Where to mount Corair H60 liquid cooler?

[Reckoner89]

I was wondering where is the best spot to mount my Corsair H60' s radiator. I have looked all over the internet and it seems everyone says every position for the radiator is a bad idea. Corsair recommends mounting at the back using the the fan to intake air, however this means air will be coming in from the front and back, messing up air flow. I could also mount it at the top of the case but people say that's a bad idea because hot air rises so it will just be pushing that hot air back down into the case.

The case I have is a Corsair Obsidian 450D. It comes with 2 140mm intake fans at the front and a 120mm exhaust fan at the back. The H60 comes with an SP 120mm fan.

So where am I supposed to mount the rad if every spot is a bad idea?

 

[clutchc]

I have two H60s. One in each of my two better machines. They are mounted as per CM's recommendations. Rear of the case, intake cool air thru rad, exhaust into the case. I then have one or more fans mounted in the top of the cases exhausting that warmed air. CPU, GPU, and board tempos remain perfect under heavy loads.

 

[Reckoner89]

Thank you for your input. So having air coming in from both the back and front is fine as long as there's exhaust fan(s) at the top?

 

[Midnight822]

Can you not reverse the airflow on the H60s? I'd set it up in the top back as another exhaust.

 

[Reckoner89]

You can reverse it, I'd just be using the warm air inside of the case to cool the radiator which i've read is not recommended.

 

[clutchc]

Thank you for your input. So having air coming in from both the back and front is fine as long as there's exhaust fan(s) at the top?

Certainly. Air flow pattern is often a highly over-thought process. Any case with a vented top will always exhaust warm air out the top anyway due to thermal dynamics. Hot air rises.
If the top of the case wasn't vented, there might be some air flow issues, but not if warm air has a way of escaping.
Try it, you'll see.

 

[Reckoner89]

Would one fan be enough or would purchasing an extra fan make a significant difference?

 

[JackNaylorPE]

Thank you for your input. So having air coming in from both the back and front is fine as long as there's exhaust fan(s) at the top?

Certainly. Air flow pattern is often a highly over-thought process. Any case with a vented top will always exhaust warm air out the top anyway due to thermal dynamics. Hot air rises.
If the top of the case wasn't vented, there might be some air flow issues, but not if warm air has a way of escaping.
Try it, you'll see.

That's true.... way more thought is put into this thAn is warranted. Clarification tho, in the absence of a fan hot air rises ... in the presence of a fan (or fans), it does whatever the fan wants or as determined by case pressure.

Otherwise there would be no such thing as a ceiling fan. Radiator fans always blow in, no exceptions.

While I can't recommend using a CLC, if you do use one, the proper way to install it is as per manufacturers recommendations.

Coolant = 33C
Interior case Temp = 28C
Ambient Air Temp = 23C

Using ambient air to cool the radiator is twice as effective as using inside air. And you really don't care about 28C affecting anything inside your PC. It saw more than that in the UPS truck on the way to your house.

Would one fan be enough or would purchasing an extra fan make a significant difference?

A good estimate is one 140mm fan for every 75 watts of load depending on how queit ya want box to be .... 50 - 100 works,

So say a 130 watt OCd CPU, 200 watt OCd 970 and 50 watts miscellaneous, that's 380 watts .... 3 in and 2 out would do the job quietly. 3 would be the minimum, a person who really loves silence might use 7. For 120mm add 1/3 ... and yes the on on the cooler counts

 

[Midnight822]

Thank you for your input. So having air coming in from both the back and front is fine as long as there's exhaust fan(s) at the top?

Certainly. Air flow pattern is often a highly over-thought process. Any case with a vented top will always exhaust warm air out the top anyway due to thermal dynamics. Hot air rises.
If the top of the case wasn't vented, there might be some air flow issues, but not if warm air has a way of escaping.
Try it, you'll see.

That's true.... way more thought is put into this thAn is warranted. Clarification tho, in the absence of a fan hot air rises ... in the presence of a fan (or fans), it does whatever the fan wants or as determined by case pressure.

Otherwise there would be no such thing as a ceiling fan. Radiator fans always blow in, no exceptions.

While I can't recommend using a CLC, if you do use one, the proper way to install it is as per manufacturers recommendations.

Coolant = 33C
Interior case Temp = 28C
Ambient Air Temp = 23C

Using ambient air to cool the radiator is twice as effective as using inside air. And you really don't care about 28C affecting anything inside your PC. It saw more than that in the UPS truck on the way to your hose.

If you're intaking air though on top mounted radiators, at what point does the positive pressure matter? Say you have 2 fans in the front, 1-2 fans for the radiator on top, and just the 1 in the back. Positive pressure is desirable, but is there a point where it's too much and disruptive to overall air flow? Or does it cause the back fan to overwork and run at higher rpms?

 

[Greeko85]

https://youtu.be/QjYli6itP38

Makes little to no difference. I personally prefer having an aio as an exhaust but that's just me.

*edit-im an idiot and forgot to skip the video's add before i copied the link.

 

[Midnight822]

https://youtu.be/3pHr_TBRNqo
Makes little to no difference. I personally prefer having an aio as an exhaust but that's just me.

You linked a commercial by accident.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

Thank you for your input. So having air coming in from both the back and front is fine as long as there's exhaust fan(s) at the top?

You don't **need** an exhaust fan at all. When you mount a window fan to blow air out (or in).... do you install another one to blow air in (out) ? When someone installs a kitchen or bathroom exhaust , do they install another one to boow air in ?

No. Installing an intake fan increases the pressure within the enclosed space. That pressure is higher than the pressure outside the case so air will automatically flow all by itself out of the case... from high to low pressure. If you have just one fan, using it as an intake on the front or as as an exhaust fan on the back will produce the exact same results. If you have three fans all blowing in, then air will get out all by itself. It will go thru whatever grille openings are available whether top, bottom, sides or whatever. Cover one grille up, it will switch to another.

And yes, unless you find a way to violate the laws of thermodynamics and mathematics, it does matter which way it is installed. Put two identical ice cubes in a cup of water... one at 23C and one at 28C, which one melts faster ? If your interior case air is warmer than your room, then there is no possible way for it not to matter.

Now if you put in enough case fans that the interior case is is being flushed out so fast that that temperature difference is small, you can get results where the quality of your equipment and random test variations is just too small to quantify it.

The other way it can not matter is if the radiator and fan is not the limiting factor. such as with a poor quality block, bad mount or cheap aluminum radiator, resulting in:

a) radiator and fan can move more heat per unit of time than Block can remove from CPU
b) radiator and fan can move more heat per unit of time than aluminim radiator can remove from coolant

 

[clutchc]

Would one fan be enough or would purchasing an extra fan make a significant difference?

I now have a single 120mm top exhaust fan in both rigs. I haven't noticed any difference in temps from when I had 2 x 120mm top exhaust fans. Unless you have your fans on max RPM, there really isn't all that much "air-flow" going on in modern cases like yours that have lots of ventilation. The top fan will be so close to the rad fan, that air will circulate from one fan to the next. Thru the rad, out the top.

I originally had the H60 in my CM HAF912 set up as exhausting thru the rad out the back of the case. But the CPU temp was nothing to brag about. After switching it to CM's recommended pattern, my temps are better. But a top vented case is a must.