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Passively cooled GPU + case fans regulated with GPU temps???

Posted: Wed Jul 02, 2014 5:04 am
by 23-D
After choosing right fans for cpu cooler, now is time for case fans.

To repeat my rig configuration:

CPU: i5 4660 Haswell
CPU cooler: Prolimatech Genesis + 2xProlimatech Ultra Sleek Vortex 140mm
MBO: ASRock Z97 Fatal1ty Killer
RAM: 2x4GB RipjawsX 1600
VIDEO CARD: Sapphire ULTIMATE R7 250 (passive cooling)
CASE: Fractal R4
PSU: Corsair RM550

As video card is passively cooled I will need some increased case airflow.
My plan is to put 2x140mm intake 1x140mm outtake.

The main question is:
Is it possible to arrange intake fans (or just one fan) to be in PWM regulation based on GPU temperatures?
If it is possible which fans would be enough to produce enough airflow?

If it is not possible I would go to Antec TrueQuiet 140mm. Would they be enough to produce enough airflow due to the fact that video card will probably generate some amount of heat.

This is the video card:
http://www.sapphiretech.com/presentatio ... 2130&lid=1

Image

Re: Passively cooled GPU + case fans regulated with GPU temp

Posted: Wed Jul 02, 2014 9:10 pm
by Pappnaas
I'd start with 1 outtake and no intake.

Using intake fans only had three reasons in the past:

- you need some air breathing over your HDDs
- your front intake surface is severly restricted
- you run positive pressure setup

Since you run a R4 for a case, air flow should be fine without any intake. I would block all openings where i do not want the air to be sucked in and run one fan in the back as exhaust. Then check gpu temps. If i discover the temps to be to high for my liking, i'd remove the pci slot cover beneath the gpu first. If that doesn't bring the desired temps, then i'd add an intake blowing directly in the direction of my gpu. Noisewise you should run the intake at low speeds so it shouldn't add significant amount of noise to the whole system.

Have fun trying and testing :D

Re: Passively cooled GPU + case fans regulated with GPU temp

Posted: Wed Jul 02, 2014 10:21 pm
by 23-D
Interesting point of view. ;)

And what about controlling the fan based of GPU temps?
Pappnaas wrote:.....If i discover the temps to be to high for my liking, i'd remove the pci slot cover beneath the gpu first.......
:o
Great idea to use PCI slots as entrance of fresh air. ;)
It didn't occur to me to "use" them.

TNX.....I'll try that

Re: Passively cooled GPU + case fans regulated with GPU temp

Posted: Wed Jul 02, 2014 11:57 pm
by quest_for_silence
Pappnaas wrote:then i'd add an intake blowing directly in the direction of my gpu. Noisewise you should run the intake at low speeds so it shouldn't add significant amount of noise to the whole system.

In case, a fan tied onto the very same graphic card would be more probably that not more effective and less noisy than any intake fan.

Re: Passively cooled GPU + case fans regulated with GPU temp

Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2014 12:56 am
by Pappnaas
quest_for_silence wrote:In case, a fan tied onto the very same graphic card would be more probably that not more effective and less noisy than any intake fan.
True. But then i could not brag about using a fanless gpu :lol: :lol:

Re: Passively cooled GPU + case fans regulated with GPU temp

Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2014 1:01 am
by 23-D
Maybe Schyte Kama Stay?

Image

Or, was thinking....maybe to construct a tunnel (maybe half opened tunnel) from intake fan with polypropylene sheet and direct it tu graphic card?

Anyway.....my main concern is HOW TO CONTROL THE FAN based on GPU temps?
My assumption (based on my use of PC) is that the video card will be mostly used at around 30-50% load, there could be only shorter peaks of higher load (heavier Photoshop plugins), so actually I need the heavier cooling just to "swipe" the heat of the heatsink in those moments.

Re: Passively cooled GPU + case fans regulated with GPU temp

Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2014 1:04 am
by 23-D
Pappnaas wrote: True. But then i could not brag about using a fanless gpu :lol: :lol:
It's not about braging. I just couldn't find a video card with big enough fan ;)
Theres a big difference between stock GPU 92mm fan (at max) and carefully selected 120/140mm fan ;)

As I wrote in the post before, I would need it just in particullar moments.

Re: Passively cooled GPU + case fans regulated with GPU temp

Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2014 2:10 am
by benius
23-D wrote:...Anyway.....my main concern is HOW TO CONTROL THE FAN based on GPU temps?...
Use Speedfan.

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From http://www.silentpcreview.com/article1275-page3.html:
The sensors in the Temperature tab are expandable, allowing you to pick and choose which fans will react to them. Above we've set the CPU fan to respond to the CPU temperature, the GPU fan to the GPU temperature, and the Chassis fans to the hard drive temperature. The fans in question will speed up whenever the "Desired" temperature is exceeded and at the "Warning" temperature, it will override your settings and run the fan at 100% to ensure overheating doesn't occur. If you click the "Show in tray" box at bottom right, that temperature reading will be displayed on the SpeedFan icon in the system tray.

