[SOLVED] CM H500 rad placement

[famaffe]

I’ve heard a lot that the cpu temps are higher with the rad at the top of the case, but I’m wondering if that still applies to this case where we have 2 gigantic fans in front to cool the rest of the system out?

Is the case good for top rad? I’ll be using a 9700k with a 2070 super

 

[Lutfij]

Hot air will always rise to the top which is where you're going to have the rad placed, right? If so, you're actually recyling some of the hot air dumped into the case, into the radiator. You should ideally have the radiator outside the case (akin to what my build has) to draw in cooler ambient air. With AIO's ideally you should have the radiator mounted to the front and drawing air front the front of the case. The top fans should be set to exhaust to draw away the heat dumped into case by processor.

 

[Phaaze88]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCZ5iP5cu8g



Also, if you mount the rad in the front, you can keep the VRMs cooler, which is something people tend to overlook when installing AIOs and doing top mounted rads.
VRMs won't cool as easily with a rad up there.

 

[vMax]

Rad at the top is the way to go on this case. The 2 x 200mm fans are very good at bringing cool air in and then you extract the air through the radiator and out of the top. I have the h500P Mesh version with a 360mm AIO at the top though I have removed the plastic see through piece at the top and replaced with a mesh and it works great for cooling.

I have a 8700K and RTX 2080 and the 2 x 200mm fans are just great with the bottom one cooling the GPU and the top assisting the CPU via the 360mm AIO in the top.

Just get used to clearing the dust build up a bit more than normal....I do the clean out once a month...