How to install a top exhuast fan to Power Spec G232 Gaming PC; Intel Core i5 12th Gen 12400F 2.5GHz

Yoey

Hello Everyone,

This is my first Prebuilt Gaming PC, but I am tech savvy to an extent - I recently purchased the PowerSpec G232 Gaming PC; Intel Core i5 12th Gen 12400F 2.5GHz Processor - The temperature seems a little hot while gaming and streaming at the same time (90 Celsius) I was thinking I could cut down on the heat if I installed a bigger exhaust fan to the rear (right now it looks to be 80mm - if anyone can confirm the size of this I may look into replacing it instead) - Some users on the reviews of this unit have said they installed a 120mm exhaust to the top of the unit right above the CPU. I was just wondering how and what is needed (fan splitter? and Lian Li Fan?) and how to go about mounting it to the top of the PC.

Motherboard: ASUS PRIME B660M-A AC D4 (Manual is attached)

E19089_PRIME_B660M-A_AC_D4_UM_WEB.pdf

Case: Powerspec 185M ITX Glass

Let me know if a picture would help, and if anybody has this PC let me know! Thank you all for the help. 😀

PowerSpec_MikeW

@Yoey

There's no place to mount in the top. You could remove the dust filter and zip tie a 120MM up there if you wanted to. The front is blocked by the PSU. Airflow is adequate but 80C+ under a heavy load is pretty typical with this CPU on the stock or similar cooler. If you want to lower the temperatures, I would upgrade the CPU cooler rather than trying to add additional airflow. This will improve performance a bit, but might not necessarily help with the thermals as much as you'd think.

12th Gen CPU's are meant to boost until they hit either a thermal or power wall. 65W TDP Processor, Max Turbo Power is 117W. You're not going to draw that much with 12400, you'll probably max around 75W. So thermals is our limit, but if you're at 90C it's not at that limit. It's boosting as aggressively as it can with respect to the thermals. If you upgrade the cooler, you may lower temperatures, you should expect a better boost. The higher boost will negate some of the temperature gains.

Testing with our unit in a 75F controller test environment, your ambient will make a difference. Max load all core, we're able to hit 4Ghz at 82C. That's respectable considering the base performance core clock is 2.5Ghz and the max turbo boost is 4.4Ghz. You're never likely to hit 4.4Ghz unless it's a single core heavy load. You also want to consider that encoding can put a heavy load on the CPU. This wouldn't apply if you're using nvenc. H.264 is going to put additional stress on the CPU which will certainly drive up temps. High temperatures are not going to damage the processor.

For reference: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000005597/processors.html

Is it bad if my processor frequently approaches or reaches its maximum temperature?

Not necessarily. Many Intel® processors make use of Intel® Turbo Boost Technology, which allows them to operate at very high frequency for a short amount of time. When the processor is operating at or near its maximum frequency it's possible for the temperature to climb very rapidly and quickly reach its maximum temperature. In sustained workloads, it's possible the processor will operate at or near its maximum temperature limit. Being at maximum temperature while running a workload isn't necessarily cause for concern. Intel processors constantly monitor their temperature and can very rapidly adjust their frequency and power consumption to prevent overheating and damage.

Yoey

Hi Mike - Thanks for the quick and in-depth response. All of the above does make sense since OBS uses H.254 to encode.

I am still wondering what size exhaust fan can be used for the rear, to replace the smaller fan in the back.

Appreciate your help on this and will always purchase PowerSpecs from MicroCenter in the future. 😀

PowerSpec_MikeW

@Yoey

The rear case fan is 92MM, that's the width that the mounting slots on the rear will allow. Anything larger would need to be modded a bit. If you want to go this route, using zip ties and rubber pads as vibration dampeners should work well.

Yoey

@PowerSpec_MikeW I was thinking about changing out the two bottom fans with ones that are a little quieter. I was wondering what models would work as replacements, and if this is fairly easy to do? 😀

PowerSpec_MikeW

@Yoey

Should be easy, the bottom plate just pops off, and the bracket that holds the fans can be removed with the fans. Any 120 should work. I like the Arctic Cooling P12's.

Yoey

@PowerSpec_MikeW Hey Mike! - Thanks again! I'll give this a try.