Questions regarding HAF X cooling options

[Abominator]

So first off at the end of the year I plan on getting a HAF X case and have a few questions regarding cooling.

Now I have decided i'll either get the Noctua NH-D14, Corsair H80 or Corsair H100. If I got the Corsair H80 I would fit it to the case's rear exhaust which is pretty simple. If I got the NH-D14 it would be just as simple. But if I got the H100 that's where I become slightly confused.

Would I be able to have the H100 radiator at the top of the case whilst having 2x200mm fans at the top of the case aswell or is there only enough room to have the H100 fitted at the top of the case? (I would have it set up in a push/pull configuration and the 200mm fans would be the CoolerMaster MegaFlow 200mm fans)

Even though the first 2 options are both simple and similar in performance I would prefer the H100 because it offers greater preformance (or should? I haven't found a review yet). The reason I would prefer the H100 is because I live in Australia and 1-3 months a year it's ~100+ degrees fahrenheit in my room during summer and ~90 degrees fahrenheit during spring and some of summer. I plan on building an almost idential build to Fuzzy's enthusiast build in the "Sweet Spot" thread. So in my case there will be a 2500k and sli GTX 580s which will generate substantial heat seeing as I intend to over clock the processor to 4-4.5.ghz. This leads me to my second question.

I'm only going to be using a single 1920x1080 monitor so I assume for the time being sli GTX 580s will be overkill so would I be better off buying an air conditioner for my room to bring the ambient temperature down to 60-70 fahrenheit with the money spared from giving up a gtx 580 or is ambient temperature not as important for case cooling?

The good thing about building this case at the end of the year is it will be summer so i'll be bale to find out if the cooling is adequate. My thanks for any advice or responses.

[Skelly]

I'm pretty sure you could mount the rad on the top, while keeping the 2x200mm fans there, since they're kind of 'on top' of the case. Then you'd just attach 2x120mm fans to the bottom of the rad and you've got push/pull. Check out this thread for HAF X rad mounting advice http://www.overclock.net/computer-ca...-question.html

SLI GTX 580s will certainly be overkill for WoW, since just one GTX580 is overkill for WoW, but some other games could probably see a little improvement running at max settings.

Ambient temperature is pretty darn important, but it all depends on which GTX 580 model(s) you get. Get something with good fans (MSI Twin Frozr comes to mind)
If you can reduce your ambient temperature by 10 degrees, you'll reduce the temperature by everything in your computer by 10 degrees.

Also: Australian using Fahrenheit? wtf bro :P

[Sykotic13]

Even though the first 2 options are both simple and similar in performance I would prefer the H100 because it offers greater preformance (or should? I haven't found a review yet). The reason I would prefer the H100 is because I live in Australia and 1-3 months a year it's ~100+ degrees fahrenheit in my room during summer and ~90 degrees fahrenheit during spring and some of summer. I plan on building an almost idential build to Fuzzy's enthusiast build in the "Sweet Spot" thread. So in my case there will be a 2500k and sli GTX 580s which will generate substantial heat seeing as I intend to over clock the processor to 4-4.5.ghz. This leads me to my second question.

I'm only going to be using a single 1920x1080 monitor so I assume for the time being sli GTX 580s will be overkill so would I be better off buying an air conditioner for my room to bring the ambient temperature down to 60-70 fahrenheit with the money spared from giving up a gtx 580 or is ambient temperature not as important for case cooling?

YES! If your room is over 40C that means your ambient temperature inside the case at idle will be at least 42C. Under load you will get your processor to at least 65C even with great cooling and your GPU will hit 80C easily and probably much higher.

Back to cooling options for the processor. I think the H100 is overkill for a Sandy Bridge processor. They run much cooler than previous chips. I think the H80 or NH-D14 would both be adequate. From there it just depends on preference.


p.s. Without a cooler ambient temperature in your room I am not sure you could even get to 4.4Ghz+ short of using a custom watercooling loop.

[Abominator]

Thanks for the replies. Firstly the GTX 580's I plan on getting will be MSI GeForce GTX 580 Lightning Edition and at the moment i'm not really playing anything too demanding but at the end of the year I plan on buying Battlefield 3 and Elder Scrolls: Skyrim which I hope to take full advantage of. But I think i'll stick with 1 GTX 580 for the time being and work on getting cooling for my room.

Also I used fahrenheit because I assumed a lot of people on here used it and wanted to save them the trouble of having to convert it .

[Skelly]

Thanks for the replies. Firstly the GTX 580's I plan on getting will be MSI GeForce GTX 580 Lightning Edition and at the moment i'm not really playing anything too demanding but at the end of the year I plan on buying Battlefield 3 and Elder Scrolls: Skyrim which I hope to take full advantage of. But I think i'll stick with 1 GTX 580 for the time being and work on getting cooling for my room.

Also I used fahrenheit because I assumed a lot of people on here used it and wanted to save them the trouble of having to convert it .

Link you have doesn't work (I can find the card myself but just pointing it out).

From what I could find in benchmarks, you're looking for about 25-30C Delta T (card will be 25-30 deg higher than room temp). So as long as your room isn't pushing above 40C (lol you would die) you'll be fine with that card. Of course that's assuming your case has good air flow.
So AC isn't necessary to keep your computer working well, but its obviously a different story for your own well-being

Of course keeping things cooler is always better and can prolong lifespan a little, but it won't affect performance.

[Abominator]

Link you have doesn't work (I can find the card myself but just pointing it out).

From what I could find in benchmarks, you're looking for about 25-30C Delta T (card will be 25-30 deg higher than room temp). So as long as your room isn't pushing above 40C (lol you would die) you'll be fine with that card. Of course that's assuming your case has good air flow.
So AC isn't necessary to keep your computer working well, but its obviously a different story for your own well-being

Of course keeping things cooler is always better and can prolong lifespan a little, but it won't affect performance.

Okay thanks a bunch for the help, I probably will get the air con in the long run because sitting in 40 degree heat is quite uncomfortable over extended periods of time lol.

Oh and fixed link for anyone looking.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-579-_-Product

[Sykotic13]

From what I could find in benchmarks, you're looking for about 25-30C Delta T (card will be 25-30 deg higher than room temp). So as long as your room isn't pushing above 40C (lol you would die) you'll be fine with that card. Of course that's assuming your case has good air flow.
So AC isn't necessary to keep your computer working well, but its obviously a different story for your own well-being

Of course keeping things cooler is always better and can prolong lifespan a little, but it won't affect performance.

His room is going to sound like an airport with jets taking off if he has an ambient temp of 40C. A card at 70C will be pushing 70% fan speed or higher. That will definitely kill a fan quicker.

As for Celsius vs Fahrenheit, the universal measure for GPUs and CPUs now is in Celsius so that is why I used it. Not all Americans are too stupid to do conversions. Just most Americans...... Plus, the U.S. Military uses the Metric system exclusively so it isn't hard to think that way for me.