Cooler Master N200 Airflow

[Skitzomanx]

I have Cooler Master N200 clear side casing. Can install 2 fans in front, 1at the back and 1 at the top. The front case mesh design has a screen aside from the actual case which may be an issue for air intake.

I have a cooler master seidon 120v. And so, im planning to have 2 intake fans in the front, put the radiator at the back (intake) and the 1 exhaust at the top.

Is that ok or will it create more positive air and is bad?

Thanks in advance

 

[synphul]

You can certainly try it. That's about the best way, there are so many case and fan configurations that it's too hard to theorize them all. Just trial and error. I'd also try the seidon as rear exhaust along with the top as exhaust and the two front fans as intake. It could just be my opinion but I think people worry too much over positive vs negative, airflow is airflow. It's either smooth and consistent, efficient airflow such as air moving one direction from front to back or bottom to top or it's inconsistent with air coming in from all directions interrupting each other. That's usually the cause for 'dead' air spots or places in the case where air flow is less than ideal creating pockets of warmer air.

Try running your pc for several days doing the various tasks you do with the cooler installed as intake while running a temp monitoring program like hwinfo64. It will keep record of your min and max temps. Write those values down, then try mounting the radiator and fan the other direction as exhaust. Do the same thing and then compare the temperature values. That will tell you for sure which way is best for your particular setup.

 

[Skitzomanx]

Thanks for the detailed explanation. If i set the radiator with exhaust, isnt it drawing hot air from the inside?

 

[synphul]

Most of the heat would be from the radiator itself which would be venting out of the case instead of drawing it in. The air temps inside the case overall shouldn't be a whole lot warmer than ambient room temps. Maybe a 2-3c difference? It's not the same as drawing air from a heated sealed box, air is constantly flowing through the case (or should be).

Looking at the dimensions of your case, it comes out to a volume of 1.192 cubic feet. Say you had 2 fans in front moving 45cfm (relatively low middle of the road estimate) each, and the same exhausting. That's 90 cubic feet of air pulled in and 90 cubic feet of air exhausted every minute. Theoretically the case air volume is being exchanged 75 times a minute. Factoring inefficiency of fans, air leaks etc a more realistic and conservative figure would be say 30 times a minute. That's once every 2 seconds. Chances of the case air being significantly warmer than ambient room air outside the case are slim.

Turning the radiator fan around to draw air in however will add to the case heat since it will be drawing all the heat being exchanged by the cooler directly into the case. I still think the best bet is to try for yourself both ways and see if one way gives you more significant cooling than the other. No amount of theoretical guesswork on details narrowing down a 3-4c degree difference will be as clear as your own experimentation.

 

[Skitzomanx]

Wow thanks again. Now i understand why others prefer exhaust. I am also getting a Corsair SP120 PWM high performance fans and place it to the front as intake. So i am going to have my radiator at exhaust. Thanks a lot! if helping others is a sin then you really are synphul!