[SOLVED] Air Flow suggestion for ANTEC P183 case?

[anaturelover]

hi i have the version of 183 from 2007.

i have 4 fans to reuse :
NF S12B FLX NOCTUA FAN
2 OF THEMNF P12 NOCTUA FAN

i might keep ifan for the futur gpu so IT REMAINS 3 FAN NOCTUA TO PLACE


ill have a 34 artic cooler heat sink for i5 3600.
i have cp850 antec psu wich push air out at the bottom if i recall right.
i have 2 hdd and 1 ssd.
i gpu

if i have to choose i would keep the top opening closed for better sound management.

Anyone knows this case and the art of air flow?

 

[alceryes]

Some basics for case airflow -
Best to always have slightly positive air pressure (more intake pressure than exhaust pressure), but only slightly. This helps to both keep dust out and give good airflow within your case.
Best to not create air vortices. Basically, don't have two fans fighting for the same air. One of the 'standard' case configurations has space at both the top rear and top of the case for fans. Depending on how close the two fans are, this can create air vortices right over the CPU/VRM area.
With your cooler, have it exhausting air out the back of the case, if at all possible.
If you can exhaust your cooler out the back, make sure there is good airflow coming in from the front.

If you can do all of the above without using a top case fan, great! I have an old Antec 900 with a huge 200mm built-in fan that is currently unplugged. With my setup, I need as much intake pressure as possible going out the back, through my H80i v2. This helps cool the i9-9900k beast and surrounding VRMs.

 

[anaturelover]

if i understand you well it is better to have more force putting air into the box than getting rid of it exact?

so i have 3 120 loose. 2 on front and 1 at top back?
suggestion on where on the front (3 places available i think?)

Also their name are different but since i use them for air flow case, are they different or doing the exact same job?

 

[Karadjgne]

No. Every case is different. Positive or negative makes no difference as almost all cases are negative at low fan rpm, only becoming positive at overwhelming intake.

The Noctua S are high airflow, those you'd use at the rear to move as much air out as possible with zero need for static pressure as exhausts require none. Use the baffle if you wish, but you'll increase airflow by using the top vent.

The Noctua P are balanced fans, not excelling at static pressure like the F nor the airflow of the S, but almost as good at both. You'd use those at the intake positions, getting rid of the upper hdd cage to increase airflow and increase space for a longer gpu.

Whether the case is negative or positive is immaterial, doesn't matter. What matters is the balance of airflow set by the rpm of intakes vs exhausts. That you'll set personally with the fan curves, either increasing or decreasing in order to balance cpu vs gpu temps.

 

[alceryes]

if i understand you well it is better to have more force putting air into the box than getting rid of it exact?

so i have 3 120 loose. 2 on front and 1 at top back?
suggestion on where on the front (3 places available i think?)

Also their name are different but since i use them for air flow case, are they different or doing the exact same job?

Are you able to set your CPU cooler to exhaust towards the back case vent?
Use the top two spots in the front of the case to ensure good airflow across your memory and CRP/VRM area.

 

[alceryes]

No. Every case is different. Positive or negative makes no difference as almost all cases are negative at low fan rpm, only becoming positive at overwhelming intake.
Whether the case is negative or positive is immaterial, doesn't matter.

This is untrue, for the reasons I stated above.
You never want an overwhelmingly positive or negative case pressure since that will cause air to either leak or get sucked in from every case crease there is - messing up your airflow with vortices. Thus my bolded slightly. Having positive air pressure will help keep dust out. Dust caked on internal components ruins airflow over the course of months/years.

 

[Karadjgne]

The difference in negative dust intake and positive dust repellent is negligible. The dust filters will only keep out the larger particles, the finer stuff still comes through just as normal.

Almost all prebuilts use a primarily negative system, as do many cases such as the NZXT 510 series. There's also a few cases like the Fractal Design Meshify-C that use primarily positive.

Either way doesn't make much difference overall since the case is not sealed and the differences are minute. Linus did a 1 year test covering 5 different fan layouts in Fractal R5 from all negative to mixed to all positive and his conclusion was you still got pretty much the same amount of dust intake, it was just deposited and concentrated more in different areas of the case, depending on which layout was used.

You can have 3x fans at intake and a single exhaust and still be negative. The exhaust creates a low pressure area directly adjacent to the blades, but covers an omnidirectional arc, it'll pull from the nearest available source, which is generally the gaps/venting right next to/above the fan. It's only when the 3x intakes can provide overwhelming pressure from high rpms where the gaps/venting gets swamped, that the exhaust will pull from the case more.

The fabled 'smoke test' video is a joke. The author didn't take into account the gpu fans which in the case of the NZXT 510 and many other cases, use those rear gaps as an air source, providing better airflow and temps all around than the use of front intake fans can provide.

Pretty much unless you only have intake fans and a 100% positive setup or fans at a constant high rpm, all cases will run negative pressure at idle/low rpm. The front intakes at low rpm simply do not supply high enough cfm/sp to compensate for the amount of volume of air that needs to be moved for front supply to actually reach the rear.