Ideas for air cooling my PC

Doug13

New member
Here is my build first off http://pcpartpicker.com/p/wzgcgs

As you can see I DO have an H100i as the cpu cooler but since that is only a closed loop cooler and i'm not doing anything else with water I figured this would be the better spot to post.

Any way I am worried about cooling my PC I have the Enthoo Luxe chosen because I hear it has good cooling capacities and good fans already in it.

How would you recommend I place my H100i and the fans in my case for optimal cooling capabilities.

Also if needed I can buy more fans/change the case (but I really like the light system).
Im also NOT worried about noise


Thanks!

(also before anyone says anything I already have a 256GB samsung EVO so you don't need to recommend I buy one haha)

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Also if you dont think I need the H100i I can change it
 
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That's very close to my build in the Luxe mate, Iv'e gone for the XFX R9 290's in Crossfire though.

All I've done is changed the front 200 mm stock fan for a pair of Corsair SP 120 white LED fans, Also I'm doing a custom CPU loop, for now, until I get some more cash for GPU blocks, and have gone with a 360 rad up top, so with the H100i I'd change the fans out, and whilst you buying fans get a 140 for the back, and a filter, and have it on intake, so the front 2 and rear 1 on intake and the 2, or 4 on the top rad as exhaust.
 
Here is my build first off http://pcpartpicker.com/p/wzgcgs

As you can see I DO have an H100i as the cpu cooler but since that is only a closed loop cooler and i'm not doing anything else with water I figured this would be the better spot to post.

Any way I am worried about cooling my PC I have the Enthoo Luxe chosen because I hear it has good cooling capacities and good fans already in it.

How would you recommend I place my H100i and the fans in my case for optimal cooling capabilities.

Also if needed I can buy more fans/change the case (but I really like the light system).
Im also NOT worried about noise


Thanks!

(also before anyone says anything I already have a 256GB samsung EVO so you don't need to recommend I buy one haha)

8gb of Ram isn't enough! get minimum 16gb. I chew through 8gb without breaking a sweat.

As for the H100i, they are great little units if you don't intend to do a custom loop.

also you haven't stated the types of activities this rig will generally be for? Are you going to be OC'ing?
 
I am just gonna do Gaming (no video editing or rendering). I am only gonna OC the CPU but not over 4 Ghz

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That's very close to my build in the Luxe mate, Iv'e gone for the XFX R9 290's in Crossfire though.

All I've done is changed the front 200 mm stock fan for a pair of Corsair SP 120 white LED fans, Also I'm doing a custom CPU loop, for now, until I get some more cash for GPU blocks, and have gone with a 360 rad up top, so with the H100i I'd change the fans out, and whilst you buying fans get a 140 for the back, and a filter, and have it on intake, so the front 2 and rear 1 on intake and the 2, or 4 on the top rad as exhaust.



How many fans should I buy in total and what brand (I don't want LED ones because I am going to buy the LED strips that phantek makes that plug into the LEd control). Also how should I set up the fans I find your description kind of confusing sorry (I'm a newb).
 
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good static pressure fans for the radiator. and airflow fans for the case.
il let the others recommend which because if i did it, you would end up with a loud pc that looks like it was thrown together out bits you found in a drawer as i would simply go for the most CF and static pressure, and wouldn't give a hoot about the aesthetics.
 
Haha I'm not worried about loudness but I think it should look decent

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I just realized in my build it said I was buying 2 h100i's haha Im not

Also I think 8GB is enough for just gaming considering I have 3 GB of ram in my current computer and I can play all games fine (My 3 4GB sticks stopped working and I have been forced to steal 3 1GB ddr2 sticks from my bros computer haha)



Also just for giggles how much better will my build do then my current one:
Current:
Sapphire 7970 Ghz GPU
Intel 960 3.2 GHz
MSI X58M motherboard
3 GB ddr 2 RAM
 
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I just realized in my build it said I was buying 2 h100i's haha Im not

Also I think 8GB is enough for just gaming considering I have 3 GB of ram in my current computer and I can play all games fine (My 3 4GB sticks stopped working and I have been forced to steal 3 1GB ddr2 sticks from my bros computer haha)



