Help cooling NCase M1 (5800x, 3070TI FE)

[supez38]

So, I recently did 2 upgrades for my system after running a 4670k and 1070FE for years and am running into some cooling issues.

Before the upgrade, I ran 2 fans on a Noctua U9S towards the rear with no other cooling, my temps were like 40c CPU and 40c GPU at idle with 70c CPU and 80c GPU at load. The PC was practically silent at idle or non-intensive tasks which was very good.

I'm running the same setup now with a 5800x and a 3070TI FE but am running into some issues that are maybe because of the GPU cooler design. It seems the right fan basically just pushes hot air up which goes into the CPU cooler. My idle temps are 55-60c for the CPU and 50-54c for the GPU, it's also audible and not silent at idle as I had before.

My temps at load:

• RPCS3
  • CPU: 90c
  • GPU: 50-55c
• Witcher 3
  • CPU: 70-75c
  • GPU: 70-75c
• Cyberpunk 2077
  • CPU: 78-80c
  • GPU: 79-81c
• Cinebench:
  • CPU 90-90.5c throughout
• Heaven
  • CPU: 70c
  • GPU: 75-80c

Basically my CPU hits 90c at anything over 40% usage, Witcher and Cyberpunk don't even hit 30% CPU usage for me. What do you guys recommend I change to improve the temps and have a quiet system at idle/non-intensive tasks.

 

[supez38]

Heaven temps corrected:
CPU: 75-80
GPU: 80-85

 

[rfarmer]

Best setup I have seen is rear intake, flip your cooler fans and 120mm exhaust fan on right side of fan bracket. 2x120mm intake at the bottom. This gives fresh air intake and exhaust for cooler and FE.

 

[AlexTSG]

I have a similar setup. NCASE M1 v6, Ryzen 7 5800X, Noctua U9S, but my GPU is an EVGA RTX 3080, so I don't have the hot air blowing through the card like the FE does.

The best temps I've managed are with the setup that @rfarmer has suggested. I'm using a Phanteks T30 on the side panel opposite the PSU, set to exhaust, and Noctua NF-A12x15 fans at the bottom as intake. I spent an entire weekend trying every fan in every location and orientation I could think of before I settled on this.

I don't think the U9S is up to the task of cooling the 5800X if you want to get the full performance out of it.

I've used the latest Ryzen Master software to auto undervolt my CPU, and I have fairly aggressive fan curves once the CPU exceeds 70 degrees, and it's louder than I would like.

Currently I do get better performance than I would from a Ryzen 5 5600X, but for an SFF build I would only use the U9S on a 65W CPU in the future.

Personally, I plan to install an EKWB 240mm AIO to get the more performance with less noise, but with my current work schedule that's only likely to happen in a few months. I'll post some info and measurements on the forums when I do make the change.

 

[LordNothing]

Best setup I have seen is rear intake, flip your cooler fans and 120mm exhaust fan on right side of fan bracket. 2x120mm intake at the bottom. This gives fresh air intake and exhaust for cooler and FE.

this gave me the best results. using a c14s at 90-degrees rotation. i didnt like having the cpu cooler fan in a pull configuration. realized that if i flipped the rear fan, i could push air from 2 sides of the cooler and pull from the other 2 sides giving the airflow through the cooler a diagonal path.

with a large enough video card, the bottom compartment becomes its own cooling zone. tape off the vent holes in the lower part of the case so all the air pushes through and around the gpu without being vented out the case. divert the bypass air around the pcie slot to cool the mobo and feed the cpu cooler.

 

[supez38]

I ended up flipping the cooler fans and adding the side exhaust but didn't add any bottom fans.

I now get around 45-50c at idle for the CPU and 40 for the GPU.
The CPU now no longer hits 90c, the highest I saw was around 85 and the GPU goes up to 75-85 depending on the game/benchmark.

I had to do some fan curves in Argus Monitor to get it to be quiet at idle but it doesn't work all the time because this CPU heats up fast. I think I also might have to use a 240mm AIO as AlexTSG suggested. The best setup would probably be 2 intake fans under the GPU and a 240MM AIO in the side bracket as exhaust.

 

[supez38]

Update:

I added two bottom intake fans (one a12x15 on the left and a12x25 on the right), new taller feet and undervolted the CPU. I am now getting fantastic temps and noise levels after doing some fan curves.

It is practically silent at idle or less intensive tasks. The CPU temp ranges from 43-58 and the GPU from 32-35.
At load, the noise levels are perfectly tolerable and not really loud. CPU ranges from 70-84 and GPU ranges from 60-80.

My fan curves (max cpu, gpu temp)
Case fans: 35% until 80c where it ramps up to 50%
CPU fans: 30% until 60c, 40% at 60c, 60% at 70c and 70% at 80c+

 

[AlexTSG]

Last week, after reading another post on these forums, I found an "Eco 95W" setting in my BIOS. It's only a 10W reduction from the normal TDP, but it's got my temperatures under control, and I'm still going to play around with an undervolt.

It sounds like you have found a good setup for your system already, but if you are looking to bring temps and/or noise down a bit more the 95W Eco mode might be worth checking out, if your board supports it.