need help with air flow

[jeremy96gase]

My proc was running 40°C at idle before I started this little project. Stock Fans on the (2) front, and (1) back + (2) entex 80mm LED fans on the side.

My video card was not getting enough cooling and was helping to freeze my system, so I desided to cut a couple of 120mm holes and isntall Entermax fans. One on the side where the Video card is and one on the top to exhaust.
While I was at it upgraded my 80mm entex and 80mm rear fan to Entermax 80mm while I was at it.
Now the Video card is cooler but the CPU is running at 53°C.

So I need help in choosing what direction these fans are to blow in.
Curranly the
Side 120mm, both side 80mm, both front 80mm are Intake.
Top 120mm and rear 80mm are Exhaust. PSU is also exhaust.

Attached are the pics

 

[jeremy96gase]

WinXP SP1 with all the updates.
P4 3.00GHz HT @ 3.04
MSI NEO 875P board
OZ PC400 2x512=1024MB
ATI Radeon 9800XT
(2) WD Raptor 10,000rpm 36GB SATA in Raid 0
(2) Maxtor 7200rpm 120GB SATA in Raid 1
21.3" Samsung FP (I love this thing!)
19" NEC Flat display CRT
MSI 8X DVD+RW
Lan Li PC-62 Alum case
Creative 5.1 Live
logitech z640 speakers
Logitec 500 Corded mouse
MS Natural Multimedia Keyboard
Modded Xbox Controler
Rat Padz mouse pad
Old school Intel webcam
Lexmark Z52 printer, Kyocera FS-1010 Laser Printer, HP 7400 Scanner, Sony V-1 camera,
UV cathodes with front mounted rocker 0/1 switch, 5 intake, 2 exhaust, antex True 430w, Custom cut window.

 

[Meck]

Yeah you should have more exhausts. If i were you I would make the side 120mm fan an exhaust.

Also take some smoke and keep the fans on... see which way the smoke flows... then accordingly see which ways the air flows and fix the fns.

 

[cheerios]

Just chuck that damned thing out of the window

 

[Monster00]

i think anywhere near the CPU fan, it should be a exhaust. So like on the side, it should be exhaust, and like the fan nearest to the CPU, i guess the rear.. make that a exhaust. Also, make the 2 front ones intake. make the rest of the fans intake.

 

[jeremy96gase]

System temp is running between 30-34°C.

I'll try the smoke trick, and turn some of the fans around. See if that works.

 

[Shrapnill]

As a general rule of thumb, I recommend 2 exhaust for every intake.

Now, I understand your need for GPU cooling, but theres really no point in pumping ambient temp air into a hot PC. You want active air on the GPU and hot air removal basically everywhere else.

I gotta admit man- you have one of the STRANGEST fan layouts Ive ever seen. If I had your PC heres what I would do:

1 fan in front set to intake
2 fans in rear set to exhaust
1 fan on top set to exhaust
2 GPU area fans set to intake (I guess... the second one is honestly pointless, and probably bad for airflow)

and that fan near the HDDs? Um... I spose I would set it to exhaust, but honestly dont see the point of that one either.

Is that sound card in the lowest available PCI slot? If not, move it as low as it can go.


To be totally honest, your cooling setup is kinda fubard in my book. People will probably disagree, but with all the odd placement of fans (2 side and the HDD one?) youre probably disrupting proper airflow and creating more holes than you need to.

 

[jeremy96gase]

Sharpnill,
Thanks for your imput. If my stuff is fubar then I need to know.

 

[Ry-box]

P4 3.00GHz HT @ 3.04

I had the same problem

everyone I know who has that CPU has had over heating problems. Are you using the stock heatsink and that blasted "heat pad" that comes with it. If you are... rip that sh*t the fu*k out of there.

My Idle temp was 43C the first time I turned my box on. After I reconfigured my fans and got a new heatsink and cpu fan. My Idle is 29C and the case 26C, under stress is now 41C.