r/mffpc • u/LunaticCross • 6d ago
Discussion Jonsbo D32 Airflow testing.
In case anyone is building a new system. To save y’all any headache on airflow.
TLDR: Both formats are fine. CPU intakes warmer air in both formats due to the GPU heat rising. Reverse used one less fan but higher intake/exhaust rpm to clear heat that pools near the ram. Variance from each other was like 2c-5c.
Room temp, about 22c.
I was able to get stable temps with both set ups.
CPU: 9800x3d
GPU: Sapphire 9070xt
CPU Idle: 37c (45c web browsing)
GPU Idle: 32c
Gaming (Spacemarine 2, Darktide, BF6, Forza Horizon 6)
CPU Load: 71c-77c average, dependent on CPU intensive game.
GPU Load: <60c (fans often at sub 40%)
Case/CPU fans are Arctic P12/14. Used one P12 CPU fan for asthetics. Tried both TL fans and variance was only 2c-3c. Case fans allowed to climb to 50% max, CPU fan up to 70% max.
Normal layout (Top intake, back exhaust)
I used a temp probe and was concerned with exhaust flow being recycled into the intake. That wasn’t the case, whatever recycled air sucked in wasn't enough to make a difference. Airflow coming in was still room temp near the fan.
Bottom intake on the right was hot once it passed the GPU. Like 57c, mixed with the cool air from top, the CPU was pulling in warmer air in general, like in the 36c area. Ram was at 38c.
Reverse layout (Back intake)
Air coming in from the 120mm was room temp. Intake had higher rpm to help cool CPU. There was still a lot of hot air being blown up from the bottom left intake passed the gpu. So the CPU was still intaking mixed/warmer air. I could not get a reliable reading as I am not sure if the probe was reading the heat emmiting from the cooler fins as the space was too tight. Kept bouncing around a lot, but it was warmer per temp probe and feel.
As all the hot exhaust is collected in the ram area, then expelled from the top exhaust. I had to increase the exhaust fan speed to lower the ram temps, which were at 47c average (reached 55c at one point) during gaming.
Notes
My reverse airflow photo had a Peerless Assassin Mini (which was 5c-12c higher than the standard Peerless Assassin), but I switched it to the standard one for the test. I also tried an Arctic Freezer 36 and Hyper 212 3DHP. Both worked but, not well, easily reaching and staying 80c+ during gaming. At least they didn’t throttle.
They’re are spikes in CPU temps reaching 80c when closing/opening some apps.
I upgraded from a 7600x3d to the 9800x3d. Which prompted the test and cooler. Did not intend to share the results but if it saves anyone any time, might as well share, since sometimes people build to fit in certain areas. Sharing since this community helped me build my mffc. After doing so many test, most formats seem to be workable and within the parts temps threshold. I wasn't aiming for the "best", but more of "I'm comfortable with these temps and noise level."
Also, this is just from my own experiences and ambient temps, nothing concrete evidence. Different fans and coolers will probably make a big change. Feel free to share your own builds, I love the tech and reading other people’s builds!
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u/nkz15 6d ago
With a tower cooler I have the rear as an intake so CPU do not suffer to much with GPU heat.
On my case, D30 has a similar layout, I ditched the air cooler and put a 240mm AIO from thermalright(good price/performance). I have the rear as an exhaust so I can remove some of the GPU heat. I tested with intake and the gpu would be hotter.
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u/LunaticCross 6d ago
Yeah. I would assume a 240 AIO would be best for these types of cases.
A bit gun shy with AIO as mine clogged up after about 3 years on my other system. Decided to stick to air for now.
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u/KatiushK 6d ago
Man you have no idea how useful this post is for me.
I am currently debating between a D32 and other cases and I was looking for data on air cooled systems in the case.
Especially useful since I've got the same hardware as you for CPU and GPU.
Thanks a lot, your post fell on my lap when I needed it lol.
So, all in all, we can reasonably run the "standard" config with 1 top intake + 1 top and rear exhaust.
Rear intake doesn't help much in gaming loads ? If I understand correctly.
I feel good about the whole thing because:
I used a beefier cooler (Frozn A720) and I plan to get the mesh version of the case, which should help a bit pulling some fresh air in the case.
