So, I'm gonna build a PC using the Corsair Carbide Series 500R Metallic Gray. To cool down my i5 4670K, I'm gonna use a Corsair H80i. I'm planning to do the following:
- Keep the stock 120mm front fans in intake mode;
- Keep the stock 200mm side fan in intake mode;
- Remove the stock 120mm rear exhaust fan and replace it with the H80i in a Push-Pull intake setup (drawing air in from outside the case);
- Add two aftermarket Corsair SP120mm fans to the top of the case in exhaust mode.
- Also, my PSU fan is pointing down, exhausting air through the back of the case.
Am I providing some good airflow in my case? Is it gonna be enough to keep my other components, such as my GTX 770, running cool, while still being able to watercool my CPU? If something needs a change, please correct me.
Thank you.
To be honest i would use the rear radiator as an exhaust as well as the top as you already mentioned. The front fans will provide cold air and push it towards the back at the case. the side panel will help cooling the graphics card and any stray air will be sucked out of the back and top. I've run a phenom II x6 T1100 @3.9ghz with a H80 for a long time taking air from inside the case and it neveeeer goes above 60 degrees, except in CS GO...that game make go CPUs hot.
What can happen when you have too much intake, especially from front and back, is that first:
the air inside the case will collide creating turbulence and disrupt the airflow. The safest bet is to have intake front/side, exhaust top/back it'll never be "wrong" :)
secondly: you'll get a higher pressure inside the case than outside of it because you force air into a compressed space by having lots of intake fans. This will force air out of the case and prevent dust collection.
Same principle applies to a scenario where you have a lot of exhaust power, your case will get a lower pressurized environment. When your case has a lower pressure than the outside air it will naturally want to go inside of the case, while it miight improve cooling it will make it up for in dust collection.
My posts tends to be quite lengthy but i hope it helps :P The config you explain MIIIGHT work, but i haven't investigated enough builds to recommend it.
Awesome, awesome answer. By the way you talk, you surely understand about the thing! So, if I with the H80i I'm gonna do that. But what if I choose the H100i? With the rear fan now exhausting, can I safely cool down the radiator with fresh air from outside the case? Or should I, like, make a exhausting Push/Pull?
I'm gonna assume that by "with the rear fan exhausting" you meant fan intake, having an H100i as the only exhaust could work but you might have to run at higher RPM to remove air from the case. Just make sure you've done the measurements so that the H100i fits and doesn't interfere with motherboard. I would still recommend air exhaust at back and top, but i think you should experiment with back as intake. In worst case scenario you can just flip the rear fan to exhaust if the tempretures aren't desireable :P
In a 120mm sized radiator (H80) i know for a fact that push/pull helps, my cpu had high tempretures for a while in my last build and after a few days i decided it was time to clean the radiator, turns out that the powercable from the fan had found it's way into the push fan and stuck it, removing the cable immidiately gave bette tempretures, but those fans were not pressure optimized i think :/ (watch video)
There's another post about this. And watching this video from linustechtips will help you a lot as it's almost a direct answer to your question :> In the video he uses rear and top as exhaust
The conclusion is that you should run fans through a radiator in a pull configuration, the performance difference seem to be non existent between push and pull and it's a lot easier to clean and a push+pull conficuration does very little if you've got pressure optimized fans, which i assume comes with the radiator.
My current system has 2 intakes at front and 1 exhaust at back inside an obsidian 550d case with all lids on with around 50-75 degrees on my gtx 780 ACX cooler at 50% fan speed, and sub 60 degrees on my cpu dark rock cooler at 660rpm. Unless you're gonna overclock until it megahertz and stuff, exhaust back & top - intake side & front should be plenty enough
ok thank you! You killed all my doubts!