[SOLVED] Is my air cooler too close to the rear fan ?

[brynph]

Here is a picture of it:
https://ibb.co/J3Ywp4z

recently built my pc and been messin around with airflow configs and got curious if my aircooler is too close to the rear fan and gpu clearance between cooler is 10-15 mm. Is it bad/good?
Also asking if my fan config is ok, 4 intake 2 exhausts because i tested many configs and this one is what i think the best for my set up and also helps with mobo cooling .
Temps on idle are cpu: 29c gpu: 38c
and under load cpu: 47c-51c gpu: 68-71c,

I didnt really test the cpu much, just ran rise of the tomb raider on ray tracing for an hour.
Appreciate any information guys, honestly since the temps are good I dont really care im just genuinely curious.
Thankyou and sorry for bad english..

Edit: Thank you for your answers, My curiosity has been answered but I have learned a lot more and will try to experiment again with your recommendations thank you so muchhh.

 

[Hellfire13]

With those kind of temp. readings, I would say you are doing fine. It looks pretty close from a overall glance, but the temperature figures do not indicate any performance issue. Should not be a problem as long as it works.

 

[brynph]

With those kind of temp. readings, I would say you are doing fine. It looks pretty close from a overall glance, but the temperature figures do not indicate any performance issue. Should not be a problem as long as it works.

thank you, it's my first time having a gpu and i never thought they could go so hot

 

[alceryes]

Here is a picture of it:
https://ibb.co/J3Ywp4z

recently built my pc and been messin around with airflow configs and got curious if my aircooler is too close to the rear fan and gpu clearance between cooler is 10-15 mm. Is it bad/good?
Also asking if my fan config is ok, 4 intake 2 exhausts because i tested many configs and this one is what i think the best for my set up and also helps with mobo cooling .
Temps on idle are cpu: 29c gpu: 38c
and under load cpu: 47c-51c gpu: 68-71c,

I didnt really test the cpu much, just ran rise of the tomb raider on ray tracing for an hour.
Appreciate any information guys, honestly since the temps are good I dont really care im just genuinely curious.
Thankyou and sorry for bad english..

What are you doing with those top-mounted fans? One is intake and one exhaust??
You're creating vortices as multiple fans fight for the same air. Vortices are bad for airflow. You'll probably improve your temps by completely removing your top case fans.

 

[Hellfire13]

What are you doing with those top-mounted fans? One is intake and one exhaust??
You're creating vortices as multiple fans fight for the same air. Vortices are bad for airflow. You'll probably improve your temps by completely removing your top case fans.

Good point, I didn't notice that. Better to keep only one there as exhaust.

 

[alceryes]

Good point, I didn't notice that. Better to keep only one there as exhaust.

No, better to keep none there.
They are both too close to the CPU cooler intake. Best-case scenario is that they do absolutely nothing with regards to component cooling. Worst case - it's actually a detriment.

 

[Hellfire13]

No, better to keep none there.
They are both too close to the CPU cooler intake. Best-case scenario is that they do absolutely nothing with regards to component cooling. Worst case - it's actually a detriment.

I see your point, but I think the hot air is going to the exhaust anyway and whatever little manages to escape goes up by default. The exhaust up top towards the backend would perhaps help the process.
Then again, the rear exhaust might be sufficient and no hot ait is escaping upwards, which is less likely though.
I would say its a trial and error process. Somewhere between those two he will find the balance.

 

[geofelt]

The closeness of the rear fan is no issue, and, perhaps even a good thing.

Your temperatures are fine, you need do nothing.

But, if you are inclined to experiment, I would disconnect the top fans.
It is not clear if they are both exhaust, or if one is in and one is out.
The latter is a bit crazy.
If both are exhaust, they will tend to redirect the fresh intake air up and out of the case before going to the cpu cooler and gpu cooling.

