cooling suggestions and some fan questions

J

Jason

Limp Gawd
Joined
Feb 20, 2003
Messages
490
i just ordered the parts for a new build today.

i'm going to have:

Xeon X3440 CPU
Cooler Master Hyper 212+ HSF
Gigabyte GA-P55-UD4P
G.Skill 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1600
XFX Radeon HD 5770
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA HDD
Corsair 650TX 650 Watt PSU
Cooler Master 690 Case

the xeon has a 95w tdp. the hyper 212+ comes with a single 120 x 120 x 25 mm fan. the case comes with three 120 mm fans. one front-mount, one side-mount and one rear-mount. there is room for an additional four 120 mm fans. two top-mount, a second side-mount and a bottom-mount. and there is even a spot for an 80 mm fan on the backside of the motherboard tray.

question #1: will the three pre-installed fans be sufficient for cooling/ventilation? i do not intend to overclock the CPU whatsoever for the time being. i may decide to OC down the road, but for the forseeable future, i'm leaving everything at stock.

question #2: i'm assuming the three pre-installed fans are set up such that the front and side mounts are intakes and the rear-mount is an exhaust. i would leave this alone if i don't end up putting any more fans into the case. however, if it is recommended that i add additional fans, please specify where they should be installed and whether they should be for intake or exhaust.

question #3: do i need a second fan on the Hyper 212+? and if so, should i buy two identical fans, rather than have a mismatched pair?

question #4: were i to decide to install additional case fans, does anyone know what depth fan best fits in the CM 690? I'm wondering if I can go with 120 x 120 x 25 mm fans.

question #5: i intend to go with Yate Loon low speed fans, should i need them. i would use these for case fans. not sure what would be a good choice for the HSF, should i need fans for that as well. are the Yate Loon fans a good choice?

to any and all who take the time to read through this rather lengthy post, thank you! all comments, criticisms and suggestions are welcome. :)
 
I just did a very similar build (different cpu/mobo) with a 690, Xig dark knight on a Phenom II 720, XFX 5770. I moved the side fan to the bottom so it would blow cool air directly at the gpu's intake fan (plus the bottom has a filter). If you aren't overclocking I don't see why you would need any more fans. The big heatsink fan helps cool the ram and the front and side (or bottom) fans bring cool air to the gpu. If you are not overclocking I would think that you wouldn't even need the Hyper 212, but either way, one fan is plenty for no O/C. Not sure about the depth, seems like standard size fans to me. Yes YL's are a good choice.
 
the 690 has a bottom mount psu. won't the psu's intake cover the bottom fan slot in the case?

edit: wait a minute. i just looked more carefully at the pics of the 690 and it appears that there is an opening for the psu fan and then behind that there is another place for a case fan. is this correct?
 
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one other question for you specifically, shadowssong. (or i suppose for any CM 690 owners out there) is it possible to turn off the blue led on the front-mount fan? i'm not big on the bling. if the led can't be turned off, i'm going to buy a replacement fan.
 
Jason said:
question #1: will the three pre-installed fans be sufficient for cooling/ventilation? i do not intend to overclock the CPU whatsoever for the time being. i may decide to OC down the road, but for the forseeable future, i'm leaving everything at stock.
Click to expand...

Yes, even if you took one fan out it would still be "sufficient" for cooling.

Jason said:
question #2: i'm assuming the three pre-installed fans are set up such that the front and side mounts are intakes and the rear-mount is an exhaust. i would leave this alone if i don't end up putting any more fans into the case. however, if it is recommended that i add additional fans, please specify where they should be installed and whether they should be for intake or exhaust.
Click to expand...

The common layout is front/side as intake, and rear/top as exhaust, for an "even" in/out CFM flow, the only reason this changes is if you live in a dusty environment then you want more intake CFM than exhaust, to keep any air from being "pulled" in from any unfiltered source. There are other "special" cases that might change this, but are quite rare in home settings.

Jason said:
question #3: do i need a second fan on the Hyper 212+? and if so, should i buy two identical fans, rather than have a mismatched pair?
Click to expand...

No, you do not need a 2nd fan. If you do add a second fan you always want to have a matching pair, so one fan is not holding back the other and causing more, unneeded noise.

Jason said:
question #4: were i to decide to install additional case fans, does anyone know what depth fan best fits in the CM 690? I'm wondering if I can go with 120 x 120 x 25 mm fans.
Click to expand...

Standard size is 120x120x25, the only places you might have trouble with this is the top side mount where the HS is, if it is to tall (like in my case with the TRUE) a 25mm thick fan will not fit, same goes for the 2nd side mount if you have a tall and/or aftermarket cooler on your video card, only real way to tell is to test fit.

