Heat issue after video card upgrade (Antec P180 case)

[Zorander]

Hi all,

I recently upgraded my system and am encountering heat-related issue. The below is my current spec, housed in the Antec P180:

Intel Core i7-860 (Prolimatech Megahalem fanless)
ASUS P7P55 D-E
Corsair 2x4GB DDR3 RAM
MSI Radeon R6970 Lightning
Crucial M4 128GB & WD Caviar Green 1.5TB
Corsair HX620 PSU

My current cooling arrangement is: A Noctua S12B-FLX is installed at spot 1 (as exhaust) and spot 2 is completely unoccupied (no fan installed but not blocked either). The Megahalem on the CPU is aligned so that its wider side faces the top vent (to maximise cooling by convection from the top vent). Aside from the video card and PSU fans, no other fans are installed in the case. Storage drives are all installed in the bottom chamber.

The R6970 is a recent upgrade to the system. I previously used a Sapphire HD5850 and this cooling arrangement has proven effective even with the video card overclocked. However, this is not the case with the new card. Unless I take the side panel off, the system tends to crash when anything stresses the GPU. I have so far installed another Noctua S12 at spot 4 (as intake) and removed the drive cage (also because the 31cm-long card required it) but it's still not effective. I suspect there are heat spots trapped somewhere along the video card.

There are a few possibilities to the fan arrangement I am thinking of trying:
1) Fans installed at spots 1 & 2 (as exhaust) and spot 4 (as intake)
2) Fans installed at spots 1 & 4 (as exhaust) and spot 2 (as intake)
3) Fans installed at spot 1 (as exhaust), spot 4 (as intake) and on the Megahalem bottom side (blowing vertically up towards the top vent)

I would appreciate your input on this and if there are more effective/other possible fan arrangements I can try to combat this issue.

Thanks.

[Arbutus]

If your problem is the GPU overheating then, as an experiment:

- run a benchmark suite and record the temperatures
- put a fan at spot 4, block spot 1, leave spot 2 fanless and leave out the expansion slot filler plates
- re-run the benchmark suite and record the temperatures

Have fun.
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Antec P180 spcr_edition Case, Athlon II X4 640, Scythe NINJA, ASUS M2A-VM HDMI, OCZ Solid 3 120 GByte SSD, 500 GB FXD, WinXP

[cmthomson]

That GPU is dumping almost twice as much heat into your system as the CPU, and worse, dumping it at the bottom of the system, cooking everything else.

You're probably going to have to rethink the whole approach.

First, your stock P180 has only one fan-sized inlet (spot 4) to deal with over 300W of heat, which isn't enough at any reasonable fan speed. You need more inlet cross-section. Consider a Kama Bay or other inlet above spot 4, where the 5.25" bays are located. Even with that, you will likely need two outlet fans.

Second, consider separating the GPU and CPU air flows with a baffle above the GPU (take out the PCI blanks to provide an exit for the GPU air flow). This can be made from cardboard or any other stiff material.

Take a look at my old article on SPCR, "Superquiet Superclocked" for a step-by-step of how to make a P180 system more efficient at cooling a 300+W system.

[Arbutus]

...you will likely need two outlet fans...

I also think that you will likely need two outlet fans. If I were to add a GPU to my system I would add a second outlet fan at the expansion card area. Provided that the bottom 5 expansion slots are not in use it is easy to add a 92mm fan.

The parts required are:
- 1 92mm fan
- 2 92mm Wire Fan Guards
- 8 Case Fan Screws

Install the fan to the chassis by:
- removing the bottom 5 expansion slot covers
- mount 1 of the safety grills to the outlet side of the fan
- clamp the inlet side of the fan to the outside of the chassis by sandwiching the chassis between the fan and the second safety grill

[jimdoe]

Hey Zorander,

I noticed you have your i7 passive cooled by the Megahalem. Are the temps good on it? What is your idle temp, and temp under load?

I'm considering in passive cooling the i7 2600K on my new build, either by the Megahalem, or the HR-02 by Thermalright.

[Zorander]

I have so far found an effective (but non-quiet) solution.

In addition to the existing exhaust at spot 1, I added another Noctua exhaust at spot 2. This is connected to the CPU fan connector on the MB which somehow keeps the fan running at full speed (1200rpm). There is noticable air turbulence noise but the system is stable even when playing Crysis 2 with the side panels closed. IIRC, both CPU and GPU temps never even went past 70C (with the panels off, the max temps are around 65-67C). Using a fan at spot 4 has not been very effective IME, whether as exhaust or intake.

I'm going to try reducing the fan speed at spot 2 via resistor method and I might keep an intake/exhaust fan at spot 4 to compensate for the reduced air flow. It's obvious now there is heat build-up around the graphic card (its very large dimension blocks a lot of heat) and it needs help in moving them away. There is a PCI soundcard populating the bottom-most slot so I can't install a fan around that area.

