Top fan as intake if CPU is water cooled?

[Mark Angelo]

I was wondering if I should put the top fan as intake and rely on the radiator fans to exhaust the hot air to the rear of the case.

I'll put the side and bottom as intake as well so that the GPU will be well cooled.

My case is a Fractal Define R5.

Any comments and suggestions are appreciated. Thanks!

 

[geofelt]

What is you objective in liquid cooling for your cpu?

My canned rant on liquid cooling:
------------------------start of rant-------------------
You buy a liquid cooler to be able to extract an extra multiplier or two out of your OC.
How much do you really need?
I do not much like all in one liquid coolers when a good air cooler like a Noctua NH-D15 or phanteks can do the job just as well.
A liquid cooler will be expensive, noisy, less reliable, and will not cool any better
in a well ventilated case.
Liquid cooling is really air cooling, it just puts the heat exchange in a different place.
The orientation of the radiator will cause a problem.
If you orient it to take in cool air from the outside, you will cool the cpu better, but the hot air then circulates inside the case heating up the graphics card and motherboard.
If you orient it to exhaust(which I think is better) , then your cpu cooling will be less effective because it uses pre heated case air.
And... I have read too many tales of woe when a liquid cooler leaks.
google "H100 leak"
-----------------------end of rant--------------------------

I suggest a noctua nh-D15 or phanteks with dual 140mm fans.
Your pc will be quieter, more reliable, and will be cooled equally well

 

[hysteria357]

Yes that will work fine. I prefer the top fan as an exhaust, but that is just my preference. I have run cases where the radiator was the only exhaust fan and didnt run into any airflow and temperature issues. Rigth now I have a define R4, and I take in air from the front, and exhaust it out the back and top through 1 exhaust fan and 2 exhaust fans on my H100i

 

[Mark Angelo]

@geofelt - It's because I got a Nepton 140XL for free due to a competition. 😀

@hysteria - Thanks. Do you know if there's any temp difference with running the top fan as intake vs exhaust?

 

[geofelt]

What else do you need to cool?

I think setting the radiator fans to exhaust is generally the best strategy. Your cpu may not get the absolute top cooling, but your other components including motherboard and gpu will do better.

The big objective is to get hot air of any kind out of your case asap.

 

[Motopsychojdn]

Physics prefers your top fan to be exhaust, you can reverse it but the fan will be working against hot air which rises, go with the flow and help the hot air be free 🙂

 

[hysteria357]

@geofelt - It's because I got a Nepton 140XL for free due to a competition. 😀

@hysteria - Thanks. Do you know if there's any temp difference with running the top fan as intake vs exhaust?

The temp differences are basically non existant. I like top exhausts because top intakes usually draw in a lot of dust. Plus, hot air rises, so it keeps things flowing.