# enclosed mining rig - fans intake or exhaust?



## rawbar (Jan 30, 2021)

I purchased this on Amazon for ease of use and because I was planning on putting it in my office which has limited space.  Open air rigs all seemed to be too large (I get now that there's a reason for that.  Heat management)


			Amazon.com
		


It arrives Monday.  I've talked to other people that own one and am told the fans are abusively loud and would not pass the wife acceptance factor even if I were to put it in the basement (200yo old house, thin floors with no soundproofing).   The stock fans don't list their CFM, only that they are 5500RPM @ 70dB.  I ordered some 3000RPM Noctua fans that are 45dB (hopefully the design is more efficient so they move more air per RPM as I'm sure the builder went with the cheapest fans possible).   I'm told HiveOS will run whatever fans are installed at 100% 24/7 even though they're 4 pin.

I intend to put 8x 3060Ti EVGA FTW3 Ultra (3 fan GPUs) in this box, but the more I read, the more I think heat is going to be a problem.  So while this question in the big scheme may be irrelevant, would I be better off setting the fans up for intake or exhaust?  There are only fans on one side of the case.  I'm thinking exhaust but someone else on Amazon told me they flipped them around and are running them as intake.   On the plus side, I can probably ditch the winter space heater in my office


----------



## hat (Jan 30, 2021)

I can't say I'm much of a fan of that case. If you had blower style coolers on the cards you'd probably be fine setting the fans up as intake, but you don't. Those types of coolers you have there just kinda blow air through the heatsink and all over the case. They need intake and exhaust to work properly. But if you set your fans up as exhaust, you'll be severely lacking intake airflow.


----------



## rawbar (Jan 30, 2021)

I could potentially cut holes in the top of the case and attach some intake fans I suppose.

Even easier, maybe I just leave the top of the case off.


----------



## newtekie1 (Jan 30, 2021)

Intake. You want positive pressure and you want o force the air through the graphics cards.  Also, those 3000RPM Noctua fans are definitely not quite, I've got 2 in my main rig and anything more than 50% is very loud. Though they probably won't be as loud as the ones included with the case.


----------



## phill (Jan 30, 2021)

Not a good case.  GPUs are too close together and as it's been mentioned, the sheer noise of keeping air flow and GPUs cool would make such a racket after 10 minutes you'd stop using it.  Forgetting the massive price of the unit as well, consider making something.  I allow a 120mm fan gap between my GPUs when I last built a place for my GPUs to sit when I mined, kept everything very cool, fans could spin slow and low noise, it was definitely a good idea...  I'd say open air is definitely a better way to go, than to a case that's enclosed and GPUs are close together...


----------



## Caring1 (Jan 31, 2021)

Get Blower style GPUs and that case should be fine


----------



## rawbar (Jan 31, 2021)

As far as I can find there are no blower style 3060s out yet


----------



## trog100 (Jan 31, 2021)

the cards are all too close together.. each card blows hot air onto the next card in the line.. it becomes very difficult keeping the cards nearer the end of the line cool enough hence the need for very high rpm and noisy fans..

its the kind of thing that needs to be outside in the shed.. the seller does state this.. he hasnt fitted 7000 rpm fans for fun..

it would be okay with only four cards in it and less noisy fans..

dare i ask where you are gonna get your cards from.. he he

trog


----------



## rawbar (Jan 31, 2021)

I guess I'll resign myself to running with 4 cards in that chassis and then build an open rig  as a phase 2.   I build enterprise data centers for a fortune 20 as my full time gig (8-9 figure annual budget) and my vendors are hooking me up with cards as their supply chain allows (no I can't hook up anyone else).   I have an LLC for my side hustle selling on Amazon and am able to buy B2B from them.


----------



## trog100 (Jan 31, 2021)

put it down to experience.. it will be fine with four cards in it.. try and blow air from in between the cards and stop one card heating another up.. maybe leave the case top off.. fit some normal speed fans blowing in at the cards..

trog


----------



## rawbar (Feb 1, 2021)

You were not kidding about those 3K RPM noctua fans.  Those are NOT remotely close to 45dB as the spec sheet claims.   Those are going back.  And likely so is this chassis.  It POSTed the first time I booted, loaded HiveOS off a USB stick, was sitting at a prompt and then power started cutting off and on.  Unplugged it and plugged back in several times and it won't POST.  No power on beep, no lights on the EVGA card like the first time it POSTed.  Only indication it has power is the fans and power supply fan are spinning.  So I guess I get to start over and build an open air rig unless someone wants to recommend a pre-built reasonably priced one.  TBH I'm kind of burnt on building stuff and would prefer just to plug and go.


----------



## phill (Feb 2, 2021)

Just take it back to basics.  Use one card, CPU, one stick of RAM, get it to post.  Then add components in slowly.  Building something isn't difficult (I mean heck, I can do it!!) so just take it one thing at a time and go for it  

The fans are awesome, just control them with the motherboard header or a fan controller   I use all of my fans under a controller, I don't mess about with anything more complex as it doesn't need to be.  Keep them at a static speed that's comfortable, job is done


----------



## rawbar (Feb 2, 2021)

I've built 2 full rgb PCs in 2020. I can build a rig and I can troubleshoot the one I just bought but I don't want to spend the time on it. That's why I bought something that's supposed to be plug and play. My time is worth more to me than $. That being said I will probably build a home depot rack based rig anyway. I looked last night and only found either way too expensive pre built rigs (1000+) or empty frames with lots of complaints from buyers.


----------

