How to get good air flow with my case?

I'm planning on overclocking my computer soon and going crossfire and I want to have proper airflow. I don’t know much about air flow and overclocking. I chose component that would make overclocking easy and if it wasn’t for my case, I would be less concerned about air flow. I know it’s not the best case, but I’ll have to do what I can with it.

Here’s my computer:
Silverstone LC20 (http://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=85&area=en)
GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3 (http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3853#ov)
HD Radeon 6850 (http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/PID-MX35331(ME).aspx)
1 SSD
1 HD 3.5''
core i5 2500K
OCZ Stealth Stream 2 Power supply
blu-ray drive

I’ll probably buy one of these coolers when I’ll start my overclocking. They seem very good from what I’ve read:
Coolermaster Hyper 212 Plus
Prolimatech Megahalems
Noctua NH-D14

Right now, I have two fans in the back that suck the air out. My power supply is placed so that it takes the air from the video cards. I did as much cable management as I could to minimize interference. I suppose I should probably buy another fan and place it in the opening that I have left close to the CPU. Should my fans be getting air in instead of out or am I good? Should one of the cooler prevent me from buying another fan?
Like I said, I really don’t know much about air flow so don’t hesitate to tell me if I’m doing something wrong or stupid.

Thanks in advance!

That case will not fit any of the coolers you suggested inside of it and the airflow is kinda poor in it. i suggest a new case.

Darn. I would have hoped to keep that case as it fits nicely on my desk. I cannot place the computer under because of a heated air vent. You're right about the coolers. It seems that I won't be able to place a cooler that is more than 130mm. Let's say I keep the case (which I'm not sure anymore), any idea of a good cooler?

Wow, it doesn't even have a 120mm fan placement to use a H50/60/70/80. You're stuck with either something like the Noctua NH-C14 or a 92mm cooler.

Noctua NH-C12P SE14 will fit, as long as you have clearence around the socket, its height is 90mm, whereas your case allows apprently up to 135mm, I honestly doubt you will find a better cooler then this for the space requirements, the other one that "might fit" would be the NH-C14, a little taller, but it also cools better, both will handle a decent overclock on the 2500k with ease, as long as the rest of the case is cooled effectively, 80/92mm higher performance lower noise fans are really hard to find to be honest. YOu could try to mount 120mm fans in a diamond shape, some cases have room to do this, some do not, you could "mod" it to allow the 120mm fans to fit, they tend to offer more cfm a good amount of pressure and less noise then thier high cfm/pressure 80/92mm brothers

Enermax Magma, Scythe, Silverstone, Coolermaster may make a few decent 80/92mm ones, you want a high airflow, high static pressure fan with under 36 db if you can, noise is very very subjective, so to some loud is fine, others want silence.

Generally speaking, you want positive airflow, it tends to cool better, and also reduces noise somewhat, positive airflow is more air going into case then coming out of case, the cards I suppose do not exhaust thier own air from the sounds of it.

I would arrange PSU so that it draws its own outside air if possible, if not, well thats fine. I would have as many fans as high a cfm as you can handle, the more the merrier, however do keep in mind, the 6850 do get quite warm, the heat coming from them being drawn into PSU could make PSU work harder then it needs to, as PSU efficency or the power it can provide drops as it heats up, just an FYI

So to sum up, the coolers I listed above, they can be pricey, but nothing really comes close to cooling as well as they do for top/down style coolers, have as much air going into case as possible with less coming out a 60/40 mix is usually good, example 2 fans pushing 120cfm total in and 2 blowing out at 90 cfm total would be fine, psu should be drawing its own air, though I doubt this is possible, so maybe try to have PSU draw as cool air as possible and have GPU getting rid of thier heat with the other case fans, as the GPU can heat up the air rapidly enough, so the case fans pulling the air away from cpu/gpu can help keep everything else cool.

Basically, air flow should be as smooth a line as possible with as much contact as possible to get as much warmth from your parts as they can, so, more air in, less air out, though, smooth airflow is the key to avoid dust and "dead air" spots.

Thanks all for your answers. I'll have some research to do to find a new case. From what I understand now about air flow (thanks dragonstongue), even if I get another fan, it won't probably be enough and my power supply will get too much hot air.