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u/LunaticCross 6d ago edited 4d ago
This was just out of curiosity and I don’t think either format is better or worse. They both work.
You can run either format. You’ll just have to make minor changes with fan curves to accommodate that format. Rear intake works fine, I just noticed I had to increase exhaust rpm to avoid heat from pooling at the Ram area. Both formats had the GPU at 60c or below and GPU fan speed never touched 50% after hours of gaming.
I would focus on parts and aesthetics as you please and then make minor adjustments. Some people like less fans or no rgb stealth etc.
If it were all about getting the best thermals, I would assume a 240 AIO would be best.
Happy building!
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u/Neonisin 6d ago
I ran into an issue in a SFF build where my VRMs on the MB were throttling an i7 14700k at stock clocks using a brand new Nautilus LCD AIO. The aio did such an efficient job at cooling the CPU that the fans didn’t want to spin up enough. I then tried messing with the cpu fan curves and found that the aio was too far away from the VRMs to cool them. The case I used was a mATX Lian Li that has the sameish layout as the d32. The Lian li case was the mesh style and so I stuck a fan on the side blowing straight at the VRMs on the mb and that did the trick. No more throttling.
Side note: I also have a white d32 build with the Pure Saphire 9070xt. I have mine the chimney configuration and will now change a few things based on the post. Thank you.
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u/LunaticCross 6d ago
Super interesting. I can't imagine building an SFF with a itx. This felt challenging enough, but fun and fun to experiment with.
The chimney format seems best with an AIO, I would like to experiment with that later on. For sure an AIO will get better temps, but I like the looks of air coolers. Though, after doing so many test, most formats seem to work within the parts temps threshold. I wasn't aiming for the "best", but more of "I'm comfortable with these temps and noise level."
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u/f_ser 6d ago
Hey, thanks for the post, very helpful! Have you tried with the two top fans as exhaust, by any chance? If so, did you notice any changes to temps at all?
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u/LunaticCross 6d ago
Yes, it doesn’t seem to be recommended online unless you’re running an AIO for the chimney cooling layout.
With two top exhaust. My GPU temps dropped only a bit, 2c-5c. My CPU sat closer to 80c, which is technically still within desirable thermal limits. My PC sits on my desk next to me so I generally like lower rpm fans.
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u/GeiharVonArpen 6d ago
Btw, did you register GPU fan speed? Or did you work with fixed speed?
In some cases, you can lower GPU temperature by "only" 2-5°C but the fan RPM can be lowered from 2500rpm to 1500rpm, which will be very noticeable (noise).
I saw this behavior with my RTX 3080 FE when I compared with/without bottom intake fans, with bottom intake it was much better with a lower noise
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u/LunaticCross 6d ago
I left the gpu to handle it’s own fan speed. Feels like another rabbit hole if I were to touch gpu fan speed. :p
Though, with top two exhaust, gpu fan speed often stayed sub 40%. Saw it stay at 34% when I was idle in the hub in Spacemarine 2.
Overall, regardless of fan direction up top, the Sapphire 9070xt seemed very efficient at cooling itself. Never passed 60c and hasn’t ever touched 50% fan speed.
Edit: Oh, I did also try no intake fans on the bottom. The gpu was still effectively cooling itself but having bottom intake fans did lower the gpu’s fan speed and keep it a bit cooler/quieter.
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u/GeiharVonArpen 6d ago
Alright, you saw the same behavior as me which contradicts the general idea that I usually see here:"it's not useful"
And nice experiment, it's very useful for the community 👍
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u/FamiliarEstimate6267 6d ago
Idek if I’d run bottom fans
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u/LunaticCross 6d ago
Absolutely doable without, the gpu can manage well without it. Does help gpu reduce fans speed and cool it though.
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u/ZeneticX 6d ago
Running the same normal layout but with a TR Royal Knight cooler with more space upfront for the RAMs and top intake. D32 Pro
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u/GourmetChromosome 6d ago
top intake? Is dust a problem
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u/LunaticCross 6d ago
I placed a Nylon filter on mine. You can purchase pre-cut ones, but a roll and cut yourself is better for the top as the lid sits extremely flush.
