'Full or Mid' case assumptions from an air cooling standpoint- but I think I'm wrong??? Fan efficacy.

[vfxart]

Hi all

I haven't seen this directly talked about, only in one thread did it seem my assumption could be wrong--- which was good to read and get educated on.

I've posted about a new build and in that build I'll have two SSDs, two older SATA, and possibly a third SATA and so for that was assuming I would buy a Full tower... but I was thinking, and I think I'm wrong based on the last few minutes' reading, that a larger case allows for drives not to be stacked right next to each other, allowing any front fans to do a bit more, air circulates more around the drives (current case is an Antec 1200 with 3 front fans and I spaced the drives out as I could).

But I saw it suggested that sometimes that extra space can lead to circulating issues, more than improving air flow around drives etc. Also, that a side fan, even if blowing right at your gpu, may not be doing so much for it.

-- is this a line of thinking worth taking into consideration? I think my number of drives means that I'm buying a Full tower, but is a Mid, if it's got the bays, be acceptable or hell, preferable? I get Phanteks Enthoo Pro Mid recommendations like crazy, but only one fan?!?! right, water cooling, I get it, not for me though.

Drive numbers (in my case, 4 or 5) has a bit to do with this yeah, but outside of that, I'll only have a single gpu and only air cooling...

Thanks.

5820K
Asus 99A
32G RAM
980Ti
no idea as to case
thermaltake toughpower 850 Gold

 

[Outlander_04]

Imagine a computer fan blowing into a space the size of a basket ball court .

Imagine the same fan blowing in to a space the size of a shoe box .

Which has the highest average air flow ? Its not the large one

 

[djreedj]

I read a few times hard to understand. IMO larger case means more air flow and i would suggest the Corsair 780t it has 2 140mm fans for intake and 1 120mm exhaust and plenty of room for more top and bottom and modular drive cases as well as places to put ssds behind the motherboard. amazing case.

 

[Outlander_04]

Larger case means lower air flow speeds if you only have the same number of fans

A mid tower can easily cool this computer

 

[CountMike]

As long as there is good balance between air input and output size of the case doesn't matter but in a larger case it's much easier to keep stuff like cables out of the way. Larger case can also absorb more heat and with larger surface can dissipate it better. Besides, there's only 10 -15% of difference between in volume of mid and full tower case so this should not be a consideration.