Question 120mm aio in the rear in a fractal design core 2300

[gasolin]

I don't know if theres is space enough at rear close to the i/o panel in my fractal design core 2300 for a 120mm aio, since there isn't space for a 140mm case fan im not shure if i can use a 120mm aio, where all are bigger than a 140mm case fan.

Does anbody know?

 

[Karadjgne]

The rad is only 120mm wide. It's taller, not wider. As long as there's @ 20mm above/below the fan grill then you are good.

 

[gasolin]

Looks a bit like this, case and mb are the same as mine,(don't use the side panel for ssd's and harddrives) i had bad luck in the front with a 240mm arctic freezer II 240 and 1 of the fan blades broke on my 120mm dynamic x2 so i only have one front fan.

Atm 1x140mm in the sidepanel 1x120mm in the rear and 1x120mm at the front, air cooler with 2x800 rpm fans

I want to have 1x120mm at the rear, 1x140mm in the side panel and 2x140mm in the front (alle new fans low budget)

Second option is a 120mm aio in the rear use 1 or 2 of the 800 rpm 120mm scythe fan, 1x140mm in the side panel and 2x140 mm in the front (still new low budget fans)

 

[ScyberMhaster]

I don't know if theres is space enough at rear close to the i/o panel in my fractal design core 2300 for a 120mm aio, since there isn't space for a 140mm case fan im not shure if i can use a 120mm aio, where all are bigger than a 140mm case fan.

Does anbody know?

A 120mm AIO Cooler will fit to the rear vent of your chassis. This is supported by its own technical compatibility.

Reference: https://www.fractal-design.com/products/cases/core/core-2300/black/

 

[gasolin]

Have seen it saying 120mm in the rear, i just couldn't find any other information or pictures of my case with a 120mm aio at the back (not the top).

Just going for a cooler master Masterliquid 120 lite, since i had good experince with the 240 in my old define r6, sold it beacuse i needed more airflow and a side fan close to my gpu

The new arctic freezer II i had bad experince with the 40mm vrm,chipset fan being noisy afteer a few min and a pump that easily could be made to sound as if only half of the pump was running in liquid.

Despite having a good air cooler i want to have an aio again since it have lower idle and low usage temps and it takes longer for the liquid to get hot enought before the temps gets above, let's say 60 c when gaming.

 

[Karadjgne]

I've never been a fan (no pun intended) of side panel mounts, especially the removable side panel where the fan is direct competition with the gpu, rear exhaust etc.

Try to imagine airflow as a current flowing from the low front to high rear in pretty much a straight line, picking up heat along the way.

If the side panel fan is intake, it's going to blast directly into that flow, cutting it in half, and when it mushrooms on the mobo, you end up with a circular pattern to the front, recycling heat by your SSDs. To the rear is OK, the rear exhaust sucks it up.

If the side panel fan is exhaust, and higher than the gpu (if it even fits with a gpu there, some don't), then that's great for the case temps as gpu exhaust gets sucked right out. If it's more lower than the gpu, that's bad as it's in competition with the gpu intakes.

Best bet is 1x 140mm in the top rear position, the aio at rear exhaust 120mm, 2x 140mm intakes. The vacuum created by the fans concentrated in the top rear corner creates a stronger pull, which only helps move case air in that direction. Supplied by the 140's in front.

The zip ties are functional, but I believe that you could turn that drive bay tower around, allowing a screwed mount for all 3 drives.

 

[gasolin]

The side fan is just under my gpu not over it, in my define r6 that is longer than the core 2300 there wasn't enough airflow close to my gpu and didn't want to raise the rpm on the front fans so they where noisy just to get better airflow to my gpu.

It's an intake fan, my gpu fans doesn't run until 67c, 380 rpm(side fan), when i had used stock gpu fan curve the fans where noticeable even when i didn't play games, the 380 rpm, did make a difference without making any noise

My case are limited to 140 mm in the front and side panel, rear and top 120mm.

I couldn't get a 240mm aio to work in the front, the freezer II is 38mm it is thicker than normal radiators that is 25mm thick and close to my long 3 fan gpu (was intake fans).

At the top rear im not shure if i can have a fan since there is the cable for the cpu

Here you might see if the cable for the cpu limiteds the thickness for a rear fan above the cable, mabye to a 12mm fan

 

[ScyberMhaster]

The side fan is just under my gpu not over it, in my define r6 that is longer than the core 2300 there wasn't enough airflow close to my gpu and didn't want to raise the rpm on the front fans so they where noisy just to get better airflow to my gpu.

