Case setup

Sturm · 5 Mar 2016 at 12:34

I kitted out my Entho Pro M and added an antec 240 AIO for the CPU
I am seeing Temps under load around 45c thermal margin in amd overdrive which is the most accurate temp for my CPU at idle I have 34C in the bios and 30c at the board

My setup is:
2 x 140 fans intake at the front
2 x 120 fans pushing through rad out the top exhaust
1 x 120 fan exhaust

Should I be mounting the rad at the front as intake, keep as it is up top or make it intake at top?

Glanza · 5 Mar 2016 at 14:04

Fine how you currently have it.

andicole0 · 5 Mar 2016 at 14:07

I would have thought sucking air in over the radiator, otherwise you're putting heated air over the rad.
Andi.

PieEater · 6 Mar 2016 at 08:39

That setup is probably what I would go with as you have good intake of cool air and not much to heat it before it gets to the radiator, the cool air will be good for the boards chipset & VRMs.

You could look at having the radiator still at the top but with the fans as intakes, the rear exhaust fan could well get rid of all the heated air and as hot air rises it would be unlikely to affect the cool air coming from the front to any great degree.

Moving the radiator to the front and having the front fans at the top as exhausts would also mean cooler air being used by the radiator but heated air would then be blown into the case which could well lead to the radiator having more work to do plus your chipset & VRMs could end up being heated rather than cooled.

I would invest in a cheap LCD indoor / outdoor thermometer (mine cost £3) and measure the temperature of the air being pulled through the radiator and the temperature near to the intake fans. If the difference is minimal then I'd stay as you are. If the difference is enough to make you think about doing something about it I would first use the thermometer to help to create a custom curve for the intake fans to see if you can get more cool air to the radiator when your CPU is under load. If that doesn't work I would measure the air temperature around your chipset / VRMs, try the radiators fans as intakes rather than exhausts and see what if any difference this makes to CPU, motherboard & internal air temperatures, I'd recommend getting the rear exhaust spinning faster to make sure it can exhaust the heated air with this setup.

Of course all of this will be complicated further with the addition of a graphics card............