Case fans upgrade worth it?

Status
Not open for further replies.
depakjan

depakjan

Contributor
Hi All,

I want to know if the good case fans can really bring the temps down, I have an ANT 511mt cabinet I know its not the best of cases but still it came up with 4 fans pre installed and relatively cheap, I have already undervolted my CPU and GPU, temps are ok but as I usually play in 4k , GPU utilization is almost always 100% and in worst cases my GPU temps can hit 77 , 78 , I was wondering if upgrading the case fans can reduces the temps by 5 or 6 c

The preinstalled fans are running at 1200 rpm all the time as far as I know, I don't usually care about the noise

is this something I should consider?
 
depends on how many slots you have and do you want to replace the existing one? also of what CFM value the fan has. The higher the CFM and it better air it moves. also, 5 to 6 degrees is possible.
 
Even the metal quality of the cabinet matters. Cheaper brands usually have low quality metal which might also contribute towards heating now matter how efficiently cooling is planned.
 
1. Firstly, 78 deg C is absolutely fine, no need to worry.

2. Do you have front radiator, back radiator? AIO or tower cooler or down draft cooler ? Vertically mounted GPU? Blower graphics card, or regular ? Dusty case or filters or GPU?

3. Unlikely that fan replacement will help. While every case is different, I've seen testing results of 2 cases, and performed test on my own, and one common conclusion is that there are rapidly diminishing results for more than 2 case fans. With 4, you are deep in that diminishing returns territory. But of course, case and fan positions matter.

4. If you have a tower cooler, you can turn it so as to point its air downwards towards GPU. Mounting top fans to intake would better cool horizontally mounted GPU. To deal with resulting high pressure, you can turn off one or two front fans, otherwise you'll need high static pressure fans.

One plan that costs zero money is to move topmost front fan as top intake fan and test temperatures.

5. To test whether different fans in existing positions will help : if you have 3 front fans, try disconnecting 1 front fan at a time and do stress test and compare temperature. I guess temperatures will not rise much in all 3 cases. You can safely assume that if removal of front airflow by 1 fan is increasing temperature by X degrees, increase of airflow by all 3 33% stronger fans will decrease the temperature by less than X degrees.

6. In fact running the fans slower, or even having fewer fans, has the advantage that over time dust accumulation will be lower. So if the fans are not PWM, get PWM fans. And adjust the fan curve such that they run fast only when temperatures are high.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: depakjan
princeoo7 said:
depends on how many slots you have and do you want to replace the existing one? also of what CFM value the fan has. The higher the CFM and it better air it moves. also, 5 to 6 degrees is possible.
Click to expand...
Currently i have 3 in the front and 1 in the back, 3 intake and 1 out , i think they are 38 CFM, i want to replace the fans

kiran6680 said:
1. Firstly, 78 deg C is absolutely fine, no need to worry.

2. Do you have front radiator, back radiator? AIO or tower cooler or down draft cooler ? Vertically mounted GPU? Blower graphics card, or regular ? Dusty case or filters or GPU?

3. Unlikely that fan replacement will help. While every case is different, I've seen testing results of 2 cases, and performed test on my own, and one common conclusion is that there are rapidly diminishing results for more than 2 case fans. With 4, you are deep in that diminishing returns territory. But of course, case and fan positions matter.

4. If you have a tower cooler, you can turn it so as to point its air downwards towards GPU. Mounting top fans to intake would better cool horizontally mounted GPU. To deal with resulting high pressure, you can turn off one or two front fans, otherwise you'll need high static pressure fans.

One plan that costs zero money is to move topmost front fan as top intake fan and test temperatures.

5. To test whether different fans in existing positions will help : if you have 3 front fans, try disconnecting 1 front fan at a time and do stress test and compare temperature. I guess temperatures will not rise much in all 3 cases. You can safely assume that if removal of front airflow by 1 fan is increasing temperature by X degrees, increase of airflow by all 3 33% stronger fans will decrease the temperature by less than X degrees.

