Finally upgrading my case as the start of a slow but gradual desktop upgrade process.

After looking at diff options and being now an "old man"...I have no interest in RGB or frills or glass windows....so got this basic Cooler Master N400: https://www.newegg.com/midnight-blac...82E16811119277

Still has the external drive bay for old man optical disc drive or expansion stuff if I want in future. And plenty of 120mm fan slots for good air flow.

Gonna transplant rest of my desktop into this case, and then upgrade next year with new mobo/CPU/GPU.

But for cooling, calling on those who are more recent to the PC building game on what do you guys recommend as great 120mm fans? I want MASSIVE CFM and huge air flow...I can tolerate some noise, but obviously nothing super crazy.

I heard Noctua is a good brand? This will be my major system upgrade in like 8 years so been out of the game for a while now. Thanks for advice!!

 

ive only heard of noctua for being good and silent.

but ive been out of the game alot longer. I last built a system in 2006

 

This/Next year is good time....great CPU and GPU leaps from AMD and NVIDIA. I think systems built on current gen should last for 5 years at least? (for when Ryzen 7 5000s and RTX 3000s are finally in normal stock and not scalped like crazy anymore....)

 

Well thats because i switched to a Mac in 2014.
gave it a try since it was like $600 for a refurbished by Apple, 2012 i7 Mac Mini.
I also just picked up a 2018 Mac Mini back in October (right before the new one came out too )

I have been thinking about building a budget gaming only PC. But then I just got a PS5

i have no idea what I'm doing

 

Noctua is among the best for cooling both with their case fans and CPU coolers. Read good things about Silent Wings too.

If you don't like the colors, you could always get Chromax covers.

I don't really care about RGB either. Still, it's harder to find non-RGB stuff. Last time I upgraded I bought RGB ram because it had the clock speeds I was looking for, and was on sale. Spent time tinkering with the timings, but never touched the RGB settings even once. My case does not have a glass window, and my next one won't either.

 

Just keep in mind when looking at reviews to see if noise is normalized with thermals and vice versa. No point in having quiet fans if they suck at cooling or are only good at cooling at higher RPMs. As usual, Gamers Nexus is a good YT channel to refer to.

I skimmed around and seems like this video does a good job comparing sound in addition to thermals.


See how other people with your case set up their fans. Generally, bigger fans can spin at lower RPM and still move lots of air, thus are quieter. But, that depends on your case.

More generalizations - positive case pressure is better (lower maintenance with dust). Try to keep your case pretty open inside by removing drive bays you don't use, and run airflow in from front, and maybe one exhaust fan out the back. Don't forget that the intake fans push air out through the holes on the rear panel, too.

Stock fan curves on GPU coolers are usually very conservative to prevent noise. There are tutorials on this, but the idea is to set them to ramp up sooner than later in order to prevent temp spikes.

 

Dang, thanks man!

Interesting advice on the air flow physics with intake/exhaust and whatnot. So basically, put more fans from the intake/front side and don't need as much exhaust fans? Any specific reason why we want more air to be pulled in from front vs sucked out?

I think my case also has top and side fans as well. Would it be stupid/useless, to max out all fan slots and blow as much CFM as possible with all fan slots?

 

I am no aerodynamicist, but I would think there's diminishing returns. Your case is different from the one I am looking at, so I don't wanna make any assumptions about optimal fan placement pertaining specifically to the N400. Mesh front bodes well for intake airflow, but you don't want it to be a turbulent mess inside.

This is hyperbole, but more fans are not always better. TL;DW this case sucks ass at cooling

 

Theres also having positive/neutral/negative pressure too.

I think you want positive pressure as that helps keep dust out.

 

noctua is a fantastic choice. im running some 140mm noctuas with the chromax. blacked everything out for a cleaner look

generally speaking you want more intake than you do exhaust. i believe this to be the positive pressure setup, and it is better for dust control. in this setup you have more intake pressure from the case fans, and less exhaust. the reason for this is so you can force all the air coming into the case to go through the dust filters (ideally there are dust filters, usually a mesh material)

on the flip side if you have more exhaust than intake. the air coming into your case will come from the intake fans and "gaps" in the computer case. this is because the case is exhausting more air than the intake fans are putting in. so the extra air comes from the gaps in the case which are unfiltered and dust gets in easily from these areas

edit: this matters to some people more than others. but the temps generally work out ok as long as there are adequate fans and air flow. i got carpet in my room so its a big deal to me

 

Dang, awesome guys. Thanks so much. The More You Know!

 

I think I'm waiting for AMD to support USB 4 before upgrading, so probably next year when they drop to 5nm

 

If you are looking for an upgrade path with AMD and can wait until next gen, it's probably best to do so. Next gen AMD CPU is supposed to be on a new socket.

