Question Be Quiet PURE BASE 501 Airflow case - should I put a 140mm fan at the top?

[Bomvomby]

Building a new PC, with a RTX 5090 and a Ryzen 9800x3d inside this Be Quiet PURE BASE 501 Airflow case.

The cooling setup is gonna be - Scythe Kaze Flex 120mm x3 at the front for intake, Noctua NH-D15 G2 LBC, and Noctua 140mm NF-A14X25R G2 at the back for exhaust. As you can see, the top of the case isn't solid, it's a removable dust filter made of plastic. I'm thinking about putting one of the stock fans on top right above the cpu but not sure if I really should do it and if I do, should it be exhaust or intake. What do y'all think? Thanks in advance!

 

[dwd999]

Building a new PC, with a RTX 5090 and a Ryzen 9800x3d inside this Be Quiet PURE BASE 501 Airflow case.

The cooling setup is gonna be - Scythe Kaze Flex 120mm x3 at the front for intake, Noctua NH-D15 G2 LBC, and Noctua 140mm NF-A14X25R G2 at the back for exhaust. As you can see, the top of the case isn't solid, it's a removable dust filter made of plastic. I'm thinking about putting one of the stock fans on top right above the cpu but not sure if I really should do it and if I do, should it be exhaust or intake. What do y'all think? Thanks in advance!

Personally I believe in maximum fans and airflow. I have an 802 case with 8 Noctua 140mm G2. So I would place 2 140mm on top to exhaust the heat from the D15 directly below them.

 

[Bomvomby]

Personally I believe in maximum fans and airflow. I have an 802 case with 8 Noctua 140mm G2. So I would place 2 140mm on top to exhaust the heat from the D15 directly below them.

That was the plan initially, but then I started googling about placing fans at the top and couldn't find a definitive answer. I even saw some mentions that it could hurt the temps because it disrupts the front to rear direct airflow or something, so now I'm doubtful. Plus I'm not sure how the non-solid mesh top of my case plays into this, so decided to ask here.

 

[dwd999]

That was the plan initially, but then I started googling about placing fans at the top and couldn't find a definitive answer. I even saw some mentions that it could hurt the temps because it disrupts the front to rear direct airflow or something, so now I'm doubtful. Plus I'm not sure how the non-solid mesh top of my case plays into this, so decided to ask here.

There are multiple models of the Sycthe Kaze Flex 120mm fans; the specs for the one with the highest airflow indicates 89CFM. So that would be 267CFM input with only 92CFM exhaust. The excess air in the case could flow out of all of the holes in the back and top on its own. But it would be better to help it along by increasing the exhaust to 276CFM and balancing input and outflow. I have my 802 case balanced with 4 in and 4 out. My temps are always low, especially at low usage levels and the fans idling at 30 percent. So its really quiet.

 

[Bomvomby]

@dwd999, would you recommend mounting the Noctua NH-D15 G2 LBC with or without offset? The table on the Noctua site shows that performance is "Excellent" either way.

 

[dwd999]

If the system is not yet assembled then I would go ahead and use the offset. But personally I am not disassembling my system which I just assembled in February for such a small increase in performance.

 

[geofelt]

If I read the specs correctly, you can use two or three 140mm front intake fans.
I would do that first instead of 120mm fans.
two 140mm fans can move more air quietly than three 120mm fans.
Whatever front air intake that comes in will pass the gpu and cpu coolers and eventually exit the system, taking hot component heat with it. Pressure will not build up, all heat will eventually exit.
The purpose of the rear exit fan is to direct the airflow through the cpu cooler. I think a top exit fan would tend to divert the front intake stream up and out of the case without doing any good.

As to cooler offset, I have no knowledge.

 

[Bomvomby]

And now I'm back to square one... 😆
Guess the best answer would be trying it both ways and see which gives best temps, which I guess I'll end up doing.

 

[SkyNetRising]

Guess the best answer would be trying it both ways and see which gives best temps, which I guess I'll end up doing.

2x 140mm - at front (intake),
1x 140mm - at back (exhaust),
(optional, can be skipped) 1x140mm at top/closer to back (exhaust).

This seems to be optimal performance/noise fan config.

 

[Bomvomby]

Those 3x 120mm Scythes I have seems to have 80 max CFM airflow each and the stock 2x 140mm BeQuiets are 54 each. So from the performance perspective the Scythes should be better, or...? Noise isn't a big concern for me as my current PC is pretty noisy and I'm used to it, plus the Inno3d 5090 from what I heard is also on the noisy side, so it's whatever. All I care is not having any overheating issues.

 

[geofelt]

Use what you have, and see how you do.
If you ever need it, noctua makes 3000 rpm 140mm fans that push 158cfm.