Fan advice! Please :)

[flurgina]

Hi guys, I'm new to cooling systems, I've read around the forums a little bit, but I have a couple general cooling questions

1) What is the advantage of connecting the fan to the MOBO over PSU? I believe I've heard RPM control through MOBO, but would that imply that a PSU always runs fans at full RPMs?
2) I have this MOBO (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813131837) that only has a few chasis fan connectors, but between slots on my case & CPU cooler, I'd like to run 7 120mm fans and 1 200mm fan. Is it possible to connect them all to the MOBO? Will there be a power concern? What is the best adapater to buy, and will it support controlling the RPMs on all of them?
3) I have this case (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6811139005). For intake, I am planning on putting a 200mm in the front, 4 120mm on the side. For exhaust, I am planning on putting 2 120mm on the top and 1 120mm on the rear (with my h60 (I know it's not the best cpu cooler) radiator attached). Would anyone recommend a different intake/exhaust setup? Would it be worthwhile to sandwich the h60 radiator between 2 120mm fans, both blowing out?
4) I plan on buying these fans:
7x http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... id=1092328
1x Some 200mm (Not sure which yet)
It seems the 120mm are quiet enough & moves a decent amount of air. Any suggestions on different 120mm or a good 200mm? I know the 200mm cannot be very thick, haven't measured yet, but I had bought one in the past that was too thick to fit in the front 200mm fan slot.

Any information is appreciated, I'm excited to see how much I can reduce my temps! Currently my i5-3670k is running at 72c while under game stress, as my cooling sucks, and I believe the fan that game with the h60 is failing. So, whatever happens I'll come back with my before & after HWMTemperature logs.

Thanks All!

[CA_Steve]

Welcome to SPCR.

- A PSU will only run the fan at 12V unless it's one of the rare PSUs that specifically has a fan controller built in (there was one mfgr that did this for a while...)
- Your Asus mobo can control 3-pin voltage controlled fans. You can always hook up a fan splitter to it...but 7 fans? What are the other components in the case?
- Your CPU temp of 77C is a little high, but ok. Are you overvolting/overclocking?

[flurgina]

72 is the top end, 69 is closer to the average. I'm not overclocking, I believe my airflow is terrible at the moment & my h60 is in a "pull" configuration at the moment.

I did more searching online, it seems like the 4 side fans may not be necessary. In which case, I'd have the following setup:
Intake:
1x 200mm in front
Exhaust:
2x 120mm on top
1x 120mm in back

I'm also considering switching to a 212+ (On sale for 16 at the moment) rather than sticking with the H60, as apparently the H60 sucks without a pull/push configuration.

[CA_Steve]

The only reason to add more fans to the case is because you have a lot of other heat sources...are there big video cards in there, too? If so, which?

With the H60 running ~20C hotter than it should, it's more likely that the CPU heatsink isn't mounted well
- have you tried remounting it?
- Does the TIM pattern look good (no thick paste in center, no fractal/snowflake pattern, just a barely discernable thin layer)?

Is the fan hooked up to the mobo cpu header or something else?

[quest_for_silence]

Is it possible to connect them all to the MOBO?

Just with a combination of PWM fans and a PWM splitter.

Will there be a power concern?

Not mandatorily.

What is the best adapater to buy, and will it support controlling the RPMs on all of them?

The question is ill-formed, IMO.

Would anyone recommend a different intake/exhaust setup?

It depends of the graphics used.

Would it be worthwhile to sandwich the h60 radiator between 2 120mm fans, both blowing out?

Quietness-wise, no. Performance-wise, more probably that not, neither: IMO the H60 is a real underdog (even if your load temps may seem suspicious, although you didn't specify the fan rotational speed).

4) I plan on buying these fans:
7x http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... id=1092328

Forget them.

1x Some 200mm (Not sure which yet)

Why?

It seems the 120mm are quiet enough & moves a decent amount of air. Any suggestions on different 120mm or a good 200mm?

IME there are no good 200mm fan, noise-wise.
About which 120mm ones, it depends of the graphics and personal priorities.

I'd have the following setup:
Intake:
1x 200mm in front
Exhaust:
2x 120mm on top
1x 120mm in back

The setup depends of hardware, case placement and personal priorities (quietness, cooling, aesthetics, whatever).

I'm also considering switching to a 212+ (On sale for 16 at the moment) rather than sticking with the H60, as apparently the H60 sucks without a pull/push configuration.

You will gain something, although not that much, at least at low-to-mid rotational speeds. It should be quieter, indeed.

[flurgina]

quest_for_silence voted least helpful answer of 2014.

[xan_user]

voted least helpful answer of 2014.

I like turtles!











. . . who's the 2014 front runner now?

[Pappnaas]

quest_for_silence voted least helpful answer of 2014.

For someone coming into here looking for help and advice, i think this is a rather bold statement. If you want to have spoon fed knowledge, hire a PC expert and pay the asked price.