 

[Karadjgne]

Fan curves matter. The faster the fan, the stronger the low pressure area created becomes. A fan above the cpu heatsink at low rpm is a good thing, it'll only be strong enough to pull any air escaping out the sides of the heatsink. A fan above the heatsink at high rpm is a bad thing, the area of low pressure created will not only pull air from inside the heatsink before it can really affect the full surface area of the fins, it'll also fight the cpu fan for ambient aur, starving the cpu fan.

Location of fans isn't the only consideration, just as orientation isn't, nor working load. It's a combination of all, what the fan actually does that's most important.

A fan on top, in front, as intake, at low rpm can and does feed a cpu cooler fan quite well and doesn't affect the airflow in the case. It's just enough to provide cool air, added and sucked into the cpu fan. Same fan at high rpm, different story, that pushes any heat back down into the case as well as feeding the cpu fan, and disrupting airflow, so gpu temps suffer as a result.

More fans isn't necessarily a good thing, fewer fans is often far more effective, if used right. How the air moves is often more important than how it's moved.

 

[brynph]

What are you doing with those top-mounted fans? One is intake and one exhaust??
You're creating vortices as multiple fans fight for the same air. Vortices are bad for airflow. You'll probably improve your temps by completely removing your top case fans.

Yeah man i tried that but 2 exhaust fans on top is no good for me, ran a benchmark and the cpu temps get higher by 2-3 celsius because the right top fan is "stealing" airflow from the cpu fan and the case temps get a bit hotter inside. I actually removed the top fans and used it few days after building and the cpu gpu temps are the same except the case temp is also way hotter inside and the mobo temps too and over 8 hours of gaming the gpu temps go to 74 ish celsius but with this config even playing 10+ hours the highest was 69c (wink wink) and even comes down to 40s very quickly when not in load unlike my last config with 3 intake 1 exhaust.

 

[brynph]

The closeness of the rear fan is no issue, and, perhaps even a good thing.

Your temperatures are fine, you need do nothing.

But, if you are inclined to experiment, I would disconnect the top fans.
It is not clear if they are both exhaust, or if one is in and one is out.
The latter is a bit crazy.
If both are exhaust, they will tend to redirect the fresh intake air up and out of the case before going to the cpu cooler and gpu cooling.

Thank you i thought the fans closeness is bad.
I legit tried all the configs push pull, negative positive, individual fan orientations and taped tissue papers inside to see lmao. This config which is 3 front intake 1 top right intake 1 top left exhaust and 1 rear exhaust was like the same in terms of cpu and gpu temps without the top fans but case temp and mobo temps significantly got better with the intake exhaust top fans like 7-15c. I tested my temps with msi afterburner and the case temps with a thermometer inside it.

 

[brynph]

Fan curves matter. The faster the fan, the stronger the low pressure area created becomes. A fan above the cpu heatsink at low rpm is a good thing, it'll only be strong enough to pull any air escaping out the sides of the heatsink. A fan above the heatsink at high rpm is a bad thing, the area of low pressure created will not only pull air from inside the heatsink before it can really affect the full surface area of the fins, it'll also fight the cpu fan for ambient aur, starving the cpu fan.

Location of fans isn't the only consideration, just as orientation isn't, nor working load. It's a combination of all, what the fan actually does that's most important.

A fan on top, in front, as intake, at low rpm can and does feed a cpu cooler fan quite well and doesn't affect the airflow in the case. It's just enough to provide cool air, added and sucked into the cpu fan. Same fan at high rpm, different story, that pushes any heat back down into the case as well as feeding the cpu fan, and disrupting airflow, so gpu temps suffer as a result.

More fans isn't necessarily a good thing, fewer fans is often far more effective, if used right. How the air moves is often more important than how it's moved.

