Airflow in a cheap case

[Thimblewad]

Soooo, I got myself this Thermaltake BlackEdition V3 a while ago, paid 30€ for it, it's pretty, a lot of fans can be put in it and I like it. I recently bought a few Arctic Cooling F12 fans (yes, 120 mm) and I tried to somewhat make an okay airflow. To give you an idea how everything is put together, I made this super-duper picture:

Blue arrows: intake
Red arrows: exhaust
Yellow? square: represents another fan that is on the side panel.

Also, to clarify why things are good this way (in my opinion): the GPU exhausts it's hot air on the side, so the side-panel fan exhausts all that air out immediately. Also, the fan on top is blowing air inside, feeding it to the CPU cooler and then it get's exhausted out. Is this a good way of putting it together? haha.

P.s.: Here are my idle temps:

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

There is a old saying: Heat Rises.

Its like a fan that is never there but is always running at full speed.

 

[eidairaman1]

The top panel fans, back panel fan should be exhaust, bottom panel fan and front panel fan should be intake, if you have any side panel fans they should be intake. In due honesty I have 4 fans in my big case and my cpu is oc to 5.1GHz, no side panel fans at all

 

[Thimblewad]

Well, if I put the top panel fan to exhaust wouldn't I get weird airflow, since the CPU fan blows air in the other direction and they would both be intaking air from "thin air"? Also, wouldn't doing the same to the side panel fan mess up the airflow that is coming from the GPU? For better understanding, I can takes pictures of the PC no problem, just let me know because then I have to unplug it

 

[eidairaman1]

Since heat builds at the top you have to have an efficient means of shitting it out. My case from manufacturer has the top fan as exhaust.

Ps set your front and bottom fan for a little higher speed for positive pressure.

 

[erocker]

Bottom and front, in. Top and back, out. You may want to use a higher RPM fan in the front as your case is negatively charged due to having more exhaust.

*Sorry heh, just noticed eidairaman1 just posted the same thing.

 

[slozomby]

Well, if I put the top panel fan to exhaust wouldn't I get weird airflow, since the CPU fan blows air in the other direction and they would both be intaking air from "thin air"? Also, wouldn't doing the same to the side panel fan mess up the airflow that is coming from the GPU? For better understanding, I can takes pictures of the PC no problem, just let me know because then I have to unplug it

do you have both fan slots on the top in use? if you are using the top as intake you should only be using the front slot to put air in front of the cpu fan. if the fan is on the back slot its exhaust. if using 2 fans they're both exhaust.

most GPU fans push air onto the card rather than pull air away from it. so the side fan is there to supply air to the fans on the card.

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

side fans were intended as a cheap way to direct airflow towards the video card. smaller and narrow mid-tower cases didnt have enough free space for hot air below the video card to have an adequate escape path, the side fan pushes fresh air in that direction. Bottoms fans help tremendously there too.

 

[Thimblewad]

@DeathtoGnomes - I have a mid tower "sleeper" and there's maybe 3-4 cm (1.2-1.6") of space between the card and the panel when the case is closed. For example: My AC Freezer Ex. misses the panel by maybe .5 cm (0.2"). Is it then a good idea to go intake?

@slozomby - As shown in the picture, only one slot on top is used. The second one is blocked by the CPU cooler. The front fan is intake, the top fan is intake and the bottom fan is intake.

@eidairaman1 - Using and old Akasa fan controller so the fan speed thing: noted.

@slozomby & @eidairaman1 - The GPU fans blow the air onto the card, but it flows out on the side of the GPU unit, which is right in the middle of the side panel fan (about 1 cm (0.4") away). That's why I think it's better that the side panel fan continues the airflow that comes out of the GPU and increases it.

I may be going to deep into this but man, I seek wisdom.

Thanks for the replies!

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

@DeathtoGnomes - I have a mid tower "sleeper" and there's maybe 3-4 cm (1.2-1.6") of space between the card and the panel when the case is closed. For example: My AC Freezer Ex. misses the panel by maybe .5 cm (0.2"). Is it then a good idea to go intake?

....

Thanks for the replies!

between the card and the bottom of the case is dead air, there is not a lot fo air flow there, if the side panel fan is mounted higher, than the case was designed for that fan to blow onto the CPU with a stock cooler. Being you have a Freezer and not the stock cooler, you can do what you like with the panel fan.

Do you have your Freezer so that it blows air out the back? or can you turn it to blow out the top?

