Cooling Option

[Fuganater]

I'm thinking about changing the way the air moves in my build. Right now it enters through the front of the case which has 3x140mm fans on top of a 420 rad. And the rear of the case has the same setup but the fans are pulling through the rad, not pushing.

My questions is would it be better to make them both push into the case and put a 200mm fan in the roof for exhaust? Here is a quick pic of what I'm thinking of doing.

Thanks for the help.

[diluzio91]

From experience? No, I would have the 200 intaking and the 140's exhausting. with my last rig i tried blowing hot air in and exhausting it and my average temps rose by about 10*C

[blueonblack]

i tried blowing hot air in and exhausting it and my average temps rose by about 10*C

That doesn't sound like what he's trying to do, unless I'm reading the OP wrong. Sounds like he's planning to pull outside air straight across the radiators then exhaust it. Seems to me that would work better than moving already-heated air from inside the case across the radiators.

My vote here is yes, it would be more efficient.

[Aldersan]

I've got no actual proof here, but it seems to me that doing that setup would be more effective at cooling the rads, but pushing much more hot air into the case than is being pulled out seems like it would increase the temp of the interior of the case, which may or may not negate the cooler temps gained by cooling the rads better.

[diluzio91]

Since it's liquid cooled the temps wouldn't effect the internals (on the other side? I assume this is for honeycomb) my only fear is that the hdd's would get awfully hot. i would experiment a little, but my $.02 is in.

[NightrainSrt4]

Just by that picture alone it looks as though above the hard drives and perhaps the top couple hard drives would do fine, but I'd think you'd have dead pockets down by / under the lower hard drives that would increase their temps.

Then again, hard drives like a bit higher temps, so it might not be too bad.

[Kayin]

Hard drives are designed to run hot. Cool them to "acceptable" temps and they die.

[Fuganater]

All of the HDDs will have waterblocks on them . Actually everything in this mod has a wb on it.

Now... would a single 200 be good or should I put 2x 140s up top? The 140mm run at 1000RPMs and the 200mm runs at 800RMPs

[blueonblack]

Now... would a single 200 be good or should I put 2x 140s up top? The 140mm run at 1000RPMs and the 200mm runs at 800RMPs

Like any fan setup it depends on your needs. CFM is a lot more important than RPM from a cooling standpoint, but RPM should be considered for noise level. As mentioned, you'll be pushing a lot of hot air into the case so you'll want your exhaust at least close to the CFM of your intake, if not higher, if you can stand the noise level.

[Twigsoffury]

You should make sure the volume of the exhaust fan is higher then or exceeds the combined volume of the two smaller fans, and not necessarily how fast they spin.


I mean a 800rpm 240mm fan should exchange twice the volume of a 800rpm 120mm fan just because the displacement of the fan blades itself is larger on the 240mm fan. rpm speed is usually attributed to pressure and not volume. But in this case you just want to "move" a large amount of air and don't necessarily need to force air against something like a heatsink or radiator so CFa/M is what you would want to look for in the fans.