cpu cooling

[fubar]

I give up. I'm a dummy. In the meantime, I'll try to solve or improve the situation.

I'm just wondering how you set up a push/pull and how to troubleshoot if there's any cooling problems.

The cpu temp shows 46 degrees in the BIOS. Isn't that pretty high for using two fans?

I looked on google images for a good picture on how it should look but I suppose I need to arrange or place the fans accordingly.

It's a tower cooler so fan should push air through the heat sink (at the front) and then 'pull' it towards the exhaust fans at the back of the case?

I'll be so glad to go to a Corsair H-series liquid cooler even though it's not custom loop. I don't mind a cheap closed loop cooler for my cheap hardware. Heck, maybe I'll get lucky and shave some more degrees off.

I'll be looking for a H60, probably.

In the meantime, I welcome any advice or teachings about the setup. Any pictures or explanation is a bonus but I'm much better with visuals. Google images gave me a good idea so I'll just have to take a look at what I set up. I have two fans. One is a Thermalright fan holder and the other is my own custom elastic band attachment. :-) It was too difficult to get the wire clips in the hole that's way into the case. Has anyone else ever done it this way? :)

I notice most of the discussions are with newer hardware and I'm very jealous! But, why do you guys still use air cooling?!?

Thanks for any replies. I know my problem is dull and uninteresting. :)

[Adzsask]

Well if it is for an older/cheaper build, I would suggest the h-40, it is the cheapest and is as good as the h-50 which I used on a 130+ watt i7 950 for awhile with OK temps. To mount an H series cooler you first mount the rad, usually people exhaust it out the rear/top fan hole. Next pull out the motherboard and mount the back plate(first putting mount in correct socket position for intel, or use the AMD back plate for all AMD). Next start the 4 bolts on the retaining bracket on front of board to the back plate, after you put board back in case from installing the back plate on the motherboard. Next you line up the grooves on the pump/block part of the cooler with the grooves in the mounting bracket and press it to the CPU. Then you twist it a little until the bracket grooves are over top of the grooves on the pump/block part of the cooler, then tighten the 4 bolts in an x pattern one screw each at a time. Lastly, plug it in to CPU header, and make sure and silent fan profiles on your motherboard are disabled so the pump runs at full speed all the time.

[fubar]

Perhaps, it should be between the H40 and H60 then? They are almost the same price. The H60 is a few dollars more. It has 5 yrs warranty vs 2.

Corsair H40 Hydro Series Review

H40 Build Question. - The Corsair Support Forums

Which one seems better?

I guess I have some time to decide. I still need to solve or improve the cooling situation I'm using now. It would take a few days minimum for any cooler to ship/arrive anyway. So, it might be a week until I get something (physically) here. In the meantime, is there anything I could test or that I could do with my current tower cooler?

I guess I can live with 45 degrees but I suspect that it can or should be lower, even if 5 degrees or so. Maybe lower than that? If it needs to be remounted, then I can find out if that helps when I replace the cooler?

[Pabz0r545]

You've got the right idea. You want cool air being blown over the radiator from outside the case into the case. IMHO push pull is a waste of money. I tried it on my H60 and dropped a whole 1 degree cooler. I think to get the full effect with push/pull you will need 2 shrouds to space the fans away from the rad. 1 fan just pushing cool air through the radiator is enough for me personally.

And of course if the h40 and h60 are roughly the same price, go with the newer product.

I have no idea what you're talking about with elastic bands and wires :P

[Silent_Avenger]

Air cooling is great if done properly and is much cheaper most of the time than water cooling is even vs pre-made wc units. I have both an H100 and a Hyper 212 Evo and also a V8. A good air cooler will keep modest overclocks at nice temps and usually lowers vrm temps slightly because of the extra airflow around the socket. But if you're going for more than average overclocks like right at safe voltage limits a wc loop custom or pre-made is much better at pulling the heat away from the cpu while you do lose some airflow around the socket. A water cooling loop will also help lower noise if you aren't going to OC as high. As for push pull configs it's only really necessary when running high density rads or if your case has a bunch of crap in the way like mine does which restricts airflow.

[Dragonstongue]

push/pull is what it sounds like, one fan pushes the air through, the other pulls the air. It can help temps ALOT mostly when overclocking or higher ambient temperatures are taken into account.

You generally want the fans with a slight space between it and the heatsink, this can easily be accomplished with small square of cardboard or similar, just on the corners where the screws would go through. This generally reduces "dead air" and helps to keep the air moving more smoothly. You could if you wanted to cut small stack of cardboard to make an actual shroud for the fan so there is no air lost. H50/H60 with dual fans are able to compete with some of the best heatsinks out there. I would make them push air out of the case though, not into it, you are kind of defeating the purpose if you blow air into the case as the now warm air will wamr up the case unless it gets sucked out the top fans.

2 fans such as coolermaster blademaster 76.8 cfm 120mm fans work very well for this.

Or

Go for coolermaster Hyper 212+ with another bladmaster fan 76.8 cfm added to it for around $8, this puts it around ~$45 for the 21@+ with the extra fan, it performance is well up there for its price as well.

[ZZLEE]

Linus VID

Extreme Cooler Showdown Corsair H70 vs Noctua NH-D14 Linus Tech Tips - YouTube

[fubar]

Is this the right configuration? Please, if someone could explain what the fan configuration should be...I wanted to see if I can improve (i.e. lower) the temps of the cpu. I'll then check what I have it set up as exactly and make the required modifications.

Btw, I don't know how to post images. Is there a FAQ for this? Or do I have to use an image hosting site?

I only want to use air cooling until I get the closed loop hardware (hence, my inquiry about Corsair H40/50/60).

The 'elastic bands' and 'wire clips' mean one fan is held on the heat sink with wire clips and the other one is attached via an elastic band.

[Silent_Avenger]

Yes that's how it should be set up for push pull as for the mounting hardware so long as it's secure it'll be fine. Yes it should drop temps a few degrees dropped 5c on my folding rig. Just make sure you use similar fans otherwise it might be more detrimental than helpful. eg. No point in using a 2000rpm 80cfm fan with a 800rpm 35cfm fan in push pull it just won't help.

[fubar]

Originally Posted by Silent_Avenger

Yes that's how it should be set up for push pull as for the mounting hardware so long as it's secure it'll be fine. Yes it should drop temps a few degrees dropped 5c on my folding rig. Just make sure you use similar fans otherwise it might be more detrimental than helpful. eg. No point in using a 2000rpm 80cfm fan with a 800rpm 35cfm fan in push pull it just won't help.

Well, they are both Cooler Master Blade Master 120mm fans.