Airflow diagram inside...

Makhaira

Makhaira

Makhaira

Soldato
Joined
23 Nov 2007
Posts
4,994
Location
Lancashire, UK
Hi guys,

Right, whilst I wait for my fans to turn up in the post, I've just spent 2 minutes considering my airflow options, as per the diagram below. I know the convention is to have both vents at the top of the case exhausting, but with the position of the tower cooler I'm thinking there is probably more benefit to having the front edge as an intake, otherwise I'm going to end up with a low pressure area infront of the cooler intake and therefore reduced cooling.

I know the proof will be in the testing, but a bit of theory work never hurt anyone! The cooler is a Megahalems, and my graphics card is a dual slot cooler exhausting out of the case.

airflow.gif
 
I'd say having the top fans in that configuration could make things a bit messy airflow wise. For starters you'd probably get a lot of the air that was exhausted by the 'back' fan being drawn in to the 'front' one by the lower air pressure, so you'd be recycling the hot air. Plus the large amount of air being pushed down past the front of the CPU fan could starve the fans on the cooler of air. However, as you said, all theoretical.
 
Yeah realistically you want double exhaust at the top, you'll just lose flow and air to the exhaust fan at the top-back.
 
Would I be best losing the top intake at the front edge completely? If it's exhausting I'm worried about starving the cooler intake fan of air.

+1 Internets to whoever gets the answer that testing proves right!
 
Heh. It could be all different when tried! I found my top fan worked better as an intake. Go figure!

Are all fans the same? Otherwise whats the cfm per fan, try and keep it balanced.
 
Good point Phillydee. All the same with the exception of the front fan in the 5.25" bays, which will be a 92mm. All others will be 120mm. I'll have to dig up the cfm rating, but should be the same as they're the same depth blade and RPM.
 
u want to make sure you have more air going in than out unless you like your case turning into a giant hoover and dust surounded every gap on your case , cd drive bays etc
 
hmm well surely the air in a case is going to be messy no matter what you do. There are a LOT of large objects such as CPU heatsinks, GPUS, Optical drives there to block the airflow.

I'm surprised that there aren't tons of videos involving pumping smoke into cpu cases to show visually how changing fan layout really affects airflow inside the case. If there are any I haven't seen them.
 
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