Best fan configuration

I only have one rad for my CPU on the case roof, and I needed to make some invasive case adjustments to make it fit with a push configuration alone, definitely no room for push and pull. I'll switch my rear exhaust to a high performance AF fan and hope for the best. The GPU is getting the two side panel intakes and the SP120mm intake on the front bottom through the 3.5" drive bays blowing through the case bottom.

Be careful there... if they are two close, they tend to 'compete' and create turbulance instead of through put. In my case, there are diminishing returns with my rear exhaust fan and the CPU temps/top fan (of 2).

What do you mean "diminishing returns"?

Not sure I can break it down any more elementary...so let me explain it in a different way.

If I crank my rear exhaust fan, it tends to compete with the top rear fan on my radiator and I see no improvements on the CPU temps. I need to increase the rad fan speeds. So the faster I put my rear fan the less effective the top rear fan/rad becomes (diminishing returns to the rear exhaust fan's speeds). I believe you want the rad up front so, these posts are useless... LOL!


But agagin, you are really overthinking and complicating things. With the rad in front blowing in the case, the temp difference inside the case wasn't but a few C more which is not a problem. You are not breaking any records, or benchmarking, so why is the braintrust here really hashing out a couple of C difference?

I have no way of putting the rad up front. Up top is the only place it'll fit.


So what you're saying that ideally it would be optimal to have the airflow from the top rad SPs higher than airflow from the AF rear exhaust sucking out the back?

mldvn33 said:

I only have one rad for my CPU on the case roof, and I needed to make some invasive case adjustments to make it fit with a push configuration alone, definitely no room for push and pull. I'll switch my rear exhaust to a high performance AF fan and hope for the best. The GPU is getting the two side panel intakes and the SP120mm intake on the front bottom through the 3.5" drive bays blowing through the case bottom.

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I'm sorry i mis interpreted your set up i tought you had a custom water loop.

Switch the rear exhaust to a air fan I really love my enermax one of best fans I have tried fro ma noise performance ratio with pric einto consideration. I have not tried noctua case fans tho.



I would switch the Thermaltake 3.0 Extreme to exhaust (this way hot air wont hit your TOP GPU's back. which might also be the GPU receiving less cold air since the new gpu will block the air flow towards it.

THe psu i dont see it affecting much, in fact it might pull the cold air that is supposed to hit the cards so I would keep it like that unless you have it in top of your carpet in which case its a fire waiting to happen.


Heres what I would recommend:

intake in front, bottom, and side (if needed) , if you can put fans in the HDD cage ( the c70 allows it ) i would put some there over if needed low rpm just to aid direct air.

Exhaust in Top and back , switch that exhaust fan, infact that sp120 you can use it for hdd cage, it will be perfect.

i na worst case scenario (and if you dont mind the looks) put two fans in the exterior of the case (the top) to do a sort off push/pull. ONLY DO THIS if you have spare fans, since it might not work as intended (the 20%+ benefit from pushpull) since theres a gap between rad and fan. so again ONLY if you have spare fans

The key is trying different setups but this setup worked pretty well for my setup considering we have sorth of similar cases.

mldvn33 said:

I have no way of putting the rad up front. Up top is the only place it'll fit.


So what you're saying that ideally it would be optimal to have the airflow from the top rad SPs higher than airflow from the AF rear exhaust sucking out the back?

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im saying you are overthinking it... honestly. Just don't put a 3K RPM fan back there and all will be fine.

It really doesn't need to be this granular...

I have 7 fans total in the case at the moment and a spare SP120 on top of that sitting around as well. Regarding the HDD cage, I have a 120mm right in front of it on the bottom front panel and a 140mm on top of that one. I had it configured just like your suggesting up until now, yesterday I changed the rad to intake in order to see if there would be a difference. And I understand that a rad intake increases the overall air temp in the case, but I'm trying to see if the rad cooling increase is worth it, of course considering the increased need for more exhaust obviously.

mldvn33 said:

I have 7 fans total in the case at the moment and a spare SP120 on top of that sitting around as well. Regarding the HDD cage, I have a 120mm right in front of it on the bottom front panel and a 140mm on top of that one. I had it configured just like your suggesting up until now, yesterday I changed the rad to intake in order to see if there would be a difference. And I understand that a rad intake increases the overall air temp in the case, but I'm trying to see if the rad cooling increase is worth it, of course considering the increased need for more exhaust obviously.

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Just remember that you will be generating more heat once you add the new card so having cpu heat aswell might not be so good.