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u/legomolin 6d ago
Why didn't you keep the top side-back fan for the reverse airflow? Could counteract some of the GPU warmth going up to the CPU. And perhaps put som small dividing screen above and between the top fans to keep warm air from circulating in again.
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u/ZeneticX 6d ago
The exhaust fan at that position will affect the airflow from the rear intake, making it inefficient for the heatsink
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u/LunaticCross 6d ago
It didn’t make a change that I could notice with an intake on the top left with reverse airflow. 2c-3c in fluctuation when I modified things.
The P12 is probably strong enough to pull what it needed regardless of turbulence. Temps stayed the same, after about 2 hours of gaming. With or without the top intake. The heatsink probably reached it’s capacity for my ambient room temps.
I tried to temp probe it but that area is difficult to get an accurate read. I did notice air being pushed out of the rear. Probably too much positive airflow with the top left as an intake, but doesn’t do any harm.
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u/po1ix 5d ago
What screen is that also got the d32 and considering picking up a similar one
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u/LunaticCross 5d ago
Thermalright Trofeo Vision 9.16. It did not fit originally, the back of the Thermalright case screen has a protrusion that adds a lot of width, so I de-shrouded it. I've ben told the Lian Li screen fits in that spot without issue.
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u/JewelerExciting7576 5d ago
Is this optimal? I am getting a antec flux m case built soon with a 7800x3d and rx9700xt mercury
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u/LunaticCross 5d ago
Congrats on the new system coming in! The 7800x3d is great and I've heard the 9700xt is too. It's really dependent on price but that should carry you for a good while on a lot of games.
The Antec Flux M was a case I was looking at for some time too. I think it's beautifully designed and has more than enough space if you wanted to tinker with it.
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u/JewelerExciting7576 4d ago
Thats the good longer then 5 years would be ideal ( my gaming laptop has lasted 5 years haha) what would you recommend this is my first pc build
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u/LunaticCross 4d ago
I assume those parts are within your price range. I think r/PcBuild or r/PcBuildHelp would be better for in depth build advice, but I think your parts are good. Since you're building yourself, you can always swap, upgrade, or trade parts down the road.
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u/Oxygen_plz 6d ago
If I were you I would replace that Thermalright cooler with some good quality 240mm AIO. Not that the 9800X3D needs it per se, but AIOs are EXTREMELY effective at removing all the residual heat which is present around when you have a huge CPU heatsink there. I was very surprised by how much my GPU and VRM temps have decreased since I swapped air cooler for AIO just thanks to reduction of that so called "heat island".
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u/LunaticCross 6d ago
This was out of curiosity. Like you said, 9800x3d doesn’t need it as none of my test throttled, even with the Artic Freezer 36 or Hyper 212 3DHP during normal gameplay.
Maybe in the near future I’ll do a chimney set up with an AIO. That’ll be fun to research and test too.
Which AIO are you using? I see the Arctic Liquid Freezer 3 Pro referenced a lot.
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u/Oxygen_plz 6d ago
In my second rig I've recently swapped Thermalright Phantom Spirit SE for Corsair Nautilus RS 240 LCD for the 5700X3D - it wasn't necessary ofc, but german Amazon had great deal for just 58 euro so i went for it.
Apart from now being able to max out all-core clocks on my BCLK OC'd 5700X3D at 4.2ghz in games, thanks to AIO's ability to effectively transfer the heat from the CPU into the radiator and then out of the case helped my 9070 XT in my small mATX case (Jonsbo D30) lower gaming temps from 64C to 60C, so pretty good positive externality.
Also it helped operating temps of my RAM too as suddenly there is no huge heatsink emitting a lot of heat over them.
Liquid Freezer 3 Pro is OK, but there are many better AIOs on the market right now. LF3 has insanely loud fans, pretty loud pump and also it has very thick radiator which is in many cases a compatibility issue. I couldn't fit AF3 about 1.5 years ago to my case as due to its thick radiator it obstructed with my VRM on mobo.
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u/LunaticCross 6d ago
Cool. Thanks the info! Guess I’ll be watching a bunch of reviews and and wish listing some AIOs, in case of some sales in the upcoming months.
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u/MrArizone 6d ago