News How to Set Up PC Case Fans for Airflow and Performance

[Colif]

i have seen plenty of people with top mounted radiators above 3090 to know its a bad idea in most cases.

 

[bit_user]

i have seen plenty of people with top mounted radiators above 3090 to know its a bad idea in most cases.

So, why don't people use custom ducting, in such an extreme setup? At minimum, it seems like you could even use just a thin sheet of plastic to help segregate your rad's intake from the GPU's exhaust.

It's not as if front-mounting it isn't without downsides. Then, you're just trading CPU heat for GPU heat.

 

[Colif]

The heat the CPU creates isn't as big as the heat a GPU creates.

 

[bit_user]

The heat the CPU creates isn't as big as the heat a GPU creates.

Just glancing at their respective specs is enough to tell you that.

It doesn't nullify my point that you'd really rather not be cooling your GPU with air pre-heated by your AIO radiator.

Again, just adding a basic airflow guide seems like very little effort for the benefits it could provide. I'm talking about just:

1. Taking a thin sheet of Lexan that you can probably get from a hobby store.
2. Cutting it to a strip a little narrower than the space between the motherboard and the case.
3. Inserting it at an angle to divide the space above the GPU from the top-mounted radiator, so that the GPU's heat flows mostly to the rear exhaust fan and the top-mounted radiator is fed mostly by air from the front intake.
4. Cut holes as necessary, to feed through the AIO hoses.
5. Secure one or both ends, ideally by punching holes so you can sandwich one end between the top-mounted radiator and the case. If you can find a way to secure the front end, so much the better.

Ultimately, it's on case manufacturers to provide us with cases that have these sort of air flow guides or ducts, so we don't need to cobble together janky solutions like this.

BTW, I did a quick google search, and lots of people seem to use hoses. That seems like a valid option that maybe looks a bit neater, but at the expense of some airflow and noise.

 

[thestryker]

Just glancing at their respective specs is enough to tell you that.

It doesn't nullify my point that you'd really rather not be cooling your GPU with air pre-heated by your AIO radiator.

Again, just adding a basic airflow guide seems like very little effort for the benefits it could provide. I'm talking about just:

1. Taking a thin sheet of Lexan that you can probably get from a hobby store.
2. Cutting it to a strip a little narrower than the space between the motherboard and the case.
3. Inserting it at an angle to divide the space above the GPU from the top-mounted radiator, so that the GPU's heat flows mostly to the rear exhaust fan and the top-mounted radiator is fed mostly by air from the front intake.
4. Cut holes as necessary, to feed through the AIO hoses.
5. Secure one or both ends, ideally by punching holes so you can sandwich one end between the top-mounted radiator and the case. If you can find a way to secure the front end, so much the better.

Ultimately, it's on case manufacturers to provide us with cases that have these sort of air flow guides or ducts, so we don't need to cobble together janky solutions like this.

BTW, I did a quick google search, and lots of people some to use hoses. That seems like a valid option that maybe looks a bit neater, but at the expense of some airflow and noise.

Anyone using a standard front/top/back case would absolutely benefit from using ducting for cooling. One of the youtube channels I watch had even made a duct for the gpu to pull in air from the open expansion slots on the back of his case. This would largely negate the downside from using CPU radiator on intake at the cost of PCIe expansion cards.

Personally for how hot all hardware is getting I wouldn't buy another case that doesn't have a side opening where you can mount a radiator/fans. The exception being something like the current CM 700 series which is so wide you can mount two radiators side by side in the top. Setting up the CPU cooling to exhaust out the side largely gives it clean air, but also doesn't particularly impact GPU cooling. If you have a case like the o11 EVO you can easily have front/bottom intake with side/top exhaust and effectively segment your case without ducting.

 

[bit_user]

Personally for how hot all hardware is getting I wouldn't buy another case that doesn't have a side opening where you can mount a radiator/fans. The exception being something like the current CM 700 series which is so wide you can mount two radiators side by side in the top. Setting up the CPU cooling to exhaust out the side largely gives it clean air, but also doesn't particularly impact GPU cooling. If you have a case like the o11 EVO you can easily have front/bottom intake with side/top exhaust and effectively segment your case without ducting.

I think the best solution would be an external, desktop radiator that would sit next to your PC. That could enable a top-spec CPU & GPU in even a SFF case, without sounding like an airplane.

 

[thestryker]

I've thought it is really amusing that high end cases definitely used to have holes for external water cooling for quite some time, but now that it would be useful due to the stupidity of the heat things are emitting now it's nowhere to be found.

 

[Soaptrail]

I've thought it is really amusing that high end cases definitely used to have holes for external water cooling for quite some time, but now that it would be useful due to the stupidity of the heat things are emitting now it's nowhere to be found.

you could argue that the PSU shroud we are forced to have also inhibit airflow. I am more worried about my GPU than my PSU being so ugly i need a shroud. I could have a bottom intake but it will only help my PSU and my shroud is not removable.

 

[bit_user]

you could argue that the PSU shroud we are forced to have also inhibit airflow. I am more worried about my GPU than my PSU being so ugly i need a shroud. I could have a bottom intake but it will only help my PSU and my shroud is not removable.

You mean the air tunnel some cases with bottom-mounted PSUs seem to have? What's even the point of that? Being at the bottom of the case, it seems like the PSU would already be getting mostly cool air, but perhaps there's a concern GPUs could push heated air down there? I guess if you have like a 1500 W PSU, you probably would care about keeping it cool!

 

[King_V]

You mean the air tunnel some cases with bottom-mounted PSUs seem to have? What's even the point of that? Being at the bottom of the case, it seems like the PSU would already be getting mostly cool air, but perhaps there's a concern GPUs could push heated air down there? I guess if you have like a 1500 W PSU, you probably would care about keeping it cool!

I have seen cases (and have one such case) where the PSU tunnel is a bit larger than the PSU itself, and is Swiss-cheesed all along the top, so the bottom case fan can realistically offer some help to cooling a GPU.

I thought that was a nice touch.