Underestimation of tiny fans in ITX PC builds

Something I see a lot of when people build small ITX PC's and cram really high end hardware in them, they only utilise the fan locations the manufacturer put but ignore the possibility of installing smaller fans such as 40mm or 80mm in places the manufacturer only intended as air intakes and outlets.

Big issue with small ITX desktop builds is getting the hot air out quick enough which accumulates and heats up every component because of the tight space, as an owner of the Silverstone Raven Ridge RVZ03 I decided to experiment and it turns out, yes its genuinely useful to install tiny fans.


Currently I only managed to acquire 3 x 40mm fans and 1 x 80mm for testing purposes.
The fans I use are the following.
40mm - Noctua NF-A4x20 FLX
80mm - AKASA Slimfan AK-FN076 PWM

You might have trouble connecting this many fans to PWM connector on your MOAB but using a cable such as FLEXA FP3S or FLEXA FP5S to connect multiple same type fans to one header and power them off eSATA.

In my current testing I dropped a 10 degree off my Ryzen 7 1700 which runs at 1.375 volts and 3.9GHz but would easily reach 90 degrees without these fans and now sits at 80 degrees will eventually reach 87 because there just not enough fans to pull out the hot air from the 120mm 3000RPM CPU intake fan spinning at full speed.

So while the Raven Ridge RVZ03 can only utilise 3 x 120mm fans it is fully possible to install 4 x 40mm fans which do push air really nicely (No I am not joking its also very quiet at 5000RPM) and there possibility of 3 or 4 x 80mm fans, there some issues with the power cable that might interfere.

All you need to fasten these fans with is simple zip ties, I ran two through my fans and connected them on the other end, they are stuck pretty good and you can get them to line up very accurate, if you have an ITX build and want better air cooling, measure and test it out yourself.

Here some more pictures of the setup:

20190721_023601 by SMGJohn posted Oct 23, 2019 at 11:24 PM

20190721_023553 by SMGJohn posted Oct 23, 2019 at 11:24 PM

20190721_023547 by SMGJohn posted Oct 23, 2019 at 11:24 PM

20190721_020949 by SMGJohn posted Oct 23, 2019 at 11:24 PM

20190721_015943 by SMGJohn posted Oct 23, 2019 at 11:24 PM

20190721_015932 by SMGJohn posted Oct 23, 2019 at 11:24 PM

20190721_015921 by SMGJohn posted Oct 23, 2019 at 11:24 PM

19.10.23 Edit: Added Pictures because I am dumb and forgot to.

 

It's kinda dependent on mobo and airflow as well. For cases with structure like RVZ/FD202, any AM4 motherboard would suck with Cryorig C7 (I/o and RAM blocking all airflow)

I have a thermalright AXP-100 with FD202 and also R7 1700x. Running nice and cool. It's blowing downwards though it has formed an airflow of blowing outwards.

Though the best to have is somthing like dynatron turbo fans or watercooler like that on branded desktops, such as 5FGKT used on alienware

I'm looking forward to ASrock X570 with LGA115x heatsink. with the square brackets it'd be much easier to arrange a sensible airflow (With coooler such as VC-45).

 

I have some pictures and new info I will add regarding my experience with adding small fans to this case but long story short, reduced temps by 20 degrees at least in the CPU department.

Sent fra min SM-G970F via Tapatalk

 

EDIT: Forgot to add pictures LOL, Jesus Christ.