@jimdoe, it depends on how good an airflow you can get around the heatsink. In the P180, the Megahalem is located a few cm away from the exhaust fan and there is an open fan slot right above it (where cool air theoretically flows down, through the HS, by convection). Prior to this video card upgrade, I got around 30-35C at idle, 55-60C at load. The extra heat from the new GPU is adding anywhere between 5-10C to my temps but, as I mentioned above, it's nothing extra cooling can't take care of.

Regards.

[Arbutus]

With an exhaust fan at spot 1 and a hole at spot 2 you probably had no air coming in at spot 4 and now you do.

[Blood]

1) Instead of a exhaust at at spot2, you might want to move that to the HSF, it's far more effective in cooling the CPU there and moving the noise source deeper in the case.

2) I notice you have a P180. The intake (spot 4) is covered by a plastic door that severely blocks air flow. You would need to mod that door before its even remotely effective as an intake(I think there's a sticky on it). The best way to cool a graphic card is to add intake. I have bios flashed 6950 OCed running in a modded P180 like that just fin (CPU is not fanless, but I do have a lot more gear taking up space and restricting airflow).

Steven

[cmthomson]

It never occurred to me that you would still have the stock covers on the intake. They have to go! Some folks like to mod them by cutting away the thin parts, but I advocate complete removal. This is easy: pop open the covers, then squeeze the top part of the hinges. You will still have filtered air (a good thing) without the excessive resistance of those covers.

[Zorander]

Hi,

I should really attempt that front fan intake mod but have not got around to it.

Anyway, I'm still having heat-related issue, which gets worse with increasing GPU load. I suspect, despite the front intake fan blowing at the GPU (however small the airflow is), there remains little to no air movement along the card length. According to GPU-Z, one point (which I suspect is the VRM) reaches approx 70-75C (20C higher than the CPU) with moderate load.

I believe having a side panel fan will help greatly but the P180 has no such bracket (and I'm not going to attempt modding it). I'm therefore looking at a new case to succeed the P180, with the (hopefully) simple criteria of: 1) similar or better thermal & acoustic performance, 2) able to accommodate the 11.5in-long card and 3) with a side panel fan bracket. At a quick glance, the Fractal Design R3 seems suitable though I don't know if it fulfills requirement (2).

I would appreciate your input on this, on a good replacement case and/or if the P180 is salvageable in my case.

Thanks.

[flemeister]

According to GPU-Z, one point (which I suspect is the VRM) reaches approx 70-75C (20C higher than the CPU) with moderate load.

That's perfectly fine.

[Zorander]

According to GPU-Z, one point (which I suspect is the VRM) reaches approx 70-75C (20C higher than the CPU) with moderate load.

That's perfectly fine.

If everything was at the same 70C temp, I'd consider it fine. However, it is 10C hotter than the other parts on the card (and 20C above the passively-cooled CPU, which receives some heat from below). That indicates some hotspot and the crashes at load are pretty indicative. I think the average temperature does not rise high enough for the fans to start going faster but that hotspot is in trouble enough to crash the system by then. Having more airflow around the card should help but my current cooling arrangement is not effective enough.

I'll try to take a photo tonight. Perhaps someone will spot something that can help. In the meantime, keep the case recommendations coming.

Cheers!

[flemeister]

As a temporary solution, try playing a game with the side panel off, and perhaps also a fan blowing air onto the video card. Just stick it to the floor of the top chamber with blu-tack. That'll provide plenty of airflow to the card, and hopefully stop the crashes.

Although I still find it hard to believe that 75c is hot for a video card. I was running 2x passively cooled 5770's in Crossfire with the GPUs at ~90c and the VRMs probably close to 100c. And then before that an old 8400GS with the GPU up at 100c in games due to a crappy aluminium heatsink. Absolutely no stability issues in either case.

Have you tried running another game, or Unigine Heaven to make sure that it's not just a driver issue?

[Scrooge]

Just out of curiosity, can you please describe exactly how the crash goes? My experience with graphics card heat issues is that it tends to freeze the graphics with the sound looping or introduce graphical artifacts. What's your doing?

[Zorander]

Just out of curiosity, can you please describe exactly how the crash goes? My experience with graphics card heat issues is that it tends to freeze the graphics with the sound looping or introduce graphical artifacts. What's your doing?

It's quite exactly like you described. Just prior to the crash, the screen will display a static, incorrigible image (nothing recognizable or even resembling the game) and a few seconds later, the sound will start looping. Same goes with media playback (which I configured with MadVR rendered which stresses the GPU quite a bit).

I made a sort of funnel in the case that channels more air towards the GPU. It seems to be helping though I'm not currently playing a game that stresses the GPU that much (Dead Space).