What's your current temps in your cpu?

Also does your back fits a 140 or just a 120?

EarthDog said:

im saying you are overthinking it... honestly. Just don't put a 3K RPM fan back there and all will be fine.

It really doesn't need to be this granular...

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Then what should I put there if not a "3K RPM"? And where are you referring to? I'm trying to understand you honestly,

Thekamikazepr said:

Just remember that you will be generating more heat once you add the new card so having cpu heat aswell might not be so good.

What's your current temps in your cpu?

Also does your back fits a 140 or just a 120?

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Rear exhaust only fits 120. Current CPU temps are great. I'm planning on over clocking though, that's what made me want to try a different configuration.

Also, the EVGA GTX 780 Ti GPU fan is sucking air in from what I understand right? and I need to supply it more cool air from the outside? Just want to make sure I understand it all correctly, I've only been into this a few months and still learning. Maybe I should look into some kind of water block for it if necessary, or liquid cooling options, any suggestions?

TBH you won't see much difference in cpu temps turning the fans on rad around. 2-5c on core temps max depending how optimized the flow trough your case is.
2-5c translates to maybe a couple notches added voltage and in worst case 100MHz lower overclock on CPU. Unless you plan to bench for records you won't even notice the difference.

If you really really want maximum performance, mount the rad to the back of your case like I do.

Waza said:

TBH you won't see much difference in cpu temps turning the fans on rad around. 2-5c on core temps max depending how optimized the flow trough your case is.
2-5c translates to maybe a couple notches added voltage and in worst case 100MHz lower overclock on CPU. Unless you plan to bench for records you won't even notice the difference.

If you really really want maximum performance, mount the rad to the back of your case like I do.

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That mounting actually looks decent, not bad. I'd need extra tubing and much more hassle to do something like that though, I'll just work with what I have for now. If the difference isn't that significant then ill probably just give in

Well for 1 GPU i would recommend intake but for two then exhaust, but to be honest, heres what i would do:

leave as if (only swap exhaust fan, for a air fan instead of rad fan) do benchmarks for 1-2 hours in loop (RECORD THE INFO)

once you get your SLI setup run a 1-2 hour benchmark and compare result.

Look at how much the CPu temp changed and how much the case/gpu changed.

then invert fan direction in rad and repeat test.



Other than that exhaust I don't see any other investment required. EVGA card cooling on the 780ti is pretty decent. and tbh i like my air setup m ore than my old water one

If the difference isn't that significant then ill probably just give in

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Thanks guys

Thekamikazepr said:

I'm sorry i mis interpreted your set up i ............

I would switch the Thermaltake 3.0 Extreme to exhaust (this way hot air wont hit your TOP GPU's back. which might also be the GPU receiving less cold air since the new gpu will block the air flow towards it.

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Unless you are using Penetrator Fans... the chance of the air from top inlet fans hitting the back of GPU is quite slim...

RnRollie said:

Unless you are using Penetrator Fans... the chance of the air from top inlet fans hitting the back of GPU is quite slim...

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They're corsair SP120mm.. Static pressure, I assume they're penetrators?

ah, no, actually the Silverstone demo clip shows best the difference between "normal" fans and "vaned" fans like the AP

Even with a lot of static pressure, there is no guarantee that a fan can "project" very far... the case fans used in most PCs are not exactly Dyson Air Multipliers
Now, if you want to go extreme, there are double counter rotating fans or something like this thing : https://db.sanyodenki.co.jp/product_db_e/coolingfan/dcfan/dc_fan_detail.php?master_id=2606


Anyways, the case in point is that most fans dont "carry" very far and that "hitting the back of the GPU" and such is very unlikely... putting your hand over/behind a "normal" case fan doesn't feel like a 10point full gale storm does it?

Bobnova said:

Sounds to me like you took a case specifically designed for one direction of airflow, and gave it the wrong direction.

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Well, yes, that's what I had done.

Bobnova said:

The Δt in internal case air temps is not enough to generate meaningful force. A single 40mm fan can overcome the force applied by convection.

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Apparently the Δt was high enough and the fan not strong enough.

I couldn't figure out, at first, what was going wrong. But it didn't take long... after I noticed that, as the computer ran, the exhaust temperature would rise, then appeared to go down. "How can that be?" I wondered. Then I figured it out. Checked. Sure enough: Airflow through that vent came to a complete halt once the inside of that machine warmed up.

Jim

You check it with a glass case side and a smoke machine or something? Airflow tends to be hard to see.