Upgrading case and cpu cooler

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Tim_i5
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Joined: Tue May 03, 2016 9:49 am
Location: Germany

Upgrading case and cpu cooler

Post by Tim_i5 » Tue May 03, 2016 10:14 am

Hello,

I am looking for some advice on a case upgrade and maybe a cpu cooler upgrade along with it.

Current system:
CPU: i5 2500K@4,2Ghz
CPU Cooler: Alpenföhn Gotthard (bought back then, due to the heatspreaders on the RAM)
MoBo: Asus P8P67 Rev3.1
GPU: Asus Strix GTX 970 OC Edition
Ram: 8Gb 1866Mhz Corsair Vengeance
PSU: 700 Watt be quiet! Straight Power E9 Non-Modular
Case: Chieftec CH-01B-B-SL (now don't ask me why I bought this case 3.5 years ago :roll: )

I have one exhaust fan at the back of the case (Enermax T.B.Silence 120mm 900U/min) and no intake fans at all...
So my goal with the upgrade would be, a more silent operation of my pc - obviously. Better cable managment, because my current build looks like a piece of junk (one of my SSDs isn't even mounted at all) and better cooling ofc.

I'm considering the following cases:
Corsair Carbide 400C (because of it's smaller footprint) - also my main candidate.
Fractal Design R5 or S (though the footprint isn't really smaller than my current case)
Phanteks P400S (I read on the forum that it's bad, because the front intake is to blocked of?)
Phanteks Enthoo Pro M (really prefer the design / looks of the Corsair though)

Would a cpu cooler upgrade make sense to improve the general airflow as well, as my current cooler is a top blower design?

Thanks for any advice in advance :)

Greetings Tim

CA_Steve
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Re: Upgrading case and cpu cooler

Post by CA_Steve » Tue May 03, 2016 2:16 pm

Welcome to SPCR.

Lots of kudos here for the Fractal, if you like the footprint. If you don't have an ODD requirement, there's also the Define S.

Corsair Carbide 400C: There's also the Carbide 400Q. A couple of builds ongoing in the forums.

Cooler: I'd try the existing cooler in the new case first and see if you like the temps/noise. You can always swap out to a tower cooler. Are you overvolting to get 4.2GHz or is that stock voltage?

quest_for_silence
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Re: Upgrading case and cpu cooler

Post by quest_for_silence » Tue May 03, 2016 2:47 pm

@Tim_i5 : what about some pics?

Tim_i5
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Location: Germany

Re: Upgrading case and cpu cooler

Post by Tim_i5 » Wed May 04, 2016 10:09 am

@quest_for_silence: I didn't even realize it was that bad until I took the photo today. :mrgreen:

(sorry for bad quality)
Image

@CA_Steve: I am running at 1.24 volts (according to CPU-Z) which is a - 0.040 offset in my bios. Temps are at arround 70°C under stress testing with prime.

Maybe you're right and I should wait how my cpu cooler performs under in a proper case fan setup. I just thought that top blower might not be ideal for the airflow?

Regarding the 400Q: I would kind of like to have a window, but actually considering I have a non modular PSU this would be a good option - because I have a feeling cable managment is going to be horrible with my PSU.
Last edited by Tim_i5 on Wed May 04, 2016 2:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.

CA_Steve
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Re: Upgrading case and cpu cooler

Post by CA_Steve » Wed May 04, 2016 1:16 pm

There is ideal and then there's good enough :) If you can retain 70C with Prime95 in the new case with the existing cooler and not hear it's fan, that would be stellar.

edh
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Re: Upgrading case and cpu cooler

Post by edh » Wed May 04, 2016 1:50 pm

I would also look at a better tower cooler in your existing case first, before committing to a new case.

That case could perhaps be improved with a bit of modification. If you were to soft mount the hard disks in the 5.25" this will drastically lower your sound floor. I would have thought that with that many disks installed there will be a substantial amount of hard disk noise anyway so if you want to silence the system this might be worth trying. Once the hard disks are moved the lower cage could be removed and then you could mod the front to fit a pair of 120mm fans I would think. This should improve the air flow a bit.

Don't know if you upload photos again if you might be able to do them at a smaller size please? They tend to break the forum layout at that size. 800x600 is more user friendly. Does look like there is a lot of dust in there which suggests airflow might not be working that well.

quest_for_silence
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Re: Upgrading case and cpu cooler

Post by quest_for_silence » Wed May 04, 2016 10:36 pm

Tim_i5 wrote:Regarding the 400Q: I would kind of like to have a window, but actually considering I have a non modular PSU this would be a good option - because I have a feeling cable managment is going to be horrible with my PSU.

You can use some cable management anchors or, more simply, some black zip ties, to have it neat and tidy (though a window may more easily resonate).

edh wrote:I would also look at a better tower cooler in your existing case first, before committing to a new case.

I don't agree: actually the Alpenfohn cooler is not that bad, at all (though it would have to sport an high efficiency WingBoost fan, as far as I recall, and not a traslucent led fan, as seemingly it's in this photo). Moreover I don't see any intake fan in front of it (but I may be wrong).

edh wrote:That case could perhaps be improved with a bit of modification.

I don't agree on that too: though probably of good build quality, that case is apparently a rather old design (and it deserves some dust filters).

Tim_i5
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Location: Germany

Re: Upgrading case and cpu cooler

Post by Tim_i5 » Thu May 05, 2016 3:07 am

So I did some testing yesterday, and the most noise in this case is created by HDD vibrations... I removed one of the HDDs (as I didn't really use it anyways). And I realized that my SSD mounting braket has space for 2 SSDs, so one of them is not just hanging inside the case anymore.

Image
quest_for_silence wrote: ...actually the Alpenfohn cooler is not that bad, at all (though it would have to sport an high efficiency WingBoost fan, as far as I recall, and not a traslucent led fan, as seemingly it's in this photo). Moreover I don't see any intake fan in front of it (but I may be wrong).

You are right, I don't have any intake fans, as there is only 2 mounting slots for 92mm fans on the front right side (as seen on the pic above).
Regarding my Alpenföhn cooler, it is actually using the WingBoost fan from Alpenföhn:

Image
quest_for_silence wrote:
edh wrote:That case could perhaps be improved with a bit of modification.

I don't agree on that too: though probably of good build quality, that case is apparently a rather old design (and it deserves some dust filters).
You're right quest_for_silence, I think I'll go for the Define R5 (window) as I saw some builds in the gallery section which looked pretty nice.

quest_for_silence
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Re: Upgrading case and cpu cooler

Post by quest_for_silence » Thu May 05, 2016 5:30 am

Tim_i5 wrote:So I did some testing yesterday, and the most noise in this case is created by HDD vibrations

http://www.noisemagic.com/product_info. ... ducts_id=1

Tim_i5 wrote:Regarding my Alpenföhn cooler, it is actually using the WingBoost fan from Alpenföhn

That's right, on my monitor at first glance it looked like a led-equipped translucent fan.

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