# Share your  Case airflow / Fan setup!



## peche (Jan 18, 2016)

Sup people?! 

I would like to start a new topic, this may help new ones for setting up new cases, fans and also setup,  if possible list your CPU cooler.  Please share  your case/ case fans model and the set-up  do you have on it, also recommendations for other will be great,  helping each other is always well appreciated!

Images are an excellent plus, if possible!


This is my setup:
*Case:* Thermaltake commander G42 window.

*Case fans:  *
front intake: 3x 120mm thermaltake Thunder blade blue fan front intake fans,  [had to use a ghetto mod]
Bottom intake 1x120mm thermaltake Thunder blade blue fan, 
Top exhaust:  2x120mm Gelid extreme slim profile UV fans, 
Rear exhaust: 2x120mm Thermaltake riing 12 fans on water 3.0 Pro AIO kit.

image: 




Also i took the middle drive cage from the case, 

Space on top exhaust is pretty tight... that why i use Gelid slim profile fans... they have no led lights and also are pretty much silent !


What about yours?
let us know!


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## thebluebumblebee (Jan 18, 2016)

I don't understand the performance PC industry's love of push/pull fans.  I know of no other industry that does that.  The serial fans in servers are there for fault tolerance.  
Personally, I like filtered intake fans and I'll let the air go out anywhere it wants, although I like an exhaust fan near the CPU.


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## erocker (Jan 18, 2016)

Two 140's in the front, four 120's on the side, two 120's up top and one 120 on the back. Side and front are intake.


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## xvi (Jan 18, 2016)

Had someone ask me for help figuring out why their FX 9350 kept overheating. They had a Hyper 212 Evo with only three of the four socket mounts connected because one of them was hard to get to. They used two fans on the cooler in a very, uhm, _unique_ "push-push" configuration.

I tried to politely explain it all, but they argued with me that neither of those two things were the reason it was overheating.
Not like it's a 220W TDP CPU on a $30 heatsink or anything. 

Edit: In my cases, I usually load up all the empty fan mounts with some kind of fan (usually the largest it will take). I haven't modded any extra airflow in to my cases since my Socket 754 Sempron days. Today's cases don't need it anyways.


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## GreiverBlade (Jan 18, 2016)

i need a "other" option in the poll ... because i did as i feeled to ... seems to works so far 

AIR 540 
top 2x Alphacool Coolmove 2 120mm on a Alphacool NexXxos ST30 240 blowing ... inside 
front 2x Corsair SP120L perf ed. on a Phobya G-Changer 240 V2 (240mmX60mm) 1 Corsair AF120L perf ed. at the bottom blowing on the PCH and HDD's  all of them blowing inside 
back 1x Corsair AF140L perf ed. 

so far no overheating temps are fine and i have 5 fan intake 1 fan exhaust


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## Kursah (Jan 18, 2016)

I'm running default config in my Corsair 600C. 2 fans in, 1 fan and PSU are acting as exhaust, and the intake fans are also pushing air out of the extra vent locations. This config can run on low and still beat my old Lian-Li PC-K62 that had 1 intake fan and 3 exhaust fans at higher RPMs.

Though to be fair the 600C has a more direct intake airflow path than the PC-K62 could ever dream of w/o mods. And that alone made a noticeable difference. I will say for all those folks that threw up their arms in disgust of the 600Q/C's design, it has been an excellent case, very quiet, keeps cool, looks great...and I find no need for top vents or extra exhaust fans. The filtered intakes are easy enough to access for service too. I do prefer more intake than exhaust overall.


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## peche (Jan 18, 2016)

xvi said:


> Had someone ask me for help figuring out why their FX 9350 kept overheating. They had a Hyper 212 Evo with only three of the four socket mounts connected because one of them was hard to get to. They used two fans on the cooler in a very, uhm, _unique_ "push-push" configuration.
> 
> I tried to politely explain it all, but they argued with me that neither of those two things were the reason it was overheating.


you already listed the main problem… 3 of 4 socket screws are tighten and trying to create a seal / bond between thermal interface material and cpu & heatsink surface, so because is improperly attached / installed your processors keeps a heat then overheats, your CPU cooler is not properly working… that’s it lad,  
install your CPU cooler correctly, no excuses for getting 3 of 4 screws …. then place the fan and check the temps, is the tasks is pretty big for your skills, take the rig to a store for making it done, not intending to offend lad,



GreiverBlade said:


> i need a "other" option in the poll ... because i did as i feeled to ... seems to works so far
> 
> AIR 540
> top 2x Alphacool Coolmove 2 120mm on a Alphacool NexXxos ST30 240 blowing ... inside
> ...


option added dude!
nice setup, custom !


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## GreiverBlade (Jan 18, 2016)

peche said:


> you already listed the main problem… 3 of 4 socket screws are tighten and trying to create a seal / bond between thermal interface material and cpu & heatsink surface, so because is improperly attached / installed your processors keeps a heat then overheats, your CPU cooler is not properly working… that’s it lad,
> install your CPU cooler correctly, no excuses for getting 3 of 4 screws …. then place the fan and check the temps, is the tasks is pretty big for your skills, take the rig to a store for making it done, not intending to offend lad,!


he didn't ask for help, someone asked *HIM *for help .... and the funniest they didn't listen to him explaining the obvious (to any of us) failure that would lead to a overheating


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## peche (Jan 18, 2016)

GreiverBlade said:


> he didn't ask for help, someone asked *HIM *for help .... and the funniest they didn't listen to him explaining the obvious (to any of us) failure that would lead to a overheating


lol.... sometimes is hard to believe how people mess-up the things...


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## jboydgolfer (Jan 19, 2016)

this is my exact case(actually mine is the original one, a few years older), and the exact fan set-up i use, minus the bottom fan, my water pump goes there. these cases have VERY underrate Airflow capabilities.






This is the older one , it is my Actual PC. its a few years older, and looks a little different, but basically the same thing as the above pictured PC.


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## scevism (Jan 19, 2016)

Mine is like this apart from having a h100i rad up top with 2 fans blowing down.
Mind you with a case this big heat is never a problem.


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## thebluebumblebee (Jan 19, 2016)

Kursah said:


> I'm running default config in my Corsair 600C. 2 fans in, 1 fan and PSU are acting as exhaust, and the intake fans are also pushing air out of the extra vent locations. This config can run on low and still beat my old Lian-Li PC-K62 that had 1 intake fan and 3 exhaust fans at higher RPMs.
> 
> Though to be fair the 600C has a more direct intake airflow path than the PC-K62 could ever dream of w/o mods. And that alone made a noticeable difference. I will say for all those folks that threw up their arms in disgust of the 600Q/C's design, it has been an excellent case, very quiet, keeps cool, looks great...and I find no need for top vents or extra exhaust fans. The filtered intakes are easy enough to access for service too. I do prefer more intake than exhaust overall.


If I had that case, I'd tape off the bottom so that the air was directed out the back.


