Cooling in the NZXT Source 530

[menendez1293]

Hey guys,

I am gearing up for my first build and had some questions on cooling. Some background info of what I plan on getting are:

Mother Board: Asus Z87 Sabertooth
Processor: intel i7 4771
Ram: Corsair Vengeance 1600mHz (Total of 32Gb)
Video Card: EVGA Geforce GTX 760 SC (Reference Style)
PSU: Corsair RM750
HD: 128Gb Sandisk SSD and 1TB WD Black
Case: NZXT Soruce 530
And last the Corsair H90 on the back as intake for the CPU Cooler

Now this is where I have questions. Should I put a 140mm fan on the front along with a 120mm fan on the bottom as intake and then 3 120mm fans on top as exhaust? Or should I do 1 200mm fan on the front as intake and 2 140mm on the top as exhaust? Or do guys suggest another combination that would work better. Basically with the H90 intaking from the back that leaves me with the possibility of either 1 200mm, 2 120mm or 140mm on the front, 2 120mm on the bottom and either 3 120mm or 2 140mm on top. I do not mind the PC being loud under a load but don't want it being loud at idle.

Thanks for the help

 

[bolt853]

The 120mm Top and back fans included with the case will work great. But it doesn't include a fan in the front, Any size 120mm+ will do the trick, you can choose to have 1 or 2 fans to be mounted in the front, also you don't have to get an intake fan in the bottom unless you want more cooling. I recommend an extra 120mm or 140mm for the top, the rest will be fine. I hope this helps you.

 

[Karadjgne]

You want to try and keep a 'positive' airflow in the case. if you create a 'negative' airflow by over exhausting, this will tend to pull in air from every available source, most of which will not be covered by a filter, filling the case with dust much faster than normal. You also want to maintain not just intake and exhaust, but an actual direction of airflow, this is usually lower front to upper rear, pulling in cooler air and exhausting the warmer air as it rises, and helping it rise.

My suggestion would be since you have the room, stick a 200mm in the front, use the h-90 as exhaust in the rear and the original 120mm move to the angled hdd slot for memory/vrm cooling, leaving the original 120mm up top. This will create a nice direction of air, not overdrive the intake, keeping your case cleaner, and still provide plenty of flow to cool. Using the h-90 as exhaust is actually beneficial, because a) you have a fan cooling the main area of the mobo being exhausted out the top and b) the air in the case is already filtered, and there is no filter on the exhaust port, so you'd end up blowing dirty air through the radiator, exhausting hot air into the case.

So the only extra fan to get this way is the 200mm, the rest you have, gl, hope this helped some.

 

[menendez1293]

You want to try and keep a 'positive' airflow in the case. if you create a 'negative' airflow by over exhausting, this will tend to pull in air from every available source, most of which will not be covered by a filter, filling the case with dust much faster than normal. You also want to maintain not just intake and exhaust, but an actual direction of airflow, this is usually lower front to upper rear, pulling in cooler air and exhausting the warmer air as it rises, and helping it rise.

My suggestion would be since you have the room, stick a 200mm in the front, use the h-90 as exhaust in the rear and the original 120mm move to the angled hdd slot for memory/vrm cooling, leaving the original 120mm up top. This will create a nice direction of air, not overdrive the intake, keeping your case cleaner, and still provide plenty of flow to cool. Using the h-90 as exhaust is actually beneficial, because a) you have a fan cooling the main area of the mobo being exhausted out the top and b) the air in the case is already filtered, and there is no filter on the exhaust port, so you'd end up blowing dirty air through the radiator, exhausting hot air into the case.

So the only extra fan to get this way is the 200mm, the rest you have, gl, hope this helped some.

Do you think haveing the 200mm in the front and the H90 in the back both as intake and then 2 120s or 140s up top as exhaust would work the same? I would also have the 120mm as circulation on the drive bays.

I wanted to keep the H90 as intake since it does perform slightly better that way. Plus I do plan on buying new fans since I want to switch out to some LED ones.

Thank you again for the help.

 

[Karadjgne]

MartinsLabs did an extensive test in radiators and fan positions, and what they determined wad that between @ 1500-1700 Rpm was the indifferent zone. Under that, radiators worked slightly better with the fans pulling, and over that fans were better pushing, inbetween didn't matter. Used as intake, the CPU will see @ 2-3*C lower temps on average with the case temps slightly higher, but motherboard temps were lower especially around the ram and vrm area. Used as exhaust, CPU temps ran @ 2-3*C warmer on average, as do the vrms but case temps ran lower.

If you do go with rad fan as intake, I strongly caution you to provide some sort of dust filter, or your radiator will fill up rather quickly.

With the 200mm in front, 140mm in rear as intakes, and a couple of 120/140mm as exhaust up top and a 120mm HDD circ, you'll be fine for case, vrm, memory and CPU temps easily, just decide if you'd rateher use the rad fan as push or pull, either way will work good.