Top mount radiator fan setup.

UmHelp · Jan 14, 2007

I am going to mount my radiator to the top of the inside of my case, should I be pulling air from the outside and shooting it inside the case or should I be pulling air up from the inside of my case and shooting it out of my case.

I was thinking of pulling fresh air from the outside of the case through the radiator and then making all my case fans blow air out of the case.

da0s · Jan 14, 2007

Just remember one main rule of thumb...you always want more air going out then coming in.

Linux_Box · Jan 14, 2007

Seems counter-intuitive to pull cool air into the system from the top. I say test it and see what happens. Worst case, maybe a few degrees difference?

Air flow: positive or negative? Lots of arguments out on the net. Each has different applications. More out than in will pull cool air in from all the holes in your case (read: possibly more 'dirt'). More in than out will push the air out the little holes in the case (read: a bit cleaner maybe). I have more out than in and it definitely helps with temps (I've tested in all my cases).

kenny_k · Jan 14, 2007

I have mine on top, outside the case, just a thought.

DvBoard · Jan 14, 2007

remember heat rises, so by pulling it out of your case you will help to exhaust all the other things being heated as well. of course this also has the downside that your using warmer air to cool your radiator.

Tekko · Jan 14, 2007

Getting the coolest air to your rad should be your absolute priority, raising heat should be delt with your case flow, so pull cool air from the top into the case and with a good enough case flow you should be able to get rid of all that heat

darkcow · Jan 14, 2007

i'm having mine as pull air out of the case. think of it this way.

with your cpu, and your video card, now under water, what more is there to add heat? your nb isn't going to do much, and your hard-drives won't raise it a degree.

UmHelp · Jan 15, 2007

well it seems like the way to go is pull air from inside the case out, i will give it a shot and see how it goes.

I really do like the idea of getting the coolest possible air to the radiator. But fighting physics is always difficult heat rises and that wont be changing for a while.

I move my computer around every once in a while so having the radiator on the outside doesnt really work for me.

I will have 6 panaflo high speed fans sucking air through my radiator so that would be alot of air going into my case. I think it would be kinda difficult to suck all the air out and get negative airflow. I only have a PSU, and 2 case fans inside the case so it might be a bit tricky.

I guess I will see how it goes. Thanks

Tekko · Jan 15, 2007

Neg pressure sometimes help get a degree or two off the case temp and that's why it helps CPU/GPU on a air setup but in the case of watercooling all your major heat sources dissipate there heat into your loop, the rest of your components do dissipate heat too but not enough to create a strong enough updraft to disrupt the flow of a push/pull 3x120mm rad setup(I'm assuming you are changing your BIP.2 to a larget rad) with panaflo high fans, even if they are turned down to 7v. But what exausting case air thru your rad will do is get you a worst deltaT(temp difference between the object to be cooled and the coolant used to cool of that object in this case air). And the worst your deltaT the worst your temp will be.

Gunlance · Jan 22, 2007

I've been experimenting with this lately. I have my BI GTX 240 mounted at the top of my case and have 2 panaflos attached to it inside the case. The core temps under load are definately cooler when pulling air in from outside. The only problem is that I have 2 120x38mm and 1 120x25mm fan all pulling air in with only an 80mm fan pushing air out. I'm giong to do some more testing with the 2 fans outside the case in both push then pull configuration. Hopefully I can get some sooler temps.

Kuya · Jan 23, 2007

kenny_k said:
I have mine on top, outside the case, just a thought.

My build is the same, keeping the rad on the outside decreases your internal temps and keeps the rad surrounded by cooler air. Plus, heat rises, makes sense to put the rad above the case imho. *2 cents*

voigts · Jan 23, 2007

I pull air out of the case through the rad. As darkcow mentioned, with watercooling its not like you are building up a ton of heat in your case anyway. I just think that it makes more sense to go with physics and let the warm air rise. I seriously doubt that pulling air in is going to make much of a difference if any at all over pulling air out of the top. When I stick my hand over the airflow of my rad pulling out, I can feel no discernible difference between the air temp coming out of the rad and the surrounding air.

Also, you really don't need 6 fans on your rad. You will see no measurable improvement at all over using 3 fans.

And if you're really worried about it, just mount the thing above the top of your case completely outside with the fans pulling outside air only.

Alien1099 · Jan 31, 2007

I'm having the same dilema here. I'm going to be getting a Thermochill PA 120.3 radiator here next week and I'm not sure if I want to mount it in the top or bottom either. I am leaning towards top. I might try going with a hole saw and drill to make the cuts.

I am thinking voigts is right and that it probably won't make much difference since the air inside the case is going to be relatively cool anyway.

Tekko · Feb 2, 2007

well it will not make a big difference either way(most likely 1-2c) but to the hardcore WCer that is going all out (lapping, AC pump, popped IHS if possible, block order in the loop got that extra 0.5C and so on) going in a push/pull sucking air from outside the case will get you some extra cooling but if not going all the way just go with what's easiest or what looks best for you...

Diggrr · Feb 2, 2007

Warm air rising, eh?
So that two cubic feet of case air is gonna rise despite the 100+ cfm of air you're pushing through it?
I'm thinking the air will go where the fans tell it to...up, down, sideways, whatever.
It might have been an issue in the olden days when you had one 80mm fan pushing 40cfm through a 60% blocked punched grill to a just-as-crippled psu fan.

And I've always gone with positive case pressure (for as much pressure as axial fans will get you anyway).
Filter the intake fans, and there will be no dust-bunnies clogging every hole.
Case temps didn't seem to change either way, so I go with the bonus of a clean case/rad.

QuietIce · Feb 2, 2007

Diggrr said:
And I've always gone with positive case pressure (for as much pressure as axial fans will get you anyway).
Filter the intake fans, and there will be no dust-bunnies clogging every hole.
Case temps didn't seem to change either way, so I go with the bonus of a clean case/rad.

Top mount radiator fan setup.

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