Cooling suggestions for a crowded Z240 SFF

[gabimarian]

Hello friends !

I am a Z240 sff user for two years with no complains till now.

Recently I've upgraded the stock Quadro K620 with a  Gigabyte GTX 1050ti OC LP. 

The problem is that all temperatures stays high after that. I'm worried especially about PCH temperature that stays at arround 70 degrees C in idle. Also my boot drive - a  Samsung 970 evo plus SSD nvme inside a HP Z Turbo drive heatsink stays above 50 degrees.The Cpu stays at about 40 degrees and GPU at arround 60 degrees. All measured in idle, again.

I was thinking of making a hole (80-100mm) in the side cover and adding a powerful fan (slim version). With to cover took off the temperatures drops with about 10 degrees, except the nvme who still exceeds 50 degrees. Its highest temperature was 64 with heatsink and 66 without it in Crystal Disk Mark R\W test.

In the same pc case I had 2 mechanical 2 TB Seagate HDD drives (configured in RAID node) and another SATA SSD, so it's a bit crowded inside.

Any other suggestions ?

Many thanks !

[NonSequitur777 · Accepted solution]

@gabimarian,

Welcome to our HP User Forum!

You have come to the right place.

Please take a look at my HP Z240 SFF upgrade project, and how I fixed the same heat issue you are facing.  Added a 4-pin PWM 90x90x25mm booster cooling fan directly above the CPU heatsink/cooling fan combo by cutting a 90mm diameter hole in the top access panel, blowing air in.  Please notice that for best fit, install the 9025 cooling fan diagonally so as not to disable the top panel's locking mechanism:

Link: Solved: Upgrading HP Z240 Desktop Workstation SFF - Page 2 - HP Support Community - 8427878.

Hope this was helpful.

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777

[DGroves]

HP made a cooling kit for systems equipped with a high power cpu and/or video card

however these rear case mounted fan kits are not common and rather expensive when found

you can simply buy a noctua 40mm 4 pin fan or a 50 mm 4 pin fan and some screws/bolts and install the fan so it sits approx. half inch from the  inside rear perforated holes that are directly behind the cpu then use black electrical or duct tape to enclose the space between the case wall and the fan

note: the 50 mm fan is preferred as it has greater airflow

the motherboard has a rear case 4pin fan header near the cpu/rear case wall

https://www.amazon.com/ADDA-AD5005HB-D7B-5015-0-30A-cooling/dp/B088LPFWVV

https://www.amazon.com/Noctua-NF-A4x10-PWM-4-Pin-Premium/dp/B07DXRNYNX

[gabimarian]

@NonSequitur777 as I said a fan mounted on the case lid was my idea too. I've used  my daughter's fancy cooling fan pointed to the opened case and the temperatures were all low - about 40 degrees for the SSD and under 50 for the PCH. Also I thought that it might be a good idea if  I could raise the case lid with a piece of metal sheet soldered to it in order to make more room for the fan; in this case it should no longer stay outside. Anyway, something must be done.

Many thanks !

Best wishes !

[gabimarian]

Many thanks for your suggestion ! I think this is no the most efficient solution, since it would help only the CPU. With a fan mounted on the case lid, I think I will manage to cool down entire case, including the NVME and MB chipset.

Greetings !

[NonSequitur777]

@gabimarian,

In my experience, it is the CPU -almost exclusively, that needs the boost in cooling, and should be the focus of enhanced air flow. And since the additional cooling fan blows air into the case, all other components are getting extra air cooling as well.

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777