[SOLVED] Buying a fan for side panel. Push or pull?

[Mahisse]

I have a mATX case. Recently bought the Noctau U9S CPU cooler, which is doing great in my compact setup. )(12700FK CPU).
However, I do want to improve the cooling of my GPU a bit (ASUS 1660 ti) since it's reaching as high as 88 celsius at some points (temperature limit is set to 86 celsius in GPU Tweak 3 - I'm not sure if it means the GPU starts throttling at this point?)

The card sits fairly close to the bottom but there is a wireless PCI adapter in the second PCI slot so a bit of heat is also being produced below the card (not much).

I should state I don't know the brand of the case but it's very simple.

I've installed a fan for intake in front and a fan as outtake in the back. The side panel has a good area of ventilation holes that I'm planning to mount an extra fan on. My questions is then, do you think it would be best to mount the fan to pull into the case or push air out of the case? It's obviously fairly easy to test but just want an opinion on this.
My instinct says it should be pulling in fresh air to the case, mixing some cold air into the flow around the GPU. I feel like there is a general good airflow in the case, despite its size. As mentioned the CPU temps are good but the low mount of the GPU probably is a problem in order to remove some of the hot air circling around in the bottom of the case. The CPU cooler is mounted to push air to the back of the case.

When I feel around the ventilation holes on the side panel there seems to be an acutal good "natural vacum" of fresh air going into the case due to the airflow inside the case. I'm wondering if an extra fan on the panel will provide the GPU with a bit more air to work with. My biggest concern is that the ventilation holes may still be a bit higher than the GPU and a fan won't be able to "hit" the critical area of air for the GPU.

Any thoughts?

 

[Colif]

are you able to mount a magnetic filter to side fan? normally helps to filter intakes to keep dust out.

adding intake to side makes me wonder if it will disturb air flow coming from front fan.

can you take photos of the case? upload to imgur and show links so I can see what you dealing with.

 

[Mahisse]

are you able to mount a magnetic filter to side fan? normally helps to filter intakes to keep dust out.

adding intake to side makes me wonder if it will disturb air flow coming from front fan.

can you take photos of the case? upload to imgur and show links so I can see what you dealing with.

I can but it will be later on the day then. Good point with the magnetic filter, I will buy one for sure.

 

[DRagor]

Don't fight the airflow you already have - if you feel side panel works as intake, keep it as such. Note that by adding any fan you change amount of air that passes through case, so you have to adjust fan speeds accordingly. For example, if you put side fan as intake, you will have more intake air then before, so to compensate for that you should increase back fan speed to increase amount of exhausted air.
To lower GPU temps, side fan should have to be intake and be positioned below the GPU. If it's level or above it will not directly help, however it can possibly lower overall temp inside case and thus could help with GPU cooling indirectly.

 

[geofelt]

Some time back, experiments were done using various fan configurations.
To my surprise, a side intake was one of the more effective options.

That said, I think your most effective option would be to replace the front intake fan/s with higher rpm versions that can get more fresh cooling air into the case.

What is your cpu cooler?
Assuming you are using a simple tower type air cooler, front intake will benefit both cpu and gpu cooling.

Another simple option you might try is to install a simple slot cooler just below the graphics card.
That will draw a bit more cooling air past the gpu coolers.
Some will have a speed control knob to allow you to set the balance better.
https://www.amazon.com/Evercool-Fox...id=1643122310&sprefix=slot+fan,aps,83&sr=8-35
The speed can be motherboard controlled.

 

[Colif]

What is your cpu cooler?
Assuming you are using a simple tower type air cooler, front intake will benefit both cpu and gpu cooling.

Noctau U9S CPU cooler

https://noctua.at/en/nh-u9s

 

[Mahisse]

Go the pictures.
https://postimg.cc/gallery/JB0RX6C

A little dust on the bottom but I promise you the coolers and fans are clean after my recent upgrade (again, good idea regarding the filter)

The slot cooler is an interesting idea but I'm not sure there would be any room for it to make any sense.

As you can see in the picture there's not much room for much air to flow around the bottom but I've seen pictures of rigs with cards in a mATX.
I think the main issue is that the air from the front fan and and the ventilation holes is going directly into the pull of the CPU cooler, not leaving much fresh air to the GPU. Basically it's being choked a bit. I need to feed some air to the bottom.

Good point regarding adjusting the speed of the front fan a bit. In the old rig the back and the front fan were controlled by splitted 3 pin fan headers but the new MB has several PMW headers so I could toy around that a bit. I'm sceptical about how much improvement it will make though.

 

[DRagor]

Basically it's being choked a bit. I need to feed some air to the bottom.

The biggest choke is that expansion card below GPU. It blocks the GPU fans from getting enough air. And unfortunately side grill starts too high to help with that. I don't really see how you could make it significantly better in that case.

 

[Mahisse]

The biggest choke is that expansion card below GPU. It blocks the GPU fans from getting enough air. And unfortunately side grill starts too high to help with that. I don't really see how you could make it significantly better in that case.

Yeah I know. I made a mistake and didn't buy a MB with built in wifi and I'm really happy with this wifi adapter since it gives a 100% stable wifi connection. I find USB adapters to be utterly useless. Has the market become better with USB adapters regarding stability?..

I'll try adjusting the front fan a bit to increase rpm to see if I can push some air a bit further down into the case. Perhaps that will help a bit.
I wonder a bit if I could perhaps setup an extra fan as an extension to the front fan... Meaning having uprised position aligned further back to the front fan, just before the GPU. That way I should be able to push the air further back and direct it between the GPU and wifi adapter.

 

[DRagor]

Yeah I know. I made a mistake and didn't buy a MB with built in wifi and I'm really happy with this wifi adapter since it gives a 100% stable wifi connection

Perhaps you could use a riser to put that card somewhere else?

I wonder a bit if I could perhaps setup an extra fan as an extension to the front fan..

The pictures don't show front part of the case but I think that would be doable. Just not really going to do much good I guess.