HAF 932 cooling

[moocow0463]

wondering what i should/can do to keep my gpu's a bit cooler heres what i got going on right now im wondering if i should invest in an aftermarket cooling setup for them or arrange some fans in different ways add a fan etc, my cpu stays cool eve while OC'd but the corssfire gpus put out a ton of heat

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/824/cpucooling.png/

 

[Relyt]

My system over all stays cool but I'm also having problems with heat for my gpu (just being picky really )

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=160917

 

[Yo_Wattup]

I have mine setup vastly different than your proposed config, moocow. I have the left fan in your pic (rear of case) bringing cool air in, the bottom fan bring cool air onto the gpu, bottom right fan (front of case) bringing cool air in, and top fans pushing the hot air out.

Remember thermodynamics - heat rises. So it's generally good to have your air flow go from bottom to top, whereas you seem to have it the other way round.

 

[Crazykenny]

Doesn't the HAF932 have the option to place 4x 120mm fans on the sidepanel or one big 230mm? I mean yeah, crossfire is gonna put out allot of heat but if you point some fans on it atleast the temps will be a bit more managable.

Otherwise (if you crossfire cable allows it) put a bit more room between the videocards so you give them more room to breath. I used to run crossfire 5870's and they got hot as well when I used the regular crossfire bridge. I decided to but a extended bridge and put a empty PCI-E slot between them. Gave them more room to breath and dropped my GPU temps by almost 15-20c.

Cheap-o solution; just point some cheap ass 120mm fans on those puppies.

 

[micropage7]

better the lower fan you make it as intake fan but you need to add filter cos the lower fan sometimes drag more dust

 

[moocow0463]

Doesn't the HAF932 have the option to place 4x 120mm fans on the sidepanel or one big 230mm? I mean yeah, crossfire is gonna put out allot of heat but if you point some fans on it atleast the temps will be a bit more managable.

Otherwise (if you crossfire cable allows it) put a bit more room between the videocards so you give them more room to breath. I used to run crossfire 5870's and they got hot as well when I used the regular crossfire bridge. I decided to but a extended bridge and put a empty PCI-E slot between them. Gave them more room to breath and dropped my GPU temps by almost 15-20c.

Cheap-o solution; just point some cheap ass 120mm fans on those puppies.

i have a 180 mm side panel as an intake fan glowing directly on the gpu, maybe ill switch a few around see if i cant dump the hot air out the top rather then the bottom that way its not having to force hot air down. i have 1 pci slot between the 2 cards (i only have 3 pci slots and 2 are for crossfire)

 

[Norton]

Your drawing shows the PSU on the Top.... Haf 932 in your sig has the PSU on the bottom

Fan config:
Front and bottom- intakes
Top and rear- exhausts

Notes/questions:
- 4890's run hot so you may not be able to do too much about them- 2 of them just makes it worse
- Your Haf has an air channel guide for your GPU's. Is this maximized (i.e. clean flow of air from front thru GPU's to the rear?
- Check cooler master web page and/or reviews of your case for guidance on the side fan setup.

My $0.02

 

[moocow0463]

i double checked fan direction last night i must of had a brain fart my bottom fan is pulling in cold air not exhausting. the HAF 932 has the option for top or bottom mount PSU mine is in the top as my psu cables arent quite long enough for a bottom mount. nothin is obstructing the cards air flow. im just worried that the main card is going to get too hot as per most x fire setups it generates the most heat and work load. im really considering upgrading my cards but the 2 4890s perform so well without spending $400 on a card nothing really will give a noticeable performance gain

 

[Norton]

i double checked fan direction last night i must of had a brain fart my bottom fan is pulling in cold air not exhausting. the HAF 932 has the option for top or bottom mount PSU mine is in the top as my psu cables arent quite long enough for a bottom mount. nothin is obstructing the cards air flow. im just worried that the main card is going to get too hot as per most x fire setups it generates the most heat and work load. im really considering upgrading my cards but the 2 4890s perform so well without spending $400 on a card nothing really will give a noticeable performance gain

Are those stock type 4890's? It's possible that the cooler fins are dust clogged... try taking the covers off and blowing them out.

The spacing on that board looks OK, is there good spacing between the cards or do you have another card plugged in between them?

The only other suggestion I have is to hang a fan behind the cards to help cool them/move more air over them.

 

[moocow0463]

ok thanks ill try a few things :S. i have a small firewire card plugged in but its very low profile it doesnt even block the fans. its pretty clean inside i air dust every so often in there

 

[Yo_Wattup]

i double checked fan direction last night i must of had a brain fart my bottom fan is pulling in cold air not exhausting. the HAF 932 has the option for top or bottom mount PSU mine is in the top as my psu cables arent quite long enough for a bottom mount. nothin is obstructing the cards air flow. im just worried that the main card is going to get too hot as per most x fire setups it generates the most heat and work load. im really considering upgrading my cards but the 2 4890s perform so well without spending $400 on a card nothing really will give a noticeable performance gain

You you have 4 intake fans and 1 exhaust fan? thats a terribly inefficient setup.

 

[THE_EGG]

You you have 4 intake fans and 1 exhaust fan? thats a terribly inefficient setup.

I wouldn't say inefficient. For example Silverstone's FT02 has 3X 180mm intake fans on the bottom and 1X 120mm exhaust fan on the top. In most reviews i've seen it matches or surpasses the HAF X in terms of cooling and its WAY quieter. Also having more intake fans than exhaust fans means that the case will have a positive air pressure inside and that means less dust.

 

[mastrdrver]

I have all the fans moving air just how Cooler Master set them up. The big difference I've messed with and noticed is pulling in cool air from the side fan. It dumps it right on the cards. Without it, the temps increase about 10C or so.

