CFM doesn't mean anything on its own.
A)Manufacturers design their fans around 100% rpm, so the ratings you see only apply at that speed.
But they don't post fan curves, so no one can tell how fans behave at a given speed below 100%; and hardly anyone runs their fans at that speed these days, so we're left guessing...
Or someone can go out of their way to test a crap ton of fans...
B)There's static pressure: a fan's ability to 'stand up' to obstacles. The higher it is, the less CFM it loses in the face of said obstacles.
C)Noise level(dBA).
This doesn't scale linearly. But even if the user gets 'low noise' fans, there's a potential problem...
Noise frequency(Hz). People have certain sounds they can't stand, which varies between individuals. Example:
While Noctuas are pretty high quality fans, some people can't stand the humming of the motor. All I have are Noctua fans, and I've never noticed this annoying hum. It could happen with any brand of fans, I'd imagine.
Well I'd still like some lighting on the top part of the case.
Considering it doesn't add any real value, would it be an option to use lower performing fans on the topside so it doesn't clash with the NH-D15?
I have noticed that LED's fans indeed don't come cheap, however more expensive models don't mean more airflow.
Corsair made some of the fans with the most adressable LED's, but their performance is worse than a lot of the cheaper models.
LED strips then? Though, I'm not familiar with using any.
There is one last thing I forgot to mention.
I'm getting the RTX3080 at some point (whenever my order gets through the queue)
This is the ASUS TUF edition, from what I saw in reviews although some air gets gets blown through most heat goes to the top.
With the case I'm also able to mount it vertically, which I'm more than willing to do if it aids airflow in any way.
Oh... well, you did mention blower gpu in your first post...
Yeah, the Asus TUF is going to change what works best in that chassis. See the fins of the heatsink? Those guide the air that the fans push into it.
It goes out the sides and multiple things happen at once when it hits those walls(motherboard and side panel):
-circles downward and gets sucked back into the gpu
-circles upward and gets pulled out of the chassis
-circles upward and gets pulled into the cpu cooler(regardless of the type) before making its way out of the chassis
-absorbed by the motherboard
-absorbed by the side panel
^Well, that's all horizontally, at least.
Vertically can work, as long as you do not use the vertical slots provided with the chassis - at least with air cooled graphics cards. There are kits that use the horizontal PCIe slots.
Anywho, what's going to happen to the air here:
-ejected towards the psu shroud and circles its way back into the gpu
-ejected upwards and gets pulled out of the chassis
-ejected upwards into the cpu cooler before making its way out of the chassis
-absorbed by the psu shroud
^Doesn't look all that different from horizontal, but there is a larger volume of heated air circling back into the gpu in this orientation. Plus, the fans are facing the side panel directly - produces a little more noise compared to horizontal.
ambient temperatures would get up to 40C, now it doesn't go beyond 25C
All this really affects are idle thermals. Under a reasonable load, it affects next to nothing.