Also just for giggles how much better will my build do then my current one:
Current:
Sapphire 7970 Ghz GPU
Intel 960 3.2 GHz
MSI X58M motherboard
3 GB ddr 2 RAM

i7 960 uses DDR3 Ram ;)
The memory controller does not support ddr2
 
i think the biggest noticeable increase would be the ram upgrade to be honest.
the rest of your system really inst that bad. and a 290 (non x) really sint going to be THAT much better than a 7970..
the i5 should be a bit better than your i7 but for gaming?? im not so sure. but it should be more efficient at any rate.
 
i think the biggest noticeable increase would be the ram upgrade to be honest.
the rest of your system really inst that bad. and a 290 (non x) really sint going to be THAT much better than a 7970..
the i5 should be a bit better than your i7 but for gaming?? im not so sure. but it should be more efficient at any rate.

Don't know what he's talking about but a 290 is a much better performer and where its most noticeable is the minimum framerate which will benefit you in every situation.
 
Right I'll make it simple ,mate, For the rear, get a 140mm fan with a dust filter, and have it blowing air into the case, 2 120 or 140's for the front also blowing air in, there is no need for a filter for those, as the case has one built in, then depending on if you are going push, or push, pull on the H100i, you will need 2 or 4 more 120 mm fans, and have them blowing the air out.

Fan choice is down to colour / style choice, what is you colour scheme ? The only thing to make sure of is that the radiator and front fans have a good static pressure, the go to here are the Corsair SP120's they come with 3 coloured rings, red white and blue, and can be easily painted to match your scheme.


You said your getting the LED strip from Phanteks go for the 1 meter over the 2, I got both to try, and the 2m was way to big.
 
I have an ENORMOUS phanteks air cooler, it is a pain to fit it but once fitted, it's great. No water or pump to worry about, just three very large fans that run slowly. I ran 1.35v into my old 4770k and the temps were under 80 on AVX OCCT - and that was with no delid. Obviously temps on my 4790k are better still.

If you want an alternative to water and can fit it in your case, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it.

Oh - and you get some really good thermal paste with it too.

Phanteks_PH-TC14PE_CPU-K_hler_024.JPG
 
Right I'll make it simple ,mate, For the rear, get a 140mm fan with a dust filter, and have it blowing air into the case, 2 120 or 140's for the front also blowing air in, there is no need for a filter for those, as the case has one built in, then depending on if you are going push, or push, pull on the H100i, you will need 2 or 4 more 120 mm fans, and have them blowing the air out.

Fan choice is down to colour / style choice, what is you colour scheme ? The only thing to make sure of is that the radiator and front fans have a good static pressure, the go to here are the Corsair SP120's they come with 3 coloured rings, red white and blue, and can be easily painted to match your scheme.


You said your getting the LED strip from Phanteks go for the 1 meter over the 2, I got both to try, and the 2m was way to big.


Ok thanks for the insight

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Actually I was already thinking of that.... http://pcpartpicker.com/p/VhsQK8 (I went with the slightly cheaper one)

I might just go with a only air cooled system

1x Fan on Back as intake
3x Fans on top as exausts
2x fans on front as intakes

The case comes with 2 fans already and a 200mm I will get rid of.
 
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I don't think there's any compromise in going for air cooling on an Intel CPU. With top-end air cooling you are going to hit "sane voltage" limits before you hit thermal ones.

If you want to clock the crap out of a graphics card and need to cool it accordingly though, things might be different. Likewise if you have one of those 220W (!!) AMD 95290349023480 FX thingys, I wouldn't want to run one of those on air. Actually I wouldn't want to run one at all, but that's another story and I will STFU now :D
 
I don't think there's any compromise in going for air cooling on an Intel CPU. With top-end air cooling you are going to hit "sane voltage" limits before you hit thermal ones.

If you want to clock the crap out of a graphics card and need to cool it accordingly though, things might be different. Likewise if you have one of those 220W (!!) AMD 95290349023480 FX thingys, I wouldn't want to run one of those on air. Actually I wouldn't want to run one at all, but that's another story and I will STFU now :D

Thanks though!

Also I think the graphics cards will be fine im not gonna do much clocking.
 
well i guess its $400 worth of better to some. I just dont think i could justify it at that price for the extra frames.. Its not like it would take a game from unplayable to playable.

i guess if he sells the 7970 for a decent amount that would work. or if he has plans for the old build so cant keep the 7970 then it makes sense.
 
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