Fan Placment on BIG Rad.

Hey all.

I've managed to source a rather big heater matrix for my watercooling rig. Now i would like to know what the configuration for maximum cooling. Currently I have my rad outside of my case as its simply to big to go inside. I have two high powered 120 ys-tech fans both on one side shrouded sucking air thru. (Some pics shown below) Now I'm pretty happy with this set up - but does anyone think it's better to have one sucking and one blowing ? Has anyone had similar experiences to this - I may add extra fans !?!

My second question is to do with the fan shroud - it's a custom job by my goodself. Both fans sit ontop sucking air thru - is it better to have a central devide to seperater each fans sucking area and to stop cross-turbulance occuring ?

Any suggestions as to how i can make this more efficent is appricated.

I dont plan on leaving the rad in its current state - the lego blocks are just temp. which ever solution i take on the rad it will be put on its side because of the in and out lets - so they will be facing down - so i cant shorten the tubing.



Cheers

Ecksmen

http://www.littlebeigebox.co.uk/my/radupclose.jpg

http://www.littlebeigebox.co.uk/my/side.jpg

jus 2 sucking or 2 blowing seems best to me. too many fans may not necessary be a gd thing. is that shroud really necessary? tried jus putting the fan on the rad?

big rad though

Hi,

The shourd really does help - my first rad was a lot smaller and I had one fan just sitting on it and the cooling was not as expected. It was recommended to me to make a shroud as it removes the dead spot from the center of the fan and reduces turbalnce restricting air flow. Well it gave me much better temps.

Cheers Ecksmen

Nice job with the fan shroud. Where did you get that rad anyway? I think your placement is good. Have you try two fans pulling? The debate for good fan placement is still a debate with no definate answer mostly because it depends on your system.

Can you give us clearer pictures so we can make better judgement? I can't see that very good. Thanks and keep us posted.

Never mind about posting other pictures. I can see the second pic now. Your tubing seems a bit long, maybe you can shorten them which will increase the flow rate.

This is just an idea but you could place the radiator with its short sides on top of the case, with two fans pulling and two pushing. This may help to get better air flow.

Good luck man.

Yeah the pictures are kinda of decieving - The tubing will be cut to perfect fits - but as we all know as soon as u start cutting things end up too short etc so that will be the last thing i do.

As I said the the rad will be put on its side in some sort of housing, so that the inlet and outlet are pointing downwards at the rear of the case to minimise on tubing etc.

My major concerns really are whats better two fans sucking or one sucking and one pushing, secondly is it ok to use two fans in one big shroud without cental devider to stop the fans interfering with each other (airflow etc).

Thanks

Ecksmen

*Edit*

Forgot to mention I would experiment myself but im running extremely low on materials - so i would rather take a tried and tested methods over experimentation. I'm thinking i should simple buy two more fans and have two sucking and two pulling and build the housing around that design. If i take this approach does any one know of any truely silent fans (120mm)?.

Cheers

Ecksmen

If it were me I would get a couple more 120mm fans and use them to push air thru the radiator and either 7volt all four fans or get/build a rheostat/bus and run them slower. Because most likely it will be quieter but a higher performer than just 2 12volt fans pulling air.

lol glaze think we are on the same wavelenght. Ive got a fan controller so i can rig them up. I think its worth investigating.

Cheers - Any more tips please feel free to let me know

Ecksmen

Yup 2 pull and 2 push would be the optimal setup but really, 2 fans pulling would suffice. The temp shouldnt be THAT big of a diff.. maybe 1-2C

As for the divider, I doubt it will make any difference in yuour temperature. Just leave it the way it is right now and save you some extra work... The shround looks nice BTW