25
Mobo: 28
CPU(full load): 42-43

I have 2 intake fans, 2 exhaust fans, and an interior 80mm fan that I use to help circulate the air. I put a thermistor about an inch in front of my interior fan to check case temp.

 

[mechBgon]

Case: Inwin Q500 with typical Duron/GeForce2 system
Intake temp: 19.1C
Case temp: 20.2C near CPU, 21.1C at the bottom rear

The temperature readings are all from a Radio Shack digital thermometer's probe-on-a-wire. This case has a 120mm Panaflo fan on the side panel and no other case fans, so maybe it is not as helpful for your purposes, being a modified case.

Just for kicks, I shut off the 120mm blowhole, which moves something like 60 cfm, and after a few minutes the CPU temperature had risen from 37C to 45C (according to Asus Probe) and the bottom-rear case temperature had risen to 23.8C. Granted, with the 120mm blowhole fan turned off, there's a major airflow short-circuit in this case that prevents the power-supply fan from pulling air all the way through the case from the bottom. That's because the power supply has a big hole beneath it on the rear panel.



Case #2: Inwin S500 with a dual-Celeron system
Intake temp: 18.7C
Case temp: 20.7C in bottom rear

This case has a 120mm side-panel blowhole (Panaflo L1A again) and two 80mm case fans, intake at front, exhaust in the rear.
I am not in a mood to crash it so I didn't try unplugging any fans.

edit: the Duron is running SETI@home and the Dualeron is running RC5, so both can be considered at full CPU load.

 

[ToxicMussels]

-InWin Q500 case

-3 Panaflo L1A's 80mm.

-Ambient room temp. 72F.

-Case temp near M/B 73.6F.

I never go any higher than 2.2F in the case vs. room temp. Great flow and VERY QUIET!

 

[Viperoni]

Inwin q500

Duron 650 @ 933
fop32-1
Enermax 350

120mm YS Tech (switche between 7v and 12v) bottom front
80mm Sunon behind CPU
that's it.

Normal temps:
42c CPU/22c case with ystech @ 7v
44c / 27c with ystech off

 

[Mikewarrior2]

MB temp 21C. Room temp 17C.

6 Case Fans, Enermax 330W.

If I disable all the fans, temps go up about 5C.



Mike

 

[smp]

I have a no name 'dual tone' case.. atx.. I just finished my two side fans case mod last night.. it dropped the cpu temp down 5c.. .. and the mobo about 7c. I'm super happy.. Something like that anyways.. I'm pretty sure those are the correct numbers.. I now have three case fans (80mm two in one out).. one slot blower (out) and the power supply (out).. total five fans.. in a sh!tty case, mobo temp is about 2c over room temp.

 

[hagbard]

Dantzig - I'd have to admit, you have a good point there

You have a lot of "stuff" in there. I have a 30GB IBM 7200rpm HD, AIW128, Pioneer 105s DVD, two network cards, SB Live and a floppy drive. Everything seems to be running pretty cool, even the Pioneer DVD which as a reputation for running hot.

I looked at the Antec cases, but decided not to go ahead when they jerked me around for two months re: a 300watt power supply [I should have kept the generic ps that came with the case, it was within +/- 2% all around and never randomly cut out on me]. I also didn't see any evidence to support that it was any better at keeping a case cool than what I already had (two of them actually).

...hag

 

[Valvoline6]

I don't know about the temps but my Antec sx830 keeps a six pack cold and the beer is easy to get to with the big door and handle.

Mobo temp 26* C
CPU idle 30* C
CPU load 38* C

 

[OneOfTheseDays]

About 27C when ambient
35C under full load

this is with 1 CASE FAN!!!!!!! i don't even have a freakin rear exhaust fan in it, also my front case fan is a silencer which has almost no airflow. i laugh at all you idiots that think you need like eight fans to cool your components, what a waste of money!!!

 

[hagbard]

My case never exceeds 25c, even under full load. It is completely dependent on room temp, nothing else. And Sudheer Anne - I agree, we don't need more than two fans, unless the case doesn't expel heat very well (hey, I'm a poet and don't even know it). And all this concern over cpu temps - with an Pentium III - its rated at a minimum of seven years at 80c. I understand the AMD's are a bit more sensative...so I can see why their owners blow all their money on cooling.

