Fan Placements?

Hi Guys,

I've been reading some threads about how some are setting up fans for better air flow and I have a question. They were talking about putting a radiator in the bottom of the case (I don't remember the actual case), and they were very insistent that the fans should be pushing the air into the case. For the life of me, I can't think of why they would want this? Can anyone enlighten me how this could be a good idea, given certain circumstances? Personally, I have a 480mm rad in the bottom of the case with the hot air getting pushed out, but I have a lot of air flow inside my case.

William

My guess would be that it is counterproductive to have warm air pushed down. Hot air rises so drawing cool air in from outside is better than using warm air from inside the case . Just a guess though

It honestly won't make that big of a difference, but most people agree that intaking at the bottom and exhausting at the top is best (since heat rises). You want cool air in and hot out.

It's also typical to see intake in the front and exhaust to the rear, but that has nothing to do with physics, just eliminates air blowing out the front of the case into your face

ninjacore said:

It honestly won't make that big of a difference, but most people agree that intaking at the bottom and exhausting at the top is best (since heat rises). You want cool air in and hot out.

It's also typical to see intake in the front and exhaust to the rear, but that has nothing to do with physics, just eliminates air blowing out the front of the case into your face

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It also follows the airflow direction of PSU's with front grill openings, reference GPU's, and pulls hot air straight off the CPU cooler out of the case.

If we take my case, I have a top and bottom section. In the top, I have 2 480mm rads and I have 2 120mm fans as intake (front) and 2 120mm fans as exhaust(back) (not counting the 8 fans in push configuration for the rads blowing out the top). I also have 1 480mm rad in the bottom section (with 4 fans in push blowing out the side) and a 200mm fan as intake and 2 120mm fans as exhaust. I believe that I have plenty of air flow even with rads getting vented out the top/side.

What makes my case unique is there is a piece of acrylic that separates the two sections so I need 2 zones sort-of-speak. The top has the motherboard / gpus / reservoirs and the bottom has the pumps / power supply / ssd's. I believe that this should be fine, but I would like others to comment on this setup.

William

That will work fine as long as you have airFLOW through both sections.

Not exactly the same scenario as you are pointing out, but I did some experiments for my setup having radiator intake versus exhaust. It's an AIO water cooling and not a custom loop, but may be worth a read:

http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php/766715-I-was-pondering

JrClocker said:

Not exactly the same scenario as you are pointing out, but I did some experiments for my setup having radiator intake versus exhaust. It's an AIO water cooling and not a custom loop, but may be worth a read:

http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php/766715-I-was-pondering

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An interesting read and worth doing some experiments of my own.

"heat rises" is not a valid argument if you have any airflow in the case to begin with.
It's more about direction and dead zones.
Still, it's pretty much a fact that outside air through a rad will offer the better loop temps, no matter how small.

Mr.Scott said:

"heat rises" is not a valid argument if you have any airflow in the case to begin with.
It's more about direction and dead zones.

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Not sure where you got "heat rises" from in this context...but agree.

Mr.Scott said:

Still, it's pretty much a fact that outside air through a rad will offer the better loop temps, no matter how small.

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Agree...I ran the experiments as I couldn't find any posts saying this.

JrClocker said:

Not sure where you got "heat rises" from in this context...but agree.

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How about from posts #2 and #3.

- - - Updated - - -

JrClocker said:

Agree...I ran the experiments as I couldn't find any posts saying this.

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Maybe not here, but there are about a billion on any watercooling site on the web.

Mr.Scott said:

How about from posts #2 and #3.

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My bad...

JrClocker said:

My bad...

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LOL. It's ok. Challenge me anytime you think it's warranted.