Cooler Master Elite 110 airflow question

[arley86]

Ok so here are some details that I deem important:

Here is another post with a similar situation:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2712272/cooler-master-elite-110-mitx-budget-build-air-flow-questions.html

That thread summarized, you can use the PSU to either intake or exhaust air, but if I use it as exhaust I’m obviously putting additional heat on it and decreasing its life, if I use it as intake I’m probably sending the air straight to my CPU cooler and/or motherboard.

I was intentionally not going to use 2 80mm fans on the sides to save some space and in my mind, increase the airflow, but after some consideration that might change.


Current gear:
EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 650W Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply
Noctua NF-A14 industrialPPC-3000 PWM 158.5 CFM 140mm Fan
http://pcpartpicker.com/list/3kLx9W

Setup I was thinking into use:
140mm fan -intake
PSU -exhaust

The other thread suggests to use, this based on the quality of the PSU, I
2x80mm fans -Intake
140mm fan -exhaust
PSU -intake

what would the smart thing to do be?

 

[Barty1884]

I've built in the case, and didn't have any issues when in either case:

1. Initially I had a front 140mm as an intake, and PSU as the only exhaust. Obviously there's no temp monitoring available for the PSU, but the internals were well within 'safe' levels. The GPU, which generated the most heat, had free reign to exhaust straight out the side with nothing blocking it.

2. I ended up going with an AIO cooler (as CPU temps were not great with the stock cooler). Putting the radiator inside the case at the front, with the fan utilized as an intake & mounted between the chassis & the front panel. Worked really well in that setup.

In both cases, the PSU was an exhaust, and there was no noticeable increase in temps being exhausted (by feel only, not officially tested). I did try with the intake orientation briefly to confirm, and felt no noticeable difference. BUT with top mounted HDDs/SSDs (which I decided was the best place for them), the PSU doesn't really have much air to intake when it's fully assembled.

I don't know if you intend to use a GPU but, if you do, I'd recommend *not* populating the side(s) with HDDs/SSDs if at all possible for improved airflow. Use the top mounts only (if at all possible) for HDDs/SSDs.

 

[arley86]

I've built in the case, and didn't have any issues when in either case:

1. Initially I had a front 140mm as an intake, and PSU as the only exhaust. Obviously there's no temp monitoring available for the PSU, but the internals were well within 'safe' levels. The GPU, which generated the most heat, had free reign to exhaust straight out the side with nothing blocking it.

2. I ended up going with an AIO cooler (as CPU temps were not great with the stock cooler). Putting the radiator inside the case at the front, with the fan utilized as an intake & mounted between the chassis & the front panel. Worked really well in that setup.

In both cases, the PSU was an exhaust, and there was no noticeable increase in temps being exhausted (by feel only, not officially tested). I did try with the intake orientation briefly to confirm, and felt no noticeable difference. BUT with top mounted HDDs/SSDs (which I decided was the best place for them), the PSU doesn't really have much air to intake when it's fully assembled.

I don't know if you intend to use a GPU but, if you do, I'd recommend *not* populating the side(s) with HDDs/SSDs if at all possible for improved airflow. Use the top mounts only (if at all possible) for HDDs/SSDs.

I had not really looked into AIO Coolers entirely becauseI am old fashioned and I dont like the idea of water inside my pc, I know this is entirely not the case so ill take a second look into those.

Yeah I plan to use a SSD/HDD combo to run this PC, I think the HDD will be 3.5 tough so it might block some airflow.

Yeah Im using a small 170mm video card.

Thanks for the input

 

[Barty1884]

The AIO options work pretty well, but there's definitely still a *slight* risk of issues.

With a 3.5" HDD, that really only fits in the top mount on one side, which (between the bracket for mounting HDDs and the HDD itself) would limit airflow to your PSU if you tried to use it as an intake.

With a GPU installed, you definitely want to keep the side (infront of the GPU) clear for maximum airflow for the card.