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## sneekypeet (Jan 19, 2016)

All I use are a pair of 180mm in the middle and a 140mm for the exhaust.


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## xvi (Jan 19, 2016)

I've had those stupid Intel push-pin processors pop off without realizing it and it's certainly not good, but the heatsink still makes _okay_ contact. Enough to not alert you immediately, at least.
The thing that really bugged me was that they were trying to cool a 220w TDP CPU (basically a watercool-or-go-home processor) with a measly Hyper 212 Evo.... with both fans blowing opposite directions.

As in:



(Thank you whoever I stole this image from)

Tried to explain that they're fighting against each other and nope! They wouldn't listen to a word I said. Wouldn't even _try_ turning the rear fan around.
Edit: Almost forgot, they would only tell me idle temps too. Wouldn't test under load. Apparently it wasn't important.


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## Kursah (Jan 19, 2016)

thebluebumblebee said:


> If I had that case, I'd tape off the bottom so that the air was directed out the back.



You know with the rear being so much open mesh for venting, it's really no problem at all. I have my U14S aimed at the rear exhaust fan, and they line up fairly well...

My GTX 770 isn't a leafblower-style cooler, but rather the Windforce 450W triple fan...the heatsink fins are vertical, so they exhaust towards the board and the window'd sidepanel...the front intakes push that hot air right out the rear mesh with an unexpected ease. The case is so damn wide (around 2" wider than my Lian Li) and I really never expected that to make so much of a difference cooling-wise. I would've thought a narrower air tunnel like the Lian Li was (in a sense) would've been more effective with less area for the air to sit...but air moves front to back in the main chamber of the 600C.

It is nice that the front fans line right up with the CPU cooler and graphics card, and there's not a huge gap in between them either...I should take pictures...if I can dig up my light and camera I will. 

Being concerned about the bottom vents, I did cover them... made absolutely no difference in cooling effectiveness or hindrance. But looked shoddy through that big ass window. Since it has a magnetic dust filter right there I took the makeshift cover out. I used painter's masking tape to make sure I didn't leave any residue. If anything the bottom allows the CPU to pull in more fresh air under heavy AVX-style loads (about the only thing I didn't test with the cover in there...oh well..).

If anyone wants to buy a really nice case that is upside down and back-ass-wards, and shouldn't necessarily work as-well-as it does...the 600C is that case. The Q too if you want a quieter case... but the C is already very quiet. Though I do run the fans on low.


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## neatfeatguy (Jan 19, 2016)

In my Fractal Design Arc XL, I removed both HDD cages and mounted my HDDs in the 5.25" bay to remove anything blocking the two front fan intakes.

It's not something super cool, but I wanted to remove things blocking my front intake fans - it was one of the reasons I got the case.






I then mounted my 2 HDDs in the 5.25" bays and my SSD mounts to the back of the motherboard tray, so it seemed like a perfect thing to do to hopefully improve airflow.


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## Kanan (Jan 19, 2016)

I still use a old Chieftec tower with 3x 92 mm right side that blow fresh air in and 1x 92 left side and 1x 120mm back that blow out. My PSU has a 135mm fan on top of it, that maybe pulls some air out too. Nothing special, but works good with my setup.


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## kenkickr (Jan 19, 2016)

I've gone to the extent of cutting out plastic and steel meshing were fans are located as to minimize air flow restrictions.  Just about every case I have has had a date with my dremel.


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## trog100 (Jan 19, 2016)

the only case fans that do much on my case are the two side fans.. these blow nice cool room temp air directly onto the hot graphics card and top flow cpu cooler.. 

i think its more about where the ambient room temp air gets blown than how much of it there is going through the case.. case heat is very localised.. i am a firm believer in directing the cool air where it matters and does the most good.. side case fans dont seem to fit in very well with windowed cases but i swear by them.. 

trog


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## rtwjunkie (Jan 19, 2016)

I've done too much research on this to be healthy with mine, collecting all kinds of data on static pressure, cfm and noise.  I've finally arrived at the perfect slightly positive airflow (about 20cfm in than out), with extra being pushed out through other cracks.

I have 2 front 140mm fans with good static pressure because of the Fractal intakes and filters, and then the big drive enclosure obstructions.  I have one of the Rosewill Hyperbola fans with very good SP because upper drive area is more retricted than lower, and pushing 89cfm. A Cougar V14HB with 70cfm on bottom front.

Case bottom intake is a Cougar CFD 140mm doing 73cfm.

Forward top exhaust is blocked with Fractal soundproofing pad. Rear top exhaust is a Phanteks 140mm SP-BK exhaustin 83cfm.

Rear exhaust is a Fractal Venturi pulling out 118.5cfm very quietly.

Altogether I have very cool components under load, and surprisingly, fairly quiet, bc the fan and air noise were all part of my endless research of user reviews.  Very happy with the temperatures and the noise level!


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## Toothless (Jan 19, 2016)

I took my two top fans off and everything runs as good as before. Quieter too..

Though front fan is intake, back fan outtake with CPU fans in the same direction. All that hot air dumping onto my monitors with the closed heat vent near the intake.

I may have solved my CPU-no-overclocky issue. brb.


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## chinmi (Jan 19, 2016)

i'm using corsair carbide air 540, and i feel positive air pressure is best, so my setup is 3x 120mm in front as intake, 2x 140mm top as intake, 1x corsair h80i aio watercooler push pull 120mm fans as outtake.  
with 5 intake spot and 1 outtake spot, the rest of the air is squeezing from all tiny holes on the case, and that makes less dust inside the case


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## Jetster (Jan 19, 2016)

chinmi said:


> i'm using corsair carbide air 540, and i feel positive air pressure is best, so my setup is 3x 120mm in front as intake, 2x 140mm top as intake, 1x corsair h80i aio watercooler push pull 120mm fans as outtake.
> with 5 intake spot and 1 outtake spot, the rest of the air is squeezing from all tiny holes on the case, and that makes less dust inside the case




I also run a positive pressure system. Two front 120s in, two top 120s in or down, 1 200 side in, and one 140 back out. All the in fans have filters. A positive system is not the best in cooling performance especially with filters. But with a H105 cooling is not really an issue and no dust is the reason I do it.


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## Orijin16 (Jan 19, 2016)

"Cooling" is important to me, "Case airflow" is not so much.

To clarify that point, I watercool my CPU with a 240mm Alphacool Monsta in the front of my Coolermaster CM-690iii and a Magicool G2 Slim 240mm in the top.

The Monsta is currently push only with 2x generic Coolermaster high static pressure PWM fans reduced to 7v and on the lowest PWM setting until CPU exceeds 50c (which it never does).

The Slim currently only has a single EK Vardar F4, reduced to 7v on the same PWM curve.

The reason for the odd fan setup on the radiators is because I messed up the wiring when reducing the voltage and burnt out the rest of the fans, but they will be replaced with 3 more Vardars when I can afford them.

