Rear mounted 120mm rad + 2x140mm front intake fans?

taskdask

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Mar 31, 2017
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In a Phanteks Eclipse P400S, would a rear mounted 120mm radiator with two 140mm fans in the front be able to provide enough airflow and positive pressure?

I'm specifically considering the NZXT Kraken X31 120mm radiator for the rear exhaust of the case and two Be quiet! SilentWings 3 140mm PWM HighSpeed fans in the front for intake.

The Eclipse P400S comes with detachable top panels (and dust filters) which I consider removing to allow air to flow through the top of the case. Alternatively, I could buy another pair of SilentWings 3 140mm PWM fans and install in the top, but I think that would be unnecessary.

Another alternative, and the most popular one I guess, would be mounting a 280mm radiator in the front and have a 120mm exhaust fan in the rear. However, I have heard that this specific case is rather restricted when it comes to airflow in the front. Corsair and Fractal Design seem to have this part figured out much better than Phanteks.

Planning to run the i7 7700K and Palit GeForce GTX 1080 Super Jetstream in the setup.

But, any thoughts or recommendations?
 
Solution
I would avoid a 1x120mm AiO. You're going to spend twice as much as you would on something like a Cryorig H7 and get less cooling out of it. The only time AiOs make sense is when you get into really big 2x 140mm or 3x 120mm rads, because you can't make a tower cooler that large.
Enough airflow for what?

I don't generally recommend AiO coolers, because they're outperformed by tower coolers (with less noise) at the same price. AiOs are only truly useful when you start getting above the $150 range where there are no air coolers that can compete, and in cases where you simply don't have room for a tower cooler.
 

taskdask

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Mar 31, 2017
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Hi! Enough airflow to allow cool air to pass from the front and exit the case through the rear and top quickly enough to keep temperatures down. Admittedly, choosing the NZXT AIOs specifically is because I'm such a sucker for their good looks lol!

I do have another alternative though, and that is simply using the Be quiet! Dark Rock 3 as CPU cooler with two 140mm intake fans and one 120mm exhaust :p
 
Enough airflow to keep temperatures of what down? I have an overclocked i5 in my system, and it runs fine on the stock cooler with a single 120mm intake (and no other fans). This wouldn't be adequate for a 10-core i7 6850X though.
 

taskdask

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Mar 31, 2017
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Oh, I'm sorry! i7 7700K is what I've got my eyes set on.
 
I would avoid a 1x120mm AiO. You're going to spend twice as much as you would on something like a Cryorig H7 and get less cooling out of it. The only time AiOs make sense is when you get into really big 2x 140mm or 3x 120mm rads, because you can't make a tower cooler that large.
 
Solution

taskdask

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Mar 31, 2017
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510


Cool (no pun intended)! I will stick to the Dark Pro 3 for now then and keep an eye on temperatures. I consider going for the Corsair Carbide 400C case instead since it supports better airflow and cooling setups. Gives me some wiggle room if I would like to make any changes in the future :)