Another option is to get [H]ard and ghetto-mod that case if you want to have some fun. A dremel, a drill, some ingenuity, and some time can add some airflow to that case (just make sure you measure twice before you cut). 120mm intake fans on the side and a top mounted H60/70/80 are all options that could be made to work...or you could just get a new case for less time/effort/$.

I would get out a ruler and measure to see if a 120mm fan will fit in a diamond shape, or if you could even cut the hole a little larger for the fan to fit as intentioned, there is alot of fan grills you could purchase/make if you really wanted to.

But for best cooling you would most definately want 120mm+ fans, more air/less noise as I said before.

There is alot of really good cases out there, that are not that expensive, A HAF 922/932, NZXT M59, coolermaster makes tons of good low cost cases.

I would starrt by modifying yours, however, the best coolers are all tower style and you need a case that has at least 160mm cpu cooler clearence for best space, for GPU 305mm or better which will support the current longest graphics card(though most of us would not use this ) 12inch prefered or 10.5 for the slightly shorter ones.

If you need help picking a case, I could gladly guide you in this, as I am sure many others would be willing to help you do this, I guess the only thing is, most of the SFF style cases, like the one you have, or the ones that lay flat, there is very very few of them that are engineered for really good cooling and lot of internal space, there are a few of them, but they are also pricey. If you wanted to maintain the case and gain a little more internal room, you may have no other option but to mod it so you get the extra cooling and space.

Best of luck, and you are very welcome by the way (^.^)

Okay, so I've checked for cases. I chose to ignore the idea of modding my case as I'm not confident enough in my abilities to make something that I'll be happy with.

So, I've looked around and I've found these cases that seem all good and I like their look:
Corsair 400R or 500R
Cooler Master CM 690 II Advanced
NZXT Phantom Black
Cooler Master HAF 932 or 922
Fractal Arc Midi
Rosewill THOR V2
Silverstone Raven 2 Evolution or Raven3

I was wondering if maybe some of you got wind of a problem with one of them, be it air flow, components, anything. For example, there was some cases that I liked but eliminated because I had to pass a USB3 cable from outside the case to inside the case so that the front USB3 could work properly. I don't want these kind of bad surprises.

Or maybe there would be a good reason to choose one case over another one. For exemple, I don't plan on having tons of drives in my case, so the HAF922 seems a wiser choice compared to HAF932 since the 922 cost a lot less than 932. But maybe the 932 got a big advantage over the 922 that I missed, except the space.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4648/rosewill-thor-v2-the-god-of-cooling-and-silence

read the review then you will understand if you look at other reviews of cases this is the best one out or pure aircooling but it has alot of shortcommings i was thinking about it despite the issues

however you may be in luck go to rosewills site and you will see they have a newer case out now that has to intakes on the front then two mounted on the cage where the harddrives go so the graphics card gets direct airflow supports two power supplies ect will be my next case

but i havent seen that reviewed for its cooling yet so i cant say if its better tho the design definitely is

If you aim in keeping a computer running cool isn’t just about placing a giant heatsink on the hotspot – although it undoubtedly helps. Just shifting the same stale air around isn’t going to help keep the components cool, in fact, it’ll only heat them up. After all, you have a CPU, a GPU and a power supply to cool in there.

This might help further
http://www.techyv.com/article/brief-description-power-supply-units

I have a similar case for my HTPC.

What I did was o purchase Silverstone fans that provide 92mm fan size in an 80mm space.
The fans are very quiet and provide excellent airflow. One side pulls fresh air in, the other out.
The fan: http://www.performance-pcs.com/cata...roduct_info&cPath=36_37_880&products_id=21844

In my HTPC I have an ArcticCooling Freezer Pro and there is plenty of clearence.

Tilius said:

Or maybe there would be a good reason to choose one case over another one. For exemple, I don't plan on having tons of drives in my case, so the HAF922 seems a wiser choice compared to HAF932 since the 922 cost a lot less than 932. But maybe the 932 got a big advantage over the 922 that I missed, except the space.

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I spent a lot of money on after-market parts for my Elite 341 (mostly 120mm fans and filters). Considering what I spent, I would have been better off just buying a case that already had all the fans and cooling options I needed.