All radiator fans are intakes with a single exhaust on the back of the case, a generic coolermaster that came with the case, this one being voltage controlled by the CPU fan header and doesn't turn on until the CPU hits 50c.

The reason for this setup is because my PC is 6 inches from my head when I'm bed, so as close to perfect silence is a must, but I get excellent temps with this setup anyway.


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## peche (Jan 19, 2016)

jboydgolfer said:


> this is my exact case(actually mine is the original one, a few years older), and the exact fan set-up i use, minus the bottom fan, my water pump goes there. these cases have VERY underrate Airflow capabilities.
> 
> This is the older one , it is my Actual PC. its a few years older, and looks a little different, but basically the same thing as the above pictured PC.


i guess this is your case:

thermaltake Commander MS-i, the one you pictured on the first photo is the new commander G42, launched some months ago, 



Spoiler: photos
















its pretty tight making some cable management on those cases, as far as i know the ms-i has bigger space comapred to ms ii which actually was my older case, Thermaltake Commander ms-ii



scevism said:


> View attachment 71189
> Mine is like this apart from having a h100i rad up top with 2 fans blowing down.
> Mind you with a case this big heat is never a problem.



Cosmos are interesting cases, pretty nice and detailed design!



neatfeatguy said:


> In my Fractal Design Arc XL, I removed both HDD cages and mounted my HDDs in the 5.25" bay to remove anything blocking the two front fan intakes.
> 
> It's not something super cool, but I wanted to remove things blocking my front intake fans - it was one of the reasons I got the case.
> 
> ...


are there some photos with all your hardware?


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## MustSeeMelons (Jan 19, 2016)

Positive pressure here: 2x 140's in the front as input, 1 140 in the bottom also as input and 1 140 in the rear as exhaust. The loudest thing in the case are 2 HDD's. When I build the system 2 years ago my CPU was idling at 20C, now at about 30C.


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## hat (Jan 19, 2016)

neatfeatguy said:


> In my Fractal Design Arc XL, I removed both HDD cages and mounted my HDDs in the 5.25" bay to remove anything blocking the two front fan intakes.
> 
> It's not something super cool, but I wanted to remove things blocking my front intake fans - it was one of the reasons I got the case.
> 
> ...


I like what you've done there...


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## GreiverBlade (Jan 19, 2016)

chinmi said:


> and i feel positive air pressure is best,


exactly what i felt ... and did ... seems the AIR540 love 5 intake 1 exhaust


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## peche (Jan 19, 2016)

hat said:


> I like what you've done there...


me too,  some pictures of that build already running must be great!


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## alucasa (Jan 19, 2016)

thebluebumblebee said:


> I don't understand the performance PC industry's love of push/pull fans.  I know of no other industry that does that.  The serial fans in servers are there for fault tolerance.
> Personally, I like filtered intake fans and I'll let the air go out anywhere it wants, although I like an exhaust fan near the CPU.



Agreed. My case has a single filtered intake fan and that's it.

... Not that I have a lot of space for other fans.


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## neatfeatguy (Jan 19, 2016)

peche said:


> are there some photos with all your hardware?



I think I got something more recent.....but it's prior to my new Seasonic 750W PSU and the extra 8GB of RAM. This is when I got my 980Ti just installed.





The sanding, painting and clear coating took me 20+ hours on this full tower (a good chunk of time was from sanding by hand before I borrowed my step-dad's electric hand sander - never again will I do the sanding by hand). Plus one of the side panels got knocked over and the newly finished paint and clear coat was ruined. I had to re-sand the panel and repaint (this added an extra 4 hours to my total time). I think it was worth the time and effort - the wife thought it was a complete waste of time and stupid....but what does she know.


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## Jetster (Jan 19, 2016)




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## peche (Jan 19, 2016)

neatfeatguy said:


> I think I got something more recent.....but it's prior to my new Seasonic 750W PSU and the extra 8GB of RAM. This is when I got my 980Ti just installed.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


its hard to deal with people that dont understand the love we have with this kinda stuff,  
well, cables could get a little bit better, but the new scheme is awesome lad!
thanks ...


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## hat (Jan 19, 2016)

If we're gonna talk about positive or negative pressure, I'll add my thoughts on that as well. I prefer negative pressure (that is, more air out than in) because that kind of setup should remove heat from the case most effectively. With positive pressure, you're kinda just forcing fresh air in a ball of heated air that's not being exhausted as well as it could... that said I don't even have a lot of places for fans in my case, just 1 120mm in the back. There's a vent in the front and on the side door, though. I figure the air will just come in on its own as the exhaust fan pulls it out... but a single 120mm fan isn't going to pull that much out anyway... especially at around 50cfm. It's mostly there to cool the h70 rad.

I used to have 2 120s on my h70 in push/pull, but I've read a lot about that kind of configuration not really helping much. I'm not overclocking my chip or anything (unfortunately) but my own experience seems to reflect that. I don't know why it took me so long, but just recently I realized that extra fan on my h70 could be better placed on my TT Big Typhoon in my other computer, replacing the rather noisy fan that used to be on it. Now the loudest thing I hear is the 80mm fans mounted in that case, but even those aren't that bad. I hear my PS2 over those when it's running.



peche said:


> its hard to deal with people that dont understand the love we have with this kinda stuff,
> well, cables could get a little bit better, but the new scheme is awesome lad!
> thanks ...



True that... it's even worse when you take your PC enthusiasm even further and develop some _really_ niche interests. Take for example video encoding. I deinterlaced the entire 1-12 seasons of South Park with a AviSynth QTGMC script. On the VideoHelp forums I read from some that my result should be 59.94fps for the best quality, and if I didn't do it that way it would look choppy. I had other people saying I could use some other commands that would result in 23.976fps, and that seemed to make the most sense to me because film is shot at 24fps anyway. South Park's bad animation failed to expose it, but recently working with, for lack of better words, actual film sources (not animation) I now see the choppiness some users mentioned there. I plan to do some testing and check the results myself with this, but so far, seasons 1-3 of The Golden Girls is already fubar'd. I could process the rest of it in a different way that looks better, but nobody would notice it, except for me... and I must admit I'd probably only notice it because I have a tendency now to see that sort of thing because I've worked with that kind of stuff myself, and I want to produce the best quality result I can.


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## Kursah (Jan 19, 2016)

I used to agree and be biased towards negative pressure, but what I found is that this method isn't as effective at cooling (in my testing and experience) as positive pressure cases where you are using similar count and flow fans. It also depends on case design as well.

Using my personal cases...running 2 intake fans and one exhaust fan in my 600C, and able to run at lower RPMS, and OC my system and still achieve the same temps as my system non-OC'd in a case with one intake fan and 3 exhaust fans kinda speaks for itself.

One thing to keep in mind with positive pressure is it will push air out, I was worried I'd have a stagnant hot air pocket...and honestly if anything it reduced what was there with a negative airflow setup while keeping more dust out rather than sucking it in. The nice thing about positive flow, is that it'll push air out wherever it can find a path of least resistance, which keeps more air moving (again from my experience and testing, not all cases may benefit from this).

