Poll: To Rebuild or Not Rebuild?

[t1337duder]

This is an arbitrary poll but perhaps you'll indulge me.

I have two gaming PC's. One is an HTPC with mATX form factor, the other is a desktop PC with ATX form factor.

I bought a MSI RTX 4090 Gaming X (Slim) card for my HTPC, and I knew it would be a tight fit. After receiving it today, I was only able to install it after removing 1 of my 2 Noctua 140mm case fans (the lower one). This means that instead of having 3 air-intake fans, it would only have the 120mm on the bottom and 140mm in front. This also means that the air-pressure in my case will become negative when the fans are engaged (under load), because there are also three out-take fans. It's worth noting that my fan curve is set to only turn on intake & exhaust fans when my CPU is under load, so if the air pressure were negative, it's not necessarily going to suck dust through every crevice 24/7.

Initially I found it slightly concerning, but after benchmarking and gaming for awhile, I'm not sure if I can detect an actual difference. Mind you it's an HTPC and 9 ft away from me, rather than sitting on a desk directly next to me or underneath me. To be frank, I don't think I'd be able to measure the difference of having that fan installed or not.

Having said that, it irks me a little bit that I could simply swap my build into the ATX case and simply use the slightly-larger case in my living room. This would give me enough room to use all of the fans. Of course, swapping the builds out will take a few hours of work. The mATX build in particular, takes extra time & effort to work in because of the space constraints. My CPU cooler is La Grande Macho RT, and it's a pain to install if you have less than three hands. It's a pain even to simply get the fan clips on. And both of the builds feature this cooler. Inevitable bloody knuckles & headache to ensue. I've reinstalled these things countless times, and never gets any more pleasant. I'm unsure if I want to bother for one 140mm fan. [h], would you bother? Or simply forget about it and enjoy the 4090?

 

[SmokeRngs]

Until and unless there's a problem with airflow and temps I'd leave it alone. The one thing I might do depending on the setup of the fans in the case is see if it's feasible to swap one of the exhaust fans to intake to avoid the negative pressure in the case. I absolutely hate negative pressure setups which is why I would look into that.

 

[hititnquitit]

I wouldn't sweat it.

 

[xDiVolatilX]

I would rebuild in the better bigger nicer more accommodating case. I had a full tower and I didn't like how tight everything was so I bought a monster tower and building in it right now. I like you, always dread working on a case that is tight and my poor fingers getting their ass kicked plus the mental anguish lol. I decided enough was enough. Boy was it the right decision. It has been an absolute pleasure working on this this build in a luxuriously spacious case. Reading the reviews of users they all unanimously agree that it has been the most pleasureable experience and would never go back to any other smaller case. I agree . I never want to use another smaller case ever again. My fingers, my back, my brain all thank me now. I'm done torturing myself.

Moral of my post: Do the hard work once by swapping into the nicer chassis, and enjoy it for the rest of time knowing it's much much easier to make any upgrades or changes to the system in the future because the feeling of dreading working on a small tight case is not a feeling I want to have when building my rigs which should be nothing but pleasant, not a rough time lol.

 

[learners permit]

These things make assembling PC's with limited space a much less daunting task. Can be used to connect fan headers, gpu power connectors ,and board power connectors as well as cpu cooler fan clips when you just can't fit your dick beaters in there without case edges chewing the hell outta your hands. Been using them for a decade or more and I will not assemble a PC without them. As a lifelong auto mechanic I refuse to fuck up my hands on my hobby after doing it all day at work.

 

[mhenley]

As a person who regularly gets annoyed with himself over being a perfectionist, I wouldn't be able to walk away from this. If you can, great, but if that were my situation I'd rebuild or at least redesign. Most people, myself included, have more case fans they need and perhaps the overall best solution would be to remove an exhaust 140 to balance the airflow and then do torture tests for all components to produce as much heat as possible. If nothing hits throttle point then you'd be back to a balanced or positive pressure environment without having to rebuild.

 

[Mr. Bluntman]

As a person who regularly gets annoyed with himself over being a perfectionist, I wouldn't be able to walk away from this. If you can, great, but if that were my situation I'd rebuild or at least redesign. Most people, myself included, have more case fans they need and perhaps the overall best solution would be to remove an exhaust 140 to balance the airflow and then do torture tests for all components to produce as much heat as possible. If nothing hits throttle point then you'd be back to a balanced or positive pressure environment without having to rebuild.