In that sense, if you need to add lots of after-market fans, then you might as well get the 932 over the 922. The difference in price is not so significant once you factor in the price of the fans.

I think the 932 is a better choice, the 500R is a very nice case, the Phantom as well is a nice case, however it does have some quirks with it.

Myself I have raven 3, as long azs you have a few 120mm fans kicking around it is very nice case, just make sure it is wired well, get a couple long sata cables for hard drive, optical drive, and make sure to install all but the motherboard first, this will make wiring less of an issue, I have one 120mm fan acting as intake into the front over the hard drive area, 1 120mm on the back acting as intake for gpu, 1 120mm acting as exhuast out the right side to help draw air over the SSD and finaly 1 120mm fan acting as top exhaust. I removed all the extra holders on back of mother board tray except for the one I am using for my SSD.

I am using Radeon 6870 with a Accelero S1 Rev 2 with dual 120mm fans ziptied to it, Hyper 212+ push/pull with blademaster fans that came with it and 1 extra that I bought, MX4 thermal paste, and HX750 power supply. I am not going to lie, this thing was a pita to get wired nicely, but the temps are just gorgeous.
CPU never tops 44c, GPU never above 57C both overclocked as far as I cna push them, and I still have tons of room. I think for the cash, a 922/932, Raven 3, 500r or some of the Xigmatech cases would do alright.

I think for suggestion, make sure it has wiring holes, and enough room for 5970 or so (12-13.5 inch), as well as 160mm of space at least for cpu cooler, this way here, you know, you will have lots of room

Thanks for the links. I found them full of good infos. I realized that I had missed that the usb3 cable on the Thor v2 as to go outside of the case, something I don't want.

Thanks grausch for the advice on the fans. I was considering this also. I don't want to have to buy many fans with a new case.

dragonstongue, why did you get another thermal paste? Wasn't the one that came with the heatsink good enough ?

Another question. When you place a second fan on the cooler, can you use a splitter to have both fans plugged at the same place on the motherboard or is it necessary to have two plugs?

Thanks

You can use a splitter, but make sure your fan header can support two fans. Most motherboards can support only 1 amp or less (12 watts or less), so make sure the combined power usage of your fans is less than 1 amp or 12 watts. If you can, check with your motherboard manual and see how many watts/amps each fan header can actually support.

You would be better to get a rheostat or something similar, or an aftermarket fan controller if you wanted to do this, as lad said above, most headers cannot support 2 higher power fans, and if you are lucky it just zaps the header, if you are unlucky it may damage other things as well. High power fans(especially the high static pressure/cfm kind) usually do not use much wattage, but can use a fair amp load, I think most of my fans are slightly under 1a usually .18-.65 amps a piece, its just safer to get a controller or inline resistor and power both fans from a molex directly. This way here they get the power they need, and you will have no worries

Alot of fans now do come with thier own inline resistor/controller, if not, read some reviews on them, some fans like noctua ones dont mind undervolting them to slow them down, others tend to sound terrible(whining or bothersome) with certain voltages i.e 7v, 5v, 3v. Myself I just use the cpu fan header and one other, such as chassis or pwr fan and just turn down its speed via bios to match the cpu fans speed/%, most motherboards usually have 2-4 fan headers that can be controlled now a days, older boards usually only the chassis/cpu fan headers could.

Thor cases are actually pretty decent, Rosewill does have a few nice cases, Thor V2 is one of them as is Blackhawk/black hawk ultra, I still stand beside the HAF 922/932 not that pricey and excellent cooling/room, or the Silverstone Raven 2E/3 these have excellent room, cooling, but also take a little longer to wire it properly. Lian Li makes very excellent cases, though most of them are not painted internally and look kind of bare, however they are also very well built and are among the pinnacle of case design/useage, but they are also usually a pretty penny or 2

Better to keep air flow smooth, more coming in then going out, not a huge deal more, but more nonetheless this helps keeps dust down, feeds all the components nice cool air, and can remove "dead" spots or turbulence. This is why I mention the Raven cases, there is some that offer better cooling, however not many, most cases tend to not have good air direction, most users sink into the "more is better" concept, I can tell you it is false if done wrong.