I also changed my home server to a positive airflow situation and that noticeably reduced temps, and again I was able to run at lower fan speeds and keep it quieter. That's a win in my book. I used to swear by top ventilation for heat extraction, but between my Lian Li PC7 for my server and my Corsair 600C for my main rig, both are better off than the Lian Li PC-K62 with two top fans and a rear fan pulling exhaust with a single intake fan. When fewer fans are involved a 1:1 (1 intake, 1 exhaust) works better than just one or the other clearly...it's only when you add more fans it seems to make a difference...if you have extra intake and vent spots, it would suit folks if they're only adding one more fan to test that extra fan in intake for a day and then in exhaust for a day and see what works best for their cooling needs.

I'd like to see more cases like Silverstone's Raven and Fortress series with the vertical airflow design...I was so close to snagging an FT05...but needing a short PSU pretty much nixed it for me...


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## peche (Jan 19, 2016)

I have been thinking about making some changes,
changing rear  exhaust fans direction,  to intake ones, for getting better or fresh air for the rad from outside the chassis, the top exhaust fans will take care for the heat, so it makes sense for me, does anyone have tried this? Radiator will still on Push/pull fan setup but the air direction is the questions, does this will bring any notable difference in temps? or also the swap will affect other parts? I don’t think so, but I will be glad to hear some opinions!




Blue: intake fans
Red: exhaust fans
Green Thermaltake Water 3.0 Pro AIO [ what a draw! ]
PD: my paint skills rock so much


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## trog100 (Jan 19, 2016)

i am going to question the common theory here.. this assume a steady airflow moving though a case will take away localized hot spots.. it may if low power hardware is in use but it wont if high power hardware is in use.. the air might flow but the localized heat (short of a jet engine gale blowing through the case ) will stay put..

start at the bottom and work up.. the first heat generator is the graphics card.. mine complete with a back plate heats up to around 60 C this isnt just the chip its the entire card..

i have two such cards.. the bottom one heats the top one.. heat from the bottom one is sucked directly into the cooling fans of the top one.. this in effect raises the ambient air the top fans are starting off with by around 20 C.. the top card runs 20 C hotter than the bottom card..

the heat from both these cards moves upwards as heat does.. what sits just above the heat generating cards.. the cpu cooler.. it has to work with an ambient air temp of maybe 40 C higher than room ambient.. this in no way is stagnant air.. its moving air but not fast enough to get rid of the heat generated by the two graphics cards..

extra heat from the cpu cooler matters not one jot.. it simply moves up and out of the upper rear of the case.. on the way it does no harm because there is nothing there to do harm to.. 

i think i am trying to say here that gently moving air positive pressure or negative does not shift the heat from powerful hardware.. this heat by its own accord moves up into the top rear of the case and eventually out of the top or upper rear.. there is no way the average case fans will stop the upper rear of the case from getting f-cking hot..

none of this has anything at all to do with stagnant air.. its all to do with 500 watts or so of heat being pumped into a small box.. 

water cooling helps simply by being able to move the cooling rads away from the hot areas..

trog


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## rtwjunkie (Jan 19, 2016)

Kursah said:


> I used to agree and be biased towards negative pressure, but what I found is that this method isn't as effective at cooling (in my testing and experience)



I've found this myself.  Since I went to slightly positive pressure my temps have decreased on CPU and GPU both.


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## Retrorockit (Jan 19, 2016)

My computer is an old Dell BTX. So it's positive pressure by definition. I'm using a $12 T9303 heatpipe cooler probably from a P4 era Dell, and a Delta GFB1212VHG 2 motor fan I got from China for $25.
http://valid.x86.fr/bg4n0r

The fans counter rotate so the 2nd one isn't just along for the ride.


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## Devon68 (Jan 19, 2016)

In winter I use only the fan on the back of the case for exhaust.
In summer I turn on 1 top as an exhaust and 1 front fan as an intake. But than again in the summer I'm looking for ways to cool myself rather than the PC.


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## trog100 (Jan 20, 2016)

peche said:


> I have been thinking about making some changes,
> changing rear  exhaust fans direction,  to intake ones, for getting better or fresh air for the rad from outside the chassis, the top exhaust fans will take care for the heat, so it makes sense for me, does anyone have tried this? Radiator will still on Push/pull fan setup but the air direction is the questions, does this will bring any notable difference in temps? or also the swap will affect other parts? I don’t think so, but I will be glad to hear some opinions!
> 
> View attachment 71216
> ...




it (the cpu) will run cooler if the water in the rad is being cooled by room ambient air as opposed to the hotter air in the hottest part of the case.. warmer air will be pumped into the case but with top fans taking it straight out no harm will be done.. 

i wont mention the fact that your pipes should go into the bottom of the rad and not the top.. .. 

being able to use nice cool room ambient air is the only real gain from an AIO water cooling system.. there isnt any other advantage.. my own top flow air cooler works well..  but its totally dependant on a correctly positioned side fan feeding cooler room temp air directly to it.. something a more normal side flow air cooler cant do.. 

but you dont have much heat being generated in your case so keeping the cpu cool enough should not be a problem in the slightest.. so it dosnt really matter which way you do it.. 

heat in the top of the case is only a problem if the cpu cooler fan is feeding from it.. with most set ups it is.. but with a rear mounted water cooling rad it dosnt have to be this way.. sucking the cool air in and venting it out of the top after its been warmed up doing its job makes the most sense.. 

i would say a 120 rad used this way is as good as 240 rad stuck in the top of the case venting out.. 

trog


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## Jetster (Jan 20, 2016)

Devon68 said:


> In winter I use only the fan on the back of the case for exhaust.
> In summer I turn on 1 top as an exhaust and 1 front fan as an intake. But than again in the summer I'm looking for ways to cool myself rather than the PC.


In the summer I turn the AC on


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## Brusfantomet (Jan 20, 2016)

I am using an external radiator to cool most of the high power parts in my computer, (2 x 290x, 5820k and mobo VRM) so airflow inside the case is not super critical.

Never the less i have 3 fans blowing up from the bottom and one exhaust in the rear.





In the other chamber i have one intake at the top (where the drive cage is in this pic), and the PSU as exhaust





(images from the TPU review of the Magnum M8, My personal version had solid top cover and side doors)

Have putt a dust filter on all intakes, and all fans are Arctic Cooling F12 PWM PST. The PST part is very handy when you have lots of fans, witch is what i have on the external radiator (it holds 18 fans)

but wait, this must be extremely noisy you might think. Far from it, the case fans run at ca 600 RPM, the Rad fans are PWM AND voltage controlled so to stay at approx. 500 rpm in idle and 850 rpm on load, but i can up the voltage to get them to 1200 rpm. 18 fans at 1200 RPM is however noisy.