I too am like this. If there's something wrong with my build it'll drive me insane until I fix it.

OP, go the extra mile to get your rig in the better case. It may be a colossal pain in the ass, but you'll be happy you did in the end. Don't take the chance of such an insanely expensive GPU crapping out on you due to heat/lack of airflow. IMO, piece of mind is worth a couple bloody knuckles in the end.

 

[xnxax]

If it's not broken, don't fix it. Unless you don't ever clean your rig and have a concern over the dust-sucking in the long-term.

 

[t1337duder]

I too am like this. If there's something wrong with my build it'll drive me insane until I fix it.

OP, go the extra mile to get your rig in the better case. It may be a colossal pain in the ass, but you'll be happy you did in the end. Don't take the chance of such an insanely expensive GPU crapping out on you due to heat/lack of airflow. IMO, piece of mind is worth a couple bloody knuckles in the end.

Well I went ahead and spent the entirety of my day yesterday getting everything swapped out. Oddly enough, my CPU temperatures went down 5-10 celcius on average. This time, I had an extra pair of hands to help me mount the LGMRT heatsink, which I think made a big difference. My mount system is completely jimmy rigged so it takes extra work for me to get the right amount of pressure between the heatsink and CPU. I suspect a couple weeks ago when I installed my 7950X3D, one of the screws on the mounts came loose, because usually there shouldn't be such a temperature difference.

BTW, I doubt you could kill an expensive GPU with poor airflow . The worst that could happen is that the GPU would throttle and performance would suffer. The extra heat might shorten the lifespan but the regular lifespan of these devices are very far beyond the point they're used on average. CPU's, GPU's, etc. basically last forever. And if a chip were to die to heat, I suspect that the heat was only exacerbating an issue that already existed with that chip. Just my opinion and observation based on my experience with electronics over the last 20 years (which may be inaccurate!).

Before chips were made to throttle based off its heat, voltage, etc. you would have GPU's and CPU's sitting at uncomfortable temperatures and levels of stress with no "flexibility", and even then these chips would still last a long time with inadequate cooling.

Anyways I appreciate the replies & motivation. In this case it was good that I did the swap, if only to find out that my CPU heatsink should've been making better contact. My 4090 can breathe better, and now I can as well.

 

[Carlyle2020]

Good luck !

My threads have been chromed and are slick.
Since i´ve marked them and took pictures i can attest that a NH-D15s old fans (after almost a year) did rattle my intels 1700 full metall frame (no rubber/plastik feet) loose.

Maybe you want the same "piece of mind" next time

 

[Mr. Bluntman]

BTW, I doubt you could kill an expensive GPU with poor airflow . The worst that could happen is that the GPU would throttle and performance would suffer. The extra heat might shorten the lifespan but the regular lifespan of these devices are very far beyond the point they're used on average. CPU's, GPU's, etc. basically last forever. And if a chip were to die to heat, I suspect that the heat was only exacerbating an issue that already existed with that chip. Just my opinion and observation based on my experience with electronics over the last 20 years (which may be inaccurate!).

Before chips were made to throttle based off its heat, voltage, etc. you would have GPU's and CPU's sitting at uncomfortable temperatures and levels of stress with no "flexibility", and even then these chips would still last a long time with inadequate cooling.

Anyways I appreciate the replies & motivation. In this case it was good that I did the swap, if only to find out that my CPU heatsink should've been making better contact. My 4090 can breathe better, and now I can as well.

No, that has been what I have more or less observed as well. I was thinking about lifespan and maximizing your turbo clocks more than anything else in regards to the rebuild. And the 8800/9800 GTs I have kicking around are a reminder of this. Always at full clocks and 73°C idle

 

[xDiVolatilX]

Good luck !
View attachment 611800
My threads have been chromed and are slick.
Since i´ve marked them and took pictures i can attest that a NH-D15s old fans (after almost a year) did rattle my intels 1700 full metall frame (no rubber/plastik feet) loose.

Maybe you want the same "piece of mind" next time

Be careful with loctite, breaking a proprietary screw or fastening device that is a one off part or special order would be a pretty big setback.