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Rad placement

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Spinout113

Registered
Joined
Jul 4, 2004
Hey!
I have very little room to put my rads in my case. I have a kingwin case which is pretty cool. I can'y put a 120mm Rad in the case so Im settling for 2 80mm from swiftech (along w/ thier kit :burn: ). I cant place them in the front because of HD cage placement and I cant remove it :( . I cam considering putting the 2 rads and fan at the back of the case pushing air through the rads. Is this a good idea? Would it be better if i just ran 2 the rads out of the case and on my desk (1 foot above the case). Thank!
 
Spinout113 said:
Hey!
I have very little room to put my rads in my case. I have a kingwin case which is pretty cool. I can'y put a 120mm Rad in the case so Im settling for 2 80mm from swiftech (along w/ thier kit :burn: ). I cant place them in the front because of HD cage placement and I cant remove it :( . I cam considering putting the 2 rads and fan at the back of the case pushing air through the rads. Is this a good idea? Would it be better if i just ran 2 the rads out of the case and on my desk (1 foot above the case). Thank!
Putting the two rads in the back of your case should work just fine.
 
If at all possible, you want the fans to "pull" the air through the radiator rather than push. Nearly all of the case fans that we normally deal with are much more efficient at pulling than at pushing.

I too had a lot of space constraints in my case; I ended up putting the radiator at the VERY top of the case in the top 5 1/4 bay. The fans sit between the rad and the lid, and pull air from the inside of the case to the outside world. In reality, it's slightly better to draw air into the case thru the radiator (I can get into this more if you want to know), but I'm still doing it backwards because of ease-of-install :)
 
please alb* continue with your ideas on pushing v. pulling. I am looking to start watercooling in the next week or so and your ideas will prob make or break the way I place my rad in my case.

tnks
Prime
 
Well, those thoughts aren't very in-depth, it's just a matter of simple observation... When you get your radiator in, strap a 80mm fan to it in a "blowing" position and feel the air coming out the other side. You aren't going to feel much, if anything at all. These little 12vdc 0.3A fans just don't have enough power to create any real amount of air pressure, which is what's needed to "blow" air through a radiator.

Now position the fan in a "sucking" position, and feel the air coming out of the fan (as well as feel the air moving into the rad from the backside). I can guarantee you that it will be at least double, if not more, than what you had in the "blow" position. These fans have plenty of pull to them, they're designed for it.

Want more reasoning? Open the hood on your car while it's off. Radiators are always placed in the very front of the engine compartment, and the fan is ALWAYS behind it. Notice something else? The fan always "sucks" the air through the radiator, and it almost always uses a shrowd :) This is actually called a draw-through fan in automotive terms, and it's the most functional of all fan methods in automotive radiators. That's even considering that the air hitting the radiator may be moving at 60+mph if you're hauling down the highway.

The absolute best way is to have fans on either side of the rad -- one pushing, and one pulling. If you can't do that, then just have it pulling. If neither is feasable, you can try for pushing but your results will be craptacular.

ALSO, in a pull configuration, you want to do as much as you can to have the fan sucking air only through the rad and not from any surrounding gaps. A well-designed shrowd to seal the fans to the rad can lower your temps several degrees just by itself. If you don't have the room for a shrowd, try using some cork-tape or foam tape to seal the fan(s) to the rad. Generally, what you're trying to eliminate is any air that just kinda putzes in from little gaps between the fan body and the rad body.

Now, as for the reason why you want air to be sucked INTO the case rather than air being sucked OUT of the case is pretty simple too. The air outside your case will always be cooler than the air inside. You have a ton of electrical components in the case warming up the air. The air may only be several degrees (celcius) different between the two, but those several degrees add up quickly in watercooling. By sucking air out of the case, you're passing warmer air through the radiator. By sucking air INTO the case, you're passing cooler air through the radiator.

So the next thought is: All my radiator heat is going to make my computer cook! No, it really isn't. Want another example? Hop into your car, haul booty for a few minutes with the AC on high and get it nice and warmed up. Now pull into a parking lot, set the emergency brake, pop the hood, and leave the car running (and hopefully the radiator fan running) as you open the hood.

Most stock vehicles have a water thermostat around 185 degrees; that's more than hot enough to torch your skin if you touched it. Very carefully, feel the air that's coming out of the radiator fan and into the engine bay. Very obviously, this air is not 185 degrees.

The deal is this: sucking air through the rad and into your machine will result in the incoming air being a few degrees warmer, yes. But the net effect on cooling your components will be HIGHER than the effect of the slightly warmer air circulating in your case. Add a single 120mm exhaust fan in your case, and you've got an easy way for that 'warmer' air to get out.

Hope all that made sense :)
 
Albuquerque said:
Want more reasoning? Open the hood on your car while it's off. Radiators are always placed in the very front of the engine compartment, and the fan is ALWAYS behind it. Notice something else? The fan always "sucks" the air through the radiator, and it almost always uses a shrowd :) This is actually called a draw-through fan in automotive terms, and it's the most functional of all fan methods in automotive radiators.
Although I don't necessarily disagree about setting your computer fan to "suck" as opposed to "blow", you are totally incorrect about automotive fans/radiators.
Many cars (in fact the majority of newer cars that I've seen) have the fans in front of the radiator in a push configuration.
 
clocker2 said:
Although I don't necessarily disagree about setting your computer fan to "suck" as opposed to "blow", you are totally incorrect about automotive fans/radiators.
Many cars (in fact the majority of newer cars that I've seen) have the fans in front of the radiator in a push configuration.

Actually, he isn't wrong as far as automotive fans/rads. All the Hondas/Acuras I've seen/worked on have the fan behind the rad in a pull configuration. Also, my wife owns a 2002 Subaru Outback Sport, and one of my close friends owns a 2004 Subaru WRX STi. Both of those cars have the fan behind the rad in a pull config. And those cars never get above 1/3 on the temp gauge. (And the STi creates ALOT of heat.)

BTW, thanks to Albuquerque for explaining it this way. I'm new to watercooling for PCs, but have been working on cars for quite some time, so this explanation helped immensely.
 
Read too quickly, I apologize.

I've had the best luck pulling air through the rad, as opposed to pushing air through it.
If you have room, a push pull is the best, as stated you can run fans at lower speeds and still obtain the same amount of air through the rads.

Don't forget shrouds, they help a lot.

BTW: Haven't been around that long, but the only vehicles that I know of that have the fans in front of the rads are BMW's.
Which doesn't make much sense, because the fans stop the flow of air when the car is at speed.
 
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