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Airflow/Shroud question

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EndersShadow

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Dec 27, 2008
Messages
1,228
I recently purchased an ATCS 840 to replace my Thermaltake Armour +. While I really do like the look and setup of the ATCS 840, there is one thing I regret about the Armour, the 2 120mm fans mounted at the bottom of the case. They kept my 4870x2 at around 42 idle with my setting the GPU fan at 40%.

The ATCS has one fan at the bottom and then two alongside the HDD cage. I have all three of those fans attached, but my 4870x2 is idling around 58 degrees with the GPU fan at 40%. Anything above 40% and I can hear it pretty clear. The case temps themselves hover at around 31-40 (as told by my fan controller).

I was thinking about taking the 2 fans on the HDD cage and create a wind tunnel to push air directly to and over the 4870x2. I was going to take my two 120x25 Zalman fans (way too loud and old) and strip them out entirely to use as shrouds. I would then go HDD cage > Shroud > 120x38 fan > Shroud > 120x38 fan. I have also debated purchasing an Antec Spot fan. It has a flexible neck and can be pointed just about anywhere in the case (like directly under the GPU)

As the fans I am currently using are SilenX fans with a CFM rating of 90 at 1500 rpm with ~20db, should I look into some different fans? From my understanding SilenX fans are known to lack static pressure that other fans have (which is something I think I need as the fans are pulling from the HDD cage). Also is the fan at the bottom of the case (basically located right under the HDD cage fans) doing any good or should I just remove it entirely?

So to sum up here are my questions:

1. Are shrouds a viable alternative to help increase the airflow getting to and passing over my 4870x2 and will they help decrease my idle temps?

2. Is the above mentioned idea (HDD cage > Shroud > 120x38 fan > Shroud > 120x38 fan) for the shrouds good (i.e. would I see a decrease in temps?)

3. Is there a better configuration than what I have listed?

4. Should I look into different fans to increase my static pressure or does that matter?

5. If yes, what fans should I look at?
 
Add some pictures so we can see what you've got now - it'd be much easier for everyone this way.

1. I don't think it would work. The most effective way to improve temps would be to make a air-duct leading from some 120mm fan to the intake of your card. If you've got 38mm fans all the better, they tend to produce higher pressure.

2. Putting fans one after another gives close to no improvement [of airflow]. HDD cage doesn't create that much of a pressure drop - then again, pics would help a lot

3.Try to make the duct, simple cardboard mock-up just to see how it affects your temps. Taking the air from the bottom intake fan should be easy enough [unless there's some other card in the way]

4. If SilentX are all you're using then yes! They're basically rubbish, they create close to no pressure and their CFM is a lie [even bigger that what Slip Streams [much better fans] claim to be].

5. Yate Loons are good and cheap. Zalman F3 and S-Flexes are better. Slip Streams are good, but only if you put them in a place where they won't meet any resistance [so no radiators, heatsinks etc.] or their CFM will drop pretty fast.
 
@ work right now, planned on putting up pics tonight (will be tons as I took pics of the full rebuild). Not happy to hear about the SilenX fans. They cost a darn fortune to buy. Oh well :(. Hopefully you guys can point me in the right direction for fans this time around. What about Noctua fans? I have one that came with my Noctua heatsink and its dead quiet (which might mean it has no static pressure which would be bad) and seems to keep my CPU quite cool.

In regards to the duct the problem (as the pics will show) is that the 120mm fan on the bottom is overlapped by the 120mm fans on the HDD cage. Also worth noting is that the fan on the bottom intake is the Coolermaster fan that came with the case so it hopefully can pull *some* decent air in. The only problem is that the case is barely 1/2 inch above my desk so there isnt much air to be pulled in through it.

Will let the pics do the rest of the talking when I post tonight. Thanks in advance for any replies before then.
 
Silenx fans are garbage. I got burned the first time I bought a 120mm never again. Go with S-Flexes, (get the F-version, the lower models, D/E have problems with undervolting), or low/medium yate loons from petrastechshop.com
 
Last comment before pictures. Any of these fan recomendations need to be able to be controlled by my fan controller which is a NZXT Sentry LX. It can only provide a max of 4 watts per channel and has 5 channels. If I *had* too I could use the motherboard to power it and use that to throttle up and down the rpms, but I am trying to balance getting airflow and decreased temps with a limited increase in noise.
 