It's an intake fan, my gpu fans doesn't run until 67c, 380 rpm(side fan), when i had used stock gpu fan curve the fans where noticeable even when i didn't play games, the 380 rpm, did make a difference without making any noise

My case are limited to 140 mm in the front and side panel, rear and top 120mm.

I couldn't get a 240mm aio to work in the front, the freezer II is 38mm it is thicker than normal radiators that is 25mm thick and close to my long 3 fan gpu (was intake fans).

At the top rear im not shure if i can have a fan since there is the cable for the cpu

Here you might see if the cable for the cpu limiteds the thickness for a rear fan above the cable, mabye to a 12mm fan

You can have a 120mm Fan on Top, you just need to slightly bend and extend the CPU power cable to the left to accommodate the fan, which other PC builders do. With a 4-Pin CPU power cable, you can clearly manage it so well.

 

[gasolin]

I've never been a fan (no pun intended) of side panel mounts, especially the removable side panel where the fan is direct competition with the gpu, rear exhaust etc.

Try to imagine airflow as a current flowing from the low front to high rear in pretty much a straight line, picking up heat along the way.

If the side panel fan is intake, it's going to blast directly into that flow, cutting it in half, and when it mushrooms on the mobo, you end up with a circular pattern to the front, recycling heat by your SSDs. To the rear is OK, the rear exhaust sucks it up.

If the side panel fan is exhaust, and higher than the gpu (if it even fits with a gpu there, some don't), then that's great for the case temps as gpu exhaust gets sucked right out. If it's more lower than the gpu, that's bad as it's in competition with the gpu intakes.

Best bet is 1x 140mm in the top rear position, the aio at rear exhaust 120mm, 2x 140mm intakes. The vacuum created by the fans concentrated in the top rear corner creates a stronger pull, which only helps move case air in that direction. Supplied by the 140's in front.

The zip ties are functional, but I believe that you could turn that drive bay tower around, allowing a screwed mount for all 3 drives.

Not my pc but it's the same mb and case

 

[Karadjgne]

I have a fractal design define R5 that sits inside a cubby, under the desk. I ran a single 280mm rad (top mount and front mount) and the 2x stock 140mm fans as either intake or top exhaust, no rear. Yes, the door is still attached. Supposedly the R5 suffers from lousy airflow, the R6 is essentially the same case. Gpu is a Asus GTX970 with a 124%OC.

I tend to disagree. At 4.9GHz @ 1.323v, my i7-3770K sat at 32°C idle (23°C ambient, 30°C case temps) and under Prime95 small fft loads hit 72°C. Gaming temps never exceeded 55°C

Little over 200w on the cpu.

HDD and ssd reside in an empty optical bay, both the hdd trays are removed, the rad mounted in front used pull config, mounted on top used push. Fans were limited to 900rpm max, generally ran 500-600rpm under loads. Cam software Silent Mode.

Air in, heat out. If you aim for that alone then you'll get better overall temps. If you aim to get lowest temps on one component, everything else suffers. Anything that can disrupt a continuous flow of air, will make things worse. That includes hdd trays, psu shrouds, wiring, offset fan curves, side fans, top-front exhaust fans etc.

Air doesn't have to move in gale force winds, it just has to move. When it doesn't, it's a bottleneck situation, and things get hotter than they should, which cascades to everything else.

 

[gasolin]

2x 120mm Kaze Flex 120 PWM 800 rpm (silent and with rubber in the corners)or 2x 120mm fratcal design dynamic x2 gp 12 i can use for a aio in the rear and in the top.

Thinking of the arctic P12/P14. Thery are very inexpensive in a 5 pack value pack.

As i know the i7 3770k isn't really a hot cpu, when i had a i5 3570k it could run 4.5ghz with not problems, it just didn't felt fast

73c with a corsair H100 which isn't by any stadards a high end cpu cooler (but still good for most cpus) https://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/4...k_lga_1155_ivy_bridge_cpu_review/index11.html

It's a i7 4770k where things started to get hot.


My asus rtx 2060 oc strix could easily get up to 64c when i didn't play games in my r6, much better now, most i see is 55c (atm 49c but i haven't opend twich or a cam chat) only when i don't game and it's summer temps goes above 60c on my gpu.

 

[gasolin]

which aio cooler ?

Masterliquid 120 lite is cheap and pump can be 99% silent inaudible 1 fan
Masterliiquid 120 1 fan more expensive than the lite version and it has 2 fans

The Masterliquid 120 lite with 2 fans is as expensive as the masterliquid 120 that also has 2 fans

The aio is generally better on the non lite with a better pump? (noise)