Show us your fan/air flow layout

[FoulOnWhite]

I did the tape thing a long time ago and it didn't make much difference, though it did actually make it very slightly worse.

You can't make a PC case airtight unless you go to town with silicone sealant, which is obviously a disaster for later access/maintenance. In terms of cooling, letting heat escape is more important than controlling exactly where the airflow is going, so all those gaps and cracks between case panels leaking hot air is actually a net benefit.

Priorities, in order, should be:

1. Exhaust airflow as close to the heat sources as possible
2. Filtered intakes to cut down the bulk of the dust ingress
3. A surplus of intake fan airflow to ensure that filtered air is pushing out through gaps in the case, and preventing further dust ingress.
4. covered or filtered top panel to stop dust from falling down inside the case when the fans aren't on to mitigate this.

I took the top filter panel off, wonder if that is where the dust is coming from. My room is not exactly dusty and my case is not on the floor.

 

[neatfeatguy]

Not at home to take pictures, but it's pretty simple with my case; HAF XB Evo.

AIO rad is mounted on the front of the case and fans are pulling in air. Top of the case sits a 200mm fan to exhaust hot air and one 140mm (might be 120, I forget without looking) rear fan to exhaust. That's it. I find this case cools better than any other tower I've had with more fans and space.

Below is my old case (Fractal Design Arc XL) with two front and one bottom intake, two top exhaust (through the AIO rad) and one rear exhaust - all 140mm fans. The green box area is where the case would normally have two HDD cages that I removed to help improve air flow. I ended up mounting my HDDs in the spare 5.25" bays (case has 4 - 5.25" bays, I was using 2 for disc drives and 2 for HDDs). I had two SSDs that had mounting spots on the backside of the MB tray.

Even with all that extra room and more fans the cooling wasn't as good as my current case. I moved those same components you see in the picture above into my HAF XB Evo case and temps all around dropped by almost 5C for the GPU and CPU. Also, you can see a slight sag in the picture above for the GPU (980Ti AMP Omega), the XB Evo I don't have to worry about that problem. The only issue I have now is that any GPU I use cannot exceed 12.5" in length, otherwise it won't fit in the XB Evo case.

I took the top filter panel off, wonder if that is where the dust is coming from. My room is not exactly dusty and my case is not on the floor.

Most likely.

I've got two HAF XB Evo cases, my gaming system and my plex server. I purchased filters from demcifilter.com for my gaming system. The magnetic filters seem to help a lot because the dust build up in my gaming system is very minimal when you compare it to the plex server that doesn't have the filters - night and day difference. I really should get another set of filters for the plex server. The filters I have cover all the open vents and even the top mesh covering where the 200mm fan exhausts. Having all the filters on the case doesn't really do much to the temps inside, maybe a 2C degree increase, it is very minimal.

 

[Bobaganoosh]

I've done a little bit of taping/blocking-off at the top of my case. I'll show two example pictures, but the reason was the same. As mentioned before, the top vents on my case are a little bit restrictive. So I noticed that when I had a 240mm radiator (or just 2 fans) in the top, it was pushing air up into the thin space above the fans, creating pressure, and it was circulating off to the right and back down directly into the case. This was no what I wanted, the goal being to exhaust hot air out of the case. So I blocked off the section of that fan-mount bracket that would allow air to easily circulate back into the case. I did part of it with an extra piece of plastic that goes to my power supply shroud that I'm not using there because of a fan I have blowing air from below as at least it's black and blends in well. The other tape is ugly and I keep meaning to try and get some black tape to use underneath. I've used black tape from the top, but the adhesive side is white so it didn't really matter. I do keep forgetting about the tape though, because once the side panel glass is on and I'm not shining lights into the case, you can't even see that tape...out of sight out of mind and all.

I drew some curved arrows showing the previous bad air path (orange) and the ideal one (blue) that it takes now because I've blocked off the undesired path.

 

[Chrispy_]

with the case fan grille cut out for unrestricted exhaust

it was pushing air up into the thin space above the fans, creating pressure, and it was circulating off to the right and back down directly into the case. This was no what I wanted, the goal being to exhaust hot air out of the case.

I hate cases like that. It's the main reason I ditched my NZXT H440. That kind of design only works if you completely fill all of the gaps in that top panel with fans, which is a ridiculous amount of fans for such an unnecessarily-restrictive amount of actual exhaust openings. The only real solution is to do what you did and install a baffle to block off unused fan 'bays' and prevent them from short-circuiting the exhaust path with recycled air.