Re: Passively cooled GPU + case fans regulated with GPU temp

Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2014 2:28 am
by Pappnaas
Actually, a 7750 or R7 could be cooled with any decent 80/92mm fan@5V. Take a 92mm Noctua for example, if i remember correctly, some people said they won't notice this fan inside their case even when running @7V. So why control something you cannot hear anyway?

Seb_Rad (?) said nearly the same about some Arctic Cooling 80mm fans he used a while back (can't find the thread atm.)

Regarding speedfan: I came across a lot of cards that did not report temps correctly and (mostly AMD) cards that could not be controlled by speedfan. Personally i am no fan of software to control vital parts of my PC, think of the software or Windows failing and speedfan somehow does not raise the rpm...

Re: Passively cooled GPU + case fans regulated with GPU temp

Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2014 3:14 am
by benius
Pappnaas wrote:...Regarding speedfan: I came across a lot of cards that did not report temps correctly and (mostly AMD) cards that could not be controlled by speedfan...
It's not about controlling the card's fan, but a case fan attached to a MB header which varies its speed based on the desired GPU temperature.
Personally i am no fan of software to control vital parts of my PC, think of the software or Windows failing and speedfan somehow does not raise the rpm...
The card is supposed to work without a fan, so not a big problem if that happens.

Re: Passively cooled GPU + case fans regulated with GPU temp

Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2014 5:25 am
by quest_for_silence
Pappnaas wrote:Regarding speedfan: I came across a lot of cards that did not report temps correctly and (mostly AMD) cards that could not be controlled by speedfan.

That's really odd: my experience (not that wide, a few cards, to be fair) is exactly the contrarian one, any graphic card which worked well with SpeedFan was an AMD Radeon one, and I didn't find any HD 7000-series which didn't worked well with SpeedFan (3 out of 3). Obviously, YMMV (and as noted by benius, there's no VGA fan to be controlled, just a case one).

Pappnaas wrote:Personally i am no fan of software to control vital parts of my PC, think of the software or Windows failing and speedfan somehow does not raise the rpm...

But that's exactly the OP original request: which software method to control case fans (according to the VGA temp).
Anyway, I'm not aware of any piece of software but SpeedFan able to do that.

Re: Passively cooled GPU + case fans regulated with GPU temp

Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2014 7:27 am
by LongJan
I have a very similar system to yours. Haswell i5 CPU and R7 250 passive VGA (but XFX version). It's cooled by the tiny Noctua NH-L9i and two exhaust fans (no fans as input).

Then playing a game (eg. World of Warcraft) the fans spins at 600-700 rpm and I can't hear them from 1 meter away. Both CPU and GPU temps stays stable around 45C so there are broad margins. However, that is in a rather small case with short and direct air paths (unwanted intakes blocked). But still, that VGA-card runs rather cool.

The way I use my computer I have no problem controlling all fans by CPU-temp (Asus FanXpert2). At idle both case fans are stopped. Then I start a game CPU temp rises and both case fans spins up.

Although, heavy load on GPU but no load on CPU would be a problem, but can that ever happen? I can't think of anything in my case.

Re: Passively cooled GPU + case fans regulated with GPU temp

Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2014 1:45 pm
by Pappnaas
quest_for_silence wrote:That's really odd: my experience (not that wide, a few cards, to be fair) is exactly the contrarian one, any graphic card which worked well with SpeedFan was an AMD Radeon one, and I didn't find any HD 7000-series which didn't worked well with SpeedFan (3 out of 3). Obviously, YMMV (and as noted by benius, there's no VGA fan to be controlled, just a case one).
I seemed to have missed the case-fan thing, sry.

Asus sold various 4670 models and on the cheaper ones the voltage control part wasn't implemented in hardware, SF could read the temps but not control the fan. Some 5770 cards were the same, from other manufacturers too. AMD might have changed that in later GPU generations.

Re: Passively cooled GPU + case fans regulated with GPU temp

Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2014 10:23 pm
by quest_for_silence
Pappnaas wrote:Asus sold various 4670 models and on the cheaper ones the voltage control part wasn't implemented in hardware, SF could read the temps but not control the fan. Some 5770 cards were the same, from other manufacturers too. AMD might have changed that in later GPU generations.

But even SpeedFan changed: IIRC the relevant changelog, it's able to fully control AMD cards (usual caveat: YMMV) just since the 4.45 release.

Re: Passively cooled GPU + case fans regulated with GPU temp

Posted: Fri Jul 04, 2014 4:58 am
by flemeister
23-D wrote:And what about controlling the fan based of GPU temps?
Tada! :D

http://www.quietpc.com/gel-pwm-vga-cable

Re: Passively cooled GPU + case fans regulated with GPU temp

Posted: Fri Jul 04, 2014 5:18 am
by quest_for_silence
flemeister wrote:
23-D wrote:And what about controlling the fan based of GPU temps?
Tada! :D

http://www.quietpc.com/gel-pwm-vga-cable
That could work (along with a cable extension) supposing his fanless card sports a controllable fan header.