Share your Case airflow / Fan setup!

[MustSeeMelons]

Positive pressure here: 2x 140's in the front as input, 1 140 in the bottom also as input and 1 140 in the rear as exhaust. The loudest thing in the case are 2 HDD's. When I build the system 2 years ago my CPU was idling at 20C, now at about 30C.

 

[hat]

In my Fractal Design Arc XL, I removed both HDD cages and mounted my HDDs in the 5.25" bay to remove anything blocking the two front fan intakes.

It's not something super cool, but I wanted to remove things blocking my front intake fans - it was one of the reasons I got the case.

I then mounted my 2 HDDs in the 5.25" bays and my SSD mounts to the back of the motherboard tray, so it seemed like a perfect thing to do to hopefully improve airflow.

I like what you've done there...

 

[GreiverBlade]

and i feel positive air pressure is best,

exactly what i felt ... and did ... seems the AIR540 love 5 intake 1 exhaust

 

[peche]

I like what you've done there...

me too, some pictures of that build already running must be great!

 

[alucasa]

I don't understand the performance PC industry's love of push/pull fans. I know of no other industry that does that. The serial fans in servers are there for fault tolerance.
Personally, I like filtered intake fans and I'll let the air go out anywhere it wants, although I like an exhaust fan near the CPU.

Agreed. My case has a single filtered intake fan and that's it.

... Not that I have a lot of space for other fans.

 

[neatfeatguy]

are there some photos with all your hardware?

I think I got something more recent.....but it's prior to my new Seasonic 750W PSU and the extra 8GB of RAM. This is when I got my 980Ti just installed.

The sanding, painting and clear coating took me 20+ hours on this full tower (a good chunk of time was from sanding by hand before I borrowed my step-dad's electric hand sander - never again will I do the sanding by hand). Plus one of the side panels got knocked over and the newly finished paint and clear coat was ruined. I had to re-sand the panel and repaint (this added an extra 4 hours to my total time). I think it was worth the time and effort - the wife thought it was a complete waste of time and stupid....but what does she know.

 

[Jetster]

 

[peche]

I think I got something more recent.....but it's prior to my new Seasonic 750W PSU and the extra 8GB of RAM. This is when I got my 980Ti just installed.

The sanding, painting and clear coating took me 20+ hours on this full tower (a good chunk of time was from sanding by hand before I borrowed my step-dad's electric hand sander - never again will I do the sanding by hand). Plus one of the side panels got knocked over and the newly finished paint and clear coat was ruined. I had to re-sand the panel and repaint (this added an extra 4 hours to my total time). I think it was worth the time and effort - the wife thought it was a complete waste of time and stupid....but what does she know.

its hard to deal with people that dont understand the love we have with this kinda stuff,
well, cables could get a little bit better, but the new scheme is awesome lad!
thanks ...

 

[hat]

If we're gonna talk about positive or negative pressure, I'll add my thoughts on that as well. I prefer negative pressure (that is, more air out than in) because that kind of setup should remove heat from the case most effectively. With positive pressure, you're kinda just forcing fresh air in a ball of heated air that's not being exhausted as well as it could... that said I don't even have a lot of places for fans in my case, just 1 120mm in the back. There's a vent in the front and on the side door, though. I figure the air will just come in on its own as the exhaust fan pulls it out... but a single 120mm fan isn't going to pull that much out anyway... especially at around 50cfm. It's mostly there to cool the h70 rad.

I used to have 2 120s on my h70 in push/pull, but I've read a lot about that kind of configuration not really helping much. I'm not overclocking my chip or anything (unfortunately) but my own experience seems to reflect that. I don't know why it took me so long, but just recently I realized that extra fan on my h70 could be better placed on my TT Big Typhoon in my other computer, replacing the rather noisy fan that used to be on it. Now the loudest thing I hear is the 80mm fans mounted in that case, but even those aren't that bad. I hear my PS2 over those when it's running.

its hard to deal with people that dont understand the love we have with this kinda stuff,
well, cables could get a little bit better, but the new scheme is awesome lad!
thanks ...