 

[de.das.dude]

View attachment 320850


I hate cases like that. It's the main reason I ditched my NZXT H440. That kind of design only works if you completely fill all of the gaps in that top panel with fans, which is a ridiculous amount of fans for such an unnecessarily-restrictive amount of actual exhaust openings. The only real solution is to do what you did and install a baffle to block off unused fan 'bays' and prevent them from short-circuiting the exhaust path with recycled air.

my experience with NZXT ... they make cool looking cases, but are a pain to work with

 

[Vayra86]

I'm just kidding. My hottest component, a GPU, runs ~100C on the hotspot with the worst thermal paste possible at the maximum overclock. I'm usually about 30C away from danger. I don't realistically need extra airflow. CPU is in low 60s, SSDs are cool, RAM is low clocked and thus, also cool. PSU? I use it below 40%, it can't be bothered.

Sorry for this but I can't resist... So in Soviet Russia, it appears you don't cool your PC, Russia cools it for you.

__

Here's my setup. Forgot to mention I also use a third intake at the bottom, it seems Totally forgot about it

 

[de.das.dude]

Sorry for this but I can't resist... So in Soviet Russia, it appears you don't cool your PC, Russia cools it for you.

__

Here's my setup. Forgot to mention I also use a third intake at the bottom, it seems Totally forgot about it

View attachment 320900

that lego block....

 

[Chrispy_]

that lego block....

I've used Lego blocks in PCs before, they're great because you can stick them in place with hot snot and add/remove blocks to adjust the height. They're non-conductive, too!

GPU sag has been a problem that needs solving for at least 15 years now and Lego existed long before dedicated GPU anti-sag products hit the market.

 

[Vayra86]

that lego block....

Best anti sag you can imagine, honestly. A tiny drop of glue underneath on that hdd cage, rock solid.

It gets better though, the sheer weight of that GPU pushing down on the cage also removes the resonating that could be faintly heard from the HDD in the bottom

 

[A Computer Guy]

This was my last configuration in my O11D after I installed a 2nd rad in the side/back compartment.
- top exhaust
- side/back exhaust
- rear passive intake
- bottom slim fan intake (low rpm)

The LL fans unfortunately have small gaps in the mating surface which isn't ideal for a radiators but they still work good enough to be effective.
Removing the top slotted cover helps with airflow and reducing splashback from warm air existing the rads.
Under the gpu the slim arctic fans provide enough fresh air to the NVMe heatsink for 2 970 EVO's but it's probably got to rely on some convection current to get around the gpu.
Above the GPU is a deadzone with a 990 Pro NVMe but temps are still good thanks to the massive one piece heatsink.
I have some assisted airflow with a RAM fan (not pictured here) angled in a way to push air up.

Removing the side panel glass improves thermals around 6c. I've thought about replacing the side glass with a custom mesh panel.
If that Lian Li/8auer plaque wasn't there, and the slotted air holes extended further down, it would help with the deadzone above the gpu and i/o facing VRM heatsink.

On the left top I have an intake air temp sensor.
When just chilling on the internet when that air intake sensor is 27c it exhausts 31c.
VRM's around 36c
LL fans (x6) running quiet at around 920 rpm.
Southbridge hovers around 55c
Artic slim fans (x3) running quiet around 750 rpm

More temp status below.

 

[de.das.dude]

View attachment 320809

240mm rad is in push pull.

This made me realize how filthy it had gotten. I just gave it a nice clean and replaced one intake and one exhaust with sickleflow V2's.

Sickleflows are good!
GPU temp dropped by 2C peak, and CPU by 1C peak. The intake and exhaust which i replaced were barely pushing any air. THey were some cheap chinesium molex having stuff that came with the case (which wasnt very expensive).

 

[FoulOnWhite]

This made me realize how filthy it had gotten. I just gave it a nice clean and replaced one intake and one exhaust with sickleflow V2's.
View attachment 321255

Sickleflows are good!
GPU temp dropped by 2C peak, and CPU by 1C peak. The intake and exhaust which i replaced were barely pushing any air. THey were some cheap chinesium molex having stuff that came with the case (which wasnt very expensive).

Hey i noticed the joypad, not building a deep submersible in your shed are you

 

[mechtech]

Natural convection

 

[A Computer Guy]

Hey i noticed the joypad, not building a deep submersible in your shed are you

LOL , I noticed the sign language first but it took me awhile to find the joypad.

 

[de.das.dude]

LOL , I noticed the sign language first but it took me awhile to find the joypad.

i like putting in little easter eggs. i do the same with my code at work too haha.