About a year ago I ran some tests in Skyrim to get my PC up to temperature and tried some different case fan setups. My case is an older Foxconn case and only has mounts for 2 x 80mm or 2 x 92mm case fans. So is it the best test subject? Probably not but whatever. I tried various tests with those 2 fans with the typical front lower intake and rear higher exhaust. With Speedfan I tried running them in all combinations ranging between off and 100%. Surprisingly I found out that there wasnt a big difference in overall system temperatures in the various case fan setups. The lowest temperatures where achieved having the rear exhaust running at 100%, but it seemed that the front intake made very little difference. The rear exhaust running at 100% instead of off dropped the CPU and GPU temperatures a few degrees celcius each if I remember correctly. However the front intake running at 100% instead of off only had an effect on the System and Hard Drive temperatures a few degrees celcius each. My system does have a top mounted PSU with a down facing fan, so the PSU is most certainly exhausting some of the system heat. The tests I ran tempted me to run just a single 92mm exhaust fan with no intake, and the temperatures during that time seemed fine. I decided to add back in an intake fan because it did have a very small affect on some temperatures, and its an unused mounting point so why not. Currently I'm running 1 x 80mm intake on the lower front, and 1 x 80mm on the upper back, and here is some idle (with light use) temperatures in an 82 degree fahrenheit room...
(in celcius)
GPU - 41
CPU - 35
Core 0 to 3 - 35 average
System - 36
Hard Drive - 34
Remember my room is 28 celcius, so the average temperature across all 5 areas of my PC are running at only 8 degrees celcius above room temperature, or 15 degrees Fahrenheit. BTW, before you say that 80mm fans are too loud and that larger fans can be run slower and quieter and push the same amount of air, the 2 fans I have are Enermax Enlobal fans that run very quiet even at 100% speed that I am running them.
I know we all want to keep our PC's running as cool as possible, even if lower temperatures may not be beneficial to hard drives, but how much do case fans really matter? The main components of heat creation in a common PC are the CPU and GPU, but most of the time these components have their own heatsinks and fans which are probably responsible for almost all of their cooling. Hard drives create some of the system heat, but like I said its debatable that cooler temperatures are even good for a hard drive. If hard drives were negatively affected by elevated temperatures then it would probably be alot more common to see hard drives with built in heatsinks and fans. The PSU also creates some of the heat, but PSU's are usually mounted so they dont increase system temperatures. When the PSU fan is included then thats already 3 cooling fans inside a common computer before any case fans are added. It seems to me that as long as your CPU, GPU, and PSU all have operating cooling fans, then really 1 single exhaust case fan on the upper section of the back panel is probably plenty to exhaust out that CPU and some of that GPU heat. Then if you want to add an intake fan on the lower front it can have an affect, but its very minimal.
My tests probably werent perfect and there are certainly plenty of varying case designs and fans setups and all that, but have you guys done any temperature testing to find out how much your case fans matter?
Linustechtips has 2 videos, 1 in which they test case fans setups, and the other in which they test cable management. The conclusion is that anything more then 2 or 3 case fans has very minimal effect on cooling. In terms of the cable management, they shoved so much crap inside the computer and where finally able to raise system temperatures by filling almost every void with things that should have blocked the air. Anything less then jam packing the computer full of crap and the temperatures werent affected.
I'm just curious to hear from people that feel that having more then a few case fans is worth it, or that water cooling especially is worth it. Being very careful with temperatures when overclocking is understandable, but how many of you use more then a few case fans or use water cooling in non-overclocked systems?
I see people who make it a top priority to organize cables extremely well, and I know some of you do extreme cable management simply for aesthetic reasons, but I know many people do extreme cable management because they think it has a noticeable affect on temperatures. When I'm talking "extreme" I mean tying cables together tightly and tucking them into any nook and cranny available especially behind the motherboard making sure there is no slack in any cable. Less extreme cable management I would consider doing a small amount of tying cables together and some pushing of the cables into unused areas of the case. Removing excess cables from a modular PSU I would consider "less extreme" cable management. Have you ever tested cable management to see how much it affects temperatures?
(in celcius)
GPU - 41
CPU - 35
Core 0 to 3 - 35 average
System - 36
Hard Drive - 34
Remember my room is 28 celcius, so the average temperature across all 5 areas of my PC are running at only 8 degrees celcius above room temperature, or 15 degrees Fahrenheit. BTW, before you say that 80mm fans are too loud and that larger fans can be run slower and quieter and push the same amount of air, the 2 fans I have are Enermax Enlobal fans that run very quiet even at 100% speed that I am running them.
I know we all want to keep our PC's running as cool as possible, even if lower temperatures may not be beneficial to hard drives, but how much do case fans really matter? The main components of heat creation in a common PC are the CPU and GPU, but most of the time these components have their own heatsinks and fans which are probably responsible for almost all of their cooling. Hard drives create some of the system heat, but like I said its debatable that cooler temperatures are even good for a hard drive. If hard drives were negatively affected by elevated temperatures then it would probably be alot more common to see hard drives with built in heatsinks and fans. The PSU also creates some of the heat, but PSU's are usually mounted so they dont increase system temperatures. When the PSU fan is included then thats already 3 cooling fans inside a common computer before any case fans are added. It seems to me that as long as your CPU, GPU, and PSU all have operating cooling fans, then really 1 single exhaust case fan on the upper section of the back panel is probably plenty to exhaust out that CPU and some of that GPU heat. Then if you want to add an intake fan on the lower front it can have an affect, but its very minimal.
My tests probably werent perfect and there are certainly plenty of varying case designs and fans setups and all that, but have you guys done any temperature testing to find out how much your case fans matter?
Linustechtips has 2 videos, 1 in which they test case fans setups, and the other in which they test cable management. The conclusion is that anything more then 2 or 3 case fans has very minimal effect on cooling. In terms of the cable management, they shoved so much crap inside the computer and where finally able to raise system temperatures by filling almost every void with things that should have blocked the air. Anything less then jam packing the computer full of crap and the temperatures werent affected.
I'm just curious to hear from people that feel that having more then a few case fans is worth it, or that water cooling especially is worth it. Being very careful with temperatures when overclocking is understandable, but how many of you use more then a few case fans or use water cooling in non-overclocked systems?
I see people who make it a top priority to organize cables extremely well, and I know some of you do extreme cable management simply for aesthetic reasons, but I know many people do extreme cable management because they think it has a noticeable affect on temperatures. When I'm talking "extreme" I mean tying cables together tightly and tucking them into any nook and cranny available especially behind the motherboard making sure there is no slack in any cable. Less extreme cable management I would consider doing a small amount of tying cables together and some pushing of the cables into unused areas of the case. Removing excess cables from a modular PSU I would consider "less extreme" cable management. Have you ever tested cable management to see how much it affects temperatures?
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