High CFM location

squiffy · 7 Apr 2006 at 15:06

I have a spare Thermaltake Thunderblade 12cm 70cfm fan spare, so might as well use it. I'll mount it on the side panel with a 8cm to 12cm housing. I have a choice of TT fan or moving the slow & quiet Coolermaster case fan (the one closest to videocard) on the side panel, and putting the TT where the Coolermaster fan used to be. I have drawn a blue box where the side panel fan would be. Currently the exhaust fan does feel very slightly warm, probably heat from Mosfets and CPU, compared to the one above it which is cooler air. I'll probably be looking into a Zalman 900 videocard cooler

So what's better?

More airflow blowing where the blue box is, less airflow of the exhaust
Or higher airflow on the exhaust, not so much onto blue box area

cyclopopcicle · 7 Apr 2006 at 20:25

how come your PSU is at the bottom?
isnt this gona create more heat in the case?

R B Customs · 7 Apr 2006 at 20:41

cyclopopcicle said:
how come your PSU is at the bottom?
isnt this gona create more heat in the case?

shouldnt do... as its exausting air out the case... although everone knows heat rises, so its not working to its best ability.
in like the antec P180s that case deosnt seem to have a sepertate level for the PSU

strange :S

pegasus1 · 7 Apr 2006 at 20:43

Youve got a lot of negative airflow going on.
Its better to have more air going in via the fans then being drawn out via the fans.
Posiyive airflow will get rid of the heat far better, this has been mentioned on here several times recently.
Try having your front/rear/side fans blowing in and your roof and PSU going out.
See how that effects temps.

squiffy · 7 Apr 2006 at 21:26

PSU does blow out, not in so no problem with heat. Pegasus did you notice I have two 12cm fans on the front? At the moment I have 2 12cm Coolermaster fans on the front, a 12cm Coolermaster on the side window, 8cm exhaust on the top, 12cm Coolermaster on the top rear exhaust, 12cm Thermaltake on the rear exhaust, 12cm PSU fan, videocard cooler. CPU temps are 28 idle, 37 load. Mobo 25. Videocard is unknown (only installed drivers)

Sparky__H · 7 Apr 2006 at 21:28

No point in asking on a forum because unless they have access to your case all they can do is hypothesise about the end result.

Get a piece of paper; write down fan locations and temps.
Then move said fans and record temps again…

Your end up with the most productive setup guaranteed

Every case is different as there is a impossible mix of board designs, cable positions and heat sources.

If that was my setup I would remove all the fans except for the rear exhaust and heat sink fan. It may run 1-2c hotter but it will be 4-5 fans quieter for it at the end of the day.

Long live negative pressure !

squiffy · 7 Apr 2006 at 22:03

The Stacker hasn't got a sealed case design, so negative air pressure shouldn't be a issue? The side panel and unused front panel bays are open with a filter so any difference in pressure should be equalized, and the extra air sucked in elseware? It's not like the fan inlet holes are the only opening to the case (basically a near-sealed unit)

Sparky__H · 7 Apr 2006 at 22:09

Yes the front of the stacker is just one big air filter so any air expelled from the back of the case will be equalised from the front.

I used to have the old model stacker and I did have a good play around with fan positioning

DaveMac · 7 Apr 2006 at 22:42

Sparky__H said:
No point in asking on a forum because unless they have access to your case all they can do is hypothesise about the end result.

Get a piece of paper; write down fan locations and temps.
Then move said fans and record temps again…

Your end up with the most productive setup guaranteed

Every case is different as there is a impossible mix of board designs, cable positions and heat sources.

If that was my setup I would remove all the fans except for the rear exhaust and heat sink fan. It may run 1-2c hotter but it will be 4-5 fans quieter for it at the end of the day.

Long live negative pressure !

Agree totally, especially about starting with one exhaust fan.

Add each other fan, load the PC and see if any noticable temp drop is worth the additional noise.

It would also be worth spending some time tidying the cabling - try to keep it running on the mobo side of the case and cause less of a restriction on the airflow.

pegasus1 · 8 Apr 2006 at 09:34

I agree that all cases are different but in my trials (several days of testing) the settup below was best.

12cm front blowing in
12cm side blowing in
2x80mm (soon to be 1x92mm) rear sucking out
12cm roof blowing in
Seasonic PSU sucking out

I tested every posible variation on this theme using both idle as well as CPU, GPU, CPU+GPU loading.
I use Akasa ambers and have them controlled using Speedfan, at idle they just turn and the max speed is 60% so no noise audiable to my ears.
The only exception is the Gigabyte cpu cooler fan (temp controlled) that is audable if my CPU goes above 36C (only RTW/FEAR/Q4 does this normally).

Just make sure you check load temps, a case with a single fan may be ok at idle but under load i doubt it will be enough, and summer is on its way

geiger · 8 Apr 2006 at 11:16

I used to burn incense sticks to see the airflow in the smoke trails

But just testing under load and recording the temps with the fans in different places is probably simplest