Question Trying to improve my cooling...

[tinpanalley]

I 've got a CoolerMaster HAF-912. I want some cooler air circulating through this case. It's not cramped in there but I want to add more airflow. How do I determine what kind of fans are best? I'm not finding a lot of useful "keeping your PC build cool" articles online that talk about different fan quality. I currently have 10cm fans in the front and back bays. If you look at the site you'll see that there are 2 12cm spots on the top and one 12/14cm slot on the side. I also don't understand how to determine how many spots I have left for plugging fans in on my mobo (MSI B450 Tomahawk Max). Is there such a thing as a fan power splitter?

Thanks!

 

[tinpanalley]

How did your new fans work out? Things nice and cool now? Did you get the cooler mounted?

Well, it all went in last night. Took a while because I got a rattling I couldn't figure out. Turns out the fans come with these little black rubber 1cm² nibs/pads that actually come off pretty easily because they only have sticky tape on one side. One had fallen into the fan and was basically rattling around. I've asked around and although nobody is sure, they seem to think they're pads for dampening between the fan and the heatink but that seems weird because the fit is a bit tight once you clamp in tthe fan and also, they really do have the stickiness of at BEST, Scotch tape. So they could theoretically fall off at any time with minor adjustments made to the fans for cleaning in the future. Anyway...

I used to do 58C idle and 75C running a game peaking at 82-84. Right away I've got the whole system idling at 40C, 46C with a few productivity things going on, and 60C on gaming with peaks of 68-70. So yes, definitely working. The CPU cooler (esports duo) is in there and I also took the opportunity to replace the dead exhaust fan in the back with one of the pack of 5 Arctics I bought. What I need to do now is add a second fan in the front. But what I have NO idea how to do is use the BIOS software to set the fans. I mean, I know where to do it the Arctic instructions specifically help with msi boards, but I don't know what I'm meant to customise for my use.

 

[Tech Junky]

Good decrease on temps. As for the fan curve I just set a min/max and then slope it accordingly. There should be some preset options like quiet performance. With the additional fans though I wouldn't worry too much about tweaking the fan profile other than making sure they're set to pwm now instead of DC.

 

[tinpanalley]

making sure they're set to pwm now instead of DC

So, PWM though is just for the chained fans and making sure they all start and stop at the same time, right?

 

[Tech Junky]

PWM gives you variable speeds to quiet things down unless under load.

This is why I use them on the air cooler too. No need to have them running full tilt if the CPU is idle.

No fan should ever stop completely and if it does something is wrong.

 

[tinpanalley]

PWM gives you variable speeds to quiet things down unless under load.

This is why I use them on the air cooler too. No need to have them running full tilt if the CPU is idle.

No fan should ever stop completely and if it does something is wrong.

Ok, so what I needed to figure out is what rpm to set each of my levels at. Or what's recommended. Are there standard levels or is it really personal preference? I mean there must surely be ideal idle temperatures and ideal full 3d GPU gaming temperatures, right?

 

[Tech Junky]

Well, anything under 100C is "ideal" as the system throttles but still works.

So, my idle temps on the server are usually about room temp to under load of ~55C.

My server fans usually hover between 600-700RPM most of the time to give you an idea. Laptop on the other hand is harder to measure fan speeds as they're totally different fans that max at 5K RPM's. Generally the goal on the laptop is to keep the CPU under 50C at idle and under 90C under load. Baseline on the laptop though is usually mid 30's from a cold boot to desktop.

It's personal preference though. Some shoot to maintain under 50C at all times no matter what or lower even and this is where some crazy loops start getting installed. My goals are to keep extreme temp swings from happening which will cause flex in the chips and they will die earlier than expected. If I can keep things between say 40-70C on the laptop it's a good place to be rathe than swinging all over the place up to 100C and down to 20C. The server with more space / fans though is easier to keep things in a tighter temp range of say 25-50C Short bursts of load is where I see the upper end that might last ~30 seconds at most.

Different PC's w/ different goals in mind. Your idle temp dropped ~20C and load ~25C under gaming peaks. That's significant with the slight changes you just made. If you want cooler temps you pay the price with more noise / vibrations.

 

[In2Photos]

Ok, so what I needed to figure out is what rpm to set each of my levels at. Or what's recommended. Are there standard levels or is it really personal preference? I mean there must surely be ideal idle temperatures and ideal full 3d GPU gaming temperatures, right?

It really is personal preference. Some people will allow their PC to run hotter and keep fan speeds down to reduce noise levels. Others will choose to run their fans at faster speeds to potentially provide more performance. Keep in mind that fans have a minimum speed. From my experience most fans can't run below ~20% of their rated max speed. So you don't want to set your fan curves below this limit or they will shut off. This is my fan curve for my CPU fan. It is a much older CPU and I have it set to keep noise down as much as I can without it getting too hot. I have 3 computers in my desk area so minimizing fan speeds helps a lot with noise. My desktop PC has an air cooler. It folds 24/7 so there is always 50-70% CPU load which keeps me around 75C most of the time. That is why I put my first point in the curve there. If the room temps get warmer I can see my temps in the low 80C so I set a point there. I quickly ramp up after that to keep my CPU from getting too hot, but it really never hits more than about 82C.





Conversely my son's PC has a 240mm AIO. We can run his fan speeds much lower and his CPU stays at like 55C even while gaming. His PC is virtually silent.

 

[tinpanalley]

It really is personal preference. Some people will allow their PC to run hotter and keep fan speeds down to reduce noise levels. Others will choose to run their fans at faster speeds to potentially provide more performance. Keep in mind that fans have a minimum speed. From my experience most fans can't run below ~20% of their rated max speed. So you don't want to set your fan curves below this limit or they will shut off. This is my fan curve for my CPU fan. It is a much older CPU and I have it set to keep noise down as much as I can without it getting too hot. I have 3 computers in my desk area so minimizing fan speeds helps a lot with noise. My desktop PC has an air cooler. It folds 24/7 so there is always 50-70% CPU load which keeps me around 75C most of the time. That is why I put my first point in the curve there. If the room temps get warmer I can see my temps in the low 80C so I set a point there. I quickly ramp up after that to keep my CPU from getting too hot, but it really never hits more than about 82C.


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Conversely my son's PC has a 240mm AIO. We can run his fan speeds much lower and his CPU stays at like 55C even while gaming. His PC is virtually silent.

Thanks for all this...
I'll have to figure out what the fans sound like at higher speeds first just to see what the annoyance threshold is. I know my computer right now, more or less idle with a browser open is at about 46C although I dont know how to get the temperature of each core. Then when I game, it can go up to 68 or so. Right now I can't hear a thing. So I wouldn't mind getting that idle 40-46 to be more like 38-40 and that gaming level 68 to go to 60.

Your idle temp dropped ~20C and load ~25C under gaming peaks. That's significant with the slight changes you just made. If you want cooler temps you pay the price with more noise / vibrations.

I'll just raise those fan speeds by 10% on each end with a smooth gradient in between and see (or rather hear) what happens.

 

[Tech Junky]

how to get the temperature of each core

Hwinfo use the sensors option.

 

[tinpanalley]

Hwinfo use the sensors option.

Thanks!
Ok, so after a few tweaks of the fan speed, I now get an idling temperature of about 32C. I just told it that when it's a 45C to go 5% faster and to do the same at 65C. It's barely noisier, only very minimally, but there is a bit of a rattle from time to time. I think in the moment that it goes faster or when slowing down, I can't quite tell. That's really the only major difference. I may go back down to stop that from happening. Thanks for everything!