PC Cooling

brianblaze · 24-07-2014 10:57am #1

Hi Guys,

So I have a PC I built off a recommendation from you wonderful people, and now, as I'm a moron, I want to spend more money....

Well, really I'm looking at cooling options. Playing Far Cry 3 the other day the Graphics Card got up to 105 degrees, so I think it's time to upgrade the case fans. I've got the stock Zalman Z3 fans in, and cale managed it fairly well, so I assume i either: A Need a new case, or B, need better case fans. (120mm fans by the way)

Any good bargains on either going or other recommendations?

brianblaze · 25-07-2014 9:33am

Will also consider a modular PSU as a supplemental purchase for this, because, I like to waste money!

game4it70 · 25-07-2014 11:19am

105c is damn high even in this weather :eek:

You sure the gpu fan is speeding up when gaming?
If it is you need to get some airflow over it pronto.

Throw a pic up of you build to see what case looks like.

brianblaze · 25-07-2014 1:11pm

I'm in work so can't snap a pic, but the case doesn't lend itself to great cable management.

I have decided to go for the new case. Anyone reccomend a decent one?My current set up is:

8GB-Kit G.Skill PC3-10667U CL9 (x2)
AMD FX-6300 Prozessor, Boxed, Sockel AM3+
ASUS DRW-24F1ST (Bulk) Silent
Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO - Intel/AMD
Corsair Builder Serie CX500 V3 Non-Modular 80+ Bronze, 500 Watt
Sapphire HD 7870 GHz Edition, 2GB GDDR5 PCI-Express, lite Retail
WD Caviar Blue 1TB 6Gb's
Zalman Z3-Plus Midi-Tower
MSI 970A-G43, AMD Sockel AM3+, ATX, DDR3
KINGSTON SSDNow V300- SSD - 240 GB

I'd love to get a modular PSU and a new case to put it together in that will be a bit tidy, but suggestions welcome.

briany · 25-07-2014 1:17pm

game4it70 wrote: »

105c is damn high even in this weather :eek:

You sure the gpu fan is speeding up when gaming?
If it is you need to get some airflow over it pronto.

Throw a pic up of you build to see what case looks like.

105 degrees? Thought a card would have crashed long before that. Don't most temperature sensitive components have a failsafe? Cards should never double as hobs.

Gumbi · 25-07-2014 1:21pm

Is that the 7870 with the DualX cooler? If so it's a more than capable cooler and you shouldn't be going over 75 degrees in this weather. Are you sure your fans are spinning faster aa the gpu heats up?

..Brian.. · 25-07-2014 1:29pm

105 degrees is very hot. Do you MSI Afterburner? If so open it and game for half an hour and then check the monitor window for how high your GPU fans were running.

Try manually running them at 100% and gaming for a while also. If you want to more precise just run the Vally benchmark for a while instead of gaming.

Case airflow is critical. According to the interwebs your case has 4 fans stock but 3 of them are exhaust? You want at least two 120mm intakes in the front pulling air in over the card, have the other two as exhaust.

Cable management is important but at the very least have a clear path from the front intakes to the GPU. Have as few wires there as possible.

Ambient temps are quite high for now so you with a combination of the above and manually setting your GPU fans to a high %, you should be ok. Just play with headphones on if you don't!

brianblaze · 25-07-2014 1:31pm

Gumbi wrote: »

Is that the 7870 with the DualX cooler? If so it's a more than capable cooler and you shouldn't be going over 75 degrees in this weather. Are you sure your fans are spinning faster aa the gpu heats up?

I've only once heard the GPU fan kick in properly, that's when I shut down the game and checked the temps on SpeedFan, and was a bit concerned! It is the dual fan version, and I've put the fan management on SpeedFan, but hasn't helped!

game4it70 · 25-07-2014 2:23pm

brianblaze wrote: »

I've only once heard the GPU fan kick in properly, that's when I shut down the game and checked the temps on SpeedFan, and was a bit concerned! It is the dual fan version, and I've put the fan management on SpeedFan, but hasn't helped!

