TR Forums

Hi,
What kind of cooling setup would you recommend for this case? https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product. ... -_-Product

I want to have good cooling for 2 GPUs. (Above PSU)

Fan areas


Now I have 3 fans like this


It's running OK, But it looks like I'll have very hot summer and I might have to run GPS's (1060 & 1070(don't ask ), and later maybe changed to 2x 1070) on large loads for a long stretches and just to be safe I was thinking of adding more 120mm fans. But I'm not sure how to plan airflow for that.

Thanks in advance.

I'm not an expert but you really want to provide negative pressure. Ideally you want twice as much exhaust as intake.

Given the case design I'd likely put fans in position 5/6 as exhaust. I might block the side panel areas 1/2 but you'd need to test and see what's better since that depends on location as well.

Edit: You're also going to want a dust filter for the front panel (as well as any other intake point).

Honestly, cleanliness and good cable management are the biggest contributors to good cooling. After that just make sure you have static pressure fans between the drive cages and front case intakes. After that, your best help cooling is going to come from the fans/blowers on the cards and how your have them clocked. You may wish to download afterburner and set the temp threshold lower. I also suggest downloading Speccy and use it to monitor internal case temps and address issues where they arise.

If you want to keep GPUs cool, the best place for a fan(s) to be is on the side panel/window.

I think your current 3 fan setup is good. If you're going to add another fan, I'd fill the second mount on the window. Is that your actual case?

Generally most people prefer positive air "pressure" (more intake than exhaust) because you can catch dust in fan filters. If you have negative case "pressure", then air will be sucked in through any/every crack/hole in the case. Fan filters can still help since there's more airflow through those areas, but you'll get more dust build-up than positive case "pressure".

"Pressure" in quotes because air seeps in/out pretty easily. Just look at that nice mesh above the expansion slots in the pics above! Open fan mounts are another easy entry/exit.

Thanks, yes this is the case.
Yes based on mesh filters I think the case manufacturer intended for airflow to come from top two fan slots and front fan slot, and go out of window and back fans.
But I'm not sure how good that setup would be.

ehh, no. Better to go in through the window and out through the top.

IMO and how my similar case is set up: 1, 2, and 3 set to intake; 4, 5, and 6 set as exhaust. Hopefully there's also a fan spot above #3, which should also be intake.

You want the freshest air coming in over the GPUs as they are the biggest heat output, as well as usually exhausting back into the case (which I despise). You also want a steady wall of fresh air coming in from as much of the front as possible, to push the stagnant air out and over to the CPU. Over the CPU area it should be all exhaust as that is where all the hot air will collect. If possible, all intake fans should have a filter over them to keep the majority of the dust out of the heat sinks on the CPU and GPUs.

If you keep filters on all the intake fans, IMO you should also attempt to keep the case positive pressure, as it will keep dust from sneaking in all the unguarded openings in the case.

That case is less than ideal for dual-GPU setups but it's possible as long as you're aware that some of the intakes will be unfiltered so you'll need to clean dust out regularly.

Approximately equal pressure will give you the highest cycling of air through the case, so use 1, 2, & 3 as intakes and 4, 5, & 6 as exhausts. The PSU should be flipped fan-down to take it out of the case airflow equation.

In terms of CPU cooling, what are you using? Tower cooler should probably be pointed up-down rather than front-back orientation to help with the general chimney-effect of hot air flowing up. If there's no room between the CPU fan and the back of the top GPU, then you'll have to run it front-to-back instead. If you have a down-blowing cooler like the intel stock cooler, it may be worth fashioning a duct out of some soda bottle PVC and a hot-melt glue gun to get fresh air from intake number 1 straight to your CPU fan without the hot air from coming up from the GPUs mixing into the intake of the CPU cooler.

Before you spend money on three extra fans, it might be worth considering a case swap for something that has more space for filtered front intake fans. Carbide SPEC cases seem pretty good for airflow on the cheap, two filtered 140mm fans should be good for GPU cooling. You won't have cooling problems with your current 3-intake, 3-exhuast arrangement, but you'll get the full noise of the GPUs. A different case without fans or vents right on top of the GPUs should keep the noise levels lower and keep the dust out better in the long term.

