Phanteks Enthoo Luxe "Stormtrooper": Air Cooling Layout Design?

[Unboundclassic]

Hello everyone. I have the Phanteks Enthoo Luxe case and am planning my build happening in the next few weeks. I'm at the point of designing airflow. I'm looking to achieve a POSITIVE pressure system. Hard drive cages will be removed to facilitate airflow. I don't really plan on overclocking much at all. Maybe not at all, so if that matters in your thoughts I thought I'd mention it. Stability is more important to me the pushing then limits, as this is a work related build and I need reliability and for it to last.

I've dubbed the build, "The Stormtrooper" Seemed perfect and I'm adding a little something style wise. Here's a photoshop mockup I did of the finished build with my components:

It comes stock with four fans.

1x200mm - 110.1 CFM
3x140mm - 82.1 CFM Each

Here's the stock airflow design:

Here's what I would imagine I'd need to do when my components were installed to have enough incoming pressure for it to be positive while still having enough exhaust. I'd replace the 200mm fan with the two 140mm fans from the radiator. Then, so the push/pull speed was the same I'd get 4 identical 140mm fans for the radiator. I'd then reverse the rear 140mm fan so it becomes an intake. Bottom 140mm fan stays where it is. I technically could add a 2nd bottom fan, but it is partially blocked by the PSU cover though. Would it still help the incoming pressure enough to be worth it? Thoughts?

Concerns/unknowns for me are these:
1: Will the rear fan work well as an intake? Seems like a good idea to blow air right at the motherboard/cpu, but what do you think?
2: I'm not sure how to calculate how much airflow is getting through the push/pull radiator setup. I'm not sure how much CFM is actually making it through the radiator. There is the one standard fan at 82.1 CFM up top but I have no idea about the radiator setup.

Any advise is welcome.

 

[AdmiralDonut]

Nice choice of case. Some tips for you. One, don't use the rear fan for intake, you want to have the airflow running as smoothly as possible from front to back. Having the rear fan intake would just cause turbulence, making everything less efficient.

My advice would be to have two 140's up front, another in the floor, all set to intake at high(ish) RPM's. Grab some Corsair AF fans for this. Then simply have the AIO rad mounted in the roof, in push/pull (I'd go with Corsairs SP range for that), and have them set to a lower RPM. Leave the third top fan space empty, and mount a 120mm Corsair AF fan in the rear, also set to a low RPM.

That will give you the perfect airflow, with a positive internal pressure, and should help keep the dust out.

 

[Unboundclassic]

Nice choice of case. Some tips for you. One, don't use the rear fan for intake, you want to have the airflow running as smoothly as possible from front to back. Having the rear fan intake would just cause turbulence, making everything less efficient.

My advice would be to have two 140's up front, another in the floor, all set to intake at high(ish) RPM's. Grab some Corsair AF fans for this. Then simply have the AIO rad mounted in the roof, in push/pull (I'd go with Corsairs SP range for that), and have them set to a lower RPM. Leave the third top fan space empty, and mount a 120mm Corsair AF fan in the rear, also set to a low RPM.

That will give you the perfect airflow, with a positive internal pressure, and should help keep the dust out.

To clarify, one or two fans on the floor?

AF140 Series, Quiet Edition matter? I would prefer to keep it as quiet as is practical. http://

Are there any 140mm SP fans that don't have LEDs. I'm not sure I want the extra LEDs.

Also, what do you use for fan control? As far as running the different fans for different speeds? I know my case has a PWM hub and I've got a million fan headers on my motherboard.

 

[synphul]

I would also reverse the rear fan, it's not filtered and may only disrupt airflow coming from the front fans. The 140mm fan up top in front of the radiator and the 140mm in the bottom of the case near the front I think will just add to your noise, not your cooling efficiency. Unless the radiator is a thick one, push/pull may be a bit excessive as well, adding to noise rather than any real cooling benefit. Especially if you're not going to overclock.

