proven case fan set ups

ozaudio

ozaudio

ozaudio

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After reading around several places, most are saying side panel as intake for gpu, BUT , in my case im not sure?

corsair 300r case
front intake 2 x 140mm NZXT FZ 83.6 CFM EACH
top rear exhaust 1 x 120mm artic cooling F12
top exhaust, 140mm corsair that came with case

now I have 2 x 140mm akasa apches which per fan gives 89.55 CFM

the gpu doesn't blow hot air out so my case fills up with heat from the gpu so should the apaches intake from the side or exhaust

I am also considering 2 x more of either of the 140mm fans ( for top exhaust )as they are so quiet! will end up swinging for more NZXT as the white leds blend in with the white LED power button on my case
 
The proven arrangement is the one you see in 19" servers. A rectangular box which pulls air in from the front and sends it out the back. No ventilation in the sides.

In desktop computing, intake on the front, gpu's that exhaust out the back, other fans exhaust out the back. Sometimes an exhaust on the top too.

Side fans may be required to work around gpu's that don't exhaust out the back, or the more ambitious multiple gpu systems. In general though, you want to block off the side fan mount and most of the ventilation holes.

The other proven approach is water. If the fans are on the radiator, with a shroud, you don't have to worry as much about airflow elsewhere.
 
I have just tried block of the side fans and gpu went to 77c instead of the 70 ish with the side fans running
 
The only way to know what works best in your case (no pun) is test different combinations and see.

There is much more to cooling than good cases, good fans and good CPU / GPU coolers. Modern GPU's make more heat than CPU... and getting that heat out of the case can be a challenge.

Setting up the case to cool properly is the hardest and most time consuming part of a build... And the most neglected by most builders.

Cases, especially those with filters, usually benefit from fans with higher static pressure ratings than stock fans... "cooler" fans instead of "case" fans.

Intakes are typically more restricted than exhaust; air filter, more restrictive grill, HDD cage, etc. I prefer a little more intake than exhaust.

And don't confuse number of fans with amount of airflow... or cofuse airflow with airblow

Airflow is flowing cool air from intake to component and flowing hot air from component out of case without the hot air mixing with the cool air.

Airblow is lots of fans blowing air with some of hot air from components mixing with cool air making it warmer resulting in warm air not cooling components as well as the cool air will.

Putting fans in case as intake and/or exhaust is only the first step. These fans only move air in and out of case.

This does not mean heated air is not mixing with cool air.

Nor does it mean cool air is going to where it is needed.

Getting the air to flow inside of case properly is even more important. We still need to manage where the air flows inside the case. We can do this several ways; deflectors, cooler intake fans, exhaust fans, removing vent grills, using fans with higher pressure/airflow, building ducts to or from CPU/GPU cooler, etc.

Using a remote temperature sensor to monitor what air temps are is the key to finding out where the cool air is flowing and knowing heated air is not mixing into it. By monitoring this we can than make changes to get airflow the way we want it.

I monitor the temps with a cheap indoor/outdoor wired remote or terrarium digital thermometer. Twist a piece of stiff insulated wire into the last 8" of sensor lead so you can bend it to position sensor where you want it... like 40mm in front of your GPU cooler/radiator intake.. to see what the air temp going into CPU / GPU cooler is compared to room temp. The closer it is to room temp the better.. Shouldn't be more 5c maximum, 2-3c is what I usually end up with after 30 minutes full load on both CPU and GPU.
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Well said doyll.

I got to the point of building ducting inside my computer and blowing compressed air in to see where the air was actually going - then gave up in disgust. It's very difficult to exert fine control over the airflow.

That annoyance was solved with water - I'm now very sure whether the heat is moving as it's largely constrained to the tubes. Getting good thermal performance out of water is a lot easier than getting it out of air. There's still thought required to get some airflow over parts of the motherboard and the memory, but that's not as important as ensuring that cool air reaches cpu heatsinks.

edit: Periodically I claim water is easier than air for this reason - ducting from fan to radiator is trivial compared to setting up the right pressure distribution around a heatsink. Not many people seem to agree with this conclusion though.
 
I do keep looking at water cooling but just don't know were to go, I want another GPU in here but could only fit a 240 rad in my case, or if going air cooling the Arctic Accelero Xtreme 7970/7950 VGA Cooler @ £50 from ocuk.

Water cooling from scratch will cost me more than just buying an NVidia card instead so gpu heats lower to start with.
 
I have the 300r and i can only use the intake on the right hand side of the window as my h80i blocks the other, im using it as an intake.

I have 2x 120s in top as outs, and the rest are all ins, including the rear as this is holding the h80i.
 
nick.lidgett said:
I have the 300r and i can only use the intake on the right hand side of the window as my h80i blocks the other, im using it as an intake.

I have 2x 120s in top as outs, and the rest are all ins, including the rear as this is holding the h80i.
Click to expand...

how does this work for you
 
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