Not feeling air flow through radiator

[Janus67]

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a374/Janus67/Watercooled.jpg

That is a general picture of my cooling setup (sorry I am at work and don't have first-hand pictures of my system...my host crashed that had them on there).

One thing that has me worried is that when I put my hand over the fans ontop that should be pushing/pulling the air out I do not feel any air flow at all, I haven't tested the ones that push/pull inward yet. I have a feeling that it may be because I am using two different types of fans (similar, but not the same CFMs and also not same the width 120x120x38 (bottoms) vs 120x120x25 (top). Do you think that this may be the cause of the problems? I will probably take off the top fans and see if the cooling is better, but I hate to have wasted getting these nice Yate-Loon fans.

As usual, all opinions are greatly appreciated!

[||Console||]

.... all the fans on your rad should be blowing in the same direction . Out of your case the fans on the right ( in the pic) are blowing hot air from the rad into yuor case . switch them around

[Springbok]

I agree with console, have both the fans blowing in one direction, preferably inwards to get the coolest air.

[thideras]

I third making them go the sameway.

With the fans, no, it won't hurt to have different ones. Think of it this way, the bulky 38mm thick fans can't push their RATED cfm through the radiator, neither can the 25mm thick ones. What the 25mm thick ones do is create a lower pressure area on one side, this makes it easier for the 35mm thick fans to flow more air through the radiator.

[||Console||]

Yea On my setup I have 38mm fans pulling and 25mm fans pushing

[jivetrky]

But having them all blow inwards is going to create too much pressure inside the case. That single exhaust fan can't keep up with 4 fans blowing inward. I'd say have them all blowing upward.

I see what you were going for with that setup, but I think it'd work better with them all exhausting. The difference in temps won't be that much and the airflow will probably increase quite a bit. Though I'm not familiar with the intake vents on the front of that case. Are there adequate vents on the front to bring in enough air for all those fans?

[nvidiaOCmaster]

You can't feel air because it is room temperature.

[||Console||]

^ I agree , thats what I said above , I would rather have the hot air blowing into my room than into my case

[||Console||]

You can't feel air because it is room temperature.
air temps wont make a difference you can still feal air moving @ room temp .

[nvidiaOCmaster]

my bad

[myndlessdayz]

Though I'm not familiar with the intake vents on the front of that case. Are there adequate vents on the front to bring in enough air for all those fans?


Stock there is one intake fan in front of the mid HD rack. There is a VERY slim spot in front of the lower HD rack although that goes as a separate airflow with the PSU and center fan. So, unless he added fans in the drivebay area and took off the drive bay covers, he would be having more exhaust fans and 1 intake.

By his rough drawing, number wise his fans are equal atm. But directional flow probably being thrown off.

[Janus67]

Stock there is one intake fan in front of the mid HD rack. There is a VERY slim spot in front of the lower HD rack although that goes as a separate airflow with the PSU and center fan. So, unless he added fans in the drivebay area and took off the drive bay covers, he would be having more exhaust fans and 1 intake.

By his rough drawing, number wise his fans are equal atm. But directional flow probably being thrown off.

Actually the case didn't come with a fan infront of the middle HD rack. It only had one (if I remember correctly) in the bottom part, on the back, and on the top. I also have my hard drives mounting reversed for cable cleanup in the middle HD rack (I have two IDE drives and the cable won't reach to the bottom rack). I should have that other fan around my apartment somewhere though...

I was thinking about putting them at all exhaust, but it seems like there wouldn't be enough air pressure bringing air into the case. Currently, I have my door off the side of the case though incase I have to get inside an clear my cmos.

I will try reversing the fans to all blow out and see if anything happens.

Yea On my setup I have 38mm fans pulling and 25mm fans pushing

Do you think I should do what you are doing and switch the positioning of my 38/25mm fans so that the 38's are ontop pulling out and the 25s are inside?


Oh and thanks for your help in both of my threads Console (and everyone else!)

[||Console||]

^ I think it would be worht a shot , becuase there is a dead spot with fans in the center so I would have the fans that have the highest cfm doing the pulling .

[darkcow]

my 120mm yates don't feel like their pushing any air whatsoever, but they are undervolted to 7v.


have you tried putting the back of hand to it.

[Janus67]

yeah, I only feel air on the corners (what seems like air bouncing off the inside of the fan casing), but not coming from the center like I used to before installing the Yate Loons.

[||Console||]

Put flame ( lighter ) next to it does the flame move ?

[Janus67]

good idea, I will try that when I get home from the office.

[Janus67]

I just remembered why I put the fans going down... to cool my ram. Would it be a good idea to put the fans push/pulling both downward now in order to do so, or do you think that my g.skill will be fine without direct airflow? I got used to my old mushkin redlines that I would run at 3.4V that needed a fan on them, so I may be overthinking this.

[jivetrky]

I had mine running at 273Mhz (I forget the voltage, but it wasn't anything crazy) but I jus relied on the air coming from the RAD to cool them.

I would think that with your RADs above the RAM, it'll probably pull some air over the RAM anyway.

[Otter]

The reason to have all the rad fans going the same way is that if you don't, the air will heat up on the first pass through the rad and provide almost no cooling on the second pass.

Incense or a thin strip of tissue paper will show air flow too, if you don't have a lighter handy. If you have 2-ply tissue, separate out one ply and then tear off a thin strip. Just make sure you ground yourself and the paper to the PSU screws in case it gets sucked into something static sensitive.

[Janus67]

makes sense. Thanks all. I will try having all the fans as exhaust, hopefully that doesn't cause any problems and only makes things run a few degress cooler!

[jivetrky]

Maybe if you can, get a fan to put as an intake on the front. should help increase the positive pressure in the case.

[Janus67]

Well, so far so good. Also in the process I cleaned out the dust in my radiator... the fans that were blowing in had practically a sheet of dust under it. My temps dropped dramatically from that. So now I have all of the fans going exhaust currently. I will see what I can do about the other fan, although it may be difficult (as I will have to re-arrange my hard drives and cable management because I have them mounted in reverse).

[||Console||]

Good to hear your getting better air flow

[Moto7451]

But having them all blow inwards is going to create too much pressure inside the case. That single exhaust fan can't keep up with 4 fans blowing inward. I'd say have them all blowing upward.

The case is hardly air tight so having a positive delta pressure will not hinder the flow of air out of the case. It will actually flow out of any little hole and will help dust out (except what is coming in through the fans themselves of course).

[bail_w]

unless if you take out the HDD case below the 5.25 bays, it should help your air flow.

[jivetrky]

The case is hardly air tight so having a positive delta pressure will not hinder the flow of air out of the case. It will actually flow out of any little hole and will help dust out (except what is coming in through the fans themselves of course).


I thought the P180's were supposed to be fairly tight for sound proofing

[Janus67]

unless if you take out the HDD case below the 5.25 bays, it should help your air flow.
I actually have a SATA drive down there and 2 IDE drives on the middle bay.