True that... it's even worse when you take your PC enthusiasm even further and develop some really niche interests. Take for example video encoding. I deinterlaced the entire 1-12 seasons of South Park with a AviSynth QTGMC script. On the VideoHelp forums I read from some that my result should be 59.94fps for the best quality, and if I didn't do it that way it would look choppy. I had other people saying I could use some other commands that would result in 23.976fps, and that seemed to make the most sense to me because film is shot at 24fps anyway. South Park's bad animation failed to expose it, but recently working with, for lack of better words, actual film sources (not animation) I now see the choppiness some users mentioned there. I plan to do some testing and check the results myself with this, but so far, seasons 1-3 of The Golden Girls is already fubar'd. I could process the rest of it in a different way that looks better, but nobody would notice it, except for me... and I must admit I'd probably only notice it because I have a tendency now to see that sort of thing because I've worked with that kind of stuff myself, and I want to produce the best quality result I can.

 

[Kursah]

I used to agree and be biased towards negative pressure, but what I found is that this method isn't as effective at cooling (in my testing and experience) as positive pressure cases where you are using similar count and flow fans. It also depends on case design as well.

Using my personal cases...running 2 intake fans and one exhaust fan in my 600C, and able to run at lower RPMS, and OC my system and still achieve the same temps as my system non-OC'd in a case with one intake fan and 3 exhaust fans kinda speaks for itself.

One thing to keep in mind with positive pressure is it will push air out, I was worried I'd have a stagnant hot air pocket...and honestly if anything it reduced what was there with a negative airflow setup while keeping more dust out rather than sucking it in. The nice thing about positive flow, is that it'll push air out wherever it can find a path of least resistance, which keeps more air moving (again from my experience and testing, not all cases may benefit from this).

I also changed my home server to a positive airflow situation and that noticeably reduced temps, and again I was able to run at lower fan speeds and keep it quieter. That's a win in my book. I used to swear by top ventilation for heat extraction, but between my Lian Li PC7 for my server and my Corsair 600C for my main rig, both are better off than the Lian Li PC-K62 with two top fans and a rear fan pulling exhaust with a single intake fan. When fewer fans are involved a 1:1 (1 intake, 1 exhaust) works better than just one or the other clearly...it's only when you add more fans it seems to make a difference...if you have extra intake and vent spots, it would suit folks if they're only adding one more fan to test that extra fan in intake for a day and then in exhaust for a day and see what works best for their cooling needs.

I'd like to see more cases like Silverstone's Raven and Fortress series with the vertical airflow design...I was so close to snagging an FT05...but needing a short PSU pretty much nixed it for me...

 

[peche]

I have been thinking about making some changes,
changing rear exhaust fans direction, to intake ones, for getting better or fresh air for the rad from outside the chassis, the top exhaust fans will take care for the heat, so it makes sense for me, does anyone have tried this? Radiator will still on Push/pull fan setup but the air direction is the questions, does this will bring any notable difference in temps? or also the swap will affect other parts? I don’t think so, but I will be glad to hear some opinions!

Blue: intake fans
Red: exhaust fans
Green Thermaltake Water 3.0 Pro AIO [ what a draw! ]
PD: my paint skills rock so much

 

[trog100]

i am going to question the common theory here.. this assume a steady airflow moving though a case will take away localized hot spots.. it may if low power hardware is in use but it wont if high power hardware is in use.. the air might flow but the localized heat (short of a jet engine gale blowing through the case ) will stay put..

start at the bottom and work up.. the first heat generator is the graphics card.. mine complete with a back plate heats up to around 60 C this isnt just the chip its the entire card..

i have two such cards.. the bottom one heats the top one.. heat from the bottom one is sucked directly into the cooling fans of the top one.. this in effect raises the ambient air the top fans are starting off with by around 20 C.. the top card runs 20 C hotter than the bottom card..

the heat from both these cards moves upwards as heat does.. what sits just above the heat generating cards.. the cpu cooler.. it has to work with an ambient air temp of maybe 40 C higher than room ambient.. this in no way is stagnant air.. its moving air but not fast enough to get rid of the heat generated by the two graphics cards..

extra heat from the cpu cooler matters not one jot.. it simply moves up and out of the upper rear of the case.. on the way it does no harm because there is nothing there to do harm to..

