[SOLVED] Carbide 275Q ideal fan setup

[satjemsland]

I have the Corsair Carbide 275Q cabinet. At the moment with the supplied 2 120mm fans (rear and front).

ATM: I have the stock fans (exhaust back and one in front) + I have put an additional Noctua P-12 Redux exhaust and one in front. Considering to put another one in front. (3 in and 2 out) or 2 140mm in and 2 120mm out.

Im also torn a bit between Noctua Noctua NF-P12 redux-1700 or Noctua NF-A12x25 PWM (twice the price)


CPU: Intel Core i7-10700
Motherboard: ASUS Prime z490-P
Ram: Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 3200MHz 16gb (2x)
SSD/HDD: WD Black SN750 1TB M.2 \ WD Blue 3D 500 GB 2.5" SSD \ Seagate BarraCuda 2TB 3.5
GPU: GeForce RTX 2060 DUAL EVO OC
PSU: Corsair RM750x

 

[Phaaze88]

Front to back, bottom to top airflow path. <- Jack of all, master of none setup.
That's what you do if you can't be bothered to do your own testing. What works best will vary with the chassis and the hardware combinations used.

 

[Phaaze88]

Don't believe me, eh?
I took the time to do my own testing, and what I found to be the best in my particular setup was front intakes only; the general recommended setup wasn't the best for me.

https://imgur.com/jqCkW8b

View: https://imgur.com/jqCkW8b

https://imgur.com/6rlXvTH

View: https://imgur.com/6rlXvTH

https://imgur.com/txhPbhe

View: https://imgur.com/txhPbhe

 

[satjemsland]

Front to back, bottom to top airflow path. <- Jack of all, master of none setup.
That's what you do if you can't be bothered to do your own testing. What works best will vary with the chassis and the hardware combinations used.

Don't believe me, eh?
I took the time to do my own testing, and what I found to be the best in my particular setup was front intakes only; the general recommended setup wasn't the best for me.

https://imgur.com/jqCkW8b

View: https://imgur.com/jqCkW8b

https://imgur.com/6rlXvTH

View: https://imgur.com/6rlXvTH

https://imgur.com/txhPbhe

View: https://imgur.com/txhPbhe

I belive you, and I will probably test and change quite a bit before I am happy.. I'm a bit worried about just using intake fans as Im in a bit dusty environment and isn't that transferring the PC into a vacuum cleaner?

 

[Phaaze88]

Dust is inevitable. You'll just have to plan out a cleaning schedule.
Depending on how dusty it gets:
-3x a year
-2x a year
-every other month
-every month
Even once a year is better than going more than a year without doing it.

The chassis has dust filters in the front, top, and bottom, thus reducing dust intake, but the really fine particles will still get through and build up over time.

 

[satjemsland]

Dust is inevitable. You'll just have to plan out a cleaning schedule.
Depending on how dusty it gets:
-3x a year
-2x a year
-every other month
-every month
Even once a year is better than going more than a year without doing it.

The chassis has dust filters in the front, top, and bottom, thus reducing dust intake, but the really fine particles will still get through and build up over time.

Yeah this time I will do that this time, starting with every 3rd month or so. My previous PC build was from 2010 and I think I removed dust only twice. Its a mystery how that PC survived for 10 years..

 

[Phaaze88]

Dust doesn't kill PCs - directly. It will reduce cooling efficiency until the hardware starts throttling - which is a protection mechanism in most of your devices, by the way - even under the simplest tasks.
It can still operate while throttling, but performance is going to suck.

10 years is a pretty good amount of run time to get out of a PC without having changed anything.

 

[Phaaze88]

After looking at the product page again, a decent setup may be:
3x 120mm or 2x 140mm front intake, and the 120mm rear exhaust.
Whether you should use top fans at all depends on:
-what the cpu cooler is
-if you want to keep the removable top panel on or not

 

[geofelt]

Having all of the air intake in one place and filtered will keep your parts cleaner.
That is called a "positive pressure" system.
The parts needing cooling, the cpu and gpu will get to use the front fresh filtered air for heat transfer.
Eventually, all of the intake air will exit the case, taking component heat with it.
I think a small rear exhaust fan is a good thing to direct the airflow over the motherboard and cpu cooler.
Added exit fans will tend to draw in unfiltered air from adjacent openings.
Limit their use.

I like 140mm fans better than 120mm. They move more air quietly.
The noctua nf-P14 fans are excellent. 1700rpm will move a lot of air.
You can slow down a 1700 rpm fan, but you can't speed up a 1200 rpm fan.

 

[satjemsland]

Dust doesn't kill PCs - directly. It will reduce cooling efficiency until the hardware starts throttling - which is a protection mechanism in most of your devices, by the way - even under the simplest tasks.
It can still operate while throttling, but performance is going to suck.

10 years is a pretty good amount of run time to get out of a PC without having changed anything.

I actually changed the hard disks after about 4 years and added an SSD for the OS first a Kingston that broke after 2 years, then a Samsung that's still running. Eventually it was the PSU that died. It had a 10 year guarantee and it held what it promised Was a corsair HX750W.

 

[satjemsland]

Having all of the air intake in one place and filtered will keep your parts cleaner.
That is called a "positive pressure" system.
The parts needing cooling, the cpu and gpu will get to use the front fresh filtered air for heat transfer.
Eventually, all of the intake air will exit the case, taking component heat with it.
I think a small rear exhaust fan is a good thing to direct the airflow over the motherboard and cpu cooler.
Added exit fans will tend to draw in unfiltered air from adjacent openings.

That is what I have read too. Atm I have 2 exhaust fans and 2 intake. Not entirely sure if that menas that its more or less neutral: So I have considered removing one exhaust or adding a 3rd intake. Or swapping the two 120mm intake with 2 140mm

 

[geofelt]

That is what I have read too. Atm I have 2 exhaust fans and 2 intake. Not entirely sure if that menas that its more or less neutral: So I have considered removing one exhaust or adding a 3rd intake. Or swapping the two 120mm intake with 2 140mm

Two 140mm fans will move the same air as three 120mm fans but will be quieter..
Before going to that, try moving the top 120mm exhaust to the front and see how you do.
If your temperatures and fan noise are acceptable, do no more.