Question Case fans instead of AIO cooling fans

[master7piece]

Hi All. It would be greatly appreciated to have your opinion.

I have Cougar Pouritas case with 3 x120 mm Cougar vortex intake fans On front panel and 1x 120 mm fan on bottom, 3x 120 mm Cougar vortex fans on top (exhaust fans) and 1x 120 mm Exhaust fan on the back. I also have NZXT X53 AIO cooling mounted on front panel without original NZXT fans, so the only air radiator receives is pushed outside air from Vortex Case fans on front panel.

Question: system runs good, and the temps are fine. Should I additionally install original NZXT coolers in front of radiator (inside the case) for “pull” air through the radiator in addition to case fans pushing air to the rad? I feel that it is difficult for air to get though the rad, but again, the temps of CPU are good.

thank you.

 

[Lafong]

"Temps are fine".

I assume that means "low enough to satsify you". Maybe a bad assumption.

Is your goal to drive temps even lower, although they are "fine"?

If yes, then add the fans in your idea and see what happens through experimentation. There is no substitute for experimentation.

Maybe you have some goal other than to drive temps lower?

 

[Karadjgne]

Adding those fans in pull to the back of the radiator will drop cpu temps @ 2-3°C on average, so not really worth the additional noise levels.

That said, adding those fans will likely lower gpu temps as the exhaust from those fans pushes air directly at the gpu, instead of the gpu relying on ambient surrounding air, or air pulled from the back of the case through tiny slots and gaps.

 

[master7piece]

"Temps are fine".

I assume that means "low enough to satsify you". Maybe a bad assumption.

Is your goal to drive temps even lower, although they are "fine"?

If yes, then add the fans in your idea and see what happens through experimentation. There is no substitute for experimentation.

Maybe you have some goal other than to drive temps lower?

thank you for the response. My goal is to achieve best performance to the extent possible, i.e if case fans perform worse than original NZXT fans (because of higher static pressure for example).

 

[master7piece]

Adding those fans in pull to the back of the radiator will drop cpu temps @ 2-3°C on average, so not really worth the additional noise levels.

That said, adding those fans will likely lower gpu temps as the exhaust from those fans pushes air directly at the gpu, instead of the gpu relying on ambient surrounding air, or air pulled from the back of the case through tiny slots and gaps.

Thank you for the response, well noted.

 

[Karadjgne]

Static pressure is hard to judge because there's no standard as such. SP is measured as the distance water is moved, but that changes depending on how it tested, what height above sea-level it's tested, water used (tap or purified etc), what container (if any) etc.

So one manufacturer can test for SP, and get totally different results from another fans supposed stats. And that's not counting the curve, only applies to max rated rpm. The Noctua A12x25 for instance has @ 60% rated SP at 50% rpm, whereas other fans with slightly higher cfm may have @ 40% SP at 50% rpm.

Noctua NF-F12 have mediocre cfm, mediocre SP, yet for years were unbeatable by any other fan for rads, tied only by the Scythe Gental Typhoons, they just had the perfect balance of SP and cfm vs AIO fin restrictions.

So as said by Lafong, you'll have to experiment with fan swaps, see which fans in which locations and with which fan curves get you the performance you are after, regardless of stated stats.

 

[master7piece]

Static pressure is hard to judge because there's no standard as such. SP is measured as the distance water is moved, but that changes depending on how it tested, what height above sea-level it's tested, water used (tap or purified etc), what container (if any) etc.

So one manufacturer can test for SP, and get totally different results from another fans supposed stats. And that's not counting the curve, only applies to max rated rpm. The Noctua A12x25 for instance has @ 60% rated SP at 50% rpm, whereas other fans with slightly higher cfm may have @ 40% SP at 50% rpm.

Noctua NF-F12 have mediocre cfm, mediocre SP, yet for years were unbeatable by any other fan for rads, tied only by the Scythe Gental Typhoons, they just had the perfect balance of SP and cfm vs AIO fin restrictions.

So as said by Lafong, you'll have to experiment with fan swaps, see which fans in which locations and with which fan curves get you the performance you are after, regardless of stated stats.

Thank you, much appreciated. I’ve read about Noctua fans and their great CFM stats. I’m just trying to keep the noise as low as possible.

I won’t be swapping fans, i was just wondering if I sandwich AIO radiator between case fans (push) and original NZXT fans (pull) would this be ok in terms of CFM, SP and overall performance, but as I get from your responses the only solution is experimenting with various options.

 

[Karadjgne]

Unfortunately yes, experimenting is the only way. For instance it took some backpeddle thinking to get the nzxt H510 series to decent temps, by using only exhaust fans, no front intakes at all, which defies standard logic, and that case really doesn't look any different than a hundred other boxes, it just has enough tiny peculiarities that that's its best airflow option.

 

[Phaaze88]

^^^
Experimenting has always been the ideal way. Just, not everyone can stand to hear that response... some go and make new threads(not necessarily on the same site) until they hear what they want to.

 

[Karadjgne]

^^^
Experimenting has always been the ideal way. Just, not everyone can stand to hear that response... some go and make new threads(not necessarily on the same site) until they hear what they want to.

Yep. My wife calls it 'push button' mentality, far too many folks want to just push a button and be done, which is the sole reason ppl like Asus, Msi, Gigabyte still get away with adding the 'One Touch' software OC in bios menus. I'd hate to see what would happen if they all had to OC an old lga775 quad by hand, taking ICH and ram settings into consideration as part of the OC.

Experimenting is about making small changes, and seeing how the results stack up. Done right, this airflow project could take a couple weeks easily because the results are also personal taste, so might be days of use between changes.

 

[master7piece]

^^^
Experimenting has always been the ideal way. Just, not everyone can stand to hear that response... some go and make new threads(not necessarily on the same site) until they hear what they want to.

Thank you. Indeed, I was just trying to make sure I will not make any mistakes which could cost me. I’ve surfed a lot of info on mounting the AIO fans before getting here, and watched a lot of videos in YouTube, but thought that it would be better to have multiple opinions as I didn’t find straight answer to my question.