i think i am trying to say here that gently moving air positive pressure or negative does not shift the heat from powerful hardware.. this heat by its own accord moves up into the top rear of the case and eventually out of the top or upper rear.. there is no way the average case fans will stop the upper rear of the case from getting f-cking hot..

none of this has anything at all to do with stagnant air.. its all to do with 500 watts or so of heat being pumped into a small box..

water cooling helps simply by being able to move the cooling rads away from the hot areas..

trog

 

[rtwjunkie]

I used to agree and be biased towards negative pressure, but what I found is that this method isn't as effective at cooling (in my testing and experience)

I've found this myself. Since I went to slightly positive pressure my temps have decreased on CPU and GPU both.

 

[Retrorockit]

My computer is an old Dell BTX. So it's positive pressure by definition. I'm using a $12 T9303 heatpipe cooler probably from a P4 era Dell, and a Delta GFB1212VHG 2 motor fan I got from China for $25.
http://valid.x86.fr/bg4n0r

The fans counter rotate so the 2nd one isn't just along for the ride.

 

[Devon68]

In winter I use only the fan on the back of the case for exhaust.
In summer I turn on 1 top as an exhaust and 1 front fan as an intake. But than again in the summer I'm looking for ways to cool myself rather than the PC.

 

[trog100]

I have been thinking about making some changes,
changing rear exhaust fans direction, to intake ones, for getting better or fresh air for the rad from outside the chassis, the top exhaust fans will take care for the heat, so it makes sense for me, does anyone have tried this? Radiator will still on Push/pull fan setup but the air direction is the questions, does this will bring any notable difference in temps? or also the swap will affect other parts? I don’t think so, but I will be glad to hear some opinions!

View attachment 71216
Blue: intake fans
Red: exhaust fans
Green Thermaltake Water 3.0 Pro AIO [ what a draw! ]
PD: my paint skills rock so much

it (the cpu) will run cooler if the water in the rad is being cooled by room ambient air as opposed to the hotter air in the hottest part of the case.. warmer air will be pumped into the case but with top fans taking it straight out no harm will be done..

i wont mention the fact that your pipes should go into the bottom of the rad and not the top.. ..

being able to use nice cool room ambient air is the only real gain from an AIO water cooling system.. there isnt any other advantage.. my own top flow air cooler works well.. but its totally dependant on a correctly positioned side fan feeding cooler room temp air directly to it.. something a more normal side flow air cooler cant do..

but you dont have much heat being generated in your case so keeping the cpu cool enough should not be a problem in the slightest.. so it dosnt really matter which way you do it..

heat in the top of the case is only a problem if the cpu cooler fan is feeding from it.. with most set ups it is.. but with a rear mounted water cooling rad it dosnt have to be this way.. sucking the cool air in and venting it out of the top after its been warmed up doing its job makes the most sense..

i would say a 120 rad used this way is as good as 240 rad stuck in the top of the case venting out..

trog

 

[Jetster]

In winter I use only the fan on the back of the case for exhaust.
In summer I turn on 1 top as an exhaust and 1 front fan as an intake. But than again in the summer I'm looking for ways to cool myself rather than the PC.

In the summer I turn the AC on

 

[Brusfantomet]

I am using an external radiator to cool most of the high power parts in my computer, (2 x 290x, 5820k and mobo VRM) so airflow inside the case is not super critical.

Never the less i have 3 fans blowing up from the bottom and one exhaust in the rear.

In the other chamber i have one intake at the top (where the drive cage is in this pic), and the PSU as exhaust

(images from the TPU review of the Magnum M8, My personal version had solid top cover and side doors)

Have putt a dust filter on all intakes, and all fans are Arctic Cooling F12 PWM PST. The PST part is very handy when you have lots of fans, witch is what i have on the external radiator (it holds 18 fans)

but wait, this must be extremely noisy you might think. Far from it, the case fans run at ca 600 RPM, the Rad fans are PWM AND voltage controlled so to stay at approx. 500 rpm in idle and 850 rpm on load, but i can up the voltage to get them to 1200 rpm. 18 fans at 1200 RPM is however noisy.

