Intake or Exhaust - Water cooling.

[jon0]

I plan to water cool my cpu and im wondering how to position the fans.
There will be 4 fans in total, 2 on the top of the rad and 2 on the bottom of the rad.
Which should be intake and/or exhaust?

 

[Looby219]

I am not sure you will be able to fit 2 fans on each side... but if you can, have all fans be exhaust.

 

[DonkeyOatie]

The fans need to draw the air through the radiator, so two need to be intake, pushing the air through the radiator, and two need to be exhaust drawing air out of the radiator, The whole system needs to be mounted so that the air is discharged from the case.

Did I understand what you wanted to know correctly?

 

[InvalidError]

If you mount the fans on the top of the case, then you setup the radiator's fans so they all blow up/out of the case. If you mount the radiator at the bottom/front of the case, then you would normally want to setup fans to suck air into the case.

Some liquid cooling unit manufacturers recommend setting fans up to suck air in even when mounted at the top of the case so the radiator gets cool air from outside. While this may achieve lower temperatures for the CPU, it comes at the expense of higher temperatures for everything else.

 

[jon0]

The fans need to draw the air through the radiator, so two need to be intake, pushing the air through the radiator, and two need to be exhaust drawing air out of the radiator, The whole system needs to be mounted so that the air is discharged from the case.

Did I understand what you wanted to know correctly?

Thanks.

 

[DonkeyOatie]

What case and radiator and fans?

 

[jon0]

What case and radiator and fans?

Nzxt h440 with 4 Corsair Sp 120
The case has 3 intakes at the front of the case and 1 exhaust at the back.

 

[DonkeyOatie]

You mentioned a 'rad'. That presumes you are using a liquid cooler with a radiator. What cooler are you using?

If you are not using a liquid cooler, then the answer of your question is different.