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stabgotham
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600T + H60 Fan Setup

Thu May 01, 2014 1:23 pm

Hello everyone!

I'm looking for some input regarding my fan setup to improve my cooling.

i5-2500K (OC @ 4.7gHz)
Corsair 600T
Corsair H60 Cooler
ASUS GTX 560ti TOP DCII
8GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 (2x4GB)
Corsair TX750M

I currently have all 6 hard drive bays in use. I'm stil using the stock 200mm front intake fan that came with the case, but to be completely honest, it really doesn't feel like that much air is getting past the hard drives. The top 200mm fan recently crapped out on me, so I bought two 120mm Cougar CF-V12HB to replace it as exhaust. I have the H60 radiator placed in the top rear port using a push/pull config also as an exhaust with two 120mm Corsair fans. I'm replacing those fans with two Noctua F-12's. I'm thinking of taking the two Corsair fans and adding them to the side of the case as additional intake (one in the lower left spot blowing air over the GPU, and the other stacked on top blowing air over the CPU heatsink).

Front: 200mm intake
Top: two 120mm exhaust
Rear: two 120mm push/pull exhaust
Side: two 120mm intake

Would this be the best for me or is there a more optimal setup to get the best cooling for my situation? I'm also considering moving the top 2 HDD bays closer to the PSU so that the front intake has a clearer path into the case. Don't know if this will help or not though.
 
DPete27
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Re: 600T + H60 Fan Setup

Thu May 01, 2014 2:40 pm

Overkill.

You don't need that many fans. Try:
Front - one 200mm intake
Top - one 120mm exhaust
Rear - radiator exhaust (probably don't need push-pull either, adding the second fan typically only drops CPU temps by ~2C)
Side - one 120mm intake by GPU

I'll bet you get the same temps, but with 2-3 less fans making noise.

[Add]: the hdd drive cages in the 600T are a removable 2-piece design. Try removing the top one to open up the upper half of the 200mm intake.
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juzz86
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Re: 600T + H60 Fan Setup

Thu May 01, 2014 6:58 pm

Im my Graphite I replaced the stock (****) blowers with 200mm BitFenix Spectre Pro's. Run the front one at full tilt, run the top one at 7V, and have your radiator exhausting out the back. The SPs are a huge step up from the stock fans, don't have a pervasive noise and you'll get a little positive pressure to boot if you slow the top one.

You can even just grab one and use your stock fan in the roof at full tilt - you'll still have positive pressure.

I also second the motion of removing a fan from your AIO. Taking the inside fan off my old H70 did wonders for noise, with about 3C increase in temp.

ADD: To carry on from DPete's suggestion, you can mount both 3x3.5inch block side-by-side on the floor, and open up half your front intake. If you can do away with three internal drives (use the money saved on fans for an enclosure, or shift them to 5.25inch bays) you can open up the whole thing!
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stabgotham
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Re: 600T + H60 Fan Setup

Fri May 02, 2014 1:03 pm

juzz86 wrote:
I also second the motion of removing a fan from your AIO. Taking the inside fan off my old H70 did wonders for noise, with about 3C increase in temp.

ADD: To carry on from DPete's suggestion, you can mount both 3x3.5inch block side-by-side on the floor, and open up half your front intake. If you can do away with three internal drives (use the money saved on fans for an enclosure, or shift them to 5.25inch bays) you can open up the whole thing!


So did you use the single fan as a push or a pull? I'm trying to consolidate my drives down to 3, but having a difficult time doing so. May opt for splitting them into the side-by-side setup if I can't.
 
Chrispy_
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Re: 600T + H60 Fan Setup

Fri May 02, 2014 3:43 pm

The 600T looks like a bit of a cooling failure with only one intake, and it's heavily obstructed by the drive cages - that's a bad starting point for a positive pressure cooling setup.

As others have said, remove as much of the obstruction from the front intake as possible, and replace those wussy 600rpm Corsair stock fans with something less pathetic. I know you said you're using all six drive cages, but I would remove one of the bays at the bottom, leaving the one further to the back in place, and try to squeeze your remaining drives into the 5.25" bays; Basically, throw out the cage on the right in this picture:

Image

I'd keep the H60 at the rear, but I always thought the H-series AIO fans were loud at load and performed poorly when slowed down. If you're looking for a quiet CPU cooler, consider using one of the cougar 120mm fans instead - the turbulent focused flow ought to do well with the radiator.
The alternative, if you're looking to overclock the 2500K further, is to replace the H60 with something far more potent, like a Swiftech H220 or a CM Seidon 240M. I tend to look to Frostytech for cooler reviews (it's ALL they do) but other sites confirm those are two of the best 240mm AIO coolers you can buy. The corsair H100i does not compare favourably to either of those options.