You should hear it when gaming.
Have you AMD ccc installed and if so go to the overclocking section and set fan speed to say 70% and play a game just to test.
It really sounds like ccc has set the fan speed to a low manual rpm so its not ramping up while gaming.

Try that first then try with the side panel of the case off to see if the case airflow is so bad thats its causing your heat issues.

Gumbi · 25-07-2014 4:38pm

Download GPUz and check the core and vrm temps while gaming. You'll also see the fan speed when gaming too on it.

brianblaze · 26-07-2014 11:14am

Gumbi wrote: »

Download GPUz and check the core and vrm temps while gaming. You'll also see the fan speed when gaming too on it.

Airflow issue, used AmdCC and chucked the fans to 70%, played 10 minutes of far cry, and it clocked to 65degrees on low quality graphics mode. Took off the case wall and it was fine.

New case ahoy

nesf · 27-07-2014 4:58am

brianblaze wrote: »

Airflow issue, used AmdCC and chucked the fans to 70%, played 10 minutes of far cry, and it clocked to 65degrees on low quality graphics mode. Took off the case wall and it was fine.

New case ahoy

I'd find it very hard to believe that merely your case is causing temps of 105. I've seen 100 degree temps on 6970s but that was with two of them in a case with sound damping panels (i.e. components run hotter due to more insulation on the case walls) *and* only when stress testing.

A single 7870 shouldn't see anything remotely like that, especially in the kind of case you have. Have you checked that both fans are actually working on the card, that all the other basic stuff?

brianblaze · 28-07-2014 11:00am

nesf wrote: »

I'd find it very hard to believe that merely your case is causing temps of 105. I've seen 100 degree temps on 6970s but that was with two of them in a case with sound damping panels (i.e. components run hotter due to more insulation on the case walls) *and* only when stress testing.

A single 7870 shouldn't see anything remotely like that, especially in the kind of case you have. Have you checked that both fans are actually working on the card, that all the other basic stuff?

All fans spinning away happily. Even took apart the case and re-managed the cables for maximum airflow and dust cleared off from all vents.

nesf · 28-07-2014 11:04am

brianblaze wrote: »

All fans spinning away happily. Even took apart the case and re-managed the cables for maximum airflow and dust cleared off from all vents.

That's worrying. Did the card give trouble from the start or do you know? I *really* wouldn't expect to see those temps on a card that didn't have serious problems outside of serious overclocking or some crazy stress test.

brianblaze · 28-07-2014 11:13am

Nope it's been fine since day one. Is there a test I can do on it?

nesf · 28-07-2014 6:51pm

brianblaze wrote: »

Nope it's been fine since day one. Is there a test I can do on it?

Real world tests will show up a problem. So keep something like HWMonitor running in the background whilst you play some games and have a look at the max temps afterwards. This should tell you if there's a problem or not after you make some change to the cooling.

If there is, I don't know, move the card to a different PC and see if the problem persists I suppose. Anytime I've had to check a card like this I had an old PC handy as a testbed, so I'm not sure what you'd do with one machine on it's own.

brianblaze · 29-07-2014 9:54am

Did a bit of Googling, found out that the 7870 can get confused with Drivers from other cards that might have been installed over time. Need to run driver sweeper and/or ccleaner. I'm going to get a new case and modular PSU though, because I will be looking to get some new bits in for The Division and Evolve, and may as well do that sooner rather than later!

crazydom · 31-07-2014 10:31am

Can you list your full specs again?

crazydom · 31-07-2014 10:31am

I think the issue may be with the graphics card, you could look into getting an all in one graphics water cooler for the card for much better temps and noise?

crazydom · 31-07-2014 10:32am

Maybe consider an upgraded rig also? If you plan to play much newer games and are on an old platform it may be better to get a new mobo and cpu for these?

crazydom · 31-07-2014 10:33am

I just built a new gaming rig.

i5 4670k
gtx 770
8gb 2400mhz
zalmann z11 plus

very happy with the results!

crazydom · 31-07-2014 10:33am

PM me if you want some advice on the build!

brianblaze · 31-07-2014 3:20pm

No point going for a full rebuild I don't think. I will do it by degrees so as not to stress out the bank! Ha

PC Cooling

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