How's my airflow?

dacads

dacads

dacads

Soldato
Joined
3 Sep 2012
Posts
11,501
Location
P town
So after reading some recent threads/posts about temps I'm wondering how efficient my case airflow is. At the moment I have a 120mm intake fan at front and side, exhaust is back and top(140mm).

I was thinking of changing the top to intake as well or swapping the side to exhaust and top to intake?

Ideas welcome thanks
 
I always aim for over pressure via a filter, running 2x120mm inlet and a AIO as the exhaust (2x120mm fitted to the RAD) with my i5 GTX770 system, on my i7 R9 290 system l run a single 120mm at the bottom intake, and 2x120mm fitted to a H55 also intake, with a H20 920 with 2x120mm as outlet, both the PSU's suck air from the bottom and out the back so do not affect my approach.
 
Heat rises - so as a rule of thumb intakes should be at the bottom and exhausts at the top. I'm not keen on side intakes as I think they can interrupt front to back airflow through the case, I have mine blanked off, but if you have a graphics card that runs hot a side intake may help with this.
 
Try for more intake than exhaust as this stop the case sucking in dust from any open vents and you just need to clean the fans.

Intake at the front and bottom and exhaust at the top and rear
 
Luke_Bowman said:
Try for more intake than exhaust as this stop the case sucking in dust from any open vents and you just need to clean the fans.

Intake at the front and bottom and exhaust at the top and rear
Click to expand...

I've never found this works so well in practise though often repeated - though if you've got a good dust filter on the intake and regularly clean it off it helps.

The only way I've found to mostly eliminate dust without cleaning the case/filters out frequently (though you do have to do it now and again or cooling is compromised) is to have very slight negative pressure and seal all unfiltered intakes/gaps, etc. (any dust that does make it in never gets a chance to blow around the case and get trapped somewhere building up in a difficult to clean spot).
 
Last edited:
doyll said:
"Hot air rises" has nothing to do with case cooling when fans are used.
This explains how I setup and check case cooling.
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/sh...ight=case+cooling+username_doyll#post26159770
Click to expand...

I tried having front and top intakes on my air 540, with rear exhaust, and found a hotspot in the bottom back corner. Changed the tops to exhausts and flow and temperatures are much better.

Heat does try to rise, and you need more powerful fans than are at play in a PC case to really get some forced airflow going, IME.
 
Each build needs it's airflow check and adjusted accordingly. Every case and every build's airflow is different. Sometime not much, sometime a lot.
 
I use 1x 200mm @ front intake, top and rear 120mm's are in exhaust. No side fans

CPU stays @ 70c or under
Top card while gaming gets to around 75c game depending
Bottom card while gaming gets to around 65c game depending.

Tidy!
 
doyll said:
"Hot air rises" has nothing to do with case cooling when fans are used.
Click to expand...
In my house and I suspect in the house of the OP the laws of thermodynamics remain unaltered even with the introduction of fans. If you wanted to negate this effect you'd have to have your fans constantly spinning at high speed which isn't likely to be desirable. I'd suggest working with nature rather than against it by introducing cool air at the bottom of the case and removing hot air from the top. That way your fans can remain at an unobtrusive level of noise whilst maintaining an efficient flow of air through the case.

At least that would be my starting point, like you say each build is different.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom