Please suggest best cooling config for my overclocked gaming PC

[MarvelK]

Hi,

All parts are here and I will be building my PC this weekend. I will be overclocking mainly CPU and some GPU. I had been doing some research but most people say it depends on case how you should setup radiator or pull vs pull config. I am not very familiar with airflow and liquid cooling so I need your expertise on this. I have below parts:

Intel Core i7-7700K 4.2GHz Quad-Core Processor
NZXT Kraken X62 Liquid CPU Cooler
Gigabyte Aorus GTX 1080 Ti Extreme
Phanteks Enthoo Evolv ATX Glass Tampered Glass Mid Tower Case
6 x Corsair ML140 PRO LED 140mm Fans

Can someone please suggest the best config to place my x62 (top vs front) and airflow (pull vs push). I have 6 fans + 2 included in case so I can even do push/pull on radiator. Please also suggest airflow for radiator and fans.

Thanks
Damon

 

[BigBoomBoom]

If you put radiator on front, CPU will be cooler but the rest suffer. You can avoid this by placing extra intake fan at bottom of your case and extra exhaust fan on the top of your case.

 

[MarvelK]

There is no place at bottom of my case where I can put an exhaust fan. Also, the radiator in front should be pulling in air or pushing air out?

 

[BigBoomBoom]

Front and bottom should always be intake (pulling in air). Top and back should be exhaust.

 

[MarvelK]

There is no bottom fan in this case. Can I have front intake and top and back exhaust?

 

[BigBoomBoom]

Yes you can but check if at the bottom (or side) if there's any holes or meshes for air to come in. The idea of top exhaust without bottom fans is that it pulls in air (less efficiently) from bottom and side if there's room for air to come in, and help cool the GPU and the VRM on its path. That's because when you put radiator up front, the air coming in the case will be warm/hot and if that's your only direction for air to come in, all other components apart from CPU take in warm/hot air and will suffer. You need cool air to come in another direction to help avoiding this. Usually even if you can't mount fan on bottom the modern case will have breathing room at bottom or side.

 

[MarvelK]

So, best configs is 3x top on exhaust, 1x fan rear on exhaust and 4x front with rad (push/pull)?

 

[BigBoomBoom]

Yes, if you must have radiator on front it's the absolute best.

 

[adamscurr]

I saw a youtube video about where to mount your radiator a while back. In the front they got a couple of degrees cooler. However, you imagine then, that your case will be a couple of degrees hotter. So all of those little parts that don't have a fan attached them on your MB are going to run a little hotter. This won't be a problem if you have good air flow in your case...

Personally I put my H110i on the top. My case had two 200m in the front, two 200mm in the top, 2 120mm in the bottom, and a 140 mm in the back. I like airflow and with more and bigger fans, they run lower. Since my radiator is mounted in the top under the 200mm fans, the two 140mm fan on the radiator front create a push/pull effect.

Combined, the whole system stay very cool and very quiet. Though when the system begins to boot and every fan is on 100%, it sounds like a jet! Point being, unless you are really, really worried about your chip getting hot, I would put it on the top. Everything else in your case will be hotter if you put it on the front.

Adam

 

[Jack_242]

When cooling a system keep in mind that air flows best when there is less restricting its movements and the coolest computer does not have the most fans but the fastest air movement from front to back. Things that restrict air flow are; cables, gpus, storage, memory, cpu blocks, and poor fan placement. The intake is where many new first builders run into a problem. Cables need to be well kept and groomed, storage should not block airflow, and the GPU is the greatest source of heat in the system. Finally the guide to fan placement can be found under the cases tab in the tomshardware forum.

Static Pressure and Airflow fans:

High static pressure fans are the best intake and radiator fans since they force the air to move. While airflow fans generate little to no static pressure and require a force behind them to be of any use.

Set up:

If I had the same set up as this I would place my radiator upfront as a push pull configuration and have the 2 remaining fans as exhaust with one at the rear and one at the top.

 

[MarvelK]

@Jack_242

Even if I have 6 x Corsair ML140 PRO LED (which I think are high static pressure fans) you recommend using only 1 on top as I can place 2-3 easily? Case also comes with 2 (or maybe 3) fans so that makes total # of fans to 8-9. Is it something has to do with negative static pressure as I have only 1 intake and 2 exhausts?

I was planning on placing the fans that come with case in front of radiator so they are hidden and new one in back (inside case).

 

[Jack_242]

Having a positive pressure for intake is not bad because the exhaust fans just help guide the air out of the case.

 

[BigBoomBoom]

Your case has dust filter at the bottom and raise above the floor, there is room to draw in cool air from the bottom. That's where the top exhaust come in to play, as it will draw more air from the bottom to cool down the hot air going out from the radiator. In this case you will want a negative pressure for intake as you can't mount fan bottom, so the more fans on top exhausting air out the better. Otherwise your VRM and GPU temp will go up. Just regularly clean the filter.