Recommended air cooling setup

[Ttesar06]

I just bought a “Fractal Design Meshify C” mid atx tower case. From the manual it says I can have

3 120mm front or 2 140mm
1 120mm bottom mounted
1 120mm rear
2 120 or 140mm top mount fans.

I’m wondering the best combination here as I’m using a hyper 212 evo air cooler so I won’t be needing any of those for radiators. Should I just toss a 120 in each one and call it good? I have 5 coolermaster sicklfow 120mm and the 2 stock 120mm fans that came with the case currently. Wondering if I just put these in or if I need something different.

Also all the fans I have are sleeve bearings.... 3 of the mouns are horizontal mounts... can I use these fans in those spots even if they aren’t the most optimal? Or will they burn up super quick.

Thanks in advance.

 

[geofelt]

I think optimal would be two 140mm front intakes and one 120mm rear exhaust.
I like 140mm fans because they push more air at lower rpm and are quieter.

But, since 120mm fans came with the case, I would use 3 of them in front as intake and one 120mm for exhaust.
If the 3 front intakes are filtered your parts will stay cleaner.
Adding extra fans will not help airflow and will tend to draw in unfiltered air from adjacent openings.

If it turns out that you do not like the setup, it is easy to change things out.

As to fan orientation, I would not worry about that.

 

[tennis2]

+1 to geofelt.
2 front intake + 1 rear exhaust should be plenty for most average builds.

 

[Ttesar06]

I think optimal would be two 140mm front intakes and one 120mm rear exhaust.
I like 140mm fans because they push more air at lower rpm and are quieter.

But, since 120mm fans came with the case, I would use 3 of them in front as intake and one 120mm for exhaust.
If the 3 front intakes are filtered your parts will stay cleaner.
Adding extra fans will not help airflow and will tend to draw in unfiltered air from adjacent openings.

If it turns out that you do not like the setup, it is easy to change things out.

As to fan orientation, I would not worry about that.

ALL of the intakes are filtered. top, front, and bottom. i have 5 coolermaster sickleflow fans rated at 69CFM i use one in the back for exhaust, and 3 in the front. would an additional 120 on the bottom for intake and one at the back up top help at all? ill need to get a differnt type of bearing fan for the top and bottom horizonal mount ones tho right? or will this not make much of a difference.

 

[geofelt]

First of all, I would not try to add top and bottom fans.
Of course, you could experiment, but I doubt that any more fans will help cooling and just add noise to your case.

As to new fans, again, I would not bother. Fans are designed to work in any orientation.
If one should fail, for whatever reason, then is the time to get a new one.

 

[tennis2]

Let's try this:

The Meshify C case is 1.3 Cubic Feet in volume.

The included FD X2 GP-12 fans are rated for 52.3 Cubic Feet per Minute of airflow each. If you put them both in the front panel as intake, that's 104.6CFM = 1.74 Cubic Feet per Second.

1.3CF/1.7CFS = 3/4 of a second to fill/empty the entire volume of the case.

Your CPU fan will be pushing about 65CFM on a typical day at full load. A 92mm GPU fan can do about 30CFM at full tilt on a good day at 100% duty cycle. GPUs don't need 2 fans for the extra airflow, just that having 2x the fans requires them to run half as fast and also extend the heatsink fin area to 2x also. So let's say 2 fans at 75% duty cycle = 45CFM max.

65CFM from CPU + 45CFM from GPU = 110CFM.

 

[Ttesar06]

Let's try this:

The Meshify C case is 1.3 Cubic Feet in volume.

The included FD X2 GP-12 fans are rated for 52.3 Cubic Feet per Minute of airflow each. If you put them both in the front panel as intake, that's 104.6CFM = 1.74 Cubic Feet per Second.

1.3CF/1.7CFS = 3/4 of a second to fill/empty the entire volume of the case.

Your CPU fan will be pushing about 65CFM on a typical day at full load. A 92mm GPU fan can do about 30CFM at full tilt on a good day at 100% duty cycle. GPUs don't need 2 fans for the extra airflow, just that having 2x the fans requires them to run half as fast and also extend the heatsink fin area to 2x also. So let's say 2 fans at 75% duty cycle = 45CFM max.

65CFM from CPU + 45CFM from GPU = 110CFM.

call me an idiot... but what exactly does this mean?
im adding 2x 140mm Fractal Venturi HF-14 140mm fan which say tehy are rated at 118cfm
and 1 rear exhaust at 69cfm.was thinking about a top exhaust as well at 69cfm.

so i understand all the math you explained to me but what does that mean for cooling?

 

[geofelt]

Bottom line is, try what you have and adjust if you need to change something.

 

[tennis2]

First off, I forgot to say that 105CFM in means 105CFM out, regardless of whether your single rear exhaust only does 50CFM (especially in a case like the Meshify C). It's better to have more intake fans than exhaust so air is pulled through fan filters instead of unfiltered openings in the case elsewhere.

To oversimplify - Most cases have fairly efficient airflow, so you only need enough air going into/out of your case as the components inside use. In that sense, the system is balanced. Every molecule of air that goes into the case can be sucked through a heatsink. Pumping more than that into your case just means that some air is just skipping the heatsinks altogether. As geofelt said, at some point, you're just adding more fan noise for no thermal benefit.

I'm not against using 2x140mm intake fans. I mean, it's only a 2x$10 experiment and the 140mm fans should be quieter since they run at lower rpms.

 

[Ttesar06]

First off, I forgot to say that 105CFM in means 105CFM out, regardless of whether your single rear exhaust only does 50CFM (especially in a case like the Meshify C). It's better to have more intake fans than exhaust so air is pulled through fan filters instead of unfiltered openings in the case elsewhere.

To oversimplify - Most cases have fairly efficient airflow, so you only need enough air going into/out of your case as the components inside use. In that sense, the system is balanced. Every molecule of air that goes into the case can be sucked through a heatsink. Pumping more than that into your case just means that some air is just skipping the heatsinks altogether. As geofelt said, at some point, you're just adding more fan noise for no thermal benefit.

I'm not against using 2x140mm intake fans. I mean, it's only a 2x$10 experiment and the 140mm fans should be quieter since they run at lower rpms.

I set it up first with 2x 120mm intake in front and 1x 120mm exhaust in the back and it seems perfectly fine. Runs about 48-50 while playing destiny 2 and during stress test never went over 61 for 1 hour prime 95 think I’ll just return what I got and keep the current setup. The fans are nicer anyways with the leds.

I guess my main concern is, if I have TOO much air flow can it hurt anything? The 140mm fans I ordered are rated at 118cfm each. Can this cause any harm or extra strain in other components? Or should it be just fine.

 

[tennis2]

Too much airflow doesn't hurt anything, no. Except your ears.