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Thread: Airflow: how much difference does it make?

  1. #1
    Not a good person scaryjim's Avatar
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    Airflow: how much difference does it make?

    I've been using my sig rig for the first time in a while tonight (mostly because my "office" at home is freezing during the winter) and I figured I'd have a look at the general temps / fanspeeds: mostly because I'm planning on putting the rig under water in the summer and I was interested to know what kind of temps I was looking to get it down from.

    Now, I've not been doing anything stressful with it tonight - pretty much just some web browsing - and when I fired up ASUS PCProbe (apparently the only monitoring software I got round to installing) I noticed that I was getting a fan speed reading for the PWR fan. TBH, I couldn't remember connecting the PSU fan to a header, but I figured I'd have a quick look, dipped under the table and flipped the side off my case. Sure enough, there was the header from the PSU connected to the motherboard. "Good stuff" I thought, and sat back on my seat: at which point I noticed that my CPU temp had dropped 7 degrees!

    So, ever the scientist, I decided to conduct an experiment and put the side panel back on. As I type this, my CPU is sitting at 42 degree, mobo at 40, CPU fan at 2070. I will now remove the side panel again...

    leaving the case under the desk as normal, the CPU drops to 38 degrees, 1800rpm in 30 seconds, but then stays there.

    Moving the case round so the open side faces forwards (i.e. into the room) and within a further minute the CPU has dropped to 32 degree, 1650rpm. And it's still dropping...

    So, does airflow in a case really matter? Yes! and potentially by as much as 10 degrees!

    I was already planning to mod this case for a different build, but I might do it earlier just to see what different a couple of big fans can have to what must otherwise be a very poor case for airflow...

    p.s. as I finish typing, another 2 minutes after the last set of readings, I've just tipped below 30degrees. The side stays *off* this case !!!

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    Senior Member Pob255's Avatar
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    Re: Airflow: how much difference does it make?

    What cooler are you using?

    And yes air flow does matter as you've found out, but at the sime time it doesn't matter that much as 40c is still a safe temp for a q6600
    but that I mean you don't need vast amounts of air, just a bit and good through flow.

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    Not a good person scaryjim's Avatar
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    Re: Airflow: how much difference does it make?

    Just the stock Intel cooler at the minute. The case itself currently has one (yes, ONE!) 80mm exhaust fan, so I don't think the low 40s temps are actually that bad. I'd definitely want to keep an eye on it during a gaming session though!

    Like I said, planning to go under water at some point in the summer, so as long as I pull the side panel off during gaming I'm not too worried - I was just surprised at *how much* difference the airflow into the case made. Definitely something I'll be taking into account in future builds. I'm also quite glad that I've got some nice big case fans for my secondary rig, that will be staying on air...

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    Re: Airflow: how much difference does it make?

    Few cases can provide better cooling than open air. I recently purchased the Raven rv02 which was claimed to be one such case.

    I replaced the 120mm exhuast with an s-flex 1200. The megahalems cooler has a gentle typhoon 1450 pushing air through. All fans including the 3x180mm intakes are running at 30% speed idle, ramping to 70% when temps exceed 40c.

    i5 750 @ 3.8ghz. Prime95 after 20minutes. Ambient 18c. Temp is hottest core:

    30% Idle Panel Off - 32c
    30% Idle Panel On - 33c
    70% Load Panel Off - 50c
    70% Load Panel On - 49c

    With the panel off the bottom intakes are probably doing sod all cooling wise. Still, I'm very happy with the temps when the panel is on. At idle it's too quiet, as now I've got to upgrade the PSU and HDs

  5. #5
    Senior Member Pob255's Avatar
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    Re: Airflow: how much difference does it make?

    I've heard a couple of reports abot the 180mm fans in the raven being rather weak and not moving much air.

    However I think the biggest thing that put me off was the issue of the hard drvie cage pointed out by ed^chigliak a while back.
    http://forums.hexus.net/hexus-hardwa...drive-bay.html
    A hard drive cage that's blocked by the motherboard is a major design flaw to me.
    If Silverstone had used the removable trays from the fortress 02 in the raven 02 I would of been more intrested.

    However that's really an off topic issue.

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