6. In fact running the fans slower, or even having fewer fans, has the advantage that over time dust accumulation will be lower. So if the fans are not PWM, get PWM fans. And adjust the fan curve such that they run fast only when temperatures are high.
Click to expand...
No radiator, have deepcool gammex 400 v2 for the cpu , 2 fan GPU , not vertical, no dust cleaning every week. i already tried deepcool rf 120 fans and tried different combinations on the top of the case, like
5 intake (3 front , 2 top) , 1 out in the back
4 intake (3 front , 1 top), 1 out in the top and 1 in the back
3 intake , 2 out in the top and 1 in the back

none of the above helped me for the GPU as I don't push my CPU not worried about CPU temps, i did not try to replace all the case fans with deepcool ones so thats why i am thinking maybe i should try to replace all my case fans with some other quality fans and see if that helps
 
depakjan said:
Currently i have 3 in the front and 1 in the back, 3 intake and 1 out , i think they are 38 CFM, i want to replace the fans


No radiator, have deepcool gammex 400 v2 for the cpu , 2 fan GPU , not vertical, no dust cleaning every week. i already tried deepcool rf 120 fans and tried different combinations on the top of the case, like
5 intake (3 front , 2 top) , 1 out in the back
4 intake (3 front , 1 top), 1 out in the top and 1 in the back
3 intake , 2 out in the top and 1 in the back

none of the above helped me for the GPU as I don't push my CPU not worried about CPU temps, i did not try to replace all the case fans with deepcool ones so thats why i am thinking maybe i should try to replace all my case fans with some other quality fans and see if that helps
Click to expand...
If you have added more fans and yet temperatures didn't improve much, it is even more unlikely that just an upgrade to fans will make any difference. Top intake is the style most beneficial to GPU temperatures in typical setups. Most likely your GPU is in a temperature range (idle - load) which is typical for its model number, and case airflow is not what is stopping it from lowering temperature. If it is higher, it could be more likely be due to 2 reasons :

1. High ambient temperatures
2. Caking of dust on GPU heatsink / PCB of GPU. Thermal paste of GPU might also need a reapplication.
 
Could you share the below info?
1. How often do you clean your case (incl. GPU)?
2. What's the ambient temp?
3. The GPU model

Sharing my temps for reference, ambient 30c. I'm using Ryzen 5600x with Deepcool AS500 and MSI 1060. The CPU idles at 42 and goes upto 78 on load. The GPU idles mid 40 to 70 on full load. I have a front, top, side and rear fan.
 
I clean every 2 weeks not deep clean just on the surface , use a plain cloth and wipe it. gpu is Gigabyte eagle vision OC, ambient temps are indeed very high around 30c. idle temps are 40 to 41.
 
depakjan said:
I clean every 2 weeks not deep clean just on the surface , use a plain cloth and wipe it. gpu is Gigabyte eagle vision OC, ambient temps are indeed very high around 30c. idle temps are 40 to 41.
Click to expand...
I can't find any gigabyte eagle vision OC, and there are many gigabyte eagle OC graphics cards : 3050, 3060ti, 3080 etc. The normal temperatures people are noticing on the cards will depend a lot on the exact variant. You could just Google with your exact card name, and it is likely you'll find reports of temperatures.

Cold countries report more, on an average, so you could add around 5-7 degree Celsius for your high ambient temperatures.
 
Ah sorry it seems i have forgotteb to wirte the model, it is 3060ti , i do know that the temp of 78 is not that concerning , i just wanted to understand if upgrading the case fans could reduce the temps to future proof myself.
 
depakjan said:
Ah sorry it seems i have forgotteb to wirte the model, it is 3060ti , i do know that the temp of 78 is not that concerning , i just wanted to understand if upgrading the case fans could reduce the temps to future proof myself.
Click to expand...
not by much. diminishing returns and all that..
 
  • Like
Reactions: depakjan
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom