Cooler master Gladiator 600

[Beaker920]

Hi all, I've have a cooler master gladiator 600 and I'm unsure on where to put some fans for the best air cooling? It's currently running one exhaust fan 140mm on the top, an intake 120mm on the front, and an exhaust 120mm on the side panel, lower grill. Plus the fan in the power supply. My spec is an asrock motherboard, amd 8 core CPU black edition running at 4ghz, 8 gb of 1600mhz ram, sapphire radeon 280x dual x gpu and a 850w power supply. When playing games my gpu is at about 60 degrees, the gpus fans are pretty quiet but the case fans sound like a jet turbine. Anybody any ideas? Thanks in advance
Ian

 

[rtwjunkie]

I had one of these for 3 years. One of the best cheap cases made. Use that lower side panel for an intake to blow some extra air on the graphics card. Also, replace the front with a 140 mm. It should be quieter and blow even more air in. Also, you should have an upper side opening too. Put some kind of screening material on them. Silverstone makes a great magnetic one you just slap on the side. Put one over both side openings. Also, you didn't mention using a rear 120mm fan?

Welcome to TPU!

 

[Beaker920]

I haven't got a rear fan fitted to it, should I have? I wasn't sure I fitted a rear fan with the top fan if it would mess up the air flow in the case? So it's best to have the side blowing cold air on the graphics card rather than getting the hot air out? Sorry for all the questions, I'm new to this thanks again

 

[rtwjunkie]

Yes, simply because of the location of that side intake. If you wanted to test, try the side with no fans, and covered with screen, you'll find the dust accumulating on the outside, which is the natural flow of air in that case. Which direction is your cpu cooler blowing? to the top or out the back? No, the rear would not hurt airflow. The rear helps exhaust cpu heat, and the upper helps suck front intake air up past the RAM and out the case.

 

[Beaker920]

Er. To the bottom? The CPU sits just under the ceiling fan of the case, and the gpu sits with its fans pointing down, towards the power supply, if that makes sense?

 

[rtwjunkie]

Er. To the bottom? The CPU sits just under the ceiling fan of the case, and the gpu sits with its fans pointing down, towards the power supply, if that makes sense?

No, you don't want to be blowing that hot cpu air down into the case. It's heating up your GPU. Ideally, it should blow out the back, but you can also orient it to blow out the top.

The GPU fan is pointing down, yes, but it is sucking air from the front fan intake and blowing it out the back. Putting an intake on the lower side opening will provide some additional cool air to the cpu to use.

One other thing, is the fan intake on your PSU pointed down? That's my preferred way of doing it, since it sucks in air thru the bottom grill, and exhausts out the back, without contributing to the hot air in the case. It makes it a separate system in the system.

EDIT: 60 degrees is not a bad load temp for a GPU, btw.

 

[Beaker920]

Sorry, I misunderstood your reply about the CPU fan, I'm not sure which way that's blowing, but I was hoping the ceiling fan would suck the heat from it out? The gpu has got two fans on it that blow into the case rather than out the back? The psu is pointing down, it's main fan sucks up from under the computer case.

 

[TRWOV]

I had one of these for about a year before getting my Cosmos Pure. Pretty good case although cable management provisions are somewhat limited but with some work you can get a pretty clean build:

As for the fans, I had them with 3 intakes (front and side) and 2 exhausts (back and top).

 

[rtwjunkie]

Sorry, I misunderstood your reply about the CPU fan, I'm not sure which way that's blowing, but I was hoping the ceiling fan would suck the heat from it out? The gpu has got two fans on it that blow into the case rather than out the back? The psu is pointing down, it's main fan sucks up from under the computer case.

With that GPU, yes, some blows into the case, but it's also blowing out the back...see the GPU exhaust grill? Trust me, those fans are sucking in air and blowing it onto the card. Where is the fan on your cpu cooler? The air will be blowing out the OTHER side.

EDIT: I'm glad you've got your PSU set up that way!

@TRWOV: very nice, clean build!

 

[Beaker920]

It's 60 degrees playing skyrim on max graphics with half a dozen mods. Gpu fans between 40-50%. The CPU has a big silver block on it. How can I tell which way the fan blows?

 

[rtwjunkie]

It's 60 degrees playing skyrim on max graphics with half a dozen mods. Gpu fans between 40-50%. The CPU has a big silver block on it. How can I tell which way the fan blows?

What is your cooler? is it a tower, or does it sit on motherboard? Did you buy it, or did it come with cpu? 60 degrees is fine on GPU. If your cpu cooler is a tower, then the air flow will go from the fan side to the side with no fan. If it sits flat on the motherboard, it's going to blow in a multi-directional pattern accross the motherboard.

Like I mentioned, the front fan can be relaced and will take a 140 mm. I had to slide a TT blue LED in there after I unscrewed and removed the 120mm that came with the case. Then with some careful holding with a finger or two, you can screw in a 140. It will blow alot more air and at less decibels.

 

[Beaker920]

The cooler sits on top of the CPU, I bought it like it, and amd 8350 possibly? It's a black edition 8 core running at 4ghz, purchased about a month ago.

 

[rtwjunkie]

If I recall correctly, that stock cooler has fins, and hot air exits through the fins on both ends. Which direction are the fins pointed? Since it's the stock cooler, that is probably the majority of the noise you are hearing. I'm not exactly sure which aftermarket cooler would be best for that chip, if you want to quiet it, but hopefully you've got a better idea how to set up airflow with that case now!

 

[Beaker920]

Yes I have thank you

 

[rtwjunkie]

Yes I have thank you

No problem! I hope you stick around TPU for awhile! It's a great forum and site.

 

[Beaker920]

It is, it's helped me (and my dad, to be fair) build my computer this far. It started out as this computer case but running an old pentium core duo, and an nvidia 8600 gt, on windows xp. Originally I wanted to replace the graphics card, but in doing so I had to replace the motherboard, processor and the ram. Then I had to upgrade to a new version of windows to play company of heroes 2. Then my power supply died, then my cd drive packed up. So effectively it's had everything replaced baring the case! Now I just need to sort out the cooling how you said and I'm good to go! Thanks again for your help.

 

[rtwjunkie]

You're welcome! At least it sounds like the never-ending series of problems has come to an end! And you've got a new computer built in the process!