Water Cooling Push/Pull and Intake/Exhaust (What's best or most efficient for sound/cooling)

[dushky]

Hi good-day, my question is this, I wish to get the Corsair Hydro Series H110i GTX AIO to cool my CPU, with regards to installation as top exhaust or front intake and pull/push I'm just not sure which would be best or most efficient for both sound and cooling.

I will be cooling a i7-6700k (and overclocking it), while the gfx card will be a Radeon R9 390X (Good without being too expensive until the Pascal stuff comes along to upgrade to).

The case I am looking to get is the Thermaltake Core X71, not out yet, otherwise the Core V71 so there is room to put it wherever.

So essentially, would it be better to put the Radiator in front as intake with normal exhaust fans on the back and top, additional intake on the side/bottom. OR to use on the top as exhaust, with normal intake fans on front? And as to which orientation of the fans (push/pull) is better for the suggested placement.

I've read as exhaust, the CPU cooler loses some efficiency due to other components hot air being pushed through, whereas as intake it then blows hotter air into the case over the other stuff thus affecting the cooling of gfx/ram etc.

Hence curious what arrangement is better for overall cooling and sound levels.

Thank you for any help and info.

 

[dudmont]

Alot depends on how well your system cools irrespective of the cpu and gpu heating. Get good airmovement and the difference between an intake or exhaust will largely become meaningless.
That being said, you might shave a few degrees on the intake side, and that might be the difference you need to get another .1 ghz out the cpu, assuming you're still at safe voltages. I don't personally think .1ghz is going to be noticeable, it's merely a bragging point.
My AIO is set up as exhaust, but I have a boat load of cooling in my system, I get great temps and I don't sweat the whole thing.