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pastrychef's Asus ROG Strix Z370-G Gaming (WI-FI AC) build w/ i9-9900K + AMD 6600 XT

How many Case Fans do you have? This could be a big factor. Also I would guess that water cooling would help in this scenario since the cooling happens at the front of the case before the GPU. I seem to remember watching a video and the overall system temp to be lower with the open shroud and water cooling then when they used the Blower style with Water Cooler.

Here's a picture I found from googling. My setup is pretty much exactly the same minus one video card. As you can see, under the drive bays, there are two fans. Both are 120mm Noctuas and I also have a single 120mm Noctua in the rear for exhaust.
180083.eeb1f8b78dcaba5bc8afe3148ca8b8d0.1600.jpg

The cooling on this case is fantastic. There's really no obstructions to airflow. Also, the fan that's in the middle of the Noctua heatsink sits low enough that it should offer at least some air circulation over the rear VRM heatsink.
 
The cooling on this case is fantastic. There's really no obstructions to airflow. Also, the fan that's in the middle of the Noctua heatsink sits low enough that it should offer at least some air circulation over the rear VRM heatsink.


Maybe you just need more air out to make up for the open set up. I really like that my PSU is on the bottom takes air from the bottom outside and spits it out the back. That case looks very small, maybe not the best choice for an open shroud.
 
Maybe you just need more air out to make up for the open set up. I really like that my PSU is on the bottom takes air from the bottom outside and spits it out the back. That case looks very small, maybe not the best choice for an open shroud.

I don't know how to force even more air in to the case. Lol. I suppose I can replace the two front fans with Noctua NF-A12x25s...

I liked the size of the case and the fact that the overall layout is very reminiscent of my old Mac Pro. There's enough room for:
3x 3.5" hard drives
3x 2.5" hard drives
Noctua NH-D15S (160mm height)
Enough room for video cards that are 14.5" long

The fan on my power supply doesn't turn on until there's at least 50% load. It's an 850W power supply and I don't think the fan has ever been on... I like that the heat from the power supply can exhaust out the top of the case.
 
I don't know how to force even more air in to the case. Lol. I suppose I can replace the two front fans with Noctua NF-A12x25s...

I liked the size of the case and the fact that the overall layout is very reminiscent of my old Mac Pro. There's enough room for:
3x 3.5" hard drives
3x 2.5" hard drives
Noctua NH-D15S (160mm height)
Enough room for video cards that are 14.5" long

The fan on my power supply doesn't turn on until there's at least 50% load. It's an 850W power supply and I don't think the fan has ever been on... I like that the heat from the power supply can exhaust out the top of the case.
Those two drive bays at the top front are taking up a lot of space lol :)
 
I don't know how to force even more air in to the case. Lol. I suppose I can replace the two front fans with Noctua NF-A12x25s...

I liked the size of the case and the fact that the overall layout is very reminiscent of my old Mac Pro. There's enough room for:
3x 3.5" hard drives
3x 2.5" hard drives
Noctua NH-D15S (160mm height)
Enough room for video cards that are 14.5" long

The fan on my power supply doesn't turn on until there's at least 50% load. It's an 850W power supply and I don't think the fan has ever been on... I like that the heat from the power supply can exhaust out the top of the case.

Looking at that case, I suspect that a negative pressure setup would work better for the open cooled GPU, particularly because if means reversing the airflow from back to front.

Without any case fans at all, the air from the GPU (and CPU) would rise to the top of the case (between the PSU and disks), and as it cooled, it would spill over the top and fall behind (under) the MB. You would end up with internal airflow rising in the big part of the case and falling in the small gap under the MB - especially if the GPU and CPU fans were stopped.

With your current positive pressure setup, the cool air from the front will be split. Most will be directed through the CPU cooler and exhausted through the back, but a significant amount will pick up the hot air from the GPU and blow it round the case, probably following the natural air flow path, so you end up heating the MB from below and then have hot air mixing with the air going through the CPU cooler - bad all round.

That natural motion will happen whenever a fan can't prevent it. In your case, most air from the GPU will rise in that area. The exhaust fan will only deal with the air from the CPU cooler and the front case fans, which means the GPU heated air will be forced back into the general airflow in a position where it will come through the CPU cooler. On the way, it will be heating the MB.

If you reverse the case fans, the CPU gets pure external air, so should have the best temps possible. The GPU heated are will be drawn to the front of the case, and even if it spills over the top, that air will also be drawn to the front before it can heat anything else.

With the closed blower cooler, you have no GPU heat remaining in the top of the case, so the air moving round the case helps cool the disks and MB instead of heating them, resulting in good cooling all round. Because the GPU air is being exhausted at the back, you want your current front to back airflow to prevent the GPU air being sucked back in again.
 
What is the equivalent full size ATX Intel motherboard for this build?
 
What is the equivalent full size ATX Intel motherboard for this build?

I use a z370-F Gaming; there is also an z370-I, z370-H Gaming though none of them have a built in wifi. The z370-E has wifi so it might be the closest to the z370-G.
 
Looking at that case, I suspect that a negative pressure setup would work better for the open cooled GPU, particularly because if means reversing the airflow from back to front.

Without any case fans at all, the air from the GPU (and CPU) would rise to the top of the case (between the PSU and disks), and as it cooled, it would spill over the top and fall behind (under) the MB. You would end up with internal airflow rising in the big part of the case and falling in the small gap under the MB - especially if the GPU and CPU fans were stopped.

With your current positive pressure setup, the cool air from the front will be split. Most will be directed through the CPU cooler and exhausted through the back, but a significant amount will pick up the hot air from the GPU and blow it round the case, probably following the natural air flow path, so you end up heating the MB from below and then have hot air mixing with the air going through the CPU cooler - bad all round.

That natural motion will happen whenever a fan can't prevent it. In your case, most air from the GPU will rise in that area. The exhaust fan will only deal with the air from the CPU cooler and the front case fans, which means the GPU heated air will be forced back into the general airflow in a position where it will come through the CPU cooler. On the way, it will be heating the MB.

If you reverse the case fans, the CPU gets pure external air, so should have the best temps possible. The GPU heated are will be drawn to the front of the case, and even if it spills over the top, that air will also be drawn to the front before it can heat anything else.

With the closed blower cooler, you have no GPU heat remaining in the top of the case, so the air moving round the case helps cool the disks and MB instead of heating them, resulting in good cooling all round. Because the GPU air is being exhausted at the back, you want your current front to back airflow to prevent the GPU air being sucked back in again.

Hmm... Interesting... I didn't think that the positive pressure could be detrimental... I always thought that compressing more air in to the case would cool the air and help all components.

I can see how using the two front case fans to suck out the heat from the case might help. However, don't you think that the fans on the video card would still force the hot air generated from the video card downward towards the CPU cooler?

I'm trying to envision in my head how changing direction of the airflow and creating a negative pressure situation would work. I think for it to be effective, I'd have to reverse all the case fans and the two CPU fans. I'd also need to rethink dust management. Alternatively, I think I can do a quick, albeit less efficient, test simply by unplugging the two front fans.

Reversing all the fans will require a considerable amount of time due to how tightly everything is packed in right now. I'd also have to saw off a corner of the rear fan so that the Wi-Fi/Bluetooth card to fit. So, this test will probably have to wait until the next time I pull everything out to mess with my Z390 motherboard again.
 
What is the equivalent full size ATX Intel motherboard for this build?

Yes, as scottkendall stated, the Z370-E is probably closest. But I think all the Asus Z370 motherboards are extremely similar and would work almost equally as well.
 
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