It is really hard to keep everything cool if air is not being directed properly. A huge side fan, topfan, front fan, and rear fan, just makes good airflow hard to achieve, better to have lower cfm air constantly going in and out of case, then an air tunnel that is not working well, this can starve components of the cooling they require and force dust to build up.

Anyways, as far as the Thermal Paste, the stuff that came with Hyper 212+ is actually pretty decent stuff, not quite as good as AS5 or MX4 but overall pretty good. I just bought an extra tube of MX4 because I needed to change the cooler on my GPU, also was buying CPU cooler, did not know it came with some. I tried them both out, the stuff that came with cooler did not spread quite as easily, I found it harder to get a small thin amount because of the fact it came in a little pouch not a tube.

But I did try it. 3.6Ghz on cpu no overvolt, fan speed on Radeon 6870 was set to 58%/overclocked. E8400 stock cooler/paste idle/load in celsius temps wer eon the hottest core, 42/56, Hyper grease/AS5 37/52, MX4 32/46. GPU was even better, prior to changing cooler/paste (used AS5 dropped temps 5c/12c idle/load compared to stock crap they put on there) was 50/78, changed to MX4 47/73, new cooler/MX4 45/66 max. Not saying the paste is the best thing since sliced bread. I just found it worked very well for me.

I like MX4 more then AS5, easier to get nice and thin, easier to clean, does not seem to dry out as easily, and best thing, it apprently is "safe" for electronics which is nice in case it gushes on something(but I try not to of course) I do know that the stuff that "now" comes with Hyper 212+ and newer ones is apprently a different formulation, better then the stuff that originally shipped with Hyper 212+, I believe older one more gray/white newer one more silvery if I remember.

Also, because I am long winded for the cpu cooler(tower kind) you are better to have this working with the cases natural airflow, even if this means blocking one of the fan holes to better direct the air, example air in front and side air out gpu and top, I would have cooler positioned so it draws air up and through cpu cooler and blows out the top, this will help to make sure it keeps air flow nice and smooth/linear it will help avoid the air "rolling" around and dust getting trapped with no place to go

well from the looks of it just take a can opener to your silverstone case and cut 1 inch hole every 10 CM. lol. but i would get a different case to start off with. but and its good to have fans that have alot of CFM but arent really loud. just do some research and possibly search for case mods for a pc case

You can keep your case and get a CM Geminii http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103046 and have plenty of cooling.

or a deepcool iceedge 400xt cooler, not huge, not that $, but is LP heatsink that works quite well, and is a very handsome heatsink in its own way . Noctua also makes some very nice top down style coolers that work incredibly well, they might be a hair $ but they are very quiet and cool very well, better then most actually not sure what you mean by that can opener bit, the top cover on the silverstone 3, is just that a cover, you can use it without it, but it does help to keep things a little neater, and helps to funnel some air out better. I use it to reast my external HDD and act as a forced cooler for it as well

Thanks again for the infos. I was asking about the fan just in case I wanted to try two fans with the cooler as I think I'll go with the Hyper 212+. I was thinking it's better to have two fans than just one, but I'll probably start with 1 fan and add another one later if I feel the need.

As for the Rosewill Thor v2, I still like the case, but there's too much choices and I've got to eliminated some Right now I'm really thorn between HAF932/922 et Raven v3 as they seem to have everything I could ever want. I guess I'll go with what's in special when I'm ready to buy.

I know that my CPU is really close to the RAMs. I cannot take any cooler that fit in height as they might not fit with the RAMs. Thermaltake Frio, XIGMATEK Dark Knight, CoolerMaster Hyper 212+, Cooler Master V8 and Thermalright HR-02 Macho are all supposed to fit, although the Frio will need some adjustement. Also, I'm not sure if I can place them as I want or if I stuck with a specific position. What I mean is that I don't know if I'll have to space to choose whether the fan will push the air up or towards the back of the case.

Everything seemed so simple initially. Man, there's so much stuff to know but it's all so fun!

