Question Back-to-front airflow

[yez3n]

I have an NZXT H6 Flow and wanted to do back-to-front airflow. The fans I have do not look good while intaking, and the most visible ones are the front and bottom fans. The original setup I had and what everyone did was keep the front and bottom as intake, and the top and back as exhaust. I wanted to flip this setup as the top doesn't show as much to me and the back would be fine so those two can be intakes, while the front and bottom are exhaust which are the most visible and would look better.

 

[Darkbreeze]

If you just want to push hot air around inside the case, then sure. I mean, you'll get SOME hot air out, but it won't be nearly as much as you would using a conventional airpath configuration that leverages the natural behaviors of stack effect and convection heat transfer.

In it's simplest terms, heats natural tendency is to rise. It's more complicated than that but that's what we'll call it. When it does, those fans can pull it out of the case. When that happens cool air is drawn in from lower openings in the case and from your intake fans, which then heats, rises and is drawn out.

If your intake fans are in the top and top-back, then all you're doing is trying to push that heat down that wants to rise, and while in this configuration some of that heat would in fact get pulled out through your front, side or bottom exhaust fans, a lot of it would simply continue trying to rise back up and basically just be muddled around. This has been attempted by a number of PC reviewers and engineers and it simply does not work worth a dang unless you have some kind of very small niche form factor case where it's the only way you can do it. In an extremely small case it can work a bit better because there isn't enough room for dead areas or muddling, and the pressure differential is enough to overcome the conventional stack effect and convection.

But by all means, if you want to try it, I'd suggest doing some thermal tests with the way it is now, then doing some afterwards. Unless you don't push your system hard at all ever, I think you'll find it's not worth the trade off. Better would be to simply get better fans that you don't mind seeing. Another option is to get reverse flow fans, that put the "pretty side of the fan towards you inside the case but still flow air in the correct direction by reversing the rotation of the motor and changing the design of the blades.

 

[dwd999]

As the above message says you can get reverse flow fans:

"Another option is to get reverse flow fans, that put the pretty side of the fan towards you inside the case but still flow air in the correct direction by reversing the rotation of the motor and changing the design of the blades."

But not every fan comes in a reverse flow version. Most of the reverse flow fans are designed for people using rgb led fans so that the leds are always facing the interior of the case and the portion of the fan holding the hub in place faces outward. So you would have to plan this all out ahead of time and buy the appropriate fans for the direction you want. Some examples:

https://www.corsair.com/us/en/p/cas...ivSrP7L6fEX24zP6Txt_6bs_8AfglWQA-bZKktB630jjh

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