Airflow for water WC build

no_1_dave · 13 Sep 2011 at 11:45

So, I've ordered some replacement tubing and water so I can flush the gunk out of my loop and have decided that I can revise the airflow at the same time. Below is a pic of my current airflow, as you can see I have 2 fans bringing air in (1 of which is through a small rad) and 3 fans pushing air out through a large rad at the top. The 2 fans bringing air in are running at 100% and the 3 top ones are running at only 30% each to keep noise down.

Please tell me what is wrong & how I should do it better.

Temps with this setup are fine, 65c - 70c on both 470s (overclocked) after hours of BC2 but I am getting fed up with dust buildup around PCI slots etc so I am considering positive pressure?

Emjay86 · 13 Sep 2011 at 13:20

Have you considered changing the back fan to an outflow instead of inflow? The way your current system is any airflow be it hot or cold is pushed through your rad on the top. Having the outflow on the back should lower the overall temp on the interior and thus push cooler air through the rad.

I have exactly the same case with a similar setup and I use the back as an outflow and the cooler air is sucked in through the top of the case into my rad.

no_1_dave · 13 Sep 2011 at 14:42

Emjay86 said:
Have you considered changing the back fan to an outflow instead of inflow? The way your current system is any airflow be it hot or cold is pushed through your rad on the top. Having the outflow on the back should lower the overall temp on the interior and thus push cooler air through the rad.

I have exactly the same case with a similar setup and I use the back as an outflow and the cooler air is sucked in through the top of the case into my rad.

Would that make it so I get a lot of dust buildup though?
Having a lot of air coming in and only 1 outflow?

Do you have a rad on the back also?
I would have thought if the top 3 suck air in than the back would need to be too otherwise it would only be very hot air pushed through the rear rad making it kind of pointless?

snaggster · 13 Sep 2011 at 14:52

I would keep it how you already have it. Though maybe look at mounting the 140mm rad at the bottom of the case in front of your psu, And have the rear 140 drawing air in to cool your motherboard heatsinks, and also provide more cool air for your 360 rad.

mike gunnz · 13 Sep 2011 at 15:05

snaggster said:
I would keep it how you already have it. Though maybe look at mounting the 140mm rad at the bottom of the case in front of your psu, And have the rear 140 drawing air in to cool your motherboard heatsinks, and also provide more cool air for your 360 rad.

Have to agree with this it all looks fine.

Mounting the 140mm rad in the bottom compartment may give you access to cooler air although you'd have to remove the 140mm fan on the midshelf as your single rad plus fan will probably be too thick to squeeze in as well.

Then turn the rear 140mm fan into a low RPM intake across the mobo. No need to run the fans at 100% I would have thought, although a nice balance between the rad fans and the others will ensure the roof rad isnt starved of airflow.

Too Tall · 13 Sep 2011 at 19:54

Out of interest what case is that?

mike gunnz · 13 Sep 2011 at 20:31

nrenz123 said:
Out of interest what case is that?

Its a Corsair 700D.

Out of interest, have I just sold you a Zalman cooler at auction? lol

Emjay86 · 18 Sep 2011 at 12:36

Sorry I didnt realise you had a rad on the back as well.

I have the same case (Corsair Obsidian 800D) and I run a triple rad on the top which is cooled by 3 xigmatec (only got them for the purple LED effect

) fans on an inward airflow. Cool air goes from outside of my case in through the radiator and then into the rest of the case.

I still have the stock fan by the hard drive bays and I havn't touched which way it blows/sucks or anything (I havnt felt it need worthy).

The fan on the back im using again a purple LED Xigmatec 140mm and I have that as an exhaust.

Within my system I have 2 GeForce 580 GTX cards and when im playing games the temps can get up to around 70 degrees (I have a pretty aggressive cooling setup using MSI Afterburner) and so with the back fan being exhaust it pushes any hot air from inside the case out as well as stops the hot air from the exhaust of the graphics cards re-entering the system.

Once I put my graphics cards into the loop I may well change the direction of airflow on the back fan however.