This is good bro, I learned something and I might try to experiment again tomorrow because I currently have all the fans including the cpu cooler fan into 1 hub and they run/ramp up at the same rpms from the fan curve. I might try to connect the cpu cooler in another hub to control it independently. I currently have a mix curve on fan control where the case fans/cpu cooler fan ramp up depending on the highest output temperature of the cpu or the gpu, like when the gpu is hotter, the cpu cooler and case fans follow the gpu curve and if the cpu is hotter the latter follows the cpu curve. I use FanControl by Remi Mercier, highly reccomend it, it even got a video from jayz2cents, this software is fking magic i love it.

 

[Karadjgne]

Your case will affect that a lot. There's cases with full glass or metal/plastic fronts that suffocate any front fans outputs, the fans ending up next to useless as anything more than a source of RGB. It could very well be that that top intake is the major source of intake air, all by itself, the 3x front fans doing almost nothing to contribute.

That top intake at high rpm will push cooler air down, the front fans only strong enough to start it moving sideways, sucked into the gpu and the top exhaust/rear exhaust providing enough low pressure to pull that heat out.

It's a top fed circular chimney, in top right, out top left, with some movement sideways. That'll actually work better than without the top feed as the 3x intakes are next to useless.

 

[brynph]

Your case will affect that a lot. There's cases with full glass or metal/plastic fronts that suffocate any front fans outputs, the fans ending up next to useless as anything more than a source of RGB. It could very well be that that top intake is the major source of intake air, all by itself, the 3x front fans doing almost nothing to contribute.

That top intake at high rpm will push cooler air down, the front fans only strong enough to start it moving sideways, sucked into the gpu and the top exhaust/rear exhaust providing enough low pressure to pull that heat out.

It's a top fed circular chimney, in top right, out top left, with some movement sideways. That'll actually work better than without the top feed as the 3x intakes are next to useless.

nah im sort of anti rgb and i like airflow so i bought a mesh case
https://www.tecware.co/flatline
Its the cheapest and reputable case i could find in my country, the whole system is a budget, an rtx 3060 an i5 9400f and the cheapest h310m i could find.
i spent almost 750$ on it and in my country a (3rd world) thats hella expensive for a teenager

 

[brynph]

It's a top fed circular chimney, in top right, out top left, with some movement sideways. That'll actually work better than without the top feed as the 3x intakes are next to useless.

Thats nice, now im glad I spent time and effort to test all those configs and did it thank you!

 

[alceryes]

Fan curves matter. The faster the fan, the stronger the low pressure area created becomes. A fan above the cpu heatsink at low rpm is a good thing, it'll only be strong enough to pull any air escaping out the sides of the heatsink. A fan above the heatsink at high rpm is a bad thing, the area of low pressure created will not only pull air from inside the heatsink before it can really affect the full surface area of the fins, it'll also fight the cpu fan for ambient aur, starving the cpu fan.

Location of fans isn't the only consideration, just as orientation isn't, nor working load. It's a combination of all, what the fan actually does that's most important.

A fan on top, in front, as intake, at low rpm can and does feed a cpu cooler fan quite well and doesn't affect the airflow in the case. It's just enough to provide cool air, added and sucked into the cpu fan. Same fan at high rpm, different story, that pushes any heat back down into the case as well as feeding the cpu fan, and disrupting airflow, so gpu temps suffer as a result.

More fans isn't necessarily a good thing, fewer fans is often far more effective, if used right. How the air moves is often more important than how it's moved.

Your technical assessment is correct but I disagree with your practical conclusion with regards to this particular case set up.

Any top fan will be too close to the CPU intake fan - regardless of how slow it spins. OP is better off without any fans up top.

 

[Karadjgne]

Top front fan as intake is fine, top front fan as exhaust isn't. At 300-400rpm, it's enough to add to whatever the front fans can supply without interfering with flow.

Top rear fan as exhaust is also fine at low rpm, just adds to any low pressure area created by the rear exhaust without pulling the air from the cpu cooler sideways.

Nothing wrong with those conclusions. It's only when run at high rpm because of splitters to wrong groupings that issues will show up.

Ideally cpu, rear, fronts and top should be seperate groups, where each individual group maintains its own min/max rpm.