The LAN center in Fresno finally taught me about airflow

I went to that retro gaming spot off Blackstone last Saturday to watch a friend rebuild his 2009 rig. Three hours in, we noticed his GPU temp climbing past 85C no matter what we did. The owner walked over, pointed at the front intake fan which was pulling straight into a wall of HDD cages, and said 'you gotta plan the path, not just fill the box.' We moved two drives to the top bay and the temp dropped 12 degrees. Has anyone else had a simple parts rearrangement beat a new cooler?

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ivan_hayes2922d ago

My 2011 Fractal Define R1 had the exact same issue. I spent like 60 bucks on a bigger fan and nothing changed. Then I moved my SSD to the 5.25 bay and just took out all the drive cages except the one holding my HDD. Dropped 10 degrees easy. The cages in those older cases are basically wind blockers. People sleep on how much drag those metal frames create. You can have the best cooler in the world but if the air cant get past your storage setup it means nothing.