Aurora R8, EVGA RTX 3080 XC3 Ultra Gaming, Noctua nf-a12x15-pwm-chromax-black-swap

I am now borrowing the SATA cable from the optical drive which I don't use as often.

Installed and reformatted the SSD 1TB, moved all games to it from NVMe and HDD:

Inspiring from others like @r72019 I added a small fan (3-PIN no PWM) in place of the SSD bay, This fan was a replacement fan for a Netgear RND2000 NAS, so sticky taped it to the chassis and connected to the CPU Fan connector on the motherboard:

Ordering the SATA cable as it is not easy to "pull out" an unused SATA cable out of an R3

I suddenly have that "modding fever" back from long ago, lol. I really want to have this R8 cooling in a respectable manner.

I ordered some other bits too (fan, M2 drive, M2 PCIE adaptor).

So I plan to :

• Move the HDD to a SDD bay, it is only used to back up my NAS and not when I am gaming
• Place a Noctua NF A12x25 PWM in the space occupied by the HDD to cool air on the CPU above the GPU (connected using the Y cable with the current 15mm Noctua Front Fan)
• Add a new M2 NVME drive to a PCEI slot
• Reconnect my Optical Drive
• maybe see if I can move the mini fan on the back of the case to blow out air
• Pictures will follow when I get the stuff

I will be looking for ideas how to open up air intake for this new (upper) front fan. I do not have a bezel to cut some slots.

Does anyone know of any alternatives?

Well I dug around to find the thread discussing dremelling the front bezel and now I see. Big thanks to @Anonymous for your beautiful mod and cable management and to @HanoverB for this awesome post here about cooling with fans, founded by many contributions from the community including Dell630i.

I have started:

Moved the HDD below to make way for the Noctua, the HDD now runs idle at 25°C instead of 34°C. This slightly increased my RTX 3080 fans from ~600 to ~640 RPM when idling at 1755Mhz to maintain the 60°C temp (under 60° the GPU fans cut out).

Added the Noctua 25mm fan as upper front intake on the Y cable supplied joining with the Noctua black front fan. I have not yet fixed it (ties or weather strip) as I am still stumbling how to go about working the front bezel without a dremel tool.

Too late to edit to add the Dell630i mod page : here it is

SATA Cables arrived, reconnected the optical drive.

Did a Timespy test to see the affects on the CPU temperatures. Of course the Timespy mark is around the same value (15363)

The CPU test gives a nice 82°C max instead hitting around the 100°C, without cutting the bezel. I am happy the fan is worth it.

@markburv    I suddenly have that "modding fever" back from long ago, lol. I really want to have this R8 cooling in a respectable manner.

Oh No . . .     that modding fever can be dangerous   

@markburv    The CPU test gives a nice 82°C max instead hitting around the 100°C, without cutting the bezel. I am happy the fan is worth it.

Really great job modding! Thanks for sharing. Temps and performance will be much improved.

If you want to keep going; consider a couple ML120 Pro (no LED, no RGB) fans in a push/pull configuration for a radiator sandwich, and while you are there re-paste the CPU with some good quality TIM.

@Anonymous 

I will consider the ML 120 Pro Non RGB sandwich in the not so near future, thanks for the link.
Nice PC there in your modding fever link, result is really wow !!!

So before I start hacking the front bezel, did a Timespy test without the front bezel. CPU maxxed out at 75°C, the front upper fan is doing it's job very efficiently

CPU Max 75°

@markburv    I am keeping the front bezel off for now, while I think about how to drill/cut/sabotage it

There is a thread that is currently almost 200 pages long . . . so I won't link to that   

But this is a capture from that discussion regarding opening the Aurora R8 front bezel to allow air flow to a top intake fan. I think you would just need to trim a little of that top piece of the box frame in the red circle . . . or even just cut several slots in it to allow air to flow to the top . . . not major surgery.

I had considered doing the @HanoverB approach and hole sawing the top to open up airflow for the top half of the upper front fan, then putting an RGB fan up there and a cutout of an alien head so the eyes lit up red and wire mesh + filter background.  But then I was worried my cutout wouldn't look as good as the black widow and also I didn't want to spend money fixing a problem I didn't have so I left the plastic facia stock up there (aside from adding the second front fan).  You still get partial fan coverage even with the plastic obstruction, and the lip doesn't go all the way to the metal grate so the rest gets some coverage too.  But maybe that explains why my DVD drive is so dusty LOL. 

@Anonymous or even just cut several slots in it to allow air to flow to the top . . . not major surgery

Now that's not a bad idea for simplicity, I might try that... thanks for the tip

@r72019 doing nothing then means dust gets sucked in through the optical drive slot, good to know. Thanks for the tip

@markburv    Now that's not a bad idea for simplicity, I might try that... thanks for the tip 

If minor surgery does not get the air flow you want, then this is the @HanoverB  "Black Widow" to which @r72019  is referring . . . and it only takes a 4 1/2" hole saw     

(click photos to embiggen)

. . . and The Dragon