Finally. Write up on Noctua cooling in XPS 8940

[The Point and Shoot Pro]

Here are some photos and a writeup on my Noctua cooling setup in my XPS 8940.

I began by installing the NH-U9S heatpipe cooler and Noctua thermal interface. I then added a VRM heatsink for added cooling of those components. After that, I installed a 120mm Noctua fan in the bay where the HDD was located using a 3d printed mounting bracket (purpledrillmonkey). As well, a 92mm Noctua fan was installed in the rear of the case. I finally added an 80mm Noctua in the lower front of the case under the Graphics card to force some outside air into the video fan as well as cool down the PSU located down there as well.

I plugged in the CPU and 120mm fan into the CPU fan control, as the temps rise now, the fan in the front will increase with the CPU fan and force lots of air into the cooler. The 92mm and the 80mm are plugged into the case fan locations. Its not so much about forcing alot of air into the case for the gpu and PSU but just to get some extra fresh cooler air in.







































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The Point and Shoot Pro
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[The Point and Shoot Pro]

I forgot to post results of this addition to the system. Before, the rear stock fan would cut in and it was like a jet engine when doing most heavy lifting. It was a cheap 80mm unit.

After, I ran a bunch of benchmarking tools to increase the temps and push the system and it stayed basically silent through them all instead of screaming before. WELL WORTH IT!

 

[BobKnDP]

Looks like your next project should be a 100% home assembled system.

I recommend that, regardless of how much extra it may cost. ;-)

 

[The Point and Shoot Pro]

Looks like your next project should be a 100% home assembled system.

I recommend that, regardless of how much extra it may cost. ;-)

I have done more than my fare share of them. At the time, I needed a powerful system, and I got this system from dell for much cheaper than I could have built one. I was not working full time when I bought this so I had to save where possible.

 

[ggeinec]

Here are some photos and a writeup on my Noctua cooling setup in my XPS 8940.

You might want to consider posting a version of this to the Dell XPS Desktops community forum if you haven't already done so:

https://www.dell.com/community/XPS-Desktops/bd-p/XPS-desktops

Although you might be inundated with requests for more detailed information about your setup.

 

[BobKnDP]

Looks like your next project should be a 100% home assembled system.

I recommend that, regardless of how much extra it may cost. ;-)

I have done more than my fare share of them. At the time, I needed a powerful system, and I got this system from dell for much cheaper than I could have built one. I was not working full time when I bought this so I had to save where possible.

I hope that "regardless of how much extra it may cost" made it clear that I regard appliance PCs as sometimes offering value that would be difficult to match in a homebuilt.

The main potential downside is the use of proprietary components. Not an issue if you never need to upgrade the motherboard, PSU, etc.

 

[The Point and Shoot Pro]

Looks like your next project should be a 100% home assembled system.

I recommend that, regardless of how much extra it may cost. ;-)

I have done more than my fare share of them. At the time, I needed a powerful system, and I got this system from dell for much cheaper than I could have built one. I was not working full time when I bought this so I had to save where possible.

I hope that "regardless of how much extra it may cost" made it clear that I regard appliance PCs as sometimes offering value that would be difficult to match in a homebuilt.

The main potential downside is the use of proprietary components. Not an issue if you never need to upgrade the motherboard, PSU, etc.

Just because they are proprietary, does not mean they are not available. I can buy any part inside my system with little issue. Again, I have been around the block a time or ten with regards to building pcs, buying pcs, and repairing. The ONLY system failures I have had were ASUS branded parts. Everything else I have ever purchased went outdated before failure. Oh, and one seagate SSHD. Everything else was purchased and used until it was obsolete.

 

[BobKnDP]

I wasn't referring to repair parts, but rather upgrades, like swapping in a different motherboard. I've had cases and PSUs that contained a number of different guts over the years. That was done more as a hobby than as a cost-effective measure.

If you have the impression that I meant to criticize your choices, I apologize. I had no such intent. You obviously know what you're doing.

I like your choice of Noctua fans. My most recent build has five 120mm fans from them. Quiet, no LEDs, and not too expensive.

 

[The Point and Shoot Pro]

I wasn't referring to repair parts, but rather upgrades, like swapping in a different motherboard. I've had cases and PSUs that contained a number of different guts over the years. That was done more as a hobby than as a cost-effective measure.

If you have the impression that I meant to criticize your choices, I apologize. I had no such intent. You obviously know what you're doing.

I like your choice of Noctua fans. My most recent build has five 120mm fans from them. Quiet, no LEDs, and not too expensive.

No no. I was'nt thinking you were critical. I was just explaining my choices and reasoning this time around. I was staring down a 1500 dollar bill just for the video card, I got this entire system, for 1999.00 with a 2070 super installed and expansion capability for what I wanted. It was pure economics this time.

Noctua is awesome gear. Took my machine from a screaming sweaty mess to a cool silent machine. The little pancake cooler fan was terrible, and so was the rear exhaust fan. I wish I could fit a modified noctua fan setup onto my video card as well, but I am not able to as I want my pci slot below the card for my firewire input.

 

[LynniePad]

I wasn't referring to repair parts, but rather upgrades, like swapping in a different motherboard. I've had cases and PSUs that contained a number of different guts over the years. That was done more as a hobby than as a cost-effective measure.

If you have the impression that I meant to criticize your choices, I apologize. I had no such intent. You obviously know what you're doing.

I like your choice of Noctua fans. My most recent build has five 120mm fans from them. Quiet, no LEDs, and not too expensive.

