Question Pure Base 500DX ideal fan configuration with 240mm AIO

davidawesomea

Reputable
Jan 11, 2018
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Hi, I built my current PC with the Pure Base 500DX about a year ago. Due to the motherboard shrouds not leaving enough clearance at the top of the case, I had to mount to the 240mm AIO at the front panel. This left me with some less-than-ideal options for fan configuration but I decided to use two fans at the top for intake and one fan at the back for exhaust, so that my only intake wouldn't be warm air from the radiator. With my 3060 Ti and i5-10600k temps stay manageable most of the time, rarely peaking at around 85-90 under load.

Now I'm buying a 3080 since GPUs are much cheaper and my friend is planning to buy my 3060 Ti off me for his build, and with that GPU upgrade I'm considering upgrading to a newer CPU as well sometime in the future (likely the i7-11700k). My only worry is temps, they've been sufficiently cool up til now but I don't know how they'll be with higher end components. So I'm trying to figure out if there's a more ideal fan config.

My current specs are:
Case: be quiet Pure Base 500DX
Motherboard: NZXT Z490
CPU: i5-10600KF
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V 32 GB DDR4-4000
Power Supply: Corsair RM850x
Case Fans: 2 x Pure Wings 140mm (top intake), 1 x Pure Wings 2 140mm (rear exhaust)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master MasterLiquid ML240L V2 RGB

I'm happy to replace some fans with Noctua fans or something else if those will improve my temps, I'm just curious if anyone has any insight on what might be a better configuration. Not sure if pics of the build are useful but in case they are they can be found here (https://pcpartpicker.com/b/9ZfPxr)
 

Phaaze88

Titan
Ambassador
Top intake works well in some beyond the norm setups...
This is not one of them.

my only intake wouldn't be warm air from the radiator.
This is over-exaggerated, and has been for some time.
In games, what that liquid cooled cpu does to case ambient and the components behind it, is a joke compared to the gpu, which is doing the same thing.
Assuming constant power values - which isn't possible in practice, but just for consistency - in games:
10600K around 85w
3060Ti around 230w
The gpu is using almost 3 times as much power as the cpu, all while dumping that waste heat inside your PC. The gpu cooler is doing worse to the case ambient and components around it than what the front cpu liquid cooler is.
Then you've got top intake fans that are not really helping; blowing down against the gpu's exhaust.


TL;DR: Front intake or top exhaust cpu liquid cooler does not matter as much as the flag that is the current top intake. Change that to exhaust, please.
Also, the current set of images don't show what direction the fans are facing; Folks sometimes get this wrong and have their cooler exhausting out the front.
 

Karadjgne

Titan
Ambassador
Use the aio in front, but use the fans in pull configuration, as in towards the gpu. This puts the fans exhaust blowing directly at the gpu, instead of push configuration which puts the fans exhaust being diluted by the radiator.

Won't change the cpu temps, but puts a ton more air at the gpu.

Top fans as exhaust, don't have to bother with a rear exhaust fan, that's just pulling air/heat 90° from its normal upwards direction.