Cooling for the EVGA 660?

[CBJ023]

Hi, I'm planning on getting a EVGA 660 today (On sake for $190) with a Cooler Master 431 case, and a Phenom II x4 965. With the fans that come with the CPU, case, and graphics card will this be enough cooling, and what temperatures would I be looking at max? If I overclock my CPU do I need a after market cooler? Can I even overclock with a MSI 970a motherboard? Thanks, I might get one extra fan, or look into ways to improve cooling

 

[particleman]

Once you go water cooling you will never go back.

 

[CBJ023]

Doesn't really answer any of my questions... I'd try water cooling if I had the money unfortunately I don't have that money

 

[particleman]

Your question is silly. Do you think they would sell a pc component with a HSF that would over heat? How in the world is anyone supposed to know what temps you will have? Is your ambient 20°c or 35°c. Also you were asking about aftermarket cooling which I would say water cooling falls into. So ask an ambiguous question and get an ambiguous answer.

 

[CBJ023]

I meant a replacement fan and heatsink, and no they don't make one that'll overheat but in certain builds it will this one has bad heating so I didn't know if it would run too hot in my build

 

[OhSnapWord]

To answer your questions to the best of my ability...

With the fans that come with the CPU, case, and graphics card will this be enough cooling, and what temperatures would I be looking at max?

Don't know. What fans do you have in there now? There is no possible way for us to know how hot your build could possibly get.

If I overclock my CPU do I need a after market cooler?

Do you need one? No. You can overclock a little bit on the stock cooler. Should you get a better cooler? Absolutely. A favorite is the Cooler Master Hyper 212.

Can I even overclock with a MSI 970a motherboard?

You should be able to. I can overclock with my Gigabyte 970a. It depends on what overclocking features are in the BIOS.

 

[CBJ023]

Thank you I was just wondering if my build would run a little hot it has one fan in the front, and one high at the back for exhaust

 

[setishock]

You're planning ahead which is a good thing. But it's hard really to be dead sure as to how much heat you're going to generate.
There are a couple of flavors of the case you posted. I'll assume you have the model that has two roof fans and one in the back wall. If you have the fan in the front intake remove that one. With 3 exhaust fans the front fan would be inhibiting air flow.
The idea is to let the air in the case have time to absorb the heat from the devices and then get moved out of the case.
My case is 3.46 cubic feet in volume. I have 3 120mm exhaust fans. 70.5 CFM @ 800 RPM to 119.8 CFM @1500 RPM. The intake is passive and is 240mm high by 120mm wide.
The fans are driven off the mother board and run at 700 RPM +/-10 RPM. Stall speed for those fans is not part of their literature but a WAG would say 200 to 300 is as low as you would want to push them. Let's figure at 700 RPM the CFM would be roughly 60.

The math would blow you away so I'll make it simple.
3 x 60 = 180 total CFM. Case volume is 3.46 CF. Ok on the handy dandy calculator take CFM at 180 and divide it by case volume at 3.46 and you get 52.02. You can, in theory, exchange the air in the case 52 times in 1 minute.

Now comes the interesting part. Thermal transfer. That's the amount of heat being thrown off by the devices that can be absorbed by the air moving through the case. Move too fast and the thermal energy being given off by the source doesn't have time to excite a larger amount of air molecules. It remains trapped in the device. Air moving a little slower lingering in the case will absorb more thermal energy. But not too slow. It still has to be moved on out.

Interesting enough if the ambient temp going in the case is too low you either slow the fans down to let it linger longer(more thermal transfer time) or move larger volumes of air to get the same effect. If the air going in is too warm to start with the whole thing goes to hades in a hand basket. The air is too warm to get much more thermal transfer. It's a balance game. Finding the sweet spot is the Holy Grail for builders.

That's why we can't give you an answer as to how much heat and what coolers to use in exact figures. We can tell you what we use and how they work for us. Thermal dynamics is a little complicated in some aspects. But if you bone up on the simpler side of it, it becomes quite interesting. And it becomes a handy tool for that build.

 

[setishock]

Thank you I was just wondering if my build would run a little hot it has one fan in the front, and one high at the back for exhaust

AW FRACK! I should have read your last post a little closer. One fan in the back and one in the front?
I'd be looking for another case. Not enough air flow for over clocking anything. Case setups like that are for normal end users. Web surfers.
If you're serious about over clocking anything you have you're going to need better ventilation.

 

[CBJ023]

No worries, a lot of good information, I have to go with that case because I'm on a tight budget, overclocking wise, at most I'd overclock my processor from 3.4-3.8 but only if I'm running good temperatures before hand I'm trying to find tips and tricks to help lower temperature