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## peche (Jan 20, 2016)

trog100 said:


> i wont mention the fact that your pipes should go into the bottom of the rad and not the top.. ..


i have tested both ways... this is the better way to arrange thick tubes, otherwise tubing may get twisted.... 
any other thought?

interesting that internet pics of 120mm rad AIO kits are mostly the way mine is ...


Spoiler: just some examples...



























http://cdn.overclock.net/c/c5/900x900px-LL-c5949c1c_pi2k.jpeg







Regards,


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## Orijin16 (Jan 21, 2016)

trog100 said:


> it (the cpu) I wont mention the fact that your pipes should go into the bottom of the rad and not the top
> 
> trog



I'm glad u stopped yourself there because it does of course depend on the loop. The last thing u ever want is air in the radiator, because air in there is not water transferring heat. Pipes at the top allow bubbles to move out of the radiator.


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## JATownes (Jan 21, 2016)

Great concept for a thread.  Here's mine.


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## LAN_deRf_HA (Jan 21, 2016)

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/your-pc-atm.65012/page-1061#post-3168471

Intake
2x 200mm
2x 140mm

Exhaust
3x140mm

With airflow restrictions and fan speed considered the end result is roughly neutral pressure.


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## trog100 (Jan 21, 2016)

peche said:


> i have tested both ways... this is the better way to arrange thick tubes, otherwise tubing may get twisted....
> any other thought?
> 
> interesting that internet pics of 120mm rad AIO kits are mostly the way mine is ...
> ...




yes often with AIO systems best practise dosnt fit in with easy convenient fitting.. best practise says for what should be obvious reasons an air trap should be at highest point of the loop.. which means the rad higher than the pump and the inlet pipes going into the top and outlet pipes coming out the bottom.. the top of the rad acting as the air trap..

AIOs usually have both pipes (convenient fit) going in one end.. its best that that one end is the bottom  but often it isnt.. 

in truth AIO systems are a kludge.. easy to fit (and cheap to make) takes priority over best practise.. most people that fit them dont really need them which is why easy to fit wins the day and is good enough..

for most people a good air cooler makes a better more reliable and quieter long term solution.. lets not forget all water does is take the heat from a chip to an air cooled radiator..

this only has one real advantage.. it enables the air cooled radiator to be better positioned (in the right case) and a f-ck sight bigger.. again in the right case.. 

and has one american has already said.. in the summer he turns the air conditioning on.. only an american would say this.. cos only an american takes such stuff for granted.. he he

in the summer the rest of the world simply gets hot.. or needs better PC cooling.. 

trog


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## Jetster (Jan 21, 2016)

trog100 said:


> and has one american has already said.. in the summer he turns the air conditioning on.. only an american would say this.. cos only an american takes such stuff for granted.. he he
> 
> in the summer the rest of the world simply gets hot.. or needs better PC cooling..
> 
> trog



I don't take it for granted, I work my ass off.  Ok I guess I get paid pretty well for what I do.  Its the heat that cost $ AC is cheap. I have a 10 year old 10,000 BTU unit that cools about three rooms pretty good.  As long as the CPU and pump are lower than the top of the rad your good. Any air will get caught up in the top and not get pulled down to the pump hopefully. Having the hoses come out of the bottom and up to the CPU can trap air. But its an easy fix to move the system around and get it out


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## peche (Jan 21, 2016)

trog100 said:


> yes often with AIO systems best practise dosnt fit in with easy convenient fitting.. best practise says for what should be obvious reasons an air trap should be at highest point of the loop.. which means the rad higher than the pump and the inlet pipes going into the top and outlet pipes coming out the bottom.. the top of the rad acting as the air trap..
> 
> AIOs usually have both pipes (convenient fit) going in one end.. its best that that one end is the bottom but often it isnt..


i will make the swap, but as far as i could remember my rad does not fit in that position, can't remember why ... 
i will make another try at least,

Also have been thinking about doing something new, cutting metal around the rear vent, and use it as intake vent, taking the metallic grid out, i just have been thinking about it, its not official, but the fans direction for the watercooling is a confirmed change, this weekend would take a moment for some changes, 

Air cooling is always on air cases, 95% people here have fans that pushes fresh air inside, and exhaust fans that takes out the heat from the case, what it don't like is those tremendous things with 8+ heatpipes and caged fins that takes so much space on the case, looks awful to me, but is just a personal opinion, i trust some other CPU air coolers such as Hyper 212Evo and Tt Frio units, the point is that i don't like them for my Gaming rig... 



Regards,


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## terroralpha (Jan 21, 2016)

i can show you a picture, but it won't help much since you won't see half the fans anyway or know where they are pointing. so i made a diagram

i have two silverstone PWM hubs. one controlling the 4 corsair fans, the other controlling the 4 gentle typhoons. i love these little guys!!!

the 4x riing fans all have 2 low noise adapters connected to each one in series to shut them up. those are the only fans I can't control. the only reason i have them is because they emit a pretty red light and they were free.

the alphacool rad + fans at the bottom look MASSIVE when assembled as one unit. almost the size of a typical car battery.


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## peche (Jan 21, 2016)

nice diagram lad! that’s a great loop,  I have no problem with my fans and noise, I mostly use headset when playing, watching movies and never realize how noisy could my rig be!

Regards,


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## trog100 (Jan 22, 2016)

Jetster said:


> I don't take it for granted, I work my ass off.  Ok I guess I get paid pretty well for what I do.  Its the heat that cost $ AC is cheap. I have a 10 year old 10,000 BTU unit that cools about three rooms pretty good.  As long as the CPU and pump are lower than the top of the rad your good. Any air will get caught up in the top and not get pulled down to the pump hopefully. Having the hoses come out of the bottom and up to the CPU can trap air. But its an easy fix to move the system around and get it out



a few years back i spent couple of weeks working in Lexington Kentucky mid June.. i live in the UK and discovered what air conditioning was all about.. 

in the UK even in mid summer we step outside to get a cool breeze.. it comes natural to us.. i was taken aback stepping outside and being hit by a wave of heat.. we had the windows and doors open out of habit.. the boss steps in and says do you guys want air conditioning or f-cking fresh air.. he he

the locals step out of an air conditioned building into an air conditioned car and literally nobody ever walked anywhere.. we loved the place but it was a culture shock.. simply saying we were English got us special treatment.. we even thought about moving there.. he he

trog


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## bonehead123 (Jan 22, 2016)

peche said:


> Sup people?!
> 
> I would like to start a new topic, this may help new ones for setting up new cases, fans and also setup,  if possible list your CPU cooler.  Please share  your case/ case fans model and the set-up  do you have on it, also recommendations for other will be great,  helping each other is always well appreciated!
> 
> ...


