General PC Help Thread 2

[Victor Mildew]

Hi tech nerds,

Actually, its 'hi-tech' nerds.

Or the trainer of choice for spotting the povvo kids at school

seriously, god help anyone who wore them in our P.E. class, bunch of bullying arseholes.

[andretmzt]

Ultimately though, the case looks terrible for airflow so you aren't going to get decent thermals without getting a different one. It's trying to suck all the air through the front panel which is mostly blocked off.

I see what you mean, but my previous PC was much the same in that regard and I had no issues with thermals back then. Granted, that was with an i5-6600K... is that perhaps where the difference lies? I guess it makes sense that going from an i5 to an i7 would lead to increased temperatures, but I just hadn't expected such a big jump.

Edit: I would really rather not get a new case if I can avoid it.

Another thing and I'm not sure how much this matters, but the thermal paste I used had been sitting around for the past 4 years since I last used it. Googling tells me thermal paste has a shelf life of 3-5 years, but I don't know exactly what that means or if it's even true.

Well there would be some increase to the thermals with such an upgrade. Given how expensive thermal paste is, there is no reason not to give it a go, although as long as the old stuff it hasn't dried out, it should spread and work just as well really.

Could also purchase a 140mm fan to use in front, and put the 120mm on your D14 to try and get more throughput.

[OldSoulCyborg]

For more than one CPU fan do you just run both of them off the CPU fan header with a splitter?

With only one case fan header on the motherboard how many case fans could I safely run with the aid of splitters?

[Kezzer]

if you are not liquid cooling in the year of our lord 2016+4 then you are doing it wrong.

[OldSoulCyborg]

if you are not liquid cooling in the year of our lord 2016+4 then you are doing it wrong.

Thank you. I will file this suggestion away in my "Maybe I will consider this sometime in the future, but for now I'm satisfied with my current way of doing things" folder.

Edit:
CPU fan is blowing the right way, so that's not the issue.. I'll buy some thermal paste during the weekend and see if that does the trick.
I really hope that will do the trick, because there sure as hell isn't room in the case for another fan either side of the heatsink. Backside: not enough space between heatsink and the rear case fan; frontside: RAM is in the way.

Some internet sleuthing turns up this test of cooling performance of an NH-D15 with one fan vs. two:

link

It seems that alone shouldn't account for these extreme temps I'm getting. I'll need to perform a test with the front cover of the case removed, see how much of an impact that has.

[andretmzt]

if you are not liquid cooling in the year of our lord 2016+4 then you are doing it wrong.

We can't all have a boss PC setup.

For more than one CPU fan do you just run both of them off the CPU fan header with a splitter?

With only one case fan header on the motherboard how many case fans could I safely run with the aid of splitters?

Yeah you run both CPU fans off the same header, and the same for the case fans.

In terms of how many fans you can run off one header, it'll come down to the number of amps your headers can handle. Hopefully you'd find that in the manual but 1 amp is the norm I think so 2/3 can be done safely. I run two NF-A9s on my CPU header and used to run two NF-A12s on the case header before I moved them onto my GPU to take advantage of its fan control software.

I think testing without the front cover is a good idea. If you don't see greatly improved thermals, there is something else going on. I use a NH-U9S in a case almost a third the size of yours and my CPU thermals are fine. Partly due to running a R7 2700 and 1440p in gaming though. The D14 should be more than enough to cool your CPU.

[Dowbocop]

Hi tech nerds,

Actually, its 'hi-tech' nerds.

Or the trainer of choice for spotting the povvo kids at school

seriously, god help anyone who wore them in our P.E. class, bunch of bullying arseholes.

My first pair of football boots were Hi Tec. I let my feet do the talkingbecause my trainers were so gooseberry fool one kid broke my jaw.

[OldSoulCyborg]

Yeah you run both CPU fans off the same header, and the same for the case fans.

In terms of how many fans you can run off one header, it'll come down to the number of amps your headers can handle. Hopefully you'd find that in the manual but 1 amp is the norm I think so 2/3 can be done safely. I run two NF-A9s on my CPU header and used to run two NF-A12s on the case header before I moved them onto my GPU to take advantage of its fan control software.

