Question Airflow question (new build)

[richprice79]

Good morning,

I am working on a new build for my daughter and want to make sure I get the air flow right. It will have a ryzen 7600x and RTX 4070. I am assuming I would have the top fans pulling air into the case, and the bottom and rear fans pulling out of the case. Can you confirm that based on the pics below? I purchased pretty much the same setup as pictured.

 

[Tech Junky]

Heat rises.

Pull from the front and bottom and push through the top and back.

 

[richprice79]

Heat rises.

Pull from the front and bottom and push through the top and back.

Thanks for the quick response I am glad i asked. I was worried the gfx card fans would fight the bottom fans.

 

[Tech Junky]

Feeding additional cool air from the bottom should help push any exhaust up and out. Either way though these gpus will be like a space heater sitting in the case.

From playing with dual rx580 setup they're hard to keep everything cool. Even setting fans at 70% kept the temps up across different components. If I kept that setup I would have focused cooling on the GPU and tried to find some sort of water block solution. The exchange though of electricity vs cooling didn't make sense to keep pumping the GPUs at 100% for mining.

The fans / blower should be sucking air from the right to left or in through the fans. The issue with the fans on GPUs tend to be not enough exhaust or intake to push enough air through the shroud. I did take it apart and put fresh paste on them and got the temps down a slight bit but, with lack of space they just kept warmer than ideal.

With a 4070 though I suspect you'll likely come to a high temp throttle over extended use under load. Maybe they have a better design now but, any GPU seems to have issues with optimum cooling. If I were venturing into this sort of thing again I would get rid of the paste and use graphite pads like I am now on my laptop and server. Paste just tends to fail to provide adequate cooling transfer over time where the pads don't.

 

[BoomerD]

Feeding additional cool air from the bottom should help push any exhaust up and out. Either way though these gpus will be like a space heater sitting in the case.

From playing with dual rx580 setup they're hard to keep everything cool. Even setting fans at 70% kept the temps up across different components. If I kept that setup I would have focused cooling on the GPU and tried to find some sort of water block solution. The exchange though of electricity vs cooling didn't make sense to keep pumping the GPUs at 100% for mining.

The fans / blower should be sucking air from the right to left or in through the fans. The issue with the fans on GPUs tend to be not enough exhaust or intake to push enough air through the shroud. I did take it apart and put fresh paste on them and got the temps down a slight bit but, with lack of space they just kept warmer than ideal.

With a 4070 though I suspect you'll likely come to a high temp throttle over extended use under load. Maybe they have a better design now but, any GPU seems to have issues with optimum cooling. If I were venturing into this sort of thing again I would get rid of the paste and use graphite pads like I am now on my laptop and server. Paste just tends to fail to provide adequate cooling transfer over time where the pads don't.

At this point, I'm about to try a bit of paste with the graphite pad. Since installing it a couple of months ago, my CPU temps have gone up by several degrees. (in fairness, I moved the radiator for the AIO to the top of the case from the front at the same time...so I really don't know which one is the cause of the temp increase)
it's entirely possible I don't have the graphite pad quite right on the CPU...but so far, I'm not impressed.

 

[Tech Junky]

The graphite is sometimes hard to keep in place without some tacky substance. A dab of paste to hold it should be fine maybe on the corner just to hold it there.

On my laptop it was easier than on the desktop due to accessibility. On the laptop the CPU has the potential of throttling but the GPU maxed out at 70C with the graphite which is amazing considering the lack of space and airflow. Both systems are using 12700 and the laptop is running a 3060.

Once it's in place you should see decent results. The graphite works a. It different than paste in terms of heating up and triggering the fans. It doesn't trigger them as quickly but under sustained load it levels out better.

 

[aigomorla]

Heat rises.

Pull from the front and bottom and push through the top and back.

no not when you have a radiator sitting up top.
Always pull fresh air though the radiator... Always...

So you want the fans to pull air from the top though the radiator and then down into the case.

Have the fans on the bottom feed the GPU.
So you want those as pull also so the GPU And the Fans do not fight for air.

Have the rear exhaust.

Do not worry about the positive pressure the system may cause, as its almost impossible to have a noticeable effect unless you start sealing the PC case up with window sealer.

The only yellow flag i have that you can't fix is the location of the PSU.
It seems like the PSU is sent to blow up top, which is right next to your radiators intake.
If under heavy load, and the PSU is pumping air out, it could effect your CPU temps.

But its not enough to warrant a red flag, or having your radiators blow out air.
Also having the radiator pull air will make cleaning a lot easier for you, as you don't have fans in the way to clean the intake on the radiator.

 

[aigomorla]

At this point, I'm about to try a bit of paste with the graphite pad. Since installing it a couple of months ago, my CPU temps have gone up by several degrees. (in fairness, I moved the radiator for the AIO to the top of the case from the front at the same time...so I really don't know which one is the cause of the temp increase)
it's entirely possible I don't have the graphite pad quite right on the CPU...but so far, I'm not impressed.

graphite pad is bad.... i only use it on my servers where i can't control anything.
But i really recommend paste for most applications where CPU temp is sensitive, especially when it can effect your boosting profile.