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## bonehead123 (Jan 22, 2016)

My setup is in my specs, and essentially the same as the OP's in terms of air flow diagram:

Air540 Black & Orange (soon to be red)
2x 120mm Thermaltake front intakes & 2x top exhausts
1x 120mm Cougar rear exhaust
Hyper 212evo cooler w/2x 120mm TT push/pull

I removed all the drive cages, since both of my 2x SSD's fit on the bottom hotswap trays, and my 2TB storage HDD fits on the side with the PSU....

I will soon be changing all of my fans to the TT Riing LED units for a more consistent appearance and power draw, and I will be moving all of my current hardware over to a Z97 mobo asap....


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## Gregory Hartley (Jan 22, 2016)




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## peche (Jan 22, 2016)

bonehead123 said:


> I will soon be changing all of my fans to the TT Riing LED units for a more consistent appearance and power draw


those fans are insane, i have 2 for my AIO, they look amazing lad! 
i would like to add one more for the bottom intake fan, they look insane really!



Gregory Hartley said:


>


nice setup, which is that case lad? 

Regards,


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## Gregory Hartley (Jan 22, 2016)

peche said:


> those fans are insane, i have 2 for my AIO, they look amazing lad!
> i would like to add one more for the bottom intake fan, they look insane really!
> 
> 
> ...


Im using the Theraltake V41.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...cm_re=thermaltake_case-_-11-133-273-_-Product


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## peche (Jan 22, 2016)

nice one, also a cable managemente there will be a nice deal lad! also i  gotta confess that the Corev51 still on my wish list, someday, in the other hand the current Coomander g42window fill all my needs, also the fact that has a great window, excellent space for cable management is another great deal, that core V41 have all drive cages detachable right? I would like to mod mine to take out or make a better cage for HDD's and SSD's…. airflow on that cage is almost  gone… there is also a fan that I want to use… a Tt thunderblade with some crazy features….



Spoiler: crazy fan


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## Gregory Hartley (Jan 22, 2016)

peche said:


> nice one, also a cable managemente there will be a nice deal lad! also i  gotta confess that the Corev51 still on my wish list, someday, in the other hand the current Coomander g42window fill all my needs, also the fact that has a great window, excellent space for cable management is another great deal, that core V41 have all drive cages detachable right? I would like to mod mine to take out or make a better cage for HDD's and SSD's…. airflow on that cage is almost  gone… there is also a fan that I want to use… a Tt thunderblade with some crazy features….
> 
> 
> 
> Spoiler: crazy fan



Yup the HDD cages are detachable. I took out one of the cages to add more room and better airflow. It even has enough room for watercooling.
Also I need help with cable management, any suggestion? Head over to http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/cable-management-helpdesk.48836/page-21#post-3405311 where I have posted regarding cable management.


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## peche (Jan 22, 2016)

airflow on some of the new cases from Tt is pretty improved!
my new case only has detachable medium drive cage, but i have now 3 intake fans! so no problems, 

Regards,


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## sagman12 (Jun 25, 2016)

peche said:


> Sup people?!
> 
> I would like to start a new topic, this may help new ones for setting up new cases, fans and also setup,  if possible list your CPU cooler.  Please share  your case/ case fans model and the set-up  do you have on it, also recommendations for other will be great,  helping each other is always well appreciated!
> 
> ...


hey peche. i have that same case the commander g42 window and im having trouble figuring out how to mount two more 120mm fans on the front intake. The case comes pre-installed with one at the bottom but doesnt have any additional mounting screw holes to add in 2 more above it. How did you manage to install 2 additional fans? Did you use zipties? Thanks


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## bonehead123 (Jun 25, 2016)

bonehead123 said:


> My setup is in my specs, and essentially the same as the OP's in terms of air flow diagram:



 My updated skylake rig, still with GOBS of airflow, but much quieter and better looking than my previous build:

Air540 Black & Red
5x 120mm Corsair AF 140mm Red, 2 as front intakes, 2x top + 1 rear exhausts
Hyper 212evo cooler w/1 Corsair AF120 pushing air upwards

I dont need any drive cages, since I now have 2x nvme M2 SSD's that mount directly on my mobo, and ADATA Sata SSD that mounts on the bottom hot swap bay, and my 2TB storage HDD's are in an external USB 3 case.


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## Ungari (Jun 26, 2016)

Would anyone here consider a reference blower as adding to the exhaust, or do you think it's negligible with regards to case air flow?


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## AsRock (Jun 26, 2016)

A typical reference cooler will blow heat out of the case but still will require enough air input for cooling to be efficient. Personally i like 3x120 ( 140mm if possible ) and at least 1x120mm output(rear).

All so worth considering is to have 1 or more 120mm on the bottom of the case for air input.


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## Arctucas (Jun 26, 2016)

Thermaltake XaserVI chassis.

All chassis fans are Aerocool Shark Black.

Bottom intake-two 140mm

Front intake-one 140mm

Top exhaust-one 140mm

Rear exhaust-one 120mm

Also have one internal 'circulator' fan-140mm

HyperX ram cooler with two 60mm fans.

CPU is watercooled, external PA140.3 radiator with three 140mm Shark.


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## P4-630 (Jun 26, 2016)

Be quiet Silent base 600

1 bequiet front intake 140mm
1 scythe 1200 rpm 120mm bottom intake
1 scythe 1200 rpm 120mm rear exhaust fan
1 scythe 1200 rpm 120mm on CM 212 evo CPU cooler

All fans running at around 1000 rpm fixed speed.
CPU cooler fan would run up in rpm above 50c but CPU stays below 50 at all time.

Created a fan profile in msi afterburner for my GTX1070, both fans spin at 1000rpm idle, going up in rpm after around 45 degrees.
GPU stays under 50c mostly during gaming.


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## SithLord (Jun 27, 2016)

GreiverBlade said:


> he didn't ask for help, someone asked *HIM *for help .... and the funniest they didn't listen to him explaining the obvious (to any of us) failure that would lead to a overheating


yep.. this is why ive taken the "ill fix it for you, but i wont reveal my methods" approach with the non-pc savvy population. they all seem to "know what they are talking about"


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## SithLord (Jun 27, 2016)

Case: Corsair Carbide SPEC-02 mid-ATX

Front:     2x Corsair SP120L Intake
Bottom: 1x  Corsair AF120L Intake
Top:       1x Corsair SP120L Exhaust 
Back:     h80i v2 AIO cooler push-pull Exaust

Coming soon 

Side Panel: Corsair SP120L GPU Exhaust


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## peche (Jun 27, 2016)

Here is more about other rigs I have around, like the office one, and also other Rig from my hone, it has the older case I have,  


Case: Thermaltake commander G42 window
Fan setup:

Front 3x120mm Tt Thunderblade Blue.
Bottom intake: 1x120mm Tt Thunderblade Black/Blue
Top Exhaust: 2x120mm Gelid Extreme Slim UV fans, no led.
Rear Exahust, 2x120mm Riing 12 Blue Fans, Push/Pull Setup for my AIO water Cooler…  


Case: Thermaltake V4
Fan Setup:

Front 1x120mm Tt Thunderblade Blue.
Bottom intake: 1x120mm Generic Gelid fan
Top Exhaust: 1x120mm Corsair AF Blue
Rear Exahust, 1x120mm Corsair SP Blue  


Case: Thermaltake Commander MSii
Fan Setup:

Front 1x120mm Tt Thunderblade Red.
Bottom intake: 1x120mm Tt Thunderblade Red
Top Exhaust: 2x120mm Gelid Extreme Slim UV fans, Red led
Rear Exahust, 1x120mm Tt smart fan  Red

Regards,


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## dont whant to set it"' (Jun 27, 2016)

Yo! thread starter: pictures or it didn't happened.
you've got me in a good mood so here's a picture


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## ScottOzyGuy (Nov 18, 2017)

Thermaltake 
 Riing Plus fans and controller software 

This is how I use 2 controllers and 9 fans

Things you must have. 