Can't find any mention of it in any of the documentation for the motherboard. (https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/ROG-S ... -I-GAMING/)

I think testing without the front cover is a good idea. If you don't see greatly improved thermals, there is something else going on. I use a NH-U9S in a case almost a third the size of yours and my CPU thermals are fine. Partly due to running a R7 2700 and 1440p in gaming though. The D14 should be more than enough to cool your CPU.

Did a quick test with the front cover on and off. With the cover off it seemed to be about ~10-15 degrees cooler, though I didn't test extensively.

I think the current plan of action looks something like this:

• 140mm case fan in the front
• Reapply (new) thermal paste
• Cable management ( )
• ? 90mm fan on the front-facing side of the heatsink above the RAM ? (it's not ideal, but I don't think there's space for a fan there unless it's that small)
  (how would I attach it to the heatsink though?)

Thanks for all the help.

[Skarjo]

Hi tech nerds,

Actually, its 'hi-tech' nerds.

Or the trainer of choice for spotting the povvo kids at school

seriously, god help anyone who wore them in our P.E. class, bunch of bullying arseholes.

It's funny, I was having this conversation with someone about our school not having a uniform and it being a source of bullying, and I remembered that we had a uniform, and the only thing that they didn't control was coats and shoes.

And you bet I still remember which brands of coat and shoes would get someone bullied to this day.

Sadly probably still shapes my buying habits.

[Cuttooth]

Bleary eyed, I read that last sentence as "still shapes my bullying habits", leading to the mental image that you go around shoving select nerds into lockers at the school you teach.

[Skarjo]

"I don't know what Puma trainers are, sir, it's 2020!"

"Why you hitting yourself why you hitting yourself'

[Dowbocop]

Thanks very much for the graphics card advice. I'm probably going to end up waiting a bit now, see what happens after the 30xx cards start coming out. In the meantime I was considering trying to overclock my existing card. When I was a teenager that seemed a terrifying prospect involving fannying around in the BIOS and stuff, but now it seems it's basically a case of installing MSI Afterburner and doing trial and error till you find the card's limit.

I built a new fan mounting plate to fit a 120 mm fan into my unused drive bays so I have better airflow before I start overclocking. It's working fine, but I used packing foam (the stuff they make those foam eggshell sheets out of) to secure it in place and block any holes from my shoddy workmanship. That'll work right?

[<]:^D]

yeah only if youre not worried about burning our house down

[Sandy]

It's a thermosetting polymer so it'll be completely fine.

[Dowbocop]

Thanks both. For clarification the foam is wrapped around the frame of a 120mm intake fan, and the fan is located across the entrance to three 5.25in bays right at the front of the case, so it's a good 20cm from any exposed electronics on the motherboard etc. I struggle to see how it would catch fire to be honest. I was more concerned about the risk of dust ingress.

I don't want the foam to be there (for one thing it looks bloody awful), but there seem to be no options for mounting fans in surplus 5.25in bays, despite nobody in the history of mankind ever needing more than two optical drives.

[Sandy]

Oh back in the mid 00's you'd have your optical drive, your manual fan speed controller, your USB adaptor, your card readers and if you were really posh some kind of HUD all in their own 5.25" bay.

[Return_of_the_STAR]

Anyone have any suggestions as to why my son's laptop is suddenly not getting as high FPS on all games? It's maxing out at 30fps regardless of what settings it's on. It would normally be on 100 ish in something like fortnite.

It has a GTI 1650ti, 8 GB ram, Ryzen5 4600H.

[<]:^D]

sounds like he's turned on driver-controlled v-sync.
check nvidia settings for Global V-sync

[Xeno]

The leaked prices for the nvidia 30xx cards are a bit of an ouch. Roll on tomorrow afternoon when Jensen makes as all sad when he announces they will be more expensive.

[That's not a growth]

Yeah, nothing about the leaks is really exciting me. Hopefully there's more to show then just a power sucking, 3 slot wide GPU that costs a grand and a half and will probably heat your house easily.