Question Best fan placement for optimum cooling?

ron2456

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Current fan setup in my case is 2xfront intake 2x top exhaust 1x back exhaust.

If I change the setup as in the picture will it help the cpu temps?

sPf462m.jpg
 

PC Tailor

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Not sure why exactly you'd want an intake fan on the top of the case right next to an exhaust fan. Firstly heat rises in your case so usually it's best practice to extract it, secondly the intake could end up bringing back in hot air from the exhaust next to it.

Assuming the only thing you are changing is moving one of your roof exhausts, into a roof intake?
 
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ron2456

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Not sure why exactly you'd want an intake fan on the top of the case right next to an exhaust fan. Firstly heat rises in your case so usually it's best practice to extract it, secondly the intake could end up bringing back in hot air from the exhaust next to it.

Assuming the only thing you are changing is moving one of your back exhausts, into a roof intake?
Actually I wanted to bring in some cold air from outside in front of the cpu cooler to help it cool better.

Also how much clearance should be there between the top of case and the table under which the case is placed?
 

PC Tailor

Glorious
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Actually I wanted to bring in some cold air from outside in front of the cpu cooler to help it cool better.
Do you currently have a CPU temperature problem?
I can just imagine your Intake fan will be bring back in the air that your exhaust has just gotten rid of.

Also how much clearance should be there between the top of case and the table under which the case is placed?
That's probably a matter of debate to a degree, but I like to stick to Seasonic's rule of thumb which is to have at least 5cm clearance.
 

ron2456

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Do you currently have a CPU temperature problem?
I can just imagine your Intake fan will be bring back in the air that your exhaust has just gotten rid of.


That's probably a matter of debate to a degree, but I like to stick to Seasonic's rule of thumb which is to have at least 5cm clearance.
Sometimes the cpu hits upper 60's with a aftermarket cooler.
Specs in signature. I might add some better fans tho.
 
Id go with the 2x intake in front, 1x exhaust rear, and 1x exhaust back top.
The intake at the top of the system may actually starve the CPU cooler for air, by having the cool air blow right past the cooler at too high of a speed.

Overall, you dont stand to gain much better cooling performance than you have now by changing case fans.
 
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fry178

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Dec 14, 2015
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as mentioned before the front/low mounted fans as intake, upper/rear as exhaust will be best setup.
if the cpu cooler has a fan on the left side (looking at the case as in pic), you could get a bit better case temps by making a tunnel from cpu fan exhaust to the case fan that is in-line with the air flow
(get some of those signage boards (paper surface on foam sheets), but as long as the case fans have more airflow than the cpu cooler produces,
it shouldnt change much.

one reason i started to prefer 120/140/240 aio from say corsair (covers ALL parts that get damaged if it fails) as cpu coolers, even for smaller/less powerful rigs,
as it can be mounted on the rear (all gpu heat going out the top) or the top (rear fan exhausting most gpu air), as long as the rad fans are set running a little lower rpm
(compared to case fans).
this will remove the cpu heat from the inside of the case (dumping it straight outside) thus lower in-case temps by a lot and lower gpu/board temps as well.
enough that i can run mig rig with silent fans (0.08 sone) and 3770k@4ghz on all cores with cpu at 67C max under full load (prime95 for +3h), while oc 1080 stays below 85C.

something like this
https://pcpartpicker.com/product/F2rmP6/corsair-h60-2018-572-cfm-liquid-cpu-cooler-cw-9060036-ww
 

DMAN999

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I have an old Rosewill Challenger case (similar design to yours) with 2 - 120mm front intakes and 1 - 120mm side panel fans 1 - 140mm top exhaust (above my dual fan cooler) and 1 - 120mm rear exhaust.
I keep the intake fans running at around 1400-1500 rpm the exhaust fans at 1200 rpm and it keeps my temps Very cool, idle around 29 - 30C and max around 55C.
My room temp is around 21 - 22 C.