 

[peche]

i wont mention the fact that your pipes should go into the bottom of the rad and not the top.. ..

i have tested both ways... this is the better way to arrange thick tubes, otherwise tubing may get twisted....
any other thought?

interesting that internet pics of 120mm rad AIO kits are mostly the way mine is ...

Spoiler: just some examples...

http://cdn.overclock.net/c/c5/900x900px-LL-c5949c1c_pi2k.jpeg

Regards,

 

[Orijin16]

it (the cpu) I wont mention the fact that your pipes should go into the bottom of the rad and not the top

trog

I'm glad u stopped yourself there because it does of course depend on the loop. The last thing u ever want is air in the radiator, because air in there is not water transferring heat. Pipes at the top allow bubbles to move out of the radiator.

 

[JATownes]

Great concept for a thread. Here's mine.

 

[LAN_deRf_HA]

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/your-pc-atm.65012/page-1061#post-3168471

Intake
2x 200mm
2x 140mm

Exhaust
3x140mm

With airflow restrictions and fan speed considered the end result is roughly neutral pressure.

 

[trog100]

i have tested both ways... this is the better way to arrange thick tubes, otherwise tubing may get twisted....
any other thought?

interesting that internet pics of 120mm rad AIO kits are mostly the way mine is ...

Spoiler: just some examples...

http://cdn.overclock.net/c/c5/900x900px-LL-c5949c1c_pi2k.jpeg

Regards,

yes often with AIO systems best practise dosnt fit in with easy convenient fitting.. best practise says for what should be obvious reasons an air trap should be at highest point of the loop.. which means the rad higher than the pump and the inlet pipes going into the top and outlet pipes coming out the bottom.. the top of the rad acting as the air trap..

AIOs usually have both pipes (convenient fit) going in one end.. its best that that one end is the bottom but often it isnt..

in truth AIO systems are a kludge.. easy to fit (and cheap to make) takes priority over best practise.. most people that fit them dont really need them which is why easy to fit wins the day and is good enough..

for most people a good air cooler makes a better more reliable and quieter long term solution.. lets not forget all water does is take the heat from a chip to an air cooled radiator..

this only has one real advantage.. it enables the air cooled radiator to be better positioned (in the right case) and a f-ck sight bigger.. again in the right case..

and has one american has already said.. in the summer he turns the air conditioning on.. only an american would say this.. cos only an american takes such stuff for granted.. he he

in the summer the rest of the world simply gets hot.. or needs better PC cooling..

trog

 

[Jetster]

and has one american has already said.. in the summer he turns the air conditioning on.. only an american would say this.. cos only an american takes such stuff for granted.. he he

in the summer the rest of the world simply gets hot.. or needs better PC cooling..

trog

I don't take it for granted, I work my ass off. Ok I guess I get paid pretty well for what I do. Its the heat that cost $ AC is cheap. I have a 10 year old 10,000 BTU unit that cools about three rooms pretty good. As long as the CPU and pump are lower than the top of the rad your good. Any air will get caught up in the top and not get pulled down to the pump hopefully. Having the hoses come out of the bottom and up to the CPU can trap air. But its an easy fix to move the system around and get it out

 

[peche]

yes often with AIO systems best practise dosnt fit in with easy convenient fitting.. best practise says for what should be obvious reasons an air trap should be at highest point of the loop.. which means the rad higher than the pump and the inlet pipes going into the top and outlet pipes coming out the bottom.. the top of the rad acting as the air trap..

AIOs usually have both pipes (convenient fit) going in one end.. its best that that one end is the bottom but often it isnt..

i will make the swap, but as far as i could remember my rad does not fit in that position, can't remember why ...
i will make another try at least,

Also have been thinking about doing something new, cutting metal around the rear vent, and use it as intake vent, taking the metallic grid out, i just have been thinking about it, its not official, but the fans direction for the watercooling is a confirmed change, this weekend would take a moment for some changes,

Air cooling is always on air cases, 95% people here have fans that pushes fresh air inside, and exhaust fans that takes out the heat from the case, what it don't like is those tremendous things with 8+ heatpipes and caged fins that takes so much space on the case, looks awful to me, but is just a personal opinion, i trust some other CPU air coolers such as Hyper 212Evo and Tt Frio units, the point is that i don't like them for my Gaming rig...



Regards,