Jason said:
question #5: i intend to go with Yate Loon low speed fans, should i need them. i would use these for case fans. not sure what would be a good choice for the HSF, should i need fans for that as well. are the Yate Loon fans a good choice?
Click to expand...

YL are good cheap fans and would work in both cases, however, if you are willing to spend a bit more, the Slipstream fans for the case and Kama or GT fans for the HS are better choices.
 
question #1:
for the moment you are fine.... a 120mm fan can kick out a lot of cfm.. even oc'ing with the atholon i have at 125W thd three fans at 120mm would be sufficient....

question #2: i'm assuming the three pre-installed fans are set up such that the front and side mounts are intakes and the rear-mount is an exhaust. this is normally the situation.
i would leave this alone if i don't end up putting any more fans into the case. however, if it is recommended that i add additional fans, please specify where they should be installed and whether they should be for intake or exhaust.
as i said three fans should be fine... also remember that your psu likely has an exhaust fan as well so its more like to intake and two exhaust.... and if its not quite enough you can always get a fan or three with higher cfm

question #3: do i need a second fan on the Hyper 212+? and if so, should i buy two identical fans, rather than have a mismatched pair?
if you are running at stock i wouldn't worry about it... however when you do oc i might consider getting two matched fans and set them up in a push pull configuration... however even two matched fans will tend to not run at the exact same rpm.....but it shouldn't matter...

question #4: were i to decide to install additional case fans, does anyone know what depth fan best fits in the CM 690? I'm wondering if I can go with 120 x 120 x 25 mm fans. as mentioned before you really shouldn't need more fans so much as more cfm flow....

question #5: i intend to go with Yate Loon low speed fans, should i need them. i would use these for case fans. not sure what would be a good choice for the HSF, should i need fans for that as well. are the Yate Loon fans a good choice?
i feel that a fan is a fan.... for the most part good fans are going to be Theratake, cool master, logisys, yate loon, sythe, evercool, just to name a few..... when it comes right down to it look at the specs and get a good deal..... for instance...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103022
i have several of these and they run pretty quiet, not to mention about 40 cfm... in your situation two used as intakes would give a total just under 80 cfm...... as for the hsf just be sure to double check the exact size as i have seen many hsf units with a 92mm fan and assumed it was a 120..... otherwise do your research and find a good deal..... and if you find a fan you like... google it and see if there is a better price....
 
thanks for all the great info!

one last question, with regard to the hyper 212+.

if i want a push/pull configuration, and i go with the scythe kama's that bluefireice mentioned, will i be able to hook both up to a single pwm connector? or do i need some kind of splitter/adapter? how does that work? i'm assuming my motherboard (gigabyte ga-p55 ud4p) only has one pwm connector.
 
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does this sound like a good fan configuration? (in terms of airflow and balanced cfm)

Code: 
intake:

front    - yate loon 120mm 44.5cfm
bottom   - yate loon 140mm 46.0cfm
side btm - yate loon 140mm 46.0cfm 


exhaust:

rear     - yate loon 120mm 44.5cfm
top frnt - yate loon 140mm 46.0cfm
top rear - yate loon 140mm 46.0cfm
there are two things i'm worried about. first, i don't know how well i'll be able to fit a fan in the bottom slot because i didn't buy a modular psu. the cabling coming out of the psu may interfere. second, i'm not sure if both top fans will fit. my hsf may block one or the other.
 
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thaltek said:
... for the most part good fans are going to be Theratake, cool master, logisys, yate loon, sythe, evercool, just to name a few..... when it comes right down to it look at the specs and get a good deal....
Click to expand...

I am guessing you mean Thermaltake? If so they make some of the worst fans on the market, coolermaster, logisys and evercool are nothing to speak of either. YL is ok because of how cheap they are, but still fall far behind Scythe. Good fans would be Scythe, Noctua, Nexus, Scythe being the best for the price out of those.

You should also NEVER go by the mfg's specs as they are all fluff.

Jason said:
thanks for all the great info!

one last question, with regard to the hyper 212+.

if i want a push/pull configuration, and i go with the scythe kama's that bluefireice mentioned, will i be able to hook both up to a single pwm connector? or do i need some kind of splitter/adapter? how does that work? i'm assuming my motherboard (gigabyte ga-p55 ud4p) only has one pwm connector.
Click to expand...

Yes, however you will need a PWM Y-splitter, such as this.

Jason said:
does this sound like a good fan configuration? (in terms of airflow and balanced cfm)

Code: 
intake:

front    - yate loon 120mm 44.5cfm
bottom   - yate loon 140mm 46.0cfm
side btm - yate loon 140mm 46.0cfm 


exhaust:

rear     - yate loon 120mm 44.5cfm
top      - yate loon 140mm 46.0cfm
top      - yate loon 140mm 46.0cfm
there are two things i'm worried about. first, i don't know how well i'll be able to fit a fan in the bottom slot because i didn't buy a modular psu. the cabling coming out of the psu may interfere. second, i'm not sure if both top fans will fit. my hsf may block one or the other.
Click to expand...

