Judge my airflow

N

nugz45

n00b
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Dec 10, 2007
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Ok so I have taken a few measures to make sure I am getting optimal airflow out of my case, but my motherboard seems to be an issue here. Here is a pic I made to illustrate whats going on.

airflow.jpg


As you can see I have 3 fans in the front that act as intake, and 3 fans in the rear that act as exhaust. I also have my heat sink fan blowing through my heatsink to be directed out the top.

One question I have is do you think all of the heat coming off the top of my video card is affecting my CPU temps? My HSF is basically just sucking the hot air right off my video card and blowing it through my heatsink. Not to mention my chipset fan (little black thing with nvidia logo on it) is also blowing right into my heatsink.

Do you guys think I should move my video card down into my seconday PCI-e slot? Perhaps get a slot fan to go above it to prevent the air from reaching up into my HSF or is it not worth it? Does it matter how hot my heatsink is or just that it gets the hot air off my CPU?

Any suggestion are very welcome to different setups. Btw this is a modded P-190 case.
 
videocard question:
play a game for 30 min, go to a place where you wont die, ....open the case and hover your hand between the card and the cpu heatsink....if the air is hot between there, then move the card down, if not, leave it where it is

but i think on some mobos, the second pci-e slot is only 8x...but i could be wrong
 
If you're concerned about heat from the video card affecting your CPU temps, try changing the orientation of the CPU heatsink so the wide sides are facing the front and back of the case instead of the top and bottom.
 
Or perhaps you could ghetto rig a piece of cardboard + tape (or something similar) and make a baffle/shroud to direct the radiating gfx heat into the rear exhaust fan a bit better.
 
The Antec P190 was designed to operate with negative pressure, which means your exhaust fans should exhaust significantly more air than your intake fans bring in. Right now, it looks like you have the opposite (after taking into account the P190's 200mm side fan) and three 120mm intake fans. Basically, you've taken a good case design and reduced its effectiveness.

Here are the changes I would make:

(1) Replace the CPU fan with a Scythe S-Flex SFF21F.

(2) Replace the Antec Tri-cool 120mm fan in the rear with a Scythe Slip-Stream SY1225SL12M (1200rpm).

(3) Replace the 3x 120mm front intake fans with Scythe S-Flex SFF21D. I'm assuming the front air filters are still in place. Edit: If you removed the air filters, then I would use the Scythe Slip-Stream SY1225SL12L (800rpm).
 
Make the side fan exhaust. Should pull out hot air off the vid card and leave you with neg pressure.
 
KenF said:
That CPU heatsink orientation is not optimal.

The Antec P190 was designed to operate with negative pressure, which means your exhaust fans should exhaust significantly more air than your intake fans bring in. Right now, it looks like you have the opposite (after taking into account the P190's 200mm side fan) and three 120mm intake fans. Basically, you've taken a good case design and reduced its effectiveness.

Here are the changes I would make:

(1) Replace the CPU fan with a Scythe S-Flex SFF21F.

(2) Replace the Antec Tri-cool 120mm fan in the rear with a Scythe Slip-Stream SY1225SL12M (1200rpm).

(3) Replace the 3x 120mm front intake fans with Scythe S-Flex SFF21D. I'm assuming the front air filters are still in place.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the feedback. I never knew about the negative pressure thing. I put a window on the side, and chucked the side fan. i figured the P-180 didnt have a side fan, so I would be ok without it, but it was quite a mental debate for me.

Right now, every fan in my case is a Antec Tricool. Would I see any difference in temps if I turned my front intake fans down to low, and my exhaust fans to high setting? My Tricools on high supposedly give me 79CFM a piece on high and 39 on low. Can I mimic this effect and see how it works with my current fans?
 
I'd suggest you mess with fan settings as you outlined before you go and buy new fans. Also how high are your temps? Is it really worth it to replace the fans?
 
nugz45 said:
Thanks for the feedback. I never knew about the negative pressure thing. I put a window on the side, and chucked the side fan. i figured the P-180 didnt have a side fan, so I would be ok without it, but it was quite a mental debate for me.

Right now, every fan in my case is a Antec Tricool. Would I see any difference in temps if I turned my front intake fans down to low, and my exhaust fans to high setting? My Tricools on high supposedly give me 79CFM a piece on high and 39 on low. Can I mimic this effect and see how it works with my current fans?
Click to expand...
Yes, you can.

That's exactly what I would try.
 
My temps arent THAT bad, but they could be better. My CPU is running at about 30C-37C @ 2.8ghz with a 1.16 vcore. I'm aiming for no higher than 32C across 4 cores at 3.0ghz. Hoping better airflow can get me there.
 
KenF said:
Yes, you can.

That's exactly what I would try.
Click to expand...

One more question...the window I made on the side panel isnt exactly air tight. Im guessing the air leaks on the side will affect my negative pressure...or is the pressure not strong enough to worry about it?
 
Air leaks always affect negative pressure. The sucking in of cool air through cracks in place of the hot air that is exhausted is the whole point. Also, if you can, you might want to cut a hole in your window to remount a side fan. That would allow you to pick the fan size and placement.
 
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