HAF 932 + H70 Cooling Problems

[litex2x]

As of lately I just noticed I'm having some cooling problems with the setup in my sig. Today I reapplied some MX-4 using the line method and reseated my H70 for the sixth time only to get the same results possibly 1-2 degree worse than before. I idle around mid to high 30s with core 2 always being around 3-4 degrees higher than the rest of the cores, which I found to be normal. When running prime95 blend with HT enabled temperatures reach up to the low to mid 70s while core 2 seems to hover around 78-82 C. When playing games temperatures reach as high as the low 60s but stay between 45 to 55 C for the most part. I don't have anything to measure ambient room temperature but I would say its relatively warm; San Diego summer heat. In my HAF 932 case I have the front fan as an intake, the side fan as exhaust (switched from intake), the top fan as exhaust, and H70 radiator fans push/pull intake (as recommended by Corsair). I've tried various combinations of making the H70 exhaust and the side fan intake only to see little to no improvement. I've narrowed down the problem to air flow in my case or the ambient room temperature being too high.

I don't think I'm going to fiddle around with things anymore since I last up to 7 hours prime95 blend until BSOD or fatal error but I was wondering if these temperatures are normal? Anybody have a similar setup? How do you have your fans set up and what TIM application method did you use?

 

[SOSTrooper]

Well I do not have the same setup what-so-ever, but seeing as nobody replied yet, I'll give it a shot.

What I'm getting at is that you're overclocking your CPU, and have the H70 radiator mounted to the back of the HAF as intake. At this point I'm assuming that the H70 is taking in warm air that just came out of the video cards and power supply to cool the radiator down. If you manage to figure out where to mount the radiator and the 2 fans to take in cooler air I think you might see better temps. I don't think your problem is having to seat and reseat the H70 pump with various TIM. Your temps look normal given it's summer. My stock i7 2600 is idling in low 40s in this warm SoCal weather in my other room without AC. I would really find ways to prevent the H70 radiator from taking in warm air. Maybe add a duct or something to direct cooler air into the radiator?

 

[ClariorHincHonos]

I'm running a CM690, which is a similar design. I have all front, rear, and side fans as intake, and then let the top fans exhaust. This seems to work well.

 

[litex2x]

Well I do not have the same setup what-so-ever, but seeing as nobody replied yet, I'll give it a shot.

What I'm getting at is that you're overclocking your CPU, and have the H70 radiator mounted to the back of the HAF as intake. At this point I'm assuming that the H70 is taking in warm air that just came out of the video cards and power supply to cool the radiator down. If you manage to figure out where to mount the radiator and the 2 fans to take in cooler air I think you might see better temps. I don't think your problem is having to seat and reseat the H70 pump with various TIM. Your temps look normal given it's summer. My stock i7 2600 is idling in low 40s in this warm SoCal weather in my other room without AC. I would really find ways to prevent the H70 radiator from taking in warm air. Maybe add a duct or something to direct cooler air into the radiator?

I'm running prime95 blend right now and the temperatures seem to be little better than before. Core 2 is hovering in betwen 73C to 76C and gets as high as 78C somtimes for minute or two. I haven't seen it go pass 80C like it did in the previous nights. Tonight the weather is a bit cooler so I assume this is primarily the cause for improvement.

The length of the hoses really restrict where you can put the radiator but I've seen others mount their radiator at the top yielding some improvements. Unfortunately for me it will require another reseat because the hoses need to come out upwards toward the top to allow more slack. This would definitely bring in air away from my GTX580s. I may try this tomorrow and post back with my results.

 

[Idef1x]

I believe that your temperatures are quite normal. The H70 will not perform as a custom water system - at best it will par with high end air coolers such as the NH-D14. Your high ambient temperatures will have a big influence on your CPU temperatures, so I would not worry myself. If you're not comfortable with the temperatures (and you are dead sure you have a good contact between CPU and H70), I would suggest either turning down the OC, get some better (and maybe louder?) fans for your H70 or take the plunge and get real water cooling (even though I personally think WC is a gimmick if you don't push your hardware to the absolute limit)

 

[litex2x]

I believe that your temperatures are quite normal. The H70 will not perform as a custom water system - at best it will par with high end air coolers such as the NH-D14. Your high ambient temperatures will have a big influence on your CPU temperatures, so I would not worry myself. If you're not comfortable with the temperatures (and you are dead sure you have a good contact between CPU and H70), I would suggest either turning down the OC, get some better (and maybe louder?) fans for your H70 or take the plunge and get real water cooling (even though I personally think WC is a gimmick if you don't push your hardware to the absolute limit)

Yeah I am beginning to accept this is the best it can do. I just finished running 12 hours of Prime95 blend with temperatures hovering around the low 70s. I'm quite satisfied with the results and won't stress about it anymore since temperatures will never get that high for my typical every day use. Thanks you all for your replies.

 

[E^vol]

...I don't have anything to measure ambient room temperature but I would say its relatively warm; San Diego summer heat.

Can I make a suggestion? Get some air conditioning in your place. It'll cool your rig and keep you cool too. I know I couldn't live with my AC...
Even a portable AC unit will help out a lot if you can't install a permanent unit.

 

[Pitbull#2]

I would honestly turn off HT. Can u take a pick so I can see the flow of the case?

 

[Zepher]

I have a similar setup, HAF-932 with the H60 cooler and I idle around mid to high 30's and it's at 49-50 with prime 95.

I have my large case fans running stock orientation, top blows out, side blows in, front blows in.
My single H60 fan is blowing through the radiator out of the case, in a push configuration.
My ambient temp is 82*F in my room

I have Prime running now and will see how hot it gets in 15 minutes.
I am running stock clocks on my i7 870 though.

I honestly don't think you should have the side fan as exhaust since you are basically sending the cool air that is coming in from the front right out of the side of the case.

I just finished running Prime95 and these are my temps with the Ambient temp at 83.3*F. Arctic Silver 5 is what I used on the cooler.

 

[Idef1x]

I have a similar setup

Sure, you have the same case, but a i7 870 doing 2.93 GHz is quite different from an 2600K doing 4.7 GHz, so your temperatures is not comparable to his in any way.

I honestly don't think you should have the side fan as exhaust

You might be on to something there. I would also use the side fan as intake and top as exhaust. Not that it will impact the CPU temperatures, but perhaps the graphics.

I just finished running 12 hours of Prime95 blend with temperatures hovering around the low 70s

I think that is quite good - especially taken the San Diego summer heat into consideration.

 

[SBSuperfly]

I have an HAF932 and an i7 920 and i recently took advantage of Bestbuy's $42 Corsair H50 deal. With my stock cooler my idle temps were 48-49C and upper 70s under load. Once I installed the H50 my idle temps dropped to 30-32C and my load temps about 50C. I modestly overclocked my i7 920 to from 2.8ghz to 3.6ghz. Now my idle temps are 38-40C and under full load about 70C. When I game, the temps are about 52C.

My fans are in the stock configuration with the front as intake, side as intake and top as exhaust. I have the H50 fan on the back pulling cool air from outside into the radiator and into the case. I'm pretty happy that the H50 got me dramatically lower temps at stock speed and overclocked my temps are still lower than they were at stock speeds with the stock cooler.