Keep in mind that the YL fans are sleeve bearing and should not be mounted horizontally, wile you can do this, they tend to wear out a good deal faster and can also (though not always) end up having more motor/bearing noise. Some people who do this get years out of the fans still, others a few weeks. YMMV.
 
aren't the scythe fans you recommended also sleeve bearing? three of the case fans will be mounted horizontally. two top and one bottom. what do you recommend for horizontally positioned fans?
 
The fans that are sleeve bearing are the Slipstream and Kama, keep in mind that the normal (non-PWM) Kama fans are NOT sleeve bearing but S-FDB (Sony Fluid Dynamic Bearing). I will say that I have not followed my own word on this one, as I have one (Slipstream) mounted to my video card (horizontal) and has been running that way for sometime now (at least a year). However, with not OCing and what you have, 2 or 3 fans is more than enough, the 6 fan setup you are looking at is over kill and adding allot of unneeded noise, rather than getting 6 YL fans for the case, I would replace the front/rear/side with Slipstreams and the HS (if you just HAVE to) with a Kama (if you want PWM) or the GT (better fan but no PWM control, so you will need a controller or leave it at a constant RPM). Also, if you want to help cut down on noise, you can cut out the rear grill of the case and cut down on allot of the wind turbulence noise.
 
i had a feeling six fans would be overkill.

thanks for all of your input, bluefireice. much appreciated, sir.

i do want to replace all of the stock fans. so i'll go with three 120mm slipstreams for the case. and for the hsf, for now i'm going to go with a single kama. i'll see how my temps turn out. i'm sure they'll be fine, though. and if/when i decide to overclock, then i'll look at picking up a second kama and possibly adding a few more case fans.
 
Jason said:
i had a feeling six fans would be overkill.

thanks for all of your input, bluefireice. much appreciated, sir.

i do want to replace all of the stock fans. so i'll go with three 120mm slipstreams for the case. and for the hsf, for now i'm going to go with a single kama. i'll see how my temps turn out. i'm sure they'll be fine, though. and if/when i decide to overclock, then i'll look at picking up a second kama and possibly adding a few more case fans.
Click to expand...

Get the 1200rpm Slipstream fans, they will be much more quiet than the YL, I don't know what you are really looking for (noise wise) but if you have a quiet room and are looking for inaudible go for the 800rpm model. The best setup I have found (I have the CM590 which is pretty much the same as the CM690 other than looks and the way the HDD cage is placed) for the least amount of fans is 2 front intake and 2 top exhaust, that's with the HSF blowing UP into the exhaust fans. My case can get a bit toasty because my aftermarket HS on the GPU dumps heat into the case, however even with maxing out all the fan possibilities, I don't really see any gains worth adding anymore.
 
i went with 3 of the 1200rpm 120mm slipstreams. one front intake, one side intake (about level with the gpu) and one rear exhaust. i also got a 120mm kama pwm for my hyper 212+.

i'm just going to play it by ear. if my temps seem a bit high, i'll probably start by adding some top exhaust.

others with the cm690 seem to prefer the following config:

front intake - 120mm
bottom intake - 140mm
side bottom intake - 140mm
side top - empty
top front intake - 140mm
top rear exhaust - 140mm
rear exhaust - 120mm

that just seems like a crapload of fans to me. the bottom intake is nice for bringing cool air to the gpu. i suppose the top front intake pulls air right down in front of the heatsink fan. still, with that many fans the case could probably levitate.
 
bump, lol.

I'm looking for a better exhaust fan (upgrading from stock, it has to pull air through a radiator), would a 120 CF/m Delta do the job? it's prety much the only exhaust port on this shotty box I'm using unless I manage to find an unused power connection that's close enough to use a PCI slot case cooler ><

the case has 4 spots for fan mounting altogether; one intake on the HDDs, one low up-front, one blowing on the MoBo from the opposing side and one rear exhaust. the intake fans have decent air flow still and should last another year, but I find the exhaust extremely lacking and would like to upgrade it with something that has steady pressure and high air-flow. I was looking at the noctua fans, but their high pressure fan has a somewhat low airflow for what I'm looking for @ ~46CF/m. I'm beginning to think that using the high pressure noctua with the PCI slot exhaust fan will be my best bet, as it allows for better total flow (I'm not using or planing on using dual GPUs).

edit: spending ~$30 on a few fans seems to be the best idea, since cases with better airflow seem to run ~$60.
 
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