And graphite pad is a big nono on direct die, or GPU's in general.

You would think its awesome because graphite pad has a insane X axis heat transfer... meaning the tiny heat spot on the ihs is spread out all over the pad, but most heatsinks are designed to focus on the center anyhow, and are slightly bowed on top.

 

[BoomerD]

The graphite is sometimes hard to keep in place without some tacky substance. A dab of paste to hold it should be fine maybe on the corner just to hold it there.

On my laptop it was easier than on the desktop due to accessibility. On the laptop the CPU has the potential of throttling but the GPU maxed out at 70C with the graphite which is amazing considering the lack of space and airflow. Both systems are using 12700 and the laptop is running a 3060.

Once it's in place you should see decent results. The graphite works a. It different than paste in terms of heating up and triggering the fans. It doesn't trigger them as quickly but under sustained load it levels out better.

I have new fans being delivered this weekend. It will be easiest if I remove the radiator to install them...good time to pull the pump and see what's what with the graphite pad.

 

[mikeymikec]

Presumably those bottom fans will have dust filters; don't get me wrong, dust filters are a good thing, but having to get to the bottom of the case to do what ought to be a 30-second job with a vacuum cleaner is going to make the chore somewhat more arduous than it ought to be.

 

[aigomorla]

see what's what with the graphite pad.

Is it the thermogrizly or the Innovative Cooling or some brand i never heard of?

If its the thermogrizzly, you will probably see a oily residue, or i hear it has a oily residue even tho its a graphite pad.
If its a IC, then it will look exactly like how you installed it.
I would try to pull the heatsink off slowly to see where exactly on the IHS it was sitting at.

 

[BoomerD]

Is it the thermogrizly or the Innovative Cooling or some brand i never heard of?

If its the thermogrizzly, you will probably see a oily residue, or i hear it has a oily residue even tho its a graphite pad.
If its a IC, then it will look exactly like how you installed it.
I would try to pull the heatsink off slowly to see where exactly on the IHS it was sitting at.

Yep.IC pad. I'll attempt to remove the pump without dislodging the pad. I hope, even if it moves, I SHOULD be able to see some marks where it was on the chip.

 

[Tech Junky]

marks where it was on the chip.

It's not going to leave marks like paste. Take your time in removing the cooler to see where it's sitting if it's centered or skewed off to one side. Or just rip things apart as normal and put a dab of something in the center of the CPU to hold it in place and put it back together.

 

[BoomerD]

It's not going to leave marks like paste. Take your time in removing the cooler to see where it's sitting if it's centered or skewed off to one side. Or just rip things apart as normal and put a dab of something in the center of the CPU to hold it in place and put it back together.

Nah, I meant something like a crease or other mark on the pad

 

[Tech Junky]

Nah, I meant something like a crease or other mark on the pad

Ahh.... well, there shouldn't be that either. If there is then it crinkled when placing the cooler onto it. They don't tend to do this though as they're more likely to just blow out of the way or slide off the CPU at the slightest tilt. I haven't tried to fold them though but can size them with a fingernail across the edge of the dies and then cut to fit with a blade.

Take some photos if there's anything interesting going on other than it just not being centered.

 

[BoomerD]

Ahh.... well, there shouldn't be that either. If there is then it crinkled when placing the cooler onto it. They don't tend to do this though as they're more likely to just blow out of the way or slide off the CPU at the slightest tilt. I haven't tried to fold them though but can size them with a fingernail across the edge of the dies and then cut to fit with a blade.

Take some photos if there's anything interesting going on other than it just not being centered.

The graphite pad actually looked pretty good.

I put a small amount of paste on the CPU to hold the pad in place, reassembled it.

Temps still aren't what I'd expect them to be...this pic was taken about 10 minutes after rebooting:

Granted, they're not "set my PC on fire, but with only the basics of cold booting, they seem a bit higher than they SHOULD be. I'm actually beginning to wonder if the Thermalright contact frame is preventing the pump base from making solid contact with the CPU.

 

[Tech Junky]

Thermalright contact frame is preventing the pump base from making solid contact with the CPU.

That might be a possibility.

 

[Tech Junky]

Here's what I'm seeing on my 12700K - Server


12700H - Laptop


Noticeably different due to the casing and cooling between an ATX case and a laptop. The pad does a good job keeping the GPU in the laptop under 70C though under load. I can get the temps down on the laptop CPU by killing some processes but, this is with normal things open like Chrome w/ tabs and minimal fans running.

Laptops are a bit more difficult to deal with since the heat sink runs from side to side and pulls heat from both CPU/GPU w/o isolating them.


Running the fans at 100% drops the temps by 20C+ with all of the same stuff open as before. but I don't tend to run them at 5K RPM's just for the sake of a chilly CPU / GPU. So, there's some factors that play into how things tie together and the results of the pad vs paste.