As for side-panel fans, I didn't think the 600T has any; Do you have the 600T Special Edition with the quad-120mm fan mount mesh side panel? That changes EVERYTHING!
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stabgotham
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Re: 600T + H60 Fan Setup

Fri May 02, 2014 4:22 pm

Chrispy_ wrote:
The 600T looks like a bit of a cooling failure with only one intake, and it's heavily obstructed by the drive cages - that's a bad starting point for a positive pressure cooling setup.

As others have said, remove as much of the obstruction from the front intake as possible, and replace those wussy 600rpm Corsair stock fans with something less pathetic. I know you said you're using all six drive cages, but I would remove one of the bays at the bottom, leaving the one further to the back in place, and try to squeeze your remaining drives into the 5.25" bays; Basically, throw out the cage on the right in this picture:

Image

I'd keep the H60 at the rear, but I always thought the H-series AIO fans were loud at load and performed poorly when slowed down. If you're looking for a quiet CPU cooler, consider using one of the cougar 120mm fans instead - the turbulent focused flow ought to do well with the radiator.
The alternative, if you're looking to overclock the 2500K further, is to replace the H60 with something far more potent, like a Swiftech H220 or a CM Seidon 240M. I tend to look to Frostytech for cooler reviews (it's ALL they do) but other sites confirm those are two of the best 240mm AIO coolers you can buy. The corsair H100i does not compare favourably to either of those options.

As for side-panel fans, I didn't think the 600T has any; Do you have the 600T Special Edition with the quad-120mm fan mount mesh side panel? That changes EVERYTHING!


Yes, I have the 600T with the quad 120mm fan mount mesh side panel.

This is current status of my fans:

2 x 120mm Noctua F-12
2 x 120mm Cougar CF-V12HB
2 x 120mm Corsair (the fans that came with my case and my H60)
1 x 200mm Corsair (front intake fan)

I don't plan on overclocking any further, but I do want to reduce the temps overall. I've noticed that my CPU temps recently seem to have spiked a bit under load going from 82C to 90C under load in Prime95. I suspect the spike is due to the dead top exhaust fan. Although, if I recall correctly, at the time I actually went through the overclocking process, I think I may have only had 3HDD's in the case, where now I have 6. I'm still trying to see if I can consolidate all of my media into 3 drives, but I will probably be able to once I really decide what I should and shouldn't keep. Ideally, I'd like to get the temps under load down below 80C. I'd also like to help my GPU a bit as well since it's temps can reach 88C when stress tested (I have a slight OC on it as well).
 
Chrispy_
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Re: 600T + H60 Fan Setup

Fri May 02, 2014 5:02 pm

Ah, okay then; that explains a lot. If you're not using four fans in the mesh panel it's actually going to reduce CPU cooling by preventing any case pressure whatsoever, and disrupting the through-flow of cool air from the front of the case. The reduced chimney effect and the disuption of intake-to-exhaust airflow actually means that the air is travelling more slowly through your case, which means it's much warmer when it reaches the H60 radiator.

Fill the panel with four fans, or replace it with the window and do what we've suggested for a positive air-pressure, channeled-airflow system. If you don't fill it with fans you'll just get looping airflow where positive case pressure causes most of the fresh air to leak out of the remaining mesh before it's actually been in contact with any heatsinks.

I also still think you need a beefier watercooler for a 4.7GHz overclock - There's a limit to what an H60 can do with its single radiator and I've always tried to keep my CPU temps under 75C at all times. Anyway, see how you get on with side panel fans (or window and moved drive-cages) first - that's the cheapest and easiest option.

Out of interest, What sort of voltage are you pushing at those speeds?
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stabgotham
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Re: 600T + H60 Fan Setup

Fri May 02, 2014 9:58 pm

Chrispy_ wrote:
Ah, okay then; that explains a lot. If you're not using four fans in the mesh panel it's actually going to reduce CPU cooling by preventing any case pressure whatsoever, and disrupting the through-flow of cool air from the front of the case. The reduced chimney effect and the disuption of intake-to-exhaust airflow actually means that the air is travelling more slowly through your case, which means it's much warmer when it reaches the H60 radiator.

Fill the panel with four fans, or replace it with the window and do what we've suggested for a positive air-pressure, channeled-airflow system. If you don't fill it with fans you'll just get looping airflow where positive case pressure causes most of the fresh air to leak out of the remaining mesh before it's actually been in contact with any heatsinks.

I also still think you need a beefier watercooler for a 4.7GHz overclock - There's a limit to what an H60 can do with its single radiator and I've always tried to keep my CPU temps under 75C at all times. Anyway, see how you get on with side panel fans (or window and moved drive-cages) first - that's the cheapest and easiest option.

Out of interest, What sort of voltage are you pushing at those speeds?


Hmmm, well it didn't come with a window, and it would seem I'm 1 fan short of filling all the slots on the side panel. Crazy thought here, could I cover the empty fan slot(s) with black tape or something to satisfy the chimney effect?

