[SOLVED] Radiator Leaves Gaps on the Front of my Case

[Andrew_C1]

I'm having a rough time building my new computer but I've been slowly working my way through all the steps, however, I've hit a snag here with my Phanteks P360a case. I got the MSI Mag Coreliquid 240r CPU Cooler, and I wanted to place it at the top of the case, as I had seen many builds done this way and Phanteks' website said I could, but the case is just too small for it because my RAM sticks out from my motherboard too high up to fit the Radiator fans in. I tried putting the RAM in before and after installing the fans and it's too small of an area no matter what I do. So, I looked it up and other people had said this happened to them and they instead moved their CPU cooler to the front of the case, and my case supports up to 280mm on the front so I figured it would at least fit there. Of course, it fits with no blockage, but now the problem is there is so much space from the 280mm front that there are gaps around the radiator and fans where it would be screwed in. The case has slots lined up so I could screw it in just fine and it would be stable, but the gaps around the edges of the cooler make me worried that the airflow would be ruined or it might cause issues with the cooler in general as well.

TL;DR is it ok to have some gaps in the front of your case around the CPU Cooler's radiator/fans as long as it is screwed in properly? Does it ruin the airflow altogether?

Here's an uploaded image I took where I circled where and how big the gaps are: https://ibb.co/djzKC5V

 

[kerberos_20]

see how it performs first, normally when u put radiator in front, then pc get only hot air as intake (which isnt really great for rest of your PC), so maybe those gaps helps get some cold air inside...dunno
pc case airflow shouldnt be ruined, radiator efficiency might drop a little, but that depends on how tight those fins are

as for top rad position, if case is small then u can use thinner fans or thinner radiator to make it fit

 

[CountMike]

I'm having a rough time building my new computer but I've been slowly working my way through all the steps, however, I've hit a snag here with my Phanteks P360a case. I got the MSI Mag Coreliquid 240r CPU Cooler, and I wanted to place it at the top of the case, as I had seen many builds done this way and Phanteks' website said I could, but the case is just too small for it because my RAM sticks out from my motherboard too high up to fit the Radiator fans in. I tried putting the RAM in before and after installing the fans and it's too small of an area no matter what I do. So, I looked it up and other people had said this happened to them and they instead moved their CPU cooler to the front of the case, and my case supports up to 280mm on the front so I figured it would at least fit there. Of course, it fits with no blockage, but now the problem is there is so much space from the 280mm front that there are gaps around the radiator and fans where it would be screwed in. The case has slots lined up so I could screw it in just fine and it would be stable, but the gaps around the edges of the cooler make me worried that the airflow would be ruined or it might cause issues with the cooler in general as well.

TL;DR is it ok to have some gaps in the front of your case around the CPU Cooler's radiator/fans as long as it is screwed in properly? Does it ruin the airflow altogether?

Here's an uploaded image I took where I circled where and how big the gaps are: https://ibb.co/djzKC5V

Only thing that matters is space between fans and radiator.

 

[Colif]

see how it performs first, normally when u put radiator in front, then pc get only hot air as intake (which isnt really great for rest of your PC), so maybe those gaps helps get some cold air inside...dunno
pc case airflow shouldnt be ruined, radiator efficiency might drop a little, but that depends on how tight those fins are

as for top rad position, if case is small then u can use thinner fans or thinner radiator to make it fit

heat from cpu isn't as much as you would think, depending which GPU you put underneath the top radiator, the front one can work out better

 

[kerberos_20]

heat from cpu isn't as much as you would think, depending which GPU you put underneath the top radiator, the front one can work out better

mine 1070ti was overheating.. when i had front aio from cpu, gpu didnt like 40C from front rad cpu on top as exhaust dropped gpu temps by alot..my case doesnt have bottom intakes (or any other, just front)

 

[Colif]

The water in my aio only on 30c, temps inside case max at 35C, gpu always over that temp anyway so it doesn't really hurt it. Only have one intake area myself, at front.
240mm AIO on front, 3 x 140mm as exhaust

 

[Andrew_C1]

mine 1070ti was overheating.. when i had front aio from cpu, gpu didnt like 40C from front rad cpu on top as exhaust dropped gpu temps by alot..my case doesnt have bottom intakes (or any other, just front)

So with my MSI 3070 Suprim X do you think it would be too close to the radiator and would cause problems? Even if the fans are blowing towards the GPU?