[quest_for_silence]

quest_for_silence voted least helpful answer of 2014.

Sorry, any nomination by any blatherskite will not be accepted.

[Abula]

1) What is the advantage of connecting the fan to the MOBO over PSU? I believe I've heard RPM control through MOBO, but would that imply that a PSU always runs fans at full RPMs?

Control in some cases. On the PSU direct from a molex they will get 12V, that will make them run a full rpms. You can get an external fan controller that will allow you vary this or even in line resistors 7V/5V, but i prefer a motherboard.

2) I have this MOBO (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813131837) that only has a few chasis fan connectors, but between slots on my case & CPU cooler, I'd like to run 7 120mm fans and 1 200mm fan. Is it possible to connect them all to the MOBO? Will there be a power concern? What is the best adapater to buy, and will it support controlling the RPMs on all of them?

I believe that on ivy bridge is where Asus started to get better into fanXpert, that said there were some value models that were not supported or didnt support everything... so you first task is to install Asus AI Suite, grab the latest from the Asus website (do not used the cd), and connect the CPU fan to CPU_FAN header and a case fan CHA_FAN1 or 2 or 3. Run fanXpert and search for tuning option, and see if it runs a test that as result kinda calibrates the fan speeds, but you can vary them depending on your personal liking, but do run the tuning, as you will se the minimum rpms for each fan. If this doesn't work, check the bios, under monitor or or Q-fan or fan control, on the CPU fan you should have minimum threshold for the PWM and the temp, from what i remember 2 values for each, like min max, i think for the CPU_fan it was 20% minimum on ivy bridge motherboards. If neither work or are not to you liking, just grab a external fan controller, Scythe and Lamptron make some of the best ones.

3) I have this case (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6811139005). For intake, I am planning on putting a 200mm in the front, 4 120mm on the side. For exhaust, I am planning on putting 2 120mm on the top and 1 120mm on the rear (with my h60 (I know it's not the best cpu cooler) radiator attached). Would anyone recommend a different intake/exhaust setup? Would it be worthwhile to sandwich the h60 radiator between 2 120mm fans, both blowing out?

We have fans mostly because computer components tend to heat, and without adding front he fans/heatsinks components will not run or they will be crippled, or in the worst case they will cease to operate, that said not always more fans means better, there are deminshing returns upon certain number where you barely gain temperature decrease but you are increasing the noise, this is different for every setup, and cant be taken as a rule, but its best for each user to test this on their own pc once the components are installed. Read the following article that should give you some more information on this, Bit-Tech The Big Air Cooling Investigation

4) I plan on buying these fans:
7x http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... id=1092328
1x Some 200mm (Not sure which yet)
It seems the 120mm are quiet enough & moves a decent amount of air. Any suggestions on different 120mm

Get the cougar if you going for looks, some people like a lot their orange/black contrast... i personally dont care much for appearances more interested on tonality and control of the fans, where cougar is subpar. Read SPCR fan roundups there are at least 7 that evaluate fans, one of the latest that imo tests a lot of the best fans in the market is SPCR Fan Roundup #6: Scythe, Noiseblocker, Antec, Nexus, Thermalright, 3 of the fans reviewed there are worth considering, Noiseblocker M12-S1/2, Scythe Gentle Typhoon and Nexus Basic 120, all three fans are imo very good tonally and perform good. the only other fan that i personally like thats worth considering is Nocuta NF-S12A or the NF-S12B REDUX (if you are not into noctua colors).

With the above said, the most important thing before choosing the fans is how you going to control them, so first check your motherboard, see what options you have, i prefer a lot PWM fan over 3pin specially noctua out of their range of control, but if i my motherboard didn't allow what i can do with PWM, i would probably be with 3pin Nexus Basic or Scythe Gentle Typhoons and an external fan controller. Another thing you need to check is weather you can control on all the motherboard headers, in asus motherboards its recommend to use 3pin on CHA_FAn headers and on the CPU_FAn header to use a PWM fan.

a good 200mm? I know the 200mm cannot be very thick, haven't measured yet, but I had bought one in the past that was too thick to fit in the front 200mm fan slot.

Hard to recommend 200mm fans, there are very few options on the market, to what i remember there is one from Antec but very specfic to thier cases, there is one from Bitfenix that its used on their Prodigy series, and the Phantek 200mm that i seen recently with the release of the Phantek Entho Pro, i have no experience with either so its hard to say which is better and if there is one worth buying... I would recommend to avoid it, but if you have to get one, i would probably go with Phantek, as its a 850rpm, if it works decently and allows undervotling maybe it can be drop to where its inaudible... but all this are big IFs.. Noctua on the other hand also is working on a 200mm fan that should come before years end, has been presented in CES among other shows... Noctua displays new series of fans and coolers at Computex 2014

Good luck with the choices,

[flurgina]

I appreciate the time you put into your answer, Abula. Thanks for pointing me toward some good resources & recommendations!