 

[ASOT]

Front need if possible 2x120/140 intake,top need to exhaust air from mobo,cpu..back exhaust,side exhaust(if u want keep it clean)

 

[Jetster]

If you don't have bad heat issues you can have the top blowing in and only the back out. Positive pressure is much cleaner with filters

So every fan in only the rear out

 

[Caring1]

Turn the CPU cooler 90 degrees so it blows out the top, then the hot air rising gets assisted on the way out.

 

[jboydgolfer]

About 7 years ago I bought a Thermaltake commander and even tho it was cheap it too had decent or better airflow

 

[rtwjunkie]

You definitely want the front and bottoms as intakes like you have. If possible, put more powerful fans on those intakes for positive pressure.

As to the top, you asked if having both top exhausts as exhaust would impede the country getting air. Simple answer: no. That's one of the reasons for the higher flow intake fans.

As has been said, the side panel has been designed to pump fresh air right onto the GPU. Try it as exhaust and intake. I have found on cases where I have a side it is more trouble and impeded airflow more than anything. Usually the top and back exhausts have no trouble removing heat from all components.

 

[P4-630]

Back and top exhaust is the best way of doing it IMO.

 

[Thimblewad]

Hey everyone! Sorry for the late reply, working in a pizzeria is just a fantastic job.

Well, after some tinkering, I got the PC out and turned the side panel fan so it's intake. Guess what? When I do that, the side panel bends in an odd way and prevents the fan from spinning at all. After that, I removed the fan altogether, did a 15-minute gaming test and the GPU is about 2-3 °C hotter without it, so I left it as is. All other components have the same temperature.

Then, I turned around the top fan (exhaust this time around) and the CPU temps went up almost 5 °C. I believe the reason for that is that the air sucked in by the front fan isn't enough (it's blocked by 2 HDDs and an SSD) and therefore the intake on top is needed for the CPU fan to work normally.

For best understanding, I'm including two pictures of my case so you get the idea (there's no cable management and I have a shitload of stuff in my PC):

↑ The front fan's air is mostly blocked by the HDDs and SSD. ↑

↑ The CPU cooler can't be turned in any way so I believe what I have set-up now is the best way to go through. ↑

P.s.: At no point in time was I asking to have 2 fans on top, that is impossible because of my CPU cooler anyway.

Cable ties FTW

 

[rtwjunkie]

Well, it's not normal or best practice, but if that setup gets you the lowest temperatures, that's what you should use!

 

[slozomby]

looking at the picture with all the gear in it makes more sense.

the only thing I can think of that should improve airflow would be to move the hard drives up to the 5 1/4 bays. either with standard brackets or something like https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DGZ42SM/?tag=tec06d-20
with the backplane you'll get a little more air in the cpu area, offset somewhat by the fact that its cooling the drives.

that way you free up the bottom front fan to pull air towards the gpu.

possibly blocking the top rear grill to force the air across the cpu heatsink.

 

[natr0n]

My advice run the case open like shown no case doors/panels. The only issue will be dust.

 

[Caring1]

P.s.: At no point in time was I asking to have 2 fans on top, that is impossible because of my CPU cooler anyway.

Cable ties FTW

Not if you mount them externally to pull air out, or blow it in.

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

Not if you mount them externally to pull air out, or blow it in.

I was gonna say this. I did that with lighted fans in a case mod build (this case.) because the case was too small. Sometimes you have to give up on the looks to get what works well. The other option here is buy a bigger case.


I agree move those platter drives up out of the way of the front fan, and the SSD down 2 slots.

 

[peche]

this is a great idea for cooling on your case sir!

also the correct airflow for your case is this one:

Regards

 

[Thimblewad]

this is a great idea for cooling on your case sir!
/picture/
also the correct airflow for your case is this one:
/picture/
Regards

I'd go for any of those two, but the first picture shows GPU's that have a blower fan (most probably) and I can't go with the second one because my side panel fan doesn't "fit" if I put it on intake. I have concluded that the best setup is my initial one. Of course, you all helped a lot and I wouldn't know that without you.

Thanks guys!

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

I'd go for any of those two, but the first picture shows GPU's that have a blower fan (most probably) and I can't go with the second one because my side panel fan doesn't "fit" if I put it on intake. I have concluded that the best setup is my initial one. Of course, you all helped a lot and I wouldn't know that without you.

Thanks guys!

would ya mind posting couple pics of the side panel fan mounted on both intake and exhaust?