Bottom only intake...

[nintendoeats]

Case: Obsidian 550D
Proc: i5-2500k (Stock Clocked)
CPU Cooler: Hyper 212 Plus
PSU: Cooler Master Silent Pro M600
VGA: Radeon 7970
Storage: 2 SSDs and a 4TB HDD

I decided a while back that I was satisfied with my PCs performance. I OC the GPU a bit during high-end games, but I'm happy with everything else at stock (Also my mobo immediately shuts down when I try to OC the processor any amount. Good use of a k part). However, I want it quiet, hence being here. I just swapped out all the 120 mm sleeve bearing case fans with 2 of these. Unfortunately I was mistaken in my belief that the front fans (which I derestricted by removing the top HDD cage) could be swapped for 140mm. I don't know why I thought that, but here we are.

I installed one of the 140mm fans as intake at the bottom of the case and removed the front fans entirely. At the moment that works fine under extended game playing conditions. I have satisfied myself via the "stick a finger into each fan to stop it moving" test that the new fans, cooler and PSU make no appreciable noise even under load. The only sources of noise are the GPU and HDD, which are still louder than I'd like at idle. I can't do anything about the HDD, but I just won one of these for very cheap on ebay. My concern is that once it arrives and I install it, the GPU will be competing with the intake fan as well as circulating hot air up into the CPU cooler. As you can see, the upgraded cooler blows air into the case rather than exhausting it.

I COULD install the 140mm into the side of the case, but that will mean opening it up and removing a substantial amount of sound insulation. Or I could reinstall one of the stock 120mm fans.

My budget at this point is "try to avoid spending any more money". I realize that bottom intakes are not popular, but I'm thinking that with a stock clocked, mid-range powered chip it might be enough. What would you do?

[CA_Steve]

Welcome to SPCR.

The sad truth is the blower style cooler on OEM gfx card designs expels just a small portion of your card's 250W-ish heat load. I'd expect your CPU load temp to go up a couple of degrees, but your GPU temps should drop significantly as well as be much quieter. You may hear the CPU cooler's fan after this swap, but you might not need to do anything more with case fans. Better to try the swap first and see how it works out.

[nintendoeats]

Interesting, I figured it would be exhausting at least 50% of the hot air. That being the case, I'll stick with this until it doesn't work. I may have to change strategies in summer, but the only way to find out is to try. Thanks!

[xan_user]

with no fan(s) in front, some of the air from the bottom intake is going directly out the front, without removing much heat. might want to try blocking off the abandoned intake(s).

[CA_Steve]

Interesting, I figured it would be exhausting at least 50% of the hot air.

Sure, back when gfx cards were <100W.