I suppose you could leave the bottom 140mm if you're just trying to pull more air through the filters though the enthoo cases are pretty open air. Not much in the way of 'pressure' positive or negative. Adjusting the fan speeds will help balance your airflow, ie running the front intakes a bit faster than the rear exhaust and radiator fans.

Unless noise isn't a concern there reaches a point where more fans don't make for better cooling, just more noise. General airflow through the case will help cool the gpu's and move their heat out along with the vrm's, the cpu doesn't need air blowing right on it with the aio cooler attached. That will handle the cpu temps.

The stock phanteks 140mm fans are pretty decent for airflow/noise, most of phanteks 140mm fans push between 82-88cfm @ 19db. If using them horizontally (top exhaust or bottom intake) I'd suggest trying one of the ones that comes with your case and make sure it runs smooth. The 140mm that came with my enthoo pro had horrible vibration horizontally positioned but ymmv. Placed vertical as a front intake/rear exhaust they're nice and quiet.

I'd opt for those or some noctua or noctua redux over the corsair fans. The corsair 140mm are as or more expensive than phanteks fans and many cost around the same as noctua's. The corsair run louder than the phanteks and as loud as noctua's higher rpm fans while putting out around 2/3 or less of the airflow of either phanteks or noctua's fans and have a much shorter warranty.

Another consideration if you like the looks would be aerocool ds 140mm. Not that corsair are bad fans but they're not price competitive, they cost as much as more premium fans with better performance and longer warranties than what corsair's offer. If still considering the corsair fans they do use different bearings. The standard non led with the plastic colored rings (more expensive version) have better bearings than the led versions.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/9737/the-corsair-sp140-led-af140-led-sp120-af120-fan-review

 

[synphul]

In regards to the 140mm corsairs without led's, I believe the only one is the af140 quiet edition. I'm not aware of any sp140 with the hydraulic bearings and standard colored rings, or af140 performance either. Sp140's seem to all be the led variety with the less expensive sleeve bearings.

 

[AdmiralDonut]

Nice choice of case. Some tips for you. One, don't use the rear fan for intake, you want to have the airflow running as smoothly as possible from front to back. Having the rear fan intake would just cause turbulence, making everything less efficient.

My advice would be to have two 140's up front, another in the floor, all set to intake at high(ish) RPM's. Grab some Corsair AF fans for this. Then simply have the AIO rad mounted in the roof, in push/pull (I'd go with Corsairs SP range for that), and have them set to a lower RPM. Leave the third top fan space empty, and mount a 120mm Corsair AF fan in the rear, also set to a low RPM.

That will give you the perfect airflow, with a positive internal pressure, and should help keep the dust out.

To clarify, one or two fans on the floor?

AF140 Series, Quiet Edition matter? I would prefer to keep it as quiet as is practical. http://

Are there any 140mm SP fans that don't have LEDs. I'm not sure I want the extra LEDs.

Also, what do you use for fan control? As far as running the different fans for different speeds? I know my case has a PWM hub and I've got a million fan headers on my motherboard.

I couldn't find any non-LED SP1140's, so you may want to consider a different brand. Noctua do some really nice 140mm fans in a black colour scheme now (They call them Industrial) that would fit the bill nicely. As for a fan controller, I personally use the NZXT GRID+ V2, and frankly it is the single best fan controller I've ever used. To answer your other question, I would just stick with the single 140mm fan in the floor.

 

[synphul]

Just be sure to check the fan specs, with a controller it may not be so bad but the noctua industrial's tend to run closer to $30/ea and most run higher rpm's. Closer to 3k rpm with higher noise levels since they're industrial oriented. The redux come in a two tone gray color for around $20/ea but they don't have the rubber corners or any of the low noise adapters. Just the fan.

I have a couple of the 1500rpm redux in my case, on full speed they do make a bit of noise. They push almost 80cfm when turned up and it reaches a point where you just can't move that much air without causing some sort of wind noise. Not when it's pushing or pulling air through a dust filter and grill.

The slower industrial ppc 140mm at 2000rpm pushes 107cfm at 31dba so definitely want them on some sort of fan controller if you go that route.