EndersShadow said:
Last comment before pictures. Any of these fan recomendations need to be able to be controlled by my fan controller which is a NZXT Sentry LX. It can only provide a max of 4 watts per channel and has 5 channels. If I *had* too I could use the motherboard to power it and use that to throttle up and down the rpms, but I am trying to balance getting airflow and decreased temps with a limited increase in noise.
Click to expand...

Should be fine. What's more important is the amperage per channel.
 
I have the same case and I was planning on posting a similar topic in the next few days. I went to the ATCS 840 from a piece of crap Apevia case. My old case had an intake fan pointing directly at the graphics card. When I put everything in the ATCS 840, my GPU temps went up ~5 C. I was wondering if I'd see any improvement in temperatures by adding fans to the front of the hard drive bay or on the bottom intake...

Based on your topic though, I'm thinking there isn't a significant improvement in temperatures by adding extra fans. However, I would think that putting some better fans on the front of the hard drive bay would provide some better airflow. I'm a little disappointed with how much air the front fan on my case moves. It doesn't seem like any airflow at all makes it past the hard drive bay. For reference, there is a 230 mm fan on the front of the case.

I don't think the shrouding is that great of an idea. Seems like it would be more trouble than it would be worth.
 
Pictures will be going up shortly. I decided after reading a bunch of other posts about airflow that perhaps I wasnt getting enough air into the case, so I took the top 240 fan and have reversed it so it is an intake rather than an exhaust. There was another post on this forum that it dropped temps around 10 degrees. I highly doubt based on the 4870x2's location this will make too much of a difference, but it cant hurt.
 
Pictures finally! Its been a crazy week but I finally got some time today on my birthday to post some stuff.

I also was wrong on the idle temps on the 4870x2, they were idling in the upper 60's (68ish) with my fan at around 40%.

I apologize if these aren't the best, but its all I got.

This is the full airflow of the case. Keep in mind today I flipped one of the exhausts to an intake up top. The foam you over the PSU is to stop the super bright LED's from shining straight up at night and illuminating damn near the whole room lol.
2.jpg


This is the airflow of the bottom part. The cables are managed the best I can for that area. My only other option would be to top mount the PSU, which I would like to avoid as it requires the removal of one of the 240 exhaust fans and basically tuns the case into the setup of my old one.
1.jpg
 
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I think you've got plenty of airflow already, you might try getting better fans if you're bothered by the noise of your current fans (or if you think they're simply too weak) but your computer isn't a vaccum, even with no intakes the exhausts would still pull in air from the outside thru every nook and cranny... That's why most OEM systems only have a single exhaust and the PSU fan (and why they tend to suck up so much friggin' dust, all the air seeping in from every corner).

Some type of aftermarket cooler for the 4870X2 would probably be far more effective than any duct or extra amount of fans tbh...
 
Impulse said:
Some type of aftermarket cooler for the 4870X2 would probably be far more effective than any duct or extra amount of fans tbh...
Click to expand...

There is no space for an aftermarket cooler (and adding one scares the heck out of me as I dont want to void the warranty on this card.) Most coolers I have seen seem to take up 3 slots (which would cover all the mobo connectors in my case).

I may get some new fans for the HDD cage that are more powerful than what I have. I cannot hear any of them in the case as I added AcoustiMax dampening material to all the sides of the case. I also may try to make some sort of funnel/duct to take all the airflow from those fans and tunnel it straight to the GPU fan and possibly a little bit over the top of it and see what that does.

Turning around the top fan has changed my GPU temps from high 68-70's to around 59-62's. The CPU is now also idling at around 21 degrees as well.
 
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EndersShadow said:
There is no space for an aftermarket cooler (and adding one scares the heck out of me as I dont want to void the warranty on this card.) Most coolers I have seen seem to take up 3 slots (which would cover all the mobo connectors in my case).

I may get some new fans for the HDD cage that are more powerful than what I have. I cannot hear any of them in the case as I added AcoustiMax dampening material to all the sides of the case. I also may try to make some sort of funnel/duct to take all the airflow from those fans and tunnel it straight to the GPU fan and possibly a little bit over the top of it and see what that does.

Turning around the top fan has changed my GPU temps from high 68-70's to around 59-62's. The CPU is now also idling at around 21 degrees as well.
Click to expand...

Or just go watercooling and have it be single slot solution :D
 
soulesschild said:
Or just go watercooling and have it be single slot solution :D
Click to expand...

I priced out the cost to do so and I was looking at a solid 700 dollar investment to get the gear I wanted (CPU, GPU block with radiators). Cant afford it (nor do I have the experience needed).
 
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