Poor Airflow, Ways to Improve?

[dirkpitt45]

This is the first pc I built, and I was on a rather tight budget at the time. So I choose to just buy a cheaper case (CM Centurion 534). I figured it'd have poorer airflow then the more expensive cases, but a few new fans and a blow hole should solve that.

But they didn't. Got a dremel for xmas, so I cut a nice blowhole on the top. Also bought myself a fan controller, so I can plug in all of my fans (scythe slipstream 1900rpm) at once without the noise being ridiculous.

There's about a 9c difference in temps from having my side panel on, and off. Instead of loads around 42, I get up to 50-51. Not sure why there's such a big difference. I've got a fan infront of my HDD bay blowing in, an 80mm on the side panel blowing in onto the heatsink, a 120mm on the side blowing out, 120mm on top blowing out, and a rear 120mm blowing out too. Along with the kaze 3000 on my heatsink (core contact) blowing through and towards the back.

Air coming out is nice and cool, and under load its just warm. Side panel on, its warm idle, and approaching hot under load, so fans are blowing some of the air out.

Any ideas on how to improve? I don't mind the side panel off, just means I've gotta dust it more and its a bit louder. One thing I was thinking about is replacing some of the side panel with a mesh window maybe? Other then that I'm kinda stumped.

 

[patonb]

You need to figure out what is causing the Heat... cpu or gpu.

It could also be you do not have good air circulation. Make sure theres no wires impeding the air flow into the gpu and up to the cpu.

Look through the wire managment thread and then look vat yours........ can you do better?

 

[dirkpitt45]

Hmm well I'll take a pic today if I get the chance. I've kept wires out of the way of the fans so it should be ok.

As for what heat the comes from, I'll run prime maybe since all my other heat testing was just done with Dragon Age so both the cpu and gpu are loaded there.


Edit: Well after 10min of prime95 I was at 44c, so it must be the gpu that's causing all the extra heat. Makes sense though, since the hot air can't go out the side with the panel on, so it goes up and into the rest of case.

 

[Slaymate]

Try to equalize your airflow. If you have (3) 120mm fans blowing out then you should try to have (3) 120mm fans blowing in.

 

[Harper]

There's about a 9c difference in temps from having my side panel on, and off. Instead of loads around 42, I get up to 50-51. Not sure why there's such a big difference. I've got a fan infront of my HDD bay blowing in, an 80mm on the side panel blowing in onto the heatsink, a 120mm on the side blowing out, 120mm on top blowing out, and a rear 120mm blowing out too. Along with the kaze 3000 on my heatsink (core contact) blowing through and towards the back.

There is your problem. Your side panel fan should be blowing in. Your rear fan should be blowing out.

 

[philbar71]

Try swapping the fan on the top to intake.