So i'm thinking about getting a large Top Flow CPU cooler as i like that it will also blow down onto the ram, i can get a large cooler like the be quiet dark rock TF and not block any ram slots, and if in the hopefully very long life of the cooler i ever want to change to a much smaller case, the 130.8mm height would probably be compatible with something as small as the ncase m1, and worse case scenario, i could pop out the top fan to get a height of only 108.8mm. With really the only sacrifice in compatibility being that i need low profile ram.
My main concern is i just always have heard about how you don't want to interrupt the air flow, and you just want like all the air going in 1 direction and having all fans blow from the front to the back. Would i be butchering the airflow of my case by having 2 giant fans blowing downwards onto my cpu instead of from front to back?
I've used the Phanteks PH-TC12LS and the Cryorig C1, both top flow coolers, on a couple chips before in both a Fractal Design Node 605 and an NZXT S340 with zero issue. I would think they would work plenty fine with moderate overclocks too, but I don't overclock, so yeah.
It's nice to have a smooth flow into and out of case, but I think for anything other than really hot overclocks the benefits are a bit overblown.
Top flow coolers are really good for also cooling the motherboard componentry. I had e really stupid conversation with someone on YouTube, who claimed that you don't really need a lot of case airflow... He obviously don't care about his motherboard and ram etc. One of the main complaints about water coolers is that there is no airflow over the motherboard, socket, vrms etc... As long as you have good airflow, the top flow cooler will not damage your system cooling what so ever.
I think OP is talking about blowing towards the motherboard, rather than blowing down towards the Earth. Using the Ncase M1 they mention the air would be flowing parallel to Earth.
A fan pulling/pushing air is a hell of a lot more powerful than natural heat transfer.
Like @psycho_666 said, top down coolers cool the RAM and motherboard components more effectively than other cooler types. The temperature of the air being exhausted from them, even after being heated, will still be cooler than the components it's interacting with.
2017 called, thermodynamics haven't changed. Having active pressure airflow down on the CPU and surrounding components is beneficial to their life expectancy and operating efficiency.
You're right. Thermodynamics haven't changed. Thats why CPU coolers were redesigned to blow out the back of the case instead of bathing the motherboard in hot air from the CPU.
Air that is still significantly cooler than the surface temperature of operating components that in your model are now devoid of almost all airflow previously provided by the top flow model.
CPU coolers were redesigned to provide more cooling to the CPU alone. The push-pull stack cooler makes the direct trade off of leaving all surface components around the CPU with very minimal airflow while giving the CPU a much larger sink for conduction cooling. The fact that VRMs and RAM have such aggressive heatsinks at all is because they need more thermal mass to dissipate their own heat due to airflow being redirected.
While it's true that VRMs specifically enjoy higher efficiency at fairly extreme temperatures in comparison to the CPU, that does not mean they can operate devoid of direct and active cooling.
I actually currently use a Lian Li PC-V33 case, so it would both blow downwards onto the motherboard and downwards relative to the position of the earth. I have pretty decent system cooling, 4 120mm noctua NF-S12B fans, two in the front top, 1 in the back top, and 1 in the back bottom
If the top rear fan is an exhaust, it would be fighting with the fan on the top down cooler.
In that case (hehe), you'd probably want to flip the fans to use the back as intake and front as exhaust. A tower cooler/AIO would probably be the better solution.
I was thinking about an AIO but it seems like leaks or pump failures are way too common with them. I mean with an air cooler, its just like, run them until the fan starts making noise, then replace fan after like 6 years, you never have a failure of function, so even when you need to replace the fan, you order it and keep using it until the fan arrives and you can replace it. With an AIO, its like, its good if you go 3 years without a leak or pump failure and when one of those things happens, you can't use the PC at all . You have to wait for replacement parts to arrive and its not like its easy to replace the fittings or pump in an AIO (they don't have reservoirs because they come pre filled, well you're going to need to refill it) so then you buy a replacement AIO altogether which is already like twice the price of of an air cooler, louder than an air cooler, and a fraction of the life expectancy of an air cooler? From a Peace of Mind standpoint it just seems like Liquid cooling is miles behind air.
How so? High end air performs as well as mid range AIO and any higher than that is so ludicrously expensive you might as well go with a custom loop. Air is quieter overall (pumps hum), there's no chance of leaks, and they last forever with regular fan replacements as long as they keep support for new sockets like noctua does for example.
If i could spend $250 or less on an AIO and be reasonably confident that it would function well for at least 10 years, i would spend $250 or less on an AIO.
