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Re: Silently Air Cooling an H440 effectively: trying and fai

Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2014 12:53 pm
by quest_for_silence
xan_user wrote:id try just try 3 exhaust, no intake. or 3 intake, no exhaust.
How about flipping a coin? Sorry, I couldn't resist. :wink:

Re: Silently Air Cooling an H440 effectively: trying and fai

Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2014 2:28 pm
by Abula
Personally i just dislike only exhaust, this was makes the setup grab air where ever there are holes, like PSU backs, PCIe covers, 5.25 covers... even side pannels, i prefer always positive preassure, else the dust buildup is so fast...

Re: Silently Air Cooling an H440 effectively: trying and fai

Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2014 12:14 am
by lodestar
According to NZXT the H in H440 stands for Hush, although the consensus on the web seems to be that it really means Hardly any airflow. At least one owner of this case decreased CPU temperatures by 10 to 12C simply by taking the top off. The top AIUI is quite deep, deep enough to fit fans on the outside of the main body of the case. So given the lack of air outlets on this top it seems to be that it's acting as a sort of an air duct. So one configuration would be to use the position nearest the front as an exhaust, block the middle fan position and use the rear fan slot as an inlet. This in theory would give a flow of air from the cooler area at the front of the case to more or less directly where the CPU cooler is. Like many cases the rear top fan position is quite close to the rear exhaust so there is a possibility of short circuiting. However in practice the CPU cooler blocks most of the route between the two, especially when as this instance it is the Be Quiet Dark Rock Pro 3 which is quite a large unit. Keeping the existing inlet fans at the front should help in this configuration.

But given that the single 140mm exhaust at the back is the only fan with a clear outlet path it might help for this to have as high a maximum speed as can be tolerated. Higher speed 3 pin 140mm fans like the Noiseblocker PK-3 will also give quite a high idle even at 6v and more so at 7V. So a PWM fan can be a better option in this situation, particularly in the UK where the cost of the PK-3 is only a couple of pounds less than the Noctua industrialPPC fans.

Re: Silently Air Cooling an H440 effectively: trying and fai

Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2014 9:38 am
by xan_user
quest_for_silence wrote:
xan_user wrote:id try just try 3 exhaust, no intake. or 3 intake, no exhaust.
How about flipping a coin? Sorry, I couldn't resist. :wink:
i meant cut the fan count in half. by all means flip a coin as to which you like, positive or negative airflow. push/pull set ups never made sense to me, at least not from a silencing standpoint.

Re: Silently Air Cooling an H440 effectively: trying and fai

Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2014 1:34 pm
by quest_for_silence
xan_user wrote:push/pull set ups never made sense to me, at least not from a silencing standpoint.

In my builds I more than once tried sort of "full positive pressure" setup with no exhaust: it never worked well (at least, in ATX enclosures).

Re: Silently Air Cooling an H440 effectively: trying and fai

Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2014 11:28 pm
by Pappnaas
i second the thoughts of push/pull being nonsense for silent computing. The trick was not to pick a case with intake restrictions in order to allow free air flow and just use some exhaust fan.

As to the OP, i guess you should ditch the 440 and get some case that isn't suffocating on the intake. Just for testings sake, you could remove all front fans and the front plate, use one exhaust on top and one on the back and check temps and noise.

If you find that temps and noise are good, then change your case.

Re: Silently Air Cooling an H440 effectively: trying and fai

Posted: Mon Feb 09, 2015 1:52 pm
by djubre7
Well, hello everyone. I'm sorry for necro-threading, if this is indeed it, but I came upon this forum by looking for this exact information, and having the same problems, I think it's better to continue with the existing thread than creating the same one again. Perhaps we can still make some fresh conclusions

My system since a couple of days ago is this:

- Case: NZXT H440 (stock fan configuration)
- MB: MSI X99 SLI Plus
- CPU: i7 5820k
- CPU Cooler: Coler Master Nepton 280L
- Memory: 4x4GB DDR4 Kingston Predator 2400 MHz CL12
- SSD: Samsung 850 Pro
- HDD: 3TB WD Red

Components I already had:

PSU: Corsair TX750
Graphics: Sapphire Radeon 6870
HDD1: 1TB Hitachi
HDD2: 640GB WD

The problem I encountered was that my idle temps for the CPU was around 35-40° C! I first thought that the 280L was faulty, so I brought the issue to the Cm official forum. I wouldn't like to copy the entire thread, you can find it here http://community.coolermaster.com/index ... mp-issues/.

Basically, after a LOT of messing around the setup is now as follows:

- Front: 3x NZXT FN120 v2 (stock) (intake)
- Top: 2x CM JetFlo 140 Nepton 280L fans (stock) (exhaust) (~1100 RPMs, pump spinning at ~4800 RPMs)
- HDD Bay: Noctua NF-P12 blowing cold air all over the graphic card and out the openings in the lower back
- Back: 1x NZXT FN140 v2 (stock) (intake) (with air filter)

The temps were brought down by almost 8° C, so in idle the CPU is now around 31° C. Now, this kind of air exchange near the top of the case, where JetFlo's are taking the air from the back intake, makes a strange kind of noise, namely like a WWII air raid far away. So I still have some work to do around this, and I would appreciate your suggestions - maybe replacing the fans, slowing them down, I don't know...

Thank you in advance.