[SOLVED] Need help with pc case fans setup

[Mr. SandMan]

Hello everyone. I have lots of fans in my case, all of them are the same PWM (4-pin) fans. I have AIO radiator and 3 fans on front panel. My case has 2 fan slots on the side panel. If I pull the air from outside with front panel AIO, it will cause more GPU temps. What if I change directions of AIO fans? Front panel (3x AIO fans) will pull out the warm air from inside. After doing this, I'm thinking of getting the cold air from right side panel fans (2x) into the case. With this I can protect my gpu getting hot from hot air which is caused by 3x AIO fans on front panel. What are your thoughts?

My pc case
https://ibb.co/qFbCrxH

 

[Darkbreeze]

No, that is wrong thinking. Your front and side panel fans should ALL be intake fans. Your top and rear fans should always be exhaust fans. For a standard or traditional tower case, that should never change regardless of what hardware is installed. Only a few niche cases, especially some couple of mini ITX cases, should ever have fan configurations that differ from this. Anything else and you are bringing the hot air in the top of the case down to where the rest of the hardware lives as it passes it out the front. That is NEVER desirable. You need to understand stack effect in order to understand how this is supposed to work most efficiently.

If your side panel fans were intake and your front panel fans were exhaust, the air would go directly from side panel straight out the front without ever going anywhere near any of your hardware.

Front, side or bottom mounted fans in ANY tower case should always be intake. Top and rear fans should always be exhaust. Period.

 

[lvt]

I'm thinking of getting the cold air from right side panel fans (2x) into the case. With this I can protect my gpu getting hot from hot air which is caused by 3x AIO fans on front panel. What are your thoughts?

It could work as fresh air will come from the perforated PCI brackets, and might want to change the rear fan to intake mode too.

You also can replace the PCI brackets with mesh brackets for better airflow.

The side fans aren't necessary, IMO, unless you can prove with some temperature data.

 

[Darkbreeze]

It could work as fresh air will come from the perforated PCI brackets, and might want to change the rear fan to intake mode too.

You also can replace the PCI brackets with mesh brackets for better airflow.

The side fans aren't necessary, IMO, unless you can prove with some temperature data.

Have you ever done ANY airflow or smoke testing in anything, at all? Because if you had you would understand that what you suggest isn't even remotely relevant to efficient airflow. The amount of air that could EVER come through a PCI slot, even with NO bracket installed there, without there being a fan there, is negligible and is in no way beneficial to a high TDP system like all modern gaming systems are. For a mom and pop internet machine, maybe. Maybe. But definitely not for anything with an enthusiast level CPU and graphics card. And certainly not in a case with this particular design and configuration. So unless YOU can "prove" with some hard data, then ALL of the reviewers, and enthusiasts, and people like myself who HAVE done the thermal testing in a number of enclosures with a number of different configurations, both with and without smoke to PROVE the airpath, then honestly you shouldn't even make these kinds of statements which are entirely invalid.

 

[lvt]

Have you ever done ANY airflow or smoke testing in anything, at all? Because if you had you would understand that what you suggest isn't even remotely relevant to efficient airflow. The amount of air that could EVER come through a PCI slot, even with NO bracket installed there, without there being a fan there, is negligible and is in no way beneficial to a high TDP system like all modern gaming systems are. For a mom and pop internet machine, maybe. Maybe. But definitely not for anything with an enthusiast level CPU and graphics card. And certainly not in a case with this particular design and configuration. So unless YOU can "prove" with some hard data, then ALL of the reviewers, and enthusiasts, and people like myself who HAVE done the thermal testing in a number of enclosures with a number of different configurations, both with and without smoke to PROVE the airpath, then honestly you shouldn't even make these kinds of statements which are entirely invalid.

Your statement is true for old case with air-cooled CPU and PSU is on the top.

But in this case, given that it has a water-cooled CPU and the PSU is installed at the bottom of the case, there won't be any problem with reversing the airflow direction for an airflow effeciency test on the GPU (that's what the OP wants).

 

[Rogue Leader]

It could work as fresh air will come from the perforated PCI brackets, and might want to change the rear fan to intake mode too.

You also can replace the PCI brackets with mesh brackets for better airflow.

The side fans aren't necessary, IMO, unless you can prove with some temperature data.

What? No, just no.....

Your statement is true for old case with air-cooled CPU and PSU is on the top.