No no. I wasn't thinking you were critical. I was just explaining my choices and reasoning this time around. I was staring down a 1500 dollar bill just for the video card, I got this entire system, for 1999.00 with a 2070 super installed and expansion capability for what I wanted. It was pure economics this time.

Interesting to read about your project; good pics too.

Key to the desirability of extra cooling is the 2070-S. With lesser video cards, such as the 1650-S, standard Dell cooling is fine for the 8940 with i7 10700x CPUs.

I bought a couple of such Dells and they are going fine "as issued".

 

[NickZ2016]

A 2070 super draws up to 215 watts in stock config. That PSU has dual rails with 18 amps on the 12v aka 216 watts. I would not be pushing that card hard. Unless Dell under clocked or did something to slow down the GPU.

 

[The Point and Shoot Pro]

A 2070 super draws up to 215 watts in stock config. That PSU has dual rails with 18 amps on the 12v aka 216 watts. I would not be pushing that card hard. Unless Dell under clocked or did something to slow down the GPU.

Mine has the upgraded 500w PSU. Im fine. I have benched' this system and the video card performance is above average comared to other 2070 supers, so no "underclocking" or throttling is present.

--
Fronterra Photography Tours
One Lens, No Problem
The Point and Shoot Pro
The People of the Red and White stand with the people of the yellow and blue!

 

[NickZ2016]

Read your sticker on the PSU. You have 18 amps per 12v rail. Do the math. That's only a nominal 500 watt PSU.

 

[Chris Noble]

I finally added an 80mm Noctua in the lower front of the case under the Graphics card to force some outside air into the video fan as well as cool down the PSU located down there as well.

Its not so much about forcing alot of air into the case for the gpu and PSU but just to get some extra fresh cooler air in.

What is the point of that last fan? The PSU is sealed and has it's own fan that takes outside air, and the GPU also has its own fan. You have several other fans in the case, that make sense, so it's not like the air around the GPU is stagnant.

 

[BobKnDP]

Read your sticker on the PSU. You have 18 amps per 12v rail. Do the math. That's only a nominal 500 watt PSU.

I miss your point. 18A per rail, two rails, 432W at +12V. Not great, but not worthy of contempt.

I don't know how the current is distributed. If the 2070 Super gets the nominal 75W from the PCI-E slot, and the remaining 140W from the other rail, it should be OK.

There might be an issue if all the current for the GPU was drawn from the same rail. I believe that was a problem with the way some PSUs were wired, a few years ago.

nVidia recommends a 650W PSU, but they don't give a +12V current spec. A quick check finds some cheap "650W" PSUs with 30A on their single +12V rails. I'd call that a fake 650W PSU.

My personal preference is for PSUs with single 12V rails, but dual rails usually should be OK.

 

[NickZ2016]

Most likely one of the rails is going to provide power to the CPU.

One is going to power the PCI and the GPU.

That power supply is very marginal in that system. Fine if you don't add anything. Or upgrade anything. Some of the overclocked GPUs draw huge amounts of power. But even that 2070 at full power might be right at the edge.

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wccftech.com

There is a 3070 on that list pulling 250 watts. I'm not suggesting the really high end cards will have problems. A 3070 which is just one generation newer than his 2070 already has issues.

 

[BobKnDP]

I'll leave it up to the OP to remark on how likely it would be to do a GPU upgrade. If its main use is photo processing, an RTX 2070 Super may already be up in the realm of diminishing returns.

I suspect that s/he isn't operating in PC enthusiast mode, even while adding a few aftermarket fans.

 

[The Point and Shoot Pro]

I'll leave it up to the OP to remark on how likely it would be to do a GPU upgrade. If its main use is photo processing, an RTX 2070 Super may already be up in the realm of diminishing returns.

I suspect that s/he isn't operating in PC enthusiast mode, even while adding a few aftermarket fans.

He/I use my system for photo, video and graphic creation. I have no issues with my system and do not subscribe to the sky is falling mentality that some have here. If it dies it does and I will fix as needed. I will just push it and not worry about it.

 

[BobKnDP]

Sky is falling? I don't recall seeing that here much, if at all.

IMHO, PC enthusiasts don't upgrade because we fear dying PCs. It's more like fear of missing out (on the latest hardware). Utility hardly figures into it. (At least for non-gamers.)

The only PC in my experience that died was my first "IBM compatible", a Dell Dimension 133MHz Pentium machine. (Hot stuff in 1995.) I handed it down to my nephew. Its PSU died in a shower of sparks, and took the motherboard with it. I don't recall how old it was at the time. Knowing him at that point in his life, the PSU may have been choked with dust and debris. I visited once and tried to use the machine. Its mouse was one of the old mechanical types. The amount of hair and crud I found after removing the mouse ball was impressive. It worked poorly, but it never occurred to him to clean it.

After it died, he told me that a local shop repaired it. The "repair" was transferring the RAM and graphics card (PCI - state of the art when new) into a machine that was otherwise 100% new. I'm not surprised that he didn't go into engineering. ;-)

 

[GodSpeaks]

You should have posted a photo of the cooling system BEFORE installation. As it was, I had no idea what item in all those photos you were talking about. I had to DuckDuckGo (think google without the privacy issues) it.

Personally, I have been using a liquid CPU cooling system for many years. Much smaller than that humongous fin tower, and makes access inside the case much much easier. The dual fan radiator attaches to the front of the case and vents the heated air out. A triple fan version is available, if you have the room to mount it. My case (CoolerMaster HAF XB EVO Lan Box) doesn't.