XPS 8940, Better 3rd party cooler

@bertro514 - yup, that screen filter looks promising. Although for me, I still want to keep the case intact (for now).

And don't think I haven't thought about a way to divert the air to where I want it to be !!!

@studmonkey77  It may be a tight squeeze putting fans inside.   You'd have to see what is possible and maybe look for thin fans.  Then you'd have to have a connector that you can make and break every time you take off the side panel.

@Jon-62 @studmonkey77 it might be easier to put the fan on the outside of the case panel (with that filter screwd directly onto the fan), and connect it to one of the USB ports on the back with a little cable splicing. Super easy to disconnect when you take out the panel. 

...or figure out how to install a pair of connectors to the back of the case and the panel in such a way that it makes contact automatically when you close the side panel.

@SteveK318 in terms of diverting air more towards the GPU, I'm honestly now thinking of just slanting a sheet of plastic there to help the air bypass the PSU. I'm sure I have something laying around the house that I can cut to size and attach with some 2sided tape. To be continued... 

@bertro514 - I can't tell you how many times in my career (before 3d printing) we would mock up ideas using thin cardboard... - at home, I've used cereal box cardboard !

@SteveK318  I still do.  Not having my own 3D printer, it's easier to mock things up in card. 

I had a Cooler Master - MasterLiquid ML240L from my old gaming pc and decided to check to see if the bracket fits. The holes for the backplate was a perfect fit. All i had to do was cut the stock dell CPU mount to make room for the new bracket. As for the radiator i had to shave 3 bracket near the door. Drill a few holes for the radiator screws in the front and the rest is history. There's no error code during start up, i decided not to hook up the RGB lights since there's no connector for it. What do you think?

@SteveK318  I need a refresher!

So I couldn’t source 25mm M3 screws.  I have 20 mm and 30 mm.  Will the longer screw (with the head cut off) interfere with anything?

I have the following hardware:

NH-D9L

NF-A8 80mm fan

NF-A9 92mm fan

NF-A12x25 PWM 120mm fan

Recapping what I recall reading in here , 120 in front, 92 rear, try shoving the 80 in front of the RTX 3070?

Im running a bunch of tests so I can have a before and after comparison!  

Paul

Good solution. Clean, quiet,effective. I d put a good cooler on the Vrms and a second memory module for the dual channel...

@studmonkey77 @SteveK318 @bertro514  I finally received and installed the double fan frame in my XPS 8940.  It's fitted with a pair of Arctic F8 PWM PST fans.  The space is quite tight and I had to take the 120 mm fan and frame out while I fitted it.  I retained the Nyloc nuts using sticky tape with long pull tabs so I could remove the tape afterwards.  I've currently got the fans configured so that the 92 mm fan at the rear is connected to the Tacho return pin, whilst the three at the front (2 x 80 mm + 1 x 92 mm) are all daisy-chained off the other side of the 4-pin fan splitter cable with the 120 mm as tail-end-charlie.  I'm definitely seeing a drop in temperatures of maybe 2°C - 3°C when the PC is idling - OK, I've ca. 50 tabs open in Chrome, two mail boxes, a few spreadsheets plus a lot of other stuff open.  It's a bit noisier but the 2 x 80 mm fans are right at the front with quite an open grill in front of them.  I may look at fitting a Noctua Low-Noise-Adaptor in the feed to the front fans and possibly changing the cables so that the 120 mm fan is connected to the Tacho return pin, which is how I had it previously.   

3D printed Double fan frameDouble fan frame with Nyloc nuts fittedDouble fan frame installed.

I ran the Dell SupportAssist 'Scan Hardware' (2nd from left) which, when the machine was unmodded, would max out all cores to 100°C with thermal throttling - not a good advert for a PC when the manufacturer-supplied hardware test results in thermal throttling.  This time the cores only reached between 75°C and 78°C so definitely feels like the temperatures are now under control.

I've also added filter mesh to the apertures at the front of the case.  These are being held in place by some of the 50 small 4 mm dia. x 1.5 mm thick Neodymium magnets I recently bought.  The picture below was taken half way through fitting the filters, which now cover all the square holes in the front of the case.

I think I'm just about done with cooling - until the next change.  I think I'll look at optimising the cables next, specifically making custom cables for the fans.

Ok I want to thank everyone here that contributed to this thread!

I finally got around to doing this upgrade and I documented it in my latest YouTube video

https://youtu.be/nWOeO1Cfva0

Just installed the Noctua NH-D9L using the M3 16mm screws (without the M3 washers) without any other cooler so far, I'm experiencing a 10~15 C degrees decrease while the CPU clock maintains 4.6 GHz. I was wondering, did anyone get the full 4.8 GHz on this i7 10700? My current temps are around 70~80 for heavy load.

@LikeHerdingCats  - I see you ended up with 25mm long 'setscrews' somehow !

I have 2 quick comments from your video - which I really liked !! 

1) The front panel of that model is much different than the G5 ... up top where you put the 120mm fan, there is no airflow through the plastic front cover... so it's probably not going to help as much as the G5 with the open front panel !

2) It didn't seem like the bracket for the 120mm fan was latched in place ... I noticed some wobble when you pressed on the bottom. It should be very tight if the 'keyslots' in the 3D bracket fit over the 'keys' in the case.

anyhow, nice video ! love the outtakes at the end !!

- Steve

Sorry for my delay ... I'm not getting any notifications for some reason.

I would say to cut the 30mm off at 25mm long !

@SteveK318  I also noticed that the 120 mm fan hadn’t been clipped in.

Regarding the XPS 8940 front panel, there are holes in the horizontal divide between the solid upper panel and the lower grille that allows air up to the 120 mm fan.  Now I have my 2 x 80 mm fans below the 120 mm fan, I’ve got a lot more air flow through the case.