But in this case, given that it has a water-cooled CPU and the PSU is installed at the bottom of the case, there won't be any problem with reversing the airflow direction for an airflow effeciency test on the GPU (that's what the OP wants).

Still no, just no.

There is no reason to oppose natural convection. This case as in any current case with high rear and top fans the natural flow of air is from front to rear bottom to top. Reversing is going to create a pocket of hit air above that radiator at a minimum, its also going to feed the CPU cooler with all the hot air from the GPU.

 

[lvt]

What? No, just no.....



Still no, just no.

There is no reason to oppose natural convection. This case as in any current case with high rear and top fans the natural flow of air is from front to rear bottom to top. Reversing is going to create a pocket of hit air above that radiator at a minimum, its also going to feed the CPU cooler with all the hot air from the GPU.

You intentionally forgot the 3 big fans at the front that pull the air out.

And the rear fan that runs in intake mode.

 

[Rogue Leader]

You intentionally forgot the 3 big fans at the front that pull the air out.

And the rear fan that runs in intake mode.

No I didn't . You need to take a good hard look at that PC case picture and tell me how running everything in the opposite direction will work properly. Darkbreeze already spelled it out for you.

Those 3 big fans are blocked by a big fat radiator reducing the flow, on top of that the hot GPU air is whats being blown through it. And are you suggesting to remove or reverse the top fans, removing them just gives an open space for your intake air to not flow forward, reversing them creates a high pressure zone in the middle of the case.

If you don't have an understanding of how all this works I suggest not providing poor suggestions to our userbase. Time to move along.

 

[lvt]

Those 3 big fans are blocked by a big fat radiator reducing the flow

LOL, there are a lot of AIO installations where the fans blow air into the rad. Nothing wrong here.

on top of that the hot GPU air is whats being blown through it.

Did you read the OP's post? He doesn't want to blow hot air from AIO to his GPU. I think he has reason to reverse the airflow as the warm air from GPU that runs through the rad is insignificant.

 

[Rogue Leader]

LOL, there are a lot of AIO installations where the fans blow air into the rad. Nothing wrong here.



Did you read the OP's post? He doesn't want to blow hot air from AIO to his GPU. I think he has reason to reverse the airflow as the warm air from GPU that runs through the rad is insignificant.

I DID read his post. He is making an assumption. He is wrong.

I never said there was something wrong with exhausting through the radiator, however when your ONLY exhaust is the radiator and you only have 1 intake fan on the high side of the system on the other end of the case the limited FLOW provided by that setup will again create a hot high pressure zone in the case, making everything run hotter.

You do not have a basic understanding of how airflow in a case works. Again, if you don't understand the topic, it would be best for you to move along.

 

[lvt]

@Mr. SandMan : you can try and see for yourself if reversing the airflow will help reducing your GPU temperature. It's perfectly normal to have a reversed airflow in a computer, this computer case is an example :

https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E16811112468

 

[Darkbreeze]

Jesus. That is all. I can't fight this level of, whatever you want to call it.

 

[Rogue Leader]

@Mr. SandMan : you can try and see for yourself if reversing the airflow will help reducing your GPU temperature. It's perfectly normal to have a reversed airflow in a computer, this computer case is an example :

https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E16811112468

So your proof is a discontinued cheap PC case...... Got it.....

 

[Rogue Leader]

Hello everyone. I have lots of fans in my case, all of them are the same PWM (4-pin) fans. I have AIO radiator and 3 fans on front panel. My case has 2 fan slots on the side panel. If I pull the air from outside with front panel AIO, it will cause more GPU temps. What if I change directions of AIO fans? Front panel (3x AIO fans) will pull out the warm air from inside. After doing this, I'm thinking of getting the cold air from right side panel fans (2x) into the case. With this I can protect my gpu getting hot from hot air which is caused by 3x AIO fans on front panel. What are your thoughts?

My pc case
https://ibb.co/qFbCrxH

I'm sorry your thread got taken off the rails by someone who doesn't know what they are talking about.

If I were you in addition to the AIO fans being intake I would use those 2 side fans as intake, that should give you a good amount of flow, then have the top and rear as exhaust, that will give you the best cooling scenario for that case. The side fans should intermix enough cool air to the air coming through the AIO. The AIO air is surprisingly not that hot because the heat is spread through the whole radiator surface area, so it somewhat keeps it cooler than the air coming out of an air cooing tower for example.

 

[Bazzy 505]

codeword to google today lads is CONVECTION 🤣