I also have my CPU heat sink pushing air out the top, but with the PSU up top like you do idk how much it would help as my PSU is on the bottom.

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

I ran almost exactly your setup. I had a Q9550 and 2 4890's. I ran a bottom, front intake, and a rear, top exhaust. I exchanged all the fans in my 932 with Yate Loon High Speed's 120mm.

So I had 1 YL on the bottom as intake, 4 YL Side intake on the side panel blowing right on the GPU's, 1 YL rear exhaust, 3 YL top exhaust, a push pull on my Thermalright 120 blowing right out the exhaust on the rear, and left the front stock CoolerMaster big ass fan as intake over the harddrives. This served me well, although the system was pretty damn loud and I had 2 Rhobeus Sunbeams controlling the fanspeeds. My temps were outstanding for the OC I had while being on air, but if you run something similar you may be pleased.

I'd recommend something quieter than Yate Loons though, you really don't need to push much air with the ridiculous amount of fans that I had.

Edit: Also, I had my PSU on the bottom.

Edit 2: This let me have a comfortable 4.0Ghz cpu clock, and 970c on gpu's.

*That 970c is supposed to be 970mhz core clock on the gpu's not 970 degrees C!!

 

[mastrdrver]

Edit 2: This let me have a comfortable 4.0Ghz cpu clock, and 970c on gpu's.

970c!

 

[Tatty_Two]

Mine also is setup different, I work on the theory hot air rises so my top 230mm fan extracts, my side panel 230mm blows cold in, my front 230mm blows cold in, I have an extra 120mm sat at the front amongst the HDD bays blowing cold in, I have a 120mm mounted with filter on the bottom blowing cold in and lastly a 120mm at the back extracting, my theory..... cold from the bottom and mid, hot out from the top since thats where the hot air is going anyways.

I ran two HD6950's with Gelid Icy Vision aftermarket coolers that do not extract all the hot air out of the case and my temps still remained low.

 

[micropage7]

I work on the theory hot air rises so my top 230mm fan extracts,

yeah thats why most cases put their psu on the bottom, beside of gravity the hot air would rise so you gonna find most cases place big fans on top, so front or bottom or side is intake and rear and top as exhaust

 

[moocow0463]

im looking into buying 5x120mm fans to replace the stock side panel fan as it doesnt push much air at all, this will blow air right onto the cards, and the 5th fan exhaust out the top of the case and i have a smaller fan laying around in another case i have ill put on the back of my hdd rail to blow directly onto the vrm. im not sure adding the top exhaust fan will actually help too much with the heat sink facing out the back might be worth turning the heat sink facing upward

 

[mastrdrver]

im looking into buying 5x120mm fans to replace the stock side panel fan as it doesnt push much air at all, this will blow air right onto the cards, and the 5th fan exhaust out the top of the case and i have a smaller fan laying around in another case i have ill put on the back of my hdd rail to blow directly onto the vrm. im not sure adding the top exhaust fan will actually help too much with the heat sink facing out the back might be worth turning the heat sink facing upwardhttp://desmond.imageshack.us/Himg846/scaled.php?server=846&filename=cpucooling.png&res=medium

Bad idea. You'll get more noise with little, if any, noticeable improvement.

I smoked my 932 once because I was bored. You don't need a side fan that forces air in to the video cards as the fans on the cards themselves draw in mostly what is pushed through that side fan anyway.

If the bottom card is in the last 2 slots then it get some, but can be helped with a fan at the bottom blowing up in to it. I've personally seen a difference when doing that.

edit: What are your temps like?

I don't see it mentioned anyway in this thread but you want to improve. Hard to know where we're going if we don't know where we're starting from. Also you say that you keep the case clean. Clean case does not mean that dust is not in the video cards maybe hampering cooler though without temps it's even hard to say if that is the case or not.

 

[moocow0463]

so i played around a bit today with psu placement fant placement etc, with the psu on the bottom the big 180mm fan doesnt fit, also the psu is very close to the 2nd psu nearly blocking airflow. im only able to fit 2 60mm fans in the bottom, with the 180mm fan exhausting at the top or as a second intake fan. core temps are a few degrees higher which isnt an issue at all, gpu temps at idle are about the same on gpu2 but gpu 1 is 5 degrees cooler.

my processor temps are fine never over 70 degrees, how ever my gpu temps gpu 1 gets as hot as 94 degrees and once that happens gpu2 raises to over 100 and performance drops begin to happen.

 

[mastrdrver]

I would get a can of air and blow it through the cards. Those are really high temps even for a 4890.

Also how does the 180mm fan you have not fit with the PSU on the bottom? Do you have the 180 on the bottom?

What do you mean by "the psu is very close to the 2nd psu nearly blocking airflow"? Do you have 2 PSU on the bottom????

Do you have a side fan at all?

 

[moocow0463]

i just moved the psu to the bottom today to see how it fits, it fits very close to the cards. and when i moved the psu to the bottom it made it so the 180mm wouldnt fit on the bottom where it was before, the cards seem to do much better with this setup tho. gpu-2 still reaches over 90 degrees how ever gpu-1 never got over 70. so im thinking maybe keep the fans setup this way move the psu back to the top to give the 2nd card more room to breath ?

 

[mastrdrver]

I do not think you've ever answer the question if you still have the side fan or not?

That does make a difference.

 

[moocow0463]

oh i didnt see that question, and yes its on the side still as an intake fan, as it came from the factory

 

[mastrdrver]

Then clean the cards out. Sounds like the top one may have some dust in it.