Well like I said about Raven 3, there are things to be considering, you do need longer then normal sata cables as they need to be able to reach the ports that are now further away then usual, however those are very inexpensive anyways, I got way longer then needed 32 inch x2 and 2x 24 inch and they are way to long, but the only cost like $2.25 a piece

You will need another 120 mm fan at least for the front intake, or the side to act as intake or exhaust to help keep hard drives cool( I have my regular HDD in front with fan intake, SSD on back of mobo tray with a second 120mm pushing air out the side, also a 120mm on back pushing air in, and 120 up top acting as exhaust, so 2 bottom stock push in, 1 front push in, 1 back push in, 1 side stock out, 1 top out, it keeps my temps very wonderfull) possibly 1 more for the rear to help push extra air to the gpu, but even with stock cooling it is actually a very good case if you take the time to ensure that all the wiring is done neat like.

Do make sure to check the power supply dimensions well, as because the power supply sits in a little compartment up front, it has a limited length and such that it can except, my HX750 fits in there, as do most silverstone strider series power supplies. However with everything being said the Raven 2E or Raven 3, are quite large, have tons of room able to fit pretty much anything you need to fit in there without issues, also if you really wanted to do so, I am quite sure you can easily mount a Rad on the back of the Raven 3 with a little bit of modding

Haf 932 is a slightly better choice over the 922, it is a bit more $, but it also offers a little more customizability in return. Haf series overall have very good cooling, if you take the time to arrange the fans properly.

As far as having 2 fans on the Hyper 212+, I highly recommend doing so, it does help temps by a couple degrees, which may make or break an overclock, with 2 fans it really is able to keep up with some of the best heatsinks out there at a fraction of the price, no its not the best, but it is the best for its price range, and competes well on the list for performance/noise. It also supports pretty much every current socket out there and I believe CM will also upgrade the bracket for use of socket 2011 as well.

The one good thing about CM Hyper 212+ is the way the fans have thier brackets, you can easily slid the fan up or down to increase motherboard/ram cooling/compatibility, also, it does allow you to have the heatsink in any direction you want, I had used it in east/west for my E8400, now using it in North/South for my Phenom II so no problems there, and as far as spacing issues, well that depends on your case, motherboard. I have used it in 2 different build, CM590 Centurion, and now Raven 3, a little tight cause I tried to get my maching back up, but it fit no issues with plenty of clearence with even my AMD one. As far as the ones you listed the Frio would probably be the best of them, but is also noisy, they have newer versions of it though Frio OCK is one of them I forget name of newest Frio.

Other choices in this regard would be Be Quiet! Dark Rock Advanced cooler, Zalman CNPS10X Performa(make sure you go push/pull, it is slightly better then Hyper 212+ but also more costly, slightly louder, and doesnt show a huge deal better performance with push/pull as Hyper does with same) Enermax ETS-T40, CM Hyper 212+/Hyper 212 EVO/Hyper 412/Hyper 612, Xigmatech Aegir SD128264, Gelid GX7, Rosewill Fort120, or finally Scythe Mugen 2/3, I believe out of all the current coolers, Hyper 212+ or 212 EVO are the best choices seeing as they are inexpensive, great performance/compatibility and also comes with the brackets required for going push/pull cooling. Scythe Mugen as example is a better cooler, it is also alot less compatible, and only comes with a single set of wire clips, but check them out, you never know what you lik the looks, price, or performance of the best

Tsumi said:

You can use a splitter, but make sure your fan header can support two fans. Most motherboards can support only 1 amp or less (12 watts or less), so make sure the combined power usage of your fans is less than 1 amp or 12 watts. If you can, check with your motherboard manual and see how many watts/amps each fan header can actually support.

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I finally bought the HAF X. I was also able to change my rams for the low profile version, so I bought a Noctua NH-D14. It fits wonderfully. I've checked the documentation of my motherboard and the fans must use 1 amp or less and 12 volts. The fans on the NH-D14 have an input power of 1.2 and 1.08W respectively, voltage range of 12V and 0.1A. Will it work or not? I don't know much about electricity as you might have guessed. Also, will the motherboard be able to monitor the 2 fans with the Y cable or not?

umm well if it says 12v 1a or less, then at least the 120mm fan is quoted as 12v and .09a so yes it should work, however both of the fans being fed by one adapter or splitter, then no, you would not be able to monitor both/adjust both independently, you would have them both working as one unit +/- a couple % from each others rpm/speed, I would just run them at max, they are quite quiet even then, and at least you know cooling will not be an issue

I have hyper 212+ and all I had to do was slide a fan up or down for clearence spacing