Suggestions for 2nd fan.

[Bearded1]

Hi all. Just a quick question. Going to buy a Coolermaster Hyper 212 Evo as my current budget hsf (CM Tx3 evo) just doesn't cut it with a 4590k @4.4 and want to know if replacing the stock fan and adding a 2nd is worth it. And if so what type of fan? Performance is more important than silence. A bit of noise is fine as long as it isn't Delta fan volumes.

 

[aigomorla]

i dont think the improvement will be that great.

You could possibly sandwitch the heat sink between 2 fans and see if it will help any.

This is what i mean about sandwitching the fan.

 

[Bearded1]

Yeah i've tried adding a 2nd fan to existing setup and it made almost no difference. The cooler just isn't up to dealing with a cpu putting out 100-120w. There's about a 20-22 degree difference between mine and the best air coolers. A Hyper212 will give me about 10-12 degrees better than the TX3 from looking at the few useful reviews i could find.

 

[Essence_of_War]

Hi all. Just a quick question. Going to buy a Coolermaster Hyper 212 Evo as my current budget hsf (CM Tx3 evo) just doesn't cut it with a 4590k @4.4 and want to know if replacing the stock fan and adding a 2nd is worth it. And if so what type of fan? Performance is more important than silence. A bit of noise is fine as long as it isn't Delta fan volumes.

I swapped the stock fan with an NF-A15 on the CM Evo. I use a generic motherboard fan profile, but the NF-A15 keeps me a few C cooler under heavy load, and it's inaudible over my GPU fans when doing intense gaming.

I found the stock Evo fan to be very obtrusively loud under load.

 

[MrTeal]

Try it when you get it, you might be surprised how well the stock fan work. It's not silent, but if that's not important to you the stock fan might just work.
The H212 Evo includes clips for adding a second fan, and doing push/pull will be more efficient noise wise than going with a faster single fan to get the same temperatures.

 

[ClockHound]

Or...you could consider some better performing, easier to install 'modern' coolers.

I've used the 212 in many budget builds, because it's cheap and decent with modest overclocks. It falls apart with hotter clocks tho. A 2nd fan might help by 1-2 degrees at peak and lower rpms at idle, but that's it.

The best single tower cooler for overclocking haswell is the new Scythe Ninja 4: http://www.coolerguys.com/840556103448.html

See ehume's review: http://www.overclockers.com/scythe-n...atsink-review/

The list of better moderate cost cooler besides the Ninja 4, that outperform the 212 is pretty long. For starters:

TR True Spirt 140 Rev A ($40ish)

Scythe Kotetsu or Mugen 4 ($50ish)

Cryorig H5 ($45ish)

Raijintek Tisis ($60ish)

The 212 was great in 2012. Today it's middle of the pack. At best.

 

[Bearded1]

Cheers. That's the sort of thing i'm looking for. Only question is if i'm moving up to that price range that brings the smaller single fan AIO coolers into play. Is it worth looking at those? CM Seidon, Corsair H55/75 etc. or is a decent air cooler still better than a basic AIO?

 

[ClockHound]

Those aren't weak air coolers. The Ninja 4 or TS 140 will easily best any of the entry-level AIOs on both thermal performance and lower noise. And will match most of the Asetek clone 240 units.

Feel free to look at those AIOs, but never touch. ;-) Unless you have an airflow-starved little itx case.

Speaking of the case. Great case intake air flow and exhaust are critical to making a great air cooler work at optimum. What case are you using? And how is it setup - intake/exhaust fan deployment?

 

[MongGrel]

I still like Noctua fans in general, one higher pressure one might be nice there, over stock.

I'm sure would be quieter for what it is.

Yeah, I'll stick a old one pic in here, of a converted PC.

I still do not trust AIO's myself.

 

[ClockHound]

I still like Noctua fans in general, one higher pressure one might be nice there, over stock.

I'm sure would be quieter for what it is.

Yeah, I'll stick a old one in here

I still do not trust AIO's myself.

Is the upper drive bay empty? If so, that's a great spot for a 140mm Noc intake fan. Or are you running the system with the side off?


Fun stuff to mod:

10 minutes with a nibbler/aviation snippers to open up that exhaust fan area. Replace with an old skool wire fan grille. Or...rely on your old friend Bernoulli, remove the exhaust fan and let the fans on the cooler push out the hot air. They are so much stronger than that stock exhaust fan anyhow.

And...if you want to get all scientific and stuff (and who does?), could invest less than $10 in a digital thermometer with a remote probe. Put the thermometer outside the case and place the remote probe just in front of the cooler intake fan. Secure using twist ties/duct tape/willpower/luck. Test at idle and load. Note the temp gradient. If it's more than 4-5c hotter inside the case than the outside ambient, then there's some airflow gains to be made. If you want to. ;-)

Oh and remove all those exhaust blocking pci slot covers...sure they serve a wonderful cosmetic purpose because they make a sleek finished system appearance when you have dinner guests over to stare at the back of your case. Despite that, those cosmetic demons are forcing hot air from the GPU to recirculate in the case to be ingested by the cpu cooler or GPU cooler. Is that a blower style cooler on the GPU? Not as big a deal then. If it's an 'open' style, then it's a big hot mess. ;-)

I'm not saying you need to get dremel happy and cut a 120 to 140mm hole in the bottom of the case and install another 120-140mm intake fan. No, I'm not saying that. If you get the idea to do that, it wasn't me, it was just something you read on the internet. ;-)

 

[MongGrel]

That is just a little baby X5650 HTPC in the main bedroom these days

Nah, it's closed.

That thing is a small HAF to begin with, the top of it has a couple fans too and is wide open.

 

[ClockHound]

OC'd Hex-cores for bedroom HTPC usage is the new normal, right? ;-)