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Re: Fractal Design Define R3 ATX Tower

Posted: Wed Aug 24, 2011 6:46 am
by lapino
So, I installed the Corsair H60 with the following airflow:

* 140mm intake at bottom
* 120mm intake at front
* 120mm from the H60 at rear
* GTX570 with Accelero cooling inside

Idle temps from my Core i5 750 are now about 40°C, same for my GPU. When gaming, the GPU goes up to around 60°C (very good!) and cpu around 60°C (when putting the Corsair fan at 50%). When putting the Corsair fan at 100% (pretty loud to my ears), CPU temps go to around 52-55°C.

There's quite a bit of hot air coming out of the case where the radiator is, so essentially this is ok, since this means the heat is transferred out of the case. I do suspect though that my GTX70 using the Accelero coolers is the main factor for hot air inside my case, since there's not direct output to the outside of the case from the videocard like there is when using the stock cooler (which is way too loud for me, and doesn't cool that well either, so I got the Accelero)

Any adice to get better airflow or get the hot air (mainly from the GTX) out of the case? Would I do any good putting a casefan on the side? If so, do I let it suck the air out of blow in? Mind, I want to keep noise to an absolute minimum!!

Re: Fractal Design Define R3 ATX Tower

Posted: Wed Aug 24, 2011 8:02 am
by ame
lapino wrote:So, I installed the Corsair H60 with the following airflow:

* 140mm intake at bottom
* 120mm intake at front
* 120mm from the H60 at rear
* GTX570 with Accelero cooling inside

Idle temps from my Core i5 750 are now about 40°C, same for my GPU. When gaming, the GPU goes up to around 60°C (very good!) and cpu around 60°C (when putting the Corsair fan at 50%). When putting the Corsair fan at 100% (pretty loud to my ears), CPU temps go to around 52-55°C.

There's quite a bit of hot air coming out of the case where the radiator is, so essentially this is ok, since this means the heat is transferred out of the case. I do suspect though that my GTX70 using the Accelero coolers is the main factor for hot air inside my case, since there's not direct output to the outside of the case from the videocard like there is when using the stock cooler (which is way too loud for me, and doesn't cool that well either, so I got the Accelero)

Any adice to get better airflow or get the hot air (mainly from the GTX) out of the case? Would I do any good putting a casefan on the side? If so, do I let it suck the air out of blow in? Mind, I want to keep noise to an absolute minimum!!
60s for CPU load is normal. 60s for a GTX570 GPU is very very good temps. hot air or not, with temps that low I would probably lower fan speeds even more. I would not be looking to add more fans.

Re: Fractal Design Define R3 ATX Tower

Posted: Wed Aug 24, 2011 11:40 am
by mkk
I agree and with the radiator right in the path of the only exhaust it's making sure that it does best it can with the current setup. With a "regular" air cooler I'd recommend testing with an extra top fan running relatively slowly, but as long as you're not bothered by the noise from the current exhaust fan I'd leave it be. I'm sure it effectively drowns out any pump noise too. ;)

Blocking off the unused extra fan position might be of some use, in order to avoid having some air leak out unused in the front area because of over pressure. Or maybe add a second front fan but run both at lower speed, as even more intake wouldn't do that much good for the present setup.

Re: Fractal Design Define R3 ATX Tower

Posted: Wed Aug 24, 2011 9:26 pm
by lapino
Maybe I expected some kind of miracle :) Anyway, might give me some room for overclocking. I currently have a Fractal Design 1000rpm fan connected to the radiator, and while this is more or less silent (still can hear the pump over all my fans), it doesn't seem to be outputting a lot of air. The included Corsair fan is better, but a LOT louder.

Also got a very annoying problem. I used to be able to control the cpu fan speed using speedfan but must have changed something in my bios (also isntalled motherboard monitor which didn't work but might've left a driver or something breaking things for speedfan). I'm unable to control the cpu fan any longer using speedfan (3wire fan). Case fans work fine. Kinda annoying.

Re: Fractal Design Define R3 ATX Tower

Posted: Thu Aug 25, 2011 10:24 am
by lapino
Ok guys, some more advice needed to finetune my system. I've moved the fans around a bit, trying to get the best possible airflow/cooling. What I currently have is:

* 1 x 120mm at top front, no fan at bottom front
* 1 x 120mm at radiator sucking air in
* 1 x 140mm at rear top, sucking air out

I'm out of fan connections, so can't install an extra bottom or front fan without getting some extra adaptors (my Asus P5Q only has 4 fan connectors on the mainboard, 1 is needed for the pump).

My 140mm fan was at the bottom before, but I guessed it's better to put it right above the radiator, allowing the hot air to escape better. Any advice? If I would add an extra fan, what should I do: 1 extra at bottom front, or one 140mm at the bottom?

Also, any advice for a better (but silent) fan for the radiator. Right now I'm using a Fractal Design 1000rpm, but I guess there are better options out there. The Corsair fan is way too loud to my liking.

Fwiw: idle temps for cpu 38°C/gpu 35°

Re: Fractal Design Define R3 ATX Tower

Posted: Thu Aug 25, 2011 10:01 pm
by ame
Having the hot air from the radiator blow into the case is just plain wrong IMO.

Re: Fractal Design Define R3 ATX Tower

Posted: Thu Aug 25, 2011 10:29 pm
by lapino
Really? Because this is how Corsair says it is supposed to be mounted. Also: pulling cool(er) air from outside, blowing through the radiator inside the case and pulling hot air out on top. Isn't that ok then?

Re: Fractal Design Define R3 ATX Tower

Posted: Fri Aug 26, 2011 1:36 pm
by Tephras
Yes, having the fan blowing in is what Corsair recommends but they also suggests that the user should try the opposite to see which config gives the lowest temperature.

Re: Fractal Design Define R3 ATX Tower

Posted: Wed Sep 21, 2011 1:38 pm
by mr5moke
Can anyone tell we whether it's possible to remove the feet of the case, and if so how much you save in terms of height?

Re: Fractal Design Define R3 ATX Tower

Posted: Thu Apr 23, 2015 4:48 am
by NeilBlanchard
I will be building a system for a friend with the R5, which has quite a few changes even from the R4. I will post some feedback, soon.

Edit: the reason I necroposted to this thread, is because it is linked to from the Recommended Cases guide. It might be good to have it link to the R5 review, instead?