 

The whole positive pressure thing and keeping dust out of the case is bullshit.

If there is dust in the intake air stream, it will come into the case right along with the air. You have to have a filter on the intake fans to keep dust out.

 

Waiting for the new generation AMD and then I'll build a tower. I'm currently enjoying a nice HP AIO that plays the games/runs apps quite nicely. I ordered a Mac Mini M1 last night.

 

that’s the whole point of positive pressure. All the intake air is coming in from intake fans that presumably have a dust filter.
with negative pressure air can seep in from any small gaps or holes in the case that typically don’t have a filter.

 

In addition, cases designed for different intake locations tend to have filters where intake fan placement is likely - usually the front, bottom, and top.

 

You guys and your positive/negative pressure... Lol.

I run an i9 hard on air cooling with fans in some kind of configuration and I blow the case out about every 6 months (let's be real, about once a year) with a $4 can of compressed air. Everything works fine and runs for a long time.

I mean, if you really want to obsess over something, obsess over Rhode Island. It is neither road, nor island. Yeah.

 

idk, a long time ago I used to put my tower directly onto carpet. Also never paid attention to fan configuration

After putting it on my desk or on an elevated platform, plus fans in positive pressure config, the inside seems to accumulate less dust. I've never tested either individually though

 

to add to this, hopefully AMD continues the trend of having the sockets compatible with successive generations of CPUs.

Needing to buy a new motherboard to upgrade your CPU (a la Intel) is BS.

 

i'm in not rush to build a new computer. so maybe i'll wait for zen 4 (or whatever the next one is)

Also curious what Apple's M1X will bring. but Costco wont spill any beans about it

 

Yeah current Ryzen 5000 CPUs are going to be the last supported on the current socket.

Tempted to wait for next gen AMD that should be late 2021/2022?

 

I haven't worked on anything Mac-related in over a year and a half, so at this point I know more about AMD than Apple ARM

 

What's going on with AirTag?

 

but there is a rumor that something will be released on Tuesday via press release

 

TL;DW when mounting AIOs, don’t mount radiators on the bottom of the case. Pump should be at the lowest point of the cooling loop, or at the least not be the highest. Tubes should be at the bottom.

Didn’t know about this until recently. My friend showed his radiator mounted on the front, with tubes up and it reminded me

 

dunno, NDAs forbid us from saying anything even if we knew.

I work on software anyway

 

OK, I kind of understand that but I think the pressure differential is going to be miniscule. Has anyone done a real experiment with a negative pressure case with small air leaks and another with all air leaks sealed to see if this is true in the real world?

 

Another TL;DW: It depends. If you're consistent with maintenance, imbalanced airflow won't matter too much. But nobody would run all intake or all exhaust.


To me, optimizing airflow and filtration is going to cost little to no money (assuming you have a case already). If anything, it might save you money from buying an extra fan(s) that will hinder airflow.

 

i wish you wouldve told me this so i could stop bothering you

actually i think ill still bother you

 

i think this was mentioned recently on one of linus' videos as well.

 

Yeah, I was fortunate enough to be able to move to a different team.

If I were still in hardware, I would have to go in to work.

 

Really nice website for budgeting and piecing out your build. Shows expected performance and FPS differences too.

https://www.logicalincrements.com

Normally I use PC part picker but they don't show prices for sold out items

 

Yea I hate that about pc part picker.

also last I checked they still don’t have the NZXT H1 listed for a case.

 

Can you compare it to your current build and see estimated performance improvements?

 

That would be sweet.

 

I was trying to see if you could, but didn't see any option to do so. Sucks.

The GPU and CPU they use (1080ti, 3900x) seem to be popular performance SKUs, not being TOTL and not new-new, so still feels like a decent baseline.

 

Miz now you got me interested in the LG 27GN950.

I'm a PPI snob I won't got lower than 1440p 24in, but I might replace my 24in 1440P with that 4K LG. Though all the new monitors are about to get announced so let's see what happens.

My Dell G-Sync 144hz 1440P monitor has a TN panel so off axis viewing is bad, the gamma was bad until I fixed it in Nvidia control panel, and it's got a bad color banding issue, Seems like the LG IPS don't have these problems. And I get that pixel ghosting thing. I foolishly thought that the 144hz would fix that but I learned later that that's a pixel response issue.

 

Ghosting on a TN panel?

TN panels are known for their faster response times.

IPS panels while faster (maybe fast enough) can’t quite match up to TN panel response times.

most IPS panels that claim 1ms or faster response time have the display set at the fastest overdrive setting which causes a ton of overshoot. Which doesn’t look good.

 

I’ve heard good things about the LG 27GN950. Only thing that sucks is no HDMI 2.1, but that really only sucks for console players.

but doubt there would be many titles that can hit 4K 120fps.