...hag

 

[eyez]

hey Dantzig,

I have the same sx1030 case, what kinda drive cooler do you have?

 

[Mikewarrior2]

Why are you calling people idiots? If I turn off all but 2 intake and 1 exhaust fans, my mb temp goes up 3C, and my cpu temp goes up 5C.

If I turn off everything, temps jump up 5 and 8C respectively.

with everything going, i'm getting 20C Ambietn Case, 22C MB temp, and 30C CPU.

If you don't want to spend money cooling your case, then don't... DO NOT CRITICIZE others who do, because they can do whatever the hell they want with their money.


Mike

Also, my MB temp doesn't jump when going under full load. Same temp all the time compared to ambient case temp

 

[mechBgon]

I think Mikewarrior2 has a point, and here's another one: those "idiots" at AMD advise that Athlon systems have... hmmm, an extra fan on the rear! AMD's recommendation for case cooling in .PDF format

 

[Dantzig]

eyez - One that some cooling place sent me for free during a promotion. It was "Free drive cooler with any order." I don't remember which place it was though. I don't actually have it cooling a drive, just sucking in air to make the airflow even out. I have 2 Sunon high output 80mm fans and the drive cooler (2 x 40mm fans) sucking air in and 2 80mm Antec fans, a slot cooler and the PS blowing air out.

Heheh...I think I'll change my sig to something like "The Cases & Cooling Forum: The only place on Anandtech where you can talk about sucking and blowing and not get banned by the moderators"

 

[jsmonet]

MB: 19C (66f)

cpu hits 50C under full load (seti@home on a p3 800eb and a gladiac gefore2 gts)
all the while the MB sits at 21C

room temp is about 65F.

thank you antec sx1030b

 

[cirrus1]

This is my main system found in my herd link (Asus A7V, Tbird 750@750, geforce 2 gts, Aopen HX08 case)

Case cooling config:

I have 1 front fan @ 5v
2 rear fans @ 7v
and of course the P/S

(temps measured at 21C)
CPU idle: 41C
CPU full load for 24+ hours 44-45C
M/B temp at all times: 27-28C

Anybody remember how to insert the degree symbol using the ASCII code?

 

[HazeGray]

Case: InwinQ500
Fans: 2 80mm on side panel(intake)
1 120mm blow hole on top
1 Fop-38
1 80mm fan intake @ front
1 80mm fan exhaust @ rear
Temps: ambient room temp is 72F
mobo temp is 24C

 

[NesuD]

ycc-802 with 2 80mm fans 1 intake 1 exhaust and 1 92mm intake fan + p.s. fan
room temp 70f/22c
case temp 77f/25c
motherboard temp 88f/32c
cpu 104f/41c
at full load running rc5 24/7

2-7200 rpm ibm hdds
toshiba 6x dvd
toshiba 32x cdrom
plexwriter 8432
Elsa Gladiac GeForce 2 GTS 32 meg

 

[Spoooon]

Mike seems to have effectively shut Sudheer up.

And I don't see anything I spend on my computer a waste of money. I don't need blowholes, but I thought it would be a fun project. So, I bought a dremel, fans etc, and did it. After that, I decided to build a fanbus. I didn't need either of them, but they were both fun projects.

 

[Bravoexo]

CPU temp 47 C idle, 51 C load (MBM 5.02)
System temp 40 C idle, 41 C load (MBM 5.02)
Room temp 30-32 C (Philippines at 12 Noon)(Kitchen open air thermometer)

AMD Duron700@900
GlobalWin FOP32-1 YS-TECH Fan
ABIT KT7-RAID
192 MB PC133 SDRAM
Inno3D Geforce2MX Value 32MB w/HSF built in 200 Core/210 Memory
Seagate U4 and U5 HD
Pioneer 104S DVDROM
Sony CDU048011 CDROM
Yamaha 4416E CDRW
JustCooler 80mm Case fans x 4 (three in, one out)
Hard drive cooler, 3 fans intake (I increase system temp by 2 C if outtake)
300W PSU out fan
3 Socket 7 CPU fans attached to FOP32-1
1 ElanVital Socket CPU fan attached near/on Gefore2MX card
All 4 cables are stripped and rounded.
Venus ATX mid towercase.

* Yeah, I know what you're thinking...it's hot out here... he he he...
Man, I sure wish I could afford a bigger case...I first need to find one over here...