I'm running 4.7 at 1.45v.
 
Chrispy_
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Re: 600T + H60 Fan Setup

Sat May 03, 2014 6:09 am

stabgotham wrote:
Crazy thought here, could I cover the empty fan slot(s) with black tape or something to satisfy the chimney effect?


Apart from the fact that it doesn't look too pretty, sure; That is one of the oldest tricks in the book. The key thing is to experiment but you want as much of the air coming out of your case to be warm. If you feel cool air coming out anywhere, it's wasted airflow that is just contributing to noise and reducing the effective cooling.

Your 2500K is running at about the temp I'd expect with a single rad and that much voltage - Sure, you can probably reduce temps 10 degrees if you make sure the air hitting the radiator is cooler in the 10 degrees cooler in the first place, but your CPU is probably generating a couple of hundred watts now.
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vargis14
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Re: 600T + H60 Fan Setup

Sat May 03, 2014 7:46 am

Too many fans is never overkill "Knock on wood" I have always used as may fans as my case could hold and in the old days before side panel fans I added a couple 80mm side panel fans to keep my sli vodoo2 cards cool. I have yet to have a component fail ever since the 90's

I believe positive air pressure is the best way to go. With your GPU is when the fans on on high speed and the card exhausts hot air fron the side of the card facing the side panel like my 770 acx cooled classified cards do then you do not want to have youe side panel fans blowing directly onto the side of your video card. It drastically reduces the gpu's cooling ability. This is a moot point if your GPU exhaust its hot air more to the rear and front of your case. Then using the side panel fans to blow directly on your card is fine.

Since with the AIO water coolers that have just the pump over the cpu and no downdraft cpu cooler to cool the VRM's. Side panel fans blowing onto the motherboard VRM's is a very good idea and recommended.

Just because you do not feel Hot air being exhausted out of your case with a lot of fans does not mean it is wasted air, it could just be decreasing the temp of the hot air inside your case. Using a program like speedfan of some other program to monitor all you cpu / gpu temps with different fan configurations is the best way to figure out what fan config works best in your case. All I can say is experiment and find out what works best in your case. As for HDD temps I do not worry about them all that much but mine with a weak 200mm front fan blowing on them keeps them under 40c and that is plenty cool.

Also as you probably noticed water cooler's like your h60 do not throw off much heat like a tower cooler like the hyper 212 for example so it can be setup as a intake system since the air it will add to your box is only warm. My h50 on my Oced 2600k does not throw off much heat at all, it is overdue for replacement after 3.5+ years but I do have mine setup as exhaust and my temps stay below 65c. I had to lower my speeds to 4300+ mhz since it has been a hot spring and I have yet to turn on my AC that will cool the closet that my computer sits in.
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stabgotham
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Re: 600T + H60 Fan Setup

Sat May 03, 2014 10:58 pm

So, today I got fed up and decided to pull of the H60 and take a peek at it. Glad I did. I don't know how, but there was hardly any thermal paste remaining. So I cleaned what was left of it and applied some AS5. Hooked it back up and set the fans as:

Front: 200mm intake
Rear: 2 x 120mm Noctua F-12 push/pull exhaust on H60 radiator
Top: 2 x 120mm Cougar CF-V12HB exhaust
Side: 2 x 120mm Corsair fans intake

I haven't yet taped the remaining two side panel slots, but I am going to. Temps came back down about 10C which I am thrilled with. With a few adjustments, maybe I can get that down a few more. The one thing I do not like about these side fans though is the inability to open the case without having to constantly disconnect them. That and the fact that the wires for those fans pretty much have to just hang loose in the case. Wish there was a better solution for that, but oh well.
 
Chrispy_
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Re: 600T + H60 Fan Setup

Sun May 04, 2014 10:44 am

stabgotham wrote:
The one thing I do not like about these side fans though is the inability to open the case without having to constantly disconnect them. That and the fact that the wires for those fans pretty much have to just hang loose in the case. Wish there was a better solution for that, but oh well.


That's an issue with all side-panel fans, but since the 600T panels sort of hinge at the bottom, your best bet is to buy a load of 3-pin fan cable extensions and tag them somewhere near the bottom of the case.

At least then you have a lot more slack, so you can lay the panel down without disconnecting the fans, and if you do need to disconnect them it's a whole lot easier.
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DPete27
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Re: 600T + H60 Fan Setup

Mon May 05, 2014 9:02 am

vargis14 wrote:
Too many fans is never overkill "Knock on wood"

The law of diminishing return applies to PC cooling also. Sure, adding MOAR FANS! will increase airflow, but at the cost of increased noise. The problem being (much the same as the single vs. push-pull radiator fans) at some point, each successive fan added reduces temps less and less. Additionally, every component in your system doesn't have to run at room temp under full load. Lower temps improve longevity, yes, but again, the law of diminishing return applies.
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