Dan A4 Case hot temps

[BennyBait]

Hello everyone.

I recently recieved my Dan A4 case and man the quality is amazing! Love the design and the feel.

I did my build of all new components and it went really smooth, even with the 92mm AIO I had no problems with cable management.

Here’s a list of stuff:

Intel i7 8700 (65 TDP)
ASUS ROG H3something -i (can’t remember)
Asetek 645lt 92mm AIO (Noctua fan in pull)
Corsair LPX 32GB DDR4 RAM
Intel 660p 2TB M.2
Corsair SF750 Platinum
GPU I haven’t bought yet (waiting for stock) so it’s bare

So to the problem...

I left my PC on over night to download all my steam games and when I came back in the morning, the top of the case was warm. I just thought this was down to it being an aluminium case (I’ve only ever build in plastic panel cases).
It was warmest towards the front of the case, above where the PSU exhaust is. Not hot, but warm.

I then today decided to play Portal 2 (great game and only 70p on steam right now) as my integrated graphics on the cpu should be able to handle this old game.
Well at least an hour into gaming, the case was hot. It wasn’t scolding but all the panels were very warm, something again I thought could be down to it being a metal case (I realise obviously it’s not now).
I then decided to take the side panels off to see what’s going on inside. BLOODY HELL. Every component was damn hot, and the m.2 asus heatsink was boiling.... burn your fingers boiling.
So the thing that ticked me off was that everything was so hot, and the sf750 psu with its ‘zero rpm fan mode’ wasn’t even spinning, even though the psu was so hot.
I then decided to put the desk fan that was cooling me (it’s a hot day today in the UK) on the case. After no time the aluminium case wasn’t warm to touch at all. However, I decided to turn off the desk fan and the case got a little warm again, even with the side panels off.

SO..... what’s going on then. There could be multiple different things causing this to happen.

- The Corsair SF750 is getting real hot and warming everything else up, but because it’s not hitting 300 watts, the fan is just sitting there
- My configuration of pulling air into the case from the AIO fan and letting it exhaust passively is crap and I need to flip the fan
- Because I have no GPU, the CPU doing all the graphic stuff is making it extra hot (although I doubt this as it was warm on idle)
- Maybe my liquid cooler isn’t on the cpu properly? (Unlikely)
- I have a faulty product.... maybe the PSU?

I plan on undervolting later on anyway, but the case shouldn’t be getting this hot without doing that.

Anyway I’m absolutely stumped on this one and any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Anyone else using a Corsair sf750 platinum with the no fan mode? Feel like that’s the most likely thing.

Cheers!

 

[Nanook]

It’s as expected for this tiny case. Get an exhaust 92mm fan below the motherboard. It helps create some airflow throughout the case, exhausting the hot air, and passively pull in air from all the holes.

 

[tinyitx]

A couple comment:-
a. Check the temp of important components (CPU, M.2 SSD...etc) with, say, HWinfo64. Using your hand is not very meaningful. Body temp is 37C. Anything above will give you a warm feeling. Your fingers will likely to feel 'warm' on a 40-ish C surface and 'hot' on a 50ish C surface. But, 50C is not hot at all for many PC components.

b. When the SF750 fan is not turned on, I susepct most of the internal heat do not migrate (by radiation) and affect other nearby components as the heat inside will mostly rise by convection. That is why you feel the top panel being warm right above its exhaust side.

c. When considering a display card, better consider a blower type card. It exhausts most (if not all) of its hot air via its rear, making it much easier to manage the case interior thermally.

 

[BennyBait]

Yeah I think it just might be me not being used to having an aluminium case and such a small one.

I’ve swapped the cpu fan to push, which exhausts the air out the bottom and not up the case and seems to be better. I’ll need to get myself a small fan for the m.2 drive.

Here’s some pics from a YouTuber who took thermal images of the case, so it’s not just me.

 

[Revenant]

Just wait till you put an axial fan GPU in there... OH boy!

Cases like this get hot...very hot. I actually ran my A4-SFX with an 8700 (Non-K) and an axial fan MSI GTX 1070 for a while. Boy did it get hot. However, I also used air cooling for the CPU that functioned as an intake and cooled down the mainboard and M2. You don't have a CPU that really needs the 92mm AIO set up. Something to consider would be swapping to an L9i with a 92x25mm fan set to intake. Even better would be to jury rig a fan above your mainboard to blow down on it as an intake.

I would also consider getting a blower card for your GPU. I've compared my A4-SFX with a 980ti blower (250 watt) and a GTX 770 axial (230 watt). The 980ti blower was a better fit for the case because it exhausted waste heat out of the case. It was a little louder, but I was gaming with headphones so a wash in the end.

 

[tinyitx]

I would also consider getting a blower card for your GPU. I've compared my A4-SFX with a 980ti blower (250 watt) and a GTX 770 axial (230 watt). The 980ti blower was a better fit for the case because it exhausted waste heat out of the case. It was a little louder, but I was gaming with headphones so a wash in the end.

Now that reference design cards from both Nvidia and AMD are cards with axial fans, even though AIB like Asus and MSI are still having models of blower design, I fear the days of blower cards are numbered. Maybe a few more generations down the line, blower cards will disappear all together?
So, the ball is going to be in the court of the SFF case designers, who should now begin to design and update their cases to cater for axial fanned cards. I would like to see more cases with design shown in the pic, where the right panel having openings along the bottom edge. This should help to release the exhaust from the bottom edge of the card, rather than trapping the exhaust (which will usually go up behind the motherboard and will warm up an M.2 SSD there).

https://gd1.alicdn.com/imgextra/i1/35443409/O1CN01Dq0Qeg1b3MiU1VrU5_!!35443409.jpg

 

[Revenant]

The best way I’ve found to release trapped heat is an exhaust fan mounted high.

I have an NCASE M1 with an overclocked 8086K, and overclocked RTX 2080 Founders Edition. Without an exhaust fan, the GPU put out so much heat that the case was painful to the touch. I actually burned myself on the backplate of the GPU.

Adding a single 92mm low flow exhaust fan dropped GPU temps by 5C and made the case much cooler. Swapping the AIO to exhaust warm air killed my CPU temps, but dropped my GPU 10C.

Trying to force hot air out the bottom of the case with 90 degree angles needs a high pressure fan. Additionally, as the hot air surrounds the case and then is often sucked back in. The ideal solution is to push the hot air out the top. It will naturally rise, and the flow has no right angles to deal with.

We’ve seen a lot of top-hats, lofts, and attics in new cases. With the rise of axial cards they’re becoming necessary.

 

[Hellow]

Maybe we need a case with an integrated blower fan at the top

 

[Revenant]

Maybe we need a case with an integrated blower fan at the top

They used to sell PCI slot blowers.

I would love to see the rise of 3 slot blower cards.