Need some help getting optimal airflow

I built my pc (spec in my sig) around a year ago but never got a chance to really start pushing it until now. I have resumed folding and the temps inside feel fairly toasty. Here are some details on the case I have, I have the mesh top:

http://www.coolermaster.com/case/lan-box-haf-series/haf-xb-evo/

And here are a couple of pics of it from when it was almost assembled and when it was first started up.




As you can see, I have the radiator mounted on the right, the 2 120mm fans are sucking air from outside and blowing into the case and a 120mm on the left that is sucking out.

Now I found that the vreg heatsinks on the mobo were quite toasty so I want to get the best airflow setup. I got a desk fan and put it on top of the case blowing down and that helped quite a bit. I can mount a 200mm fan on the mesh top so that it could blow down, but I am not sure what I should do to the other fans, should I change the orientation of the radiator fans so that they blow out instead of into the case?

All suggestions greatly appreciated.

i could be wrong and am by no means a expert at all but if it was me looking at your case i would personally make the radiator fans blow out and the rear fan also blow out wards and install the 200mm on top blowing in. now i would imagine also it would depend on how much air flow those other fans do. you dont want only 50cfm blowing in and 200cfm blowing out..hopefully someone will chime in that knows how to do so in a small case like yours..or in general... just my $.02

nope, you want the coolest air to hit the radiators first, so intake for the rad.
And top rear blowing out. iow: no change to the current setup

But adding a top fan blowing down onto the vrms will help, not sure if a 200mm fan will be enough

And lessen the strain/OC/voltages to spare your VRMs a bit

Thanks for the suggestions, currently the CPU and GPU are at stock clocks.

The fans on the radiators do 77 CFM at max rpm. The rpm is determined by the H100i.
The fan on the rear from what I can google does about 44CFM maybe a bit more.

What if I rotated the rear fan to suck in and got something like this to direct the air down onto the VRM heatsinks?
http://www.performance-pcs.com/cata...e=product_info&cPath=36_172&products_id=28174

And then this 110CFM 200mm fan on the top sucking out?
http://www.performance-pcs.com/cata...duct_info&cPath=36_327_1133&products_id=39618

There are a couple of other fans there as well that have much higher cfm

Might work, remember if you change the rear to an intake, you need a filter... and in that case you'll probably need a fan with a bit more "ooomph" like an SP120 or something.
Doesn't the H100 allow more as 2 fans? The "old" H100 did. In that case, get the same fan as those on the rad (i think it are SP120 variants) and hook it up to the H100i That way it balances itself out a bit

As for the top setting exhaust.. very good idea... not sure about the CM200 thou...(noisewise) a Bit fenix Pro might be a better choice.

If the fans on the H100i are PWM fans, and you can hook up the rear fan to the H100i, it should be a PWM also.

And one of the things which *might* work.. is to get a PWM fan for the top also and hook it to the H100i.

But someone with more information/experience on the H100i should be able to answer the question "Is this possible?"

PS: in stead of the Lian-li thing, you *could* get creative with cardboard At least for testing how big a difference the rear intake makes for the VRMs. Then make soemthing out of plexi... you dont really need something with a variable angle , thus the Lian-Li duct is a bit on the expensive side for what it is.


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RnRollie said:

PS: in stead of the Lian-li thing, you *could* get creative with cardboard At least for testing how big a difference the rear intake makes for the VRMs. Then make soemthing out of plexi... you dont really need something with a variable angle , thus the Lian-Li duct is a bit on the expensive side for what it is.

Click to expand...

Yes I was thinking that too, was just easier to use that to show exactly what i was talking about, luckily linking to a product is free

The H100i does allow for 4 fans and there should be a 2nd cable floating around my boxes somewhere. At the moment the rear fan is being run from the motherboard.

I am going to Phoenix tomorrow morning so I will hopefully have a couple of new fans waiting for me when I arrive back

*EDIT*
Just looked at the Bit fenix Pro, my they are some impressive specs

Top/Rear = exhaust
Front/Sides = intake

Though you want the coolest air going across the rad for best temperatures, that also tends to ruin the airFLOW inside of your case. I would personally sacrifice a couple of degrees C on my CPU to keep everything else inside my case a bit cooler.

EarthDog said:

Top/Rear = exhaust
Front/Sides = intake

Though you want the coolest air going across the rad for best temperatures, that also tends to ruin the airFLOW inside of your case. I would personally sacrifice a couple of degrees C on my CPU to keep everything else inside my case a bit cooler.

Click to expand...

That's what I was going for. But being that this case is not a traditional tower case and the motherboard is flat the rear sort of is a side.

Oh my... the HAF XB... my fault...

Same rules apply there... where the rad is, intake. the rear exhaust as well as the top.

yep long as some are blowing in and in the opposite side the other fans are blowing out, you will be fine. dont overthink it

That's what I have at the moment minus the top fan, its just the mesh top, so some convection going on there. I suppose I could just add the shroud so it pulls the air over the VRM heatsink first and then out the back and just add a fan on top.

Too much thinking . Add the top fan as exhaust and that will help. If you are into the shrouding thing, close off the sides to get even better front to back airflow.

Right, will get the top fan and see how things go.

And if necessary I shall get the safety scissors out

Thanks guys.

Now do I want LED's or not in the fan, much more thinking to do

Overthinking or not, this is not your traditional ATX case.
Just like with some Silverstone cases, the "front-to-back" adagio not really applies. In this case, you *will* get the best results with a rear (filtered) intake directed down onto the VRMs. And with a slow turning "big" fan at the top.

A shroud in "pull" mode doesn't really work - fluid dynamics!

Note: You *could* *maybe* get better results with a top hi-speed blowing down and the others as exhaust... but it's going to be noisy and if you put this thing somewhere underneath a shelve under the TV (it is an htpc after all) you would choke it.
If it would be sitting just underneat an A/C vent, i would use the top down to get as much cool air into it. If it would be sitting on top of an A/C grill, i'ld go for top exhaust.
All factors need to be considered

I found that not to be true with this case... I had one and tried it. Overall, my best temps were with the setup I mentioned. Since he is not using x79, the vrms really do not need cooled in the first place.