Each and every controller box must have power. Most newer pc do not have molex plugs. You can use a cable connector from power supply directly to power in on controller. So molex plug lead may not be needed. With 2 controller boxes, you can control 9 or 10 fans. 

10 fans without a radiator pump and 9 with a pump, as the pump power lead actually plugs into 1 of the fan connectors of a controller. Do not try and plug pump power directly into USB header on motherboard, it will NOT fit. 

The y connector is important. It has a USB 2 connector one end and splits into 2 micro USB connector. (Looks similar to a Samsung phone charger cable) plug into both of the controllers, and single end into USB 2 header on motherboard. Most newer motherboards have 2 x usb2 headers. 

This is how controllers can sync. 

The first controller should have 5 fans, ( or 3 for a 3 fan controller). All fan connector into controller should be full to allow syncing. It will work if that is not done, but software will show an error / alert on loading. 

Once All installed including Riing plus software ( Be sure to use correct software for your fan / controller type )

Open software. As I said if either controller is not fully populated with fans, software with have that particular controller number in red. Disregard if 2nd controller is red. 

Click first controller. Set fan 1 colour, speed etc. on the remaining 4 fans attached to controller 1, select copy colour. That copies colour from 1st fan setting. Click save. Now open 2nd controller. All on 2nd controller except fan 1 should be set to copy colour. 

Click save. 

Click on controller 1 and change only 1st fan info, colour etc. be sure to click save and then all fans both on controller 1 and controller 2 should be in sync and show same colours and patterns. 

I hope this has helped someone out there. - Cheers. ScottOzyGuy

Brisbane Australia.


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## Athlonite (Nov 18, 2017)

I have a Silverstone RaVeN RV02BW which has the mobo turned 90 degree's so everything hot exhausts out the top with the help of 3x180mm 900/1000rpm fans pushing 90/100cfm each upwards  and out I also replaced the top exhaust fan and the two on my HSF and the one on the front for the drive bay with Gentle Typhoons (1850rpm) even in summer nothing gets hot


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## Retrorockit (Nov 18, 2017)

I overclock old Dells so what I do soesn't apply to most others especially the BTX stuff. BTX cooling is simple 1 big fan with airflow ducted over the VRMs first and the CPU 2nd. Positive pressure. and a clear path out the back. 2ndary fan and vented expansion slot blanks on the Mid Towers and Workstations.
My mod is a 2 motor GFB 1212VHG Delta fan that fills the standard fan housing.












Look at the pitch on the blades on the 9 blade intake. The outlet has 5 blades. The diverter 7.
I wire it up to a Molex due to the 3.4A draw. But leave the PWM to both motors. I put a connector in the PWM wire so I can "pull the pin" for benchmarks.
The fans counter rotate and have a diverter to reverse the flow in between them. So this has nothing to do with push pull or redundancy.
I use a Dell T9303 workstaion heat pipe cooler that hides in the BTX cooler housing. The outlet is 92mm wide, so another fan could be put there.




 I've now moved on to bigger fan setup The AFC1512DG 150mm x50mm 1.8A fan. It can run off of the Dell BTX MB header. It replaces the whole fan/housing assy. shown above.
 Here it is compared to the  Delta 120x25mmm AFC1212D .9A. fan




 Here's a more "convemtional" intake fan if I decide to use a TR Macho 120 cooler. The CPU cooler mtg. bosses are clearly seen. Off size pattern but no back plate required.. This is a Silverstone 180x32mm. The floppy bay actually didn't need to be trimmed. It can be stuffed in there as is. i also stuffed it down into the floor of the case. Good airfow under the MB there.
The side air intakes make this a Dimension case. The Optiplexes don't have that and can take the GFB1212VHW 120x75mm 3 motor fans. (never have seen one in real life).




 Size matters. Mines bigger than yours.


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## RejZoR (Nov 19, 2017)

The case is Corsair Carbide 330R with 2x140mm front intake (SilentWings 3), 1x120mm rear exhaust (SilentWings 3), 2x140mm (Corsair AF140 Quiet) slow top exhaust through partially closed top covers.

One front intake fan also acts as a fan for the CPU AiO radiator.


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## Bones (Nov 20, 2017)

Retrorockit said:


> Size matters. Mines bigger than yours.



Wanna bet?


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## Retrorockit (Nov 20, 2017)

I knew that would get a response. That's some wild sh!t there.I see plumbing going through the wall! Nice.


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## Vario (Nov 20, 2017)

This is how my PC A05 flows:





I tested everything and this gave the best result overall.

If the front fan is switched to exhaust, the power supply cannot vent because the front bezel is over pressurized (Theory of constraints).  Therefore the front fan must be intake, which pulls that bezel air out.  The rear fan has to be exhaust.  If rear fan is exhaust, the top fan has to be intake.  If top fan is intake, videocard fan has to blow downwards.  I had to add a hole under the power supply for its intake.

It works well because the case is so small.  The top 140mm fan is rated for 140CFM and can easily pressurize the case.  The exhaust fan is a 120mm Delta rated for 102CFM.  Everything is PWM so it doesn't make a lot of noise unless under load.


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## jboydgolfer (Nov 20, 2017)

fwiw,I'm confident I could remove/disable every fan mounted on my case ,and still have perfectly reasonable temperatures.

 My set up is exhaust out the top ,intake pulls (from inside)over a 280mm radiator (behind the front bezel and dust guard), this way I kill two birds with one stone ,intaking fresh air from outside ,which cools my radiator, and provides airflow Albiet slightly warmer, but airflow for the top fans to exhaust none the less.  Finally I have a 140mm (very high CFM fan) mounted at the rear, that is set only to turn on in high temperature situations ,because of its noise level is too much,and because it's not needed unless an emergency arises (which it never has.)


