What's the best cooling setup?

Protomize

Protomize

Protomize

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10 Jun 2012
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I don't have all 4 fans yet. I only have 2 and use them as top exhaust fans currently. The case you see here is the Cooler Master HAF912 which is what I use. Out of all 3 setups, what do you think will provide the most optimal cooling?

Setup 1:

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Two 120mm fans at the bottom front of the case for intake and two 120mm fans at the the top of the case for exhaust.

Setup 2:

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One 120mm fan at the bottom front of the case and one 120mm fan at the left side panel of the case for intake. Two 120mm fans at the top of the case for exhaust.

Setup 3:

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One 120mm fan at the bottom front of the case for intake, two 120mm fans at the top of the case for exhaust and one 120mm fan at the top rear of the case for exhaust.
 
2x fans at the front blowing in 1x fan and the back blowing out 2x fans at th top blowing out also.
1x fan in the side panel also blowing in or out (your choice depends on the cards in the slots?

the fan at the bottom of the case, well only if you want or have a fully loaded motherboard full of cards
 
2x front & 2x bottom in, 2x top & 1x back out (more cfm in then out).
More fans at low speed will move as much air as few fans running faster and are quieter then.
All intakes need to be filtered. I prefer removable filters as they are easier to clean.

My case has 2x 120mm front and 1x 140mm bottom intake and 1x120mm back exhaust. Cooler is push>push>pull 140mm ducted out 140mm x 280mm top vent. All fans are PWM and controlled using Akasa & Gelid PWM fan splitters with CPU fan as rpm master. Idle is 740rpm @ 38c CPU; load is 1200rpm @ 60c CPU. Case is never more then 2-3c above ambient.
 
two at the front and one at the rear..... two at the rear if you include the psu as an exhaust.....

more importantly, nothing blocking the intakes and as close to the mobo as possible... no Hard drive cage, no fan grills and no wiring

top fan firing directly into the CPU fan, lower fan firing directly underneath the card..... roughly
 
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doyll said:
PSU is usually independent these days as it draws it's own air from bottom.;)
Click to expand...

mine is at the top and draws air from the case and out the back, that's an old photo; mine doesn't look like that now, the intake fans are moved even closer in



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Very nice looking!
What is the grey/silver speckled looking stuff if I might ask?

Edit:
Assume you opened up the back vent too?
 
doyll said:
Very nice looking!
What is the grey/silver speckled looking stuff if I might ask?

Edit:
Assume you opened up the back vent too?
Click to expand...

that's Acoustic foam, it kills quite a lot of the noise, plus it hides the scratches on the Ally..

the rear vents are all open, but the roof fan is closed, i dont need it
 
General rules of air cooling.

Cool air in at the lowest points in the case
Warm air expelled at the highest points of the case
Have an even pressure
Try and keep the airflow simple.

From the looks of your setup i would keep either option 1 or 2.
 
doyll said:
Functional and good looking too. Very nice!

Thanks for the reply. :)
Click to expand...

yea thanks but it looks like i'll be replaing the cooler yet again, i fancy megahalems black, silly me :D

my pc case is more like a test bench, the intake fans are much further forward now, plus i've removed those silly grills from the lower PCI slots, the lower intake fan is now 89 cfm Xigmatek....running on Level 5, i've also replaced the Hard Drive !!

she's running at 50 TO 55 degrees C on full Prime at 4.4 with MSI Afterburner running at the same time, but you'll need to see proof of that, so i'll upload it as soon as i get my new 7970 back from RMA.
 
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