What would be the optimal fan placement be?

I am trying to cool my computer down a little. I am a little uncomfortable with my Vid card temps being above 70c. Not much above, but above none the less.

My HDD usually reaches 50c and my CPU is in the 40s and 50s Celsius range.

I have moved the wires around and have gotten them out of the way as much as I could. Right now as I am typing this, my GPU is 53c, HDD is 45c and CPU is 33c. Just so you know, it's roughly 60 degrees in here right now as we have the AC on.

The way my fans are set-up now is I have two blowing in from the back, one blowing on the GPU that was included with the GPU heat sink (stock), one blowing in on the CPU heat sink that was included with the heat sink as well (stock), the one fan on the side of the case blowing the hot air out and the one blowing air in on the PSU from the air inside the case.

I have put arctic silver on both the GPU and CPU heat sinks. I believe they are the 85mm fans.

Should I turn the ones that are blowing in from the back around and have them blowing out and turn the one on the side around so that it's blowing air in?

 

Yes

That will be far more efficient. Might also want to put ont blowing IN at the front of your case.


Meit

 

I went and tried it anyway. Figured I wasn't going to be doing anything graphics intensive, so there was no real danger of doing it.

Results are that the HDD went down 2c, but the GPU went up 5c and everything else stayed the same.

There is no area where there would be airflow for a fan in the front. It was a nice idea, but not one that would work.

I think just on the GPU going up alone, I will have to change it back to the way it was.

 

What kind of case do you have? Most of them have a place for a front fan. I hope your ambient temp is 60F!

One way to see if you need more/better fans in your computer it to take off the side panel and let a fan blow into it. If it is a LOT cooler, look into getting more fans, or finding a way to increase airflow. In the past, I have been guilty of putting too much AS5 on my chips, the correct amount dropped the temps 4 or 5C.

E

 

http://www.heatsink-guide.com/

give that a read

 

Ok here are some basics: you want to pull as much air into the case as you are ushing out. EX) one 80mm in the side pulling in air, then you have one pulling air out (PSU exhaust fans are generally 80mm and work fine for this) You said u have 2 other exhaust fans; you should have at least one (preferably a big one, 120mm if possible) in the front pulling air in.

Before i optimized my case airflow my case temp was 90-100F ambient. This was with no intake fan on the front, only on the side and one exhaust fan +the psu fan. When i added JUST ONE 120mm intake fan on the front it dropped my ambient temps to 60-80F. Someone drew a good pic a while back, ill see if i can find it

 

Souds to me it might be time to break out some power tools! It would be helpful to know what case you have. A couple of pics could be helpful also. Adding fans isn't hard at all. You just need some basic tools and a little imagination. heres a couple of cases I've done recently:
4000 series Pressario faceplate before

After

The chassis itself

After

I'm not sure what case this is but here is the rear before

After
I forgot to take a pic of the front before but here is the after

If you have questions just ask. Be glad to try and help you out, Bailey

 

Here are some pics.

http://pic2.picturetrail.com/VOL1003/4124089/16379738/251185958.jpg

Please remember I said I tried to get the wires out of the way as much as possible.

http://pic2.picturetrail.com/VOL1003/4124089/16379738/251185960.jpg

The front panel has no where to make a hole. I was wrong about the panel inside not having air holes, it does, but from what I can tell, putting a fan in there wouldn't do anything since the fan would have no where to draw air from with the front panel being solid.

http://pic2.picturetrail.com/VOL1003/4124089/16379738/251185961.jpg

http://pic2.picturetrail.com/VOL1003/4124089/16379738/251185962.jpg

The one above and below is of the metal panel. Right behind that is where my power and reset button sit and teh front panel.

http://pic2.picturetrail.com/VOL1003/4124089/16379738/251185965.jpg

Do you want more pictures?

 

My case has a grill below the front cover (between the feet)
which is where the front case fan is meant to draw air from.

You can also get pci slot fans, which are great for removing hot air from the graphics card

 

Since I last posted, I went out and bought 2 more 80mm fans, put two fans for the front intakes, top two spots, and turned everything around again... lol.

So I have the two front doing intake duty, the side doing intake and 2 80mm in the rear as outputs. The PSU is also somewhat of an output fan, but the fan, a 120mm is on the bottom of the PSU, pushing air through the PSU itself.

Right now, as I am typing this, temps are as follows according to Everest:

Motherboard 32c, CPU 30c, GPU 56c and the HDD at 28-30c.

The most marked improvement would be the HDD. The GPU is still higher, so I may just turn everything back around the way I had it, but teh difference being the two intake fans in the front.

Or is the GPU idling at 56c not all that bad? Under load it's in the 70c degree range going towards 80c.

 

my GPU temps are pretty much the same, i wouldnt worry about it

 

I think with a little more work on those cables the temps might come down a tad bit more.IMHO heres some pics of the inside of the second cases inside. The layout is almost identical to your.
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y109/pitrunner29/100_0278.jpg
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y109/pitrunner29/100_0285.jpg
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y109/pitrunner29/100_0282.jpg
As yu can see the layout is pretty darn close. Just use some imagination and zip ties and see what happens. You might even find it nesicerry to add a little wire to a few things. GL, Bailey.