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## Athlonite (Nov 21, 2017)

pleas excuse the dust  I've been a wee bit lax in keeping it clean


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## Dia01 (Nov 21, 2017)

Phanteks Evolv mATX TG:

Improved airflow is a must with the evolv cases, I don't want to drastically change the look of the case so there are only limited improvements to made.  Some of the improvements are:

Current setup:
Front Intake - 2 x Noctua NF-A14 Industrial PPC 140mm 2000RPM PWM Fans
Top Exhaust - 2 x Noctua NF-A14 Industrial PPC 140mm 2000RPM PWM Fans (replaced stock fans on H110i GTX Radiator)
Rear Exhaust - 1 x Phanteks 140mm (came with case)

Mods done to help improve airflow:
- Installed 60mm fan for active VRM cooling (the X229m VRM heatsink is absolute crap - bad temps even at stock)
- Shimmed front aluminium panel approximately 15mm to allow a little more intake air
- Removed rear plastic shroud which sits between the top cover and the case frame as it restricts the exhaust air quite a bit
- Covered void in top case where the 280mm rad is mounted which helps to reduce warmer exhaust air recirculating back into the case
- Phanteks PWM Fan Hub used to control all fans

Further mods planned:
- Fabricate a supporting bracket to mount a 92mm fan beneath the two front 140mm intake fans (the front mounts only support 2x140mm or 3x120mm - not enough real estate to mount another 120 or 140mm).  Need a little more positive pressure I think.
- Fabricate a supporting bracket to mount 2 x 50mm fans for better VRM cooling
- Fabricate bracket to replace the plastic shroud removed from the top panel to secure to the panel.  Without the shroud only the front mounts hold the panel in place, the bracket needs to also still allow maximum exhaust out possible


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## peche (Nov 25, 2017)

Gelid slim 120v fans are epic for cases with limited top exhaust panel, also for tight front panel configurations!


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## John Naylor (Nov 26, 2017)

peche said:


> Sup people?!
> 
> 
> *Case fans:  *
> ...



That's should work well under most circumstances but perty close to not having positive air flow.  In testing (using a fog machine), have found that intake fans can lose as much as a third or their air flow from inlet filters, the amount depending on how dirty they are .... so 4 fans in, worst case, can result in 4 x 2/3 or 2-2/3 "fan equivalents" blowing in and 3 blowing out.    While this slight negative pressure situation is one folks generally worry about with regard to dust, the bigger concern is this.  When you do have negative pressure, its not the lil nooks and crannies that are the concern.  It's the HUGE rear case grille.  And when air comes in to that way, think about the air source ....what's spitting out a significant amount of air right below those openings ?.... your PSU and your GFX card(s).  With the fog machine, you can see this quite clearly.  In your case, assuming all the fans were equal in air flow / SP... you should be fine as long as filters aren't too dirty ... the slim fans likely push less air so that would help.

1.  Front and Bottom Blow In2.  Rear Fans Blow Out
3.  Side (depends on location and other numbers)
4.  Top Blow out  out except when 3 in / 2 out ratio cam not be maintained.

Water cooled, as above except rad fans always blow in.... (No CLCs)



thebluebumblebee said:


> I don't understand the performance PC industry's love of push/pull fans.  I know of no other industry that does that.  The serial fans in servers are there for fault tolerance.    Personally, I like filtered intake fans and I'll let the air go out anywhere it wants, although I like an exhaust fan near the CPU.



In air cooled builds, exhaust fans are not a requirement, the rear case grille provides plenty of open exhaust area.  For a quiet system, and by that I mean, you can't tell if its on w/ your ears, I look for (1) 140mm case fan for every 75 - 100 watts (for 120mm, 50 - 75 watts) of connected components.  (CPU, MoBo, GFX Cards, pumps, drives).   The rear fan mount can take an exhaust fan and all else can be intake.

With water cooling, it's  a math thing; how many mounts you have versus how much heat you want to remove.  Calculate the watts ya need to remove and then look at the rad data to determine how much rad ya need at what fan rpm you are willing to live with

http://www.overclock.net/t/1457426/radiator-size-estimator

As for our builds ... (air cooled)... So let's say the build w/ OC'd X99 CPU and GFX card (CPU, MoBo and 2 GFX card blocks) needs build totals 635 watts and the plan is a 260 + 240mm radiator.  About 40% of that "theoretical" heat will not actually be generated as not everything will be at max output at the same time or radiate off the componentry, tubing, radiator shrouds etc into the case, the remaining will need to be handled by the radiator.  That leaves 381 watts at a target delta T of 10C.  From testing @ MartinsLiquidlabs, we know that @ 1250 rpm, a 240mm will handle 122 watts and a 360 will handle 188 watts ... 310 total.   If we stop there, our delta T will rise from 10C to about 12.5C.  No bigga deal.   Or ... if you add a 2nd fan on each rad mount in push pull, the rad will handle 152 +227 or 389 watts maintaining the 10C delta T target.

In short, push pull on a rasiator will add an extra 30% cooling, depending of course on the type of radiator (low - medium fpi) and the fan designs


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## peche (Nov 27, 2017)

John Naylor said:


> That's should work well under most circumstances but perty close to not having positive air flow. In testing (using a fog machine), have found that intake fans can lose as much as a third or their air flow from inlet filters, the amount depending on how dirty they are .... so 4 fans in, worst case, can result in 4 x 2/3 or 2-2/3 "fan equivalents" blowing in and 3 blowing out. While this slight negative pressure situation is one folks generally worry about with regard to dust, the bigger concern is this. When you do have negative pressure, its not the lil nooks and crannies that are the concern. It's the HUGE rear case grille. And when air comes in to that way, think about the air source ....what's spitting out a significant amount of air right below those openings ?.... your PSU and your GFX card(s). With the fog machine, you can see this quite clearly. In your case, assuming all the fans were equal in air flow / SP... you should be fine as long as filters aren't too dirty ... the slim fans likely push less air so that would help.
> 
> 1. Front and Bottom Blow In2. Rear Fans Blow Out
> 3. Side (depends on location and other numbers)
> ...


i dont have a fog machine, but i have several vaporizers and drippers, so i was curious about my airflow, son have seen how vapor comes inside my rig and how it moves inside, my 3x 120mm front fans are normal clean, the dust filter needs to be cleaned like every 3 months, otherwise dust will screw my temps, the small or slim fans perform awesome, i was using 3 different models, then best results are for the slim ones,


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## Retrorockit (Feb 2, 2018)

I'm starting to find some Dell, BTX, overclocking coolers showing up on the surplus market. 3 words you don't hear together very often. I posted links to my album at OCN because the files were too large to drop here. The Peltier assisted water loop was $20+$20 freight ( usually $100+). The air cooler assys. were $15 shipped. These were from the XPS series which predated, and then ran alongside Alienware versions. This is early 65nm LGA775 stuff. QX6850 max. CPU then.
http://www.overclock.net/forum/memb...bums-dell-xps-720-h2c-btx-hybrid-cooling.html
http://www.overclock.net/forum/members/441031-retrorockit-albums-dell-xps-btx-cooling.html
The water loop includes a 4 color LED light show. But without the proprietary Dell PSU,MB, and software  to run it I can't demonstrate that.


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