DPete27 wrote:

ehh, no. Better to go in through the window and out through the top.

That's correct. Hellwalker, in your newest drawing, the front fan won't be able to do anything. Air would mostly come from the top of the case and exhaust through the window, leaving a dead spot by your drives.

It's not just about pressure, although that's important. You also want to consider the airflow - you're going to want to encourage lower-front to upper-back, and any flows that interrupt that will stop some areas of the case from getting any cooling.

Chrispy_ wrote:

get fresh air from intake number 1 straight to your CPU fan

If he's GPU folding/mining then it's probably better to let the GPUs feed from intake 1. It looks like half the air from that fan would spill over the top of the first GPU anyway and go directly to the CPU.
The cooler you keep the GPUs, the cooler the air that the CPU is breathing. There's enough exhaust in 4,5,6 that there shouldn't be much stagnant air around the CPU.

DPete27 wrote:

If he's GPU folding/mining then it's probably better to let the GPUs feed from intake 1. It looks like half the air from that fan would spill over the top of the first GPU anyway and go directly to the CPU.

Nah, if you look at the top window fan location it is directly over the CPU socket and won't interact with the top GPU at all.

In most motherboards, the top PCIe slot is actually the second slot down in the case (for socket cooler clearance reasons) and then the side panel is pictured lower than it will be when it's screwed on. Ducting is only really going to be worth it if the CPU temps turn out to be high, but I think it'll probably be fine as it is. The two GPUs are going to be fed entirely by the front fan (diffused through the drive cage) and the lower window fan which is well placed for open-style coolers, not so great for blower-style coolers with intakes at the front end of the card.

Knowing exactly what model of GPU cards would help as well, because there's a big difference in cooling behavior depending on the card's heatsink design.

This depends a lot on what you're trying to prioritize. For instance, since my graphics card should have about half the useful life of my other components, I don't prioritize cooling of my card itself so much as keeping its heat from bothering any other components. Also, how dusty your environment is and how much noise is acceptable will be big variables. I don't think this setup is going to be very good at dust prevention without more work, and that's a lot of money in graphics cards, so I'll assume we're trying to prioritize cooling for the cards themselves and dust isn't a big deal.

Given that and GPUs with vertical fins, I think I'd focus on getting exhausts in both the side panel mounts. With lengthwise fins on the cards, maybe change that to an intake in the low side panel mount and lots of exhausts further up.

My typical rules for case fans is intake low, exhaust high, filter intakes, and more intake volume than exhaust.
Based on the picture i would go in on the sides and front. That gives the drives and gpu and cpu fresh air with the back and top going out.

Vhalidictes wrote:

I'm not an expert but you really want to provide negative pressure. Ideally you want twice as much exhaust as intake.

Reverse that thought. You want more *intake* than exhaust to create positive pressure. Negative pressure gets you a dusty case pretty quickly.

Thanks for the great suggestions!
I have a stock cooler for i5 6500. I'll probably upgrade to something like Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO in a month or two.

For cards I already have (it was the only one in stock with decent price at that time) Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1060 WINDFORCE OC 6G

and For GTX 1070 I'm still reading up on that, I want to buy something in range of $400 but have to read reviews on heat/power consumption.
Initially my thoughts are GTX 1070 GAMING X 8G or Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1070 G1 (Can't order from Newegg from Europe)
I think there is no need to go for the most top tier cards with $440~$450 as most GTX 1070 seem to be solidly built.

Noise is not that much of an issue, I'd rather keep temps low.
Right now the 1060 is at 77c 65% fans under heavy load. But with temps rising in summer and addition of 1070 heat I want to give GPU's more cooling.

Have your researched dual card setup? No one recommends it anymore. Unless you have a specific app in mind that specifically has support for it.

GTX 1070 for around $400? GTX 1080 is easily 30% better than 1070, $400 + 30% is $520. You can easily get GTX 1080 for $500.

Save money wasted on new fans and cooler ($70+) and sell the GTX 1060 ($150?) and you're more on your way to a 1080 ti actually and less heat issues.

Not sure your exact scenario, but dual 1070s might be held back by i5 also.