Static Pressure or Air Flow Fan?

[sapped]

Hey guys,


I’m hoping to buy a new fan to cool down my GPU which gets extremely hot while gaming, however I’m unsure whether to purchase an Air Flow or Static Pressure fan. I’m using a Fractal Design Define R5 case, with the two stock 140mm fans (GP14 @1000RPM) currently as intake and exhaust.


I’m going to add a single fan that’s more powerful than the current ones, however there are two things I’m uncertain of. Firstly would it be cooler for my GPU if the more powerful fan is blowing directly towards the card? Or would it be cooler to have the two GP14 fans blowing from the front, and the more powerful fan as an exhaust, sucking out hot air in the back?


And this leads on to my second question, which would be the more suitable fan for me to purchase? Would it be a high air flow one or a static pressure one? Also I’m not sure how much it affects this, but my PC case have two fan filters in the front and bottom. I’ve uploaded a pic of my system here:


http://imgur.com/a/edHgp


So given my current situation, which type of fans would be most suitable for my setup? Also any recommendation on the specific fan model I can purchase? It’s the first time I’ve added a fan to my PC, don’t have much of a clue and only know it’s supposed to be 140mm haha.


Thank you so much for reading this, sincerely appreciate any help and suggestions. Cheers and wish you a happy new year!

 

[Valantar]

If you're looking for a case fan, you're looking for an airflow fan. Static pressure fans are for highly restrictive scenarios like radiators and very dense heatsinks. You should aim for "positive pressure," i.e. (slightly) more air going into the case than out of it this has little effect on cooling, but helps keep your case dust free, which in the long run is beneficial for cooling.

What kind of GPU is it that are you having trouble cooling?

 

[UsandThem]

I have this case, and here is what I did to balance airflow with quietness.

Put both of your Fractal Design fans in the front, and put them on your fan controller. I also recommend getting a 3rd 140mm intake fan, and placing it on the bottom. You don't even need to run them full speed on 12v, as with three intake fans you can run them at 7v, which is around 700 RPM. If the sound of running them at full speed doesn't bother you, leaving them on full speed probably is best.

What you need is a good exhaust fan. The included GP-14 fans are good pulling for pulling air through the front filter, but not so good as an exhaust. I tried three fans as an exhaust before picking one:. The GP-14, Noctua NF-A14 FLX, and finally the Prolimatech Ultra Sleek Vortex 14 with static booster.

http://www.overclockers.com/15-case-fans-tested-ultimate-140-mm-roundup/

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01ER0LVFG/ref=psd_mlt_nbc_B011OVEOI2_bi

The GP-14 didn't meet my needs, the Noctua provided good cooling, but I didn't like it's sound profile back there. The Ultra Sleek Vortex ended up meeting my cooling needs with quietness.

Another piece of advice I found out through all this testing/changing fans:. Your case temps will be 3-5c cooler if you mount your PSU with the grill facing upward.

I have a video card that turns it's fans off when I under 60c, and I can play my games (Civ 5 and 6) for hours, and the card never rarely rises above 50c.

 

[Jovec]

The biggest result will probably come from removing the GPU HSF, cleaning the old TIM and reapplying. For two reasons - 1) what you apply will typically be of higher quality and 2) you'll find that GPU manufacturers apply way too much TIM. Many GPUs only have 4 screws holding the main HS assembly to the board, located around the GPU chip itself on the backside. Check online for your make/model and you likely find a video/how-to.

Be warned this might void your warranty.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

The biggest result will probably come from removing the GPU HSF, cleaning the old TIM and reapplying. For two reasons - 1) what you apply will typically be of higher quality and 2) you'll find that GPU manufacturers apply way too much TIM. Many GPUs only have 4 screws holding the main HS assembly to the board, located around the GPU chip itself on the backside. Check online for your make/model and you likely find a video/how-to.

Be warned this might void your warranty.

Ordinarily, that used to be something I would do almost as a matter of "religion." When I did it, I'd replace the TIM with IC Diamond. But if my GTX 1070 overclocked to ~ 2,052 Mhz core and 8,830 Mhz memory only shows 65C gaming and 60C running Valley Benchmark, it hardly makes sense to go to the trouble.

On this matter of cooling, the hot air of my little Gigabyte GTX 1070 OC Mini card is exhausted in three ways: out the PCI slot as intended, from the lower part of the card's front end through a duct and CrossFlow barrel fan, and through the CPU cooler. I could further isolate the airflow so that no GPU-exhaust-air reaches the CPU cooler, but probably to little additional effect.

 

[mjdupuis]

I would also say repositioning the PSU is a good start, it acts like a large air-intake right next to the GPU. My PSU has a hybrid mode (fan only kicks on at a certain temp threshold) and it never comes on while gaming. I speculate that with the fan on it would behave like another exhaust which could be good, but I can't say to a certainty.
Is it possible to relocate your 3.5" drive bay? My Corsair 350D allowed my to remove the 3.5 drive trays completely, I then mounted the 3.5" drive in a 3.5-to-5.25" adapter in one of my optical drive slots. This provided for more direct flow into the GPU. My Sapphire Fury has only ever known good airflow, but the r9 290 that came before it benefitted greatly from moving things around to provide more unrestricted airflow.
Removing the 3.5" drive bay and flipping the PSU should drop the temps a few degrees.

 

[HerrKaLeu]

have the same case. I would not let he PSU take air in from the case. Yes this may improve case temps, but it also heats up the PSU to take in warm air. The whole reason fro bottom-mounted PSU is to take in colder air from under the case. Better install an additional case fan (s. below)
I don't know what CPU and GPU you have. does the GPU have a fan or is it passive? Yes the GPU being on the downside of the PCI card is always tricky. judging by your CPU cooler you must have quite some thermal load?

what I did: have 2 front fans (the original ones) and two bottom fans blowing in. this is filtered air and creates positive pressure. One exhaust fan on back and on the rear top position exhaust the hot CPU air. I only have a weak GPU... so i don't know if that would help you, but i get a large air exchange.
If your GPU does not have a fan, or only a noisy one you have several options (try a few to see):

1. install fan air exhausting in the side panel: this takes the warm GPU air out and maintains positive pressure with filtered air (as long as your intake fans have more airflow).
2. install fan at same location blowing cold air on the GPU. Problem this is not filtered, unless you put some sort of filter in that opening You could use that in lieu of the top rear fan.
3. If you don't want to use that side panel opening (it would annoy me to disconnect fan every time I open it...) you could "hang" a larger fan in there that just blows on the GPU. not sure of a clean solution.
4. It would be good to have a GPU that blows the hot air out to the back instead of recirculating in the case

I see you have the small HDD cage on the bottom, which would prevent you from installing that one bottom fan. I hang that cage under the DVD part (have to turn the cage by 90°).
I assume you did, but obviously clean the filters every once a while.

On fan models I'd go with Fractal or BeQuiet. Fractal has an extra GP 14 that is quieter and has more flow than the ones that came in the case. You don't need high-static fans. Those you need for radiators or air coolers since the fins create turbulent flow (which you want to increase heat transfer). For case fans pressure drop is small. I'd argue even the front and bottom fans with air filters are considered low static. With 4 fans taking in you can run them slowly, and lower velocity decreases pressure requirement (to the square of airflow)

Edit: if your case needs more flow you can find out by measuring exhaust air temperature and compare to room temp. If that is nearly the same, moving more air won't help (obviously your GPU may be in a hot spot, this may be a matter of better directing flow). 4 slow fans taking air in should be enough.