PCI intake fans and cooling advice.

I've never seen one of those in use. Let me know how it works out!

Okay, here is my layout of heat sources. You can guess where my point of concern is and why I want to put the PCI intake in place



here is my approximation of the airflow. Those big 200m fans are quite and have high airflow, but their very low static pressure means that the inward gfx card exhaust distrupts it. most of the cooling flow in the top box is created by the CPU fan more than anything, but most of the heat sources are small and well placed.



I am also considering a 12cm intake on the top back, ducted down below the processor to give stronger airflow on the back of the card and increase the static pressure so it exhausts more effectively. at the very least I'll put a filter on the back hole, enough dust problems as it is!

A couple of ideas. Change the top 200mm to intake which may give you positive pressure and help move the hot GPU air out. Turn the CPU cooler 90° counter clockwise so it will exhaust out the back and take some of the GPU heat with it. If possible, add another fan to the CPU cooler in a push/pull arrangement.

It sounds as if you do need to replace the current GPU fan if it making so much noise. If you're up to it, you could remove it from the card, take off the rubber plug on the fan's bearing and put a drop of lube in there. You can clean any dust on it and the heatsink at the same time.

the gpu fan I will replace anyway, that's a given. it's not that deeply built into the card so it's easy, if i can find the right replacement.

As for the other ideas: I would love to if I could. However, I can't turn the cpu heatsink (I did want it blowing out the back originally, but it doesnt fit, ASUS put lots of heatsinks around the processor to exploit the cpu fan. They are already touching the processor heatink and bending the bottom fin in that arrangement, the side one (hard to see on that picture, but look at any picture ofthe P5Q3 deluxe and you'll se) is about 0.8mm closer, and i cannot get the sink in there.

I hadn't thought of reversing the top fan, I'm sure that would substantially improve the pressure. The problem is that the fan has only got screw mounts on one side of the fan. I'd have to nose around and try to get some long bolts, doable once I stop travelling for work. Not sure it's much use though if the processor fan is blowing upward.

That's because he has the big fan on the top. which you can't see.

Have you considered a different CPU cooler such as a Cooler Master HyperEVO? It should fit to blow out the back and clear the heat sinks and RAM.
Here's a couple of views of mine (on a test bench). Board is ASUS P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3

The 20cm is just about visible on the picture. I didn't put another 12 in the back because I was moving country that day and didn't have time to get any more parts. I'm likely to put something on the back, just need to decide what.

honestly, the bigger heat sinks terrify me. The idea of putting something that heavy on my motherboard and bending it is something i will never do!. The heat sink I got seems to do an exceptional job and it the lightest on the market save the intel stock cooler. it's just that my motherboard has an annoying number of heatsinks around the cpu (probably to exploit the airflow, but even now they don't get warm) I'm certain I couldn't fit most of the bigger heatsinks, I struggled with my one. my next build in a couple years time I'll be quite careful about heatsink locations I think.

Out of interest....did you seriously build your computer caseless? surely you must suffer from dust (although I get you have decent airflow)

If your case was designed to have top and rear exhaust fans then your problem could be solved by just finishing the build and putting that rear fan in it.
The case designers have a plan that they think will work in all typical PC configurations and you should give that plan a proper tryout, don't you think?

Britton30 does not run his PC with the guts on the table, that is just how a lot of us build a system. Assemble all the important bits on the motherboard and then test it on the "test bench" (which can be a kitchen table) to be sure everything is working properly before putting it all in the case.