Fan Placement newish Build?

[Shadowarez]

Heya all with computex wrapped up i was wondering i want to optimize the fan setup in my Necro build i just completed i need 4 120mm fans and should i remove 1 fan from the bottom and place one in front as a intake instead?

currently shes a toasty box but manages 65c under load on cpu 70c on gpu, want to optimize a good airflow path for this.

1. should i remove 1 of the bottom fans and place one infront for intake instead of having it intake from bottom into the gpu 2nd fan,
2. replace the fan on the heatsink with someting newer then the Gentle Typhoon?
3. replace the top fans with higher cfm fans or just get some industrial ppc?

 

[clshades]

Make the bottom and front intake fans and see what happens. I've always done positive pressure setups and only ever use one exhaust fan.

 

[Shadowarez]

got 2 uptop (came with Scythe Ninja 5) 2 Bottom pulling air in (noctua Chromax) 1 Gentle Typhoon 1850rpm on heatsink and 1 slim 120 Chromax Noctua. i was thinking would it be more beneficial taking a bottom fan out and adding a stronger high CFM in front as i would expect having the bottom pulling air in and a fan pulling air in front wouldnt work so well.

 

[CMetaphor]

Think you need to decide on whether you want positive or negative airflow. Back to this point in a bit.

I checked your build log and it looks like the only fan orientation possible for your Scythe is pushing from the front. Is there even enough space behind it for the exhaust at the back of the case?

Airflow direction -wise, the top two fans are just pulling cool air away from your your heatsink, and that's not good. If your scythe could be flipped to exhaust upwards it would help, but I don't think there's enough space for a fan on the bottom because of your itx mobo and and because the gpu is so close.

Would you consider a different setup? For that case I'd say get a 240mm aio water cooler and place it up front. Run the two bottom intake fans somewhat fast. The hot ish air from the aio would then rise and get sucked out by the top two exhaust fans and the bottom fans will give the gpu plenty of air which could then also be exhausted by the top fans as well as the back.

With the above setup you could easily run the system as a negative airflow one, meaning you run the three exhaust fans a bit faster than the four intakes (especially since two of the intakes would be restricted by the 240mm aio). This would easily pull all the heat out of the case quickly, and possibly be very good for dust as well (didn't check but hopefully the four intake fan positions each have a filter.

If you're not willing to go with an AIO, then we'll have to think out of the box... and possibly reverse a couple things.

 

[Shadowarez]

currently this case has the psu in a orientation that blocks a fan at the front, a aio could work but it wouldnt fit in the front due to were the psu has to be mounted.

1. 2 bottom fans are pulling from outside into the gpu,
2. the back slim fan has some heat coming off it for sure its doing its job effectively.
3. the Gentle Typhoon on the heatsink i would assume is pulling hot air directly from gpu's 2nd fan,
4. top 2 Scythe Fans i have exhausting in hopes it helps with the gpu exhausting directly under it.
5. the psu where its positioned can exhaust but its in a odd area since it would pull from the heatsink fan.

to answer the points you made,
1. if i flip the fans at top to intake air from outside would this be better to basicaly funnel air form outside case into the heatsink/fan.
2. unfortunately where the psu has to be placed can only fit 1 fan at bottom i could fit 2 but the top one would hit the psu nearly 100% blockage (odd design choice)

 

[CMetaphor]

What about a top 240mm AIO and a powerful exhaust fan at the back so that not much of the heat coming off the GPU would enter the cpu's Radiator? You could then run a positive pressure fan setup with the lone front and two bottom fans running fast to always keep the hot gpu air flowing up and out.

A weirder idea (which I've done variants of several times): what about the back fan slot becoming an intake fan for your current scythe heatsink? If you run it fast enough the hot gpu air should be pushed around the heatsink, and your two top exhaust fans will pull all the hot air out together. As long as the front and especially the bottom intake fans are running fairly fast, the gpu heat shouldn't get too "stuck" inside the case. Downside: you'll probably have to run that back intake fan without a filter to ensure there isn't much restriction to the air flowing out of the scythe.

 

[Shadowarez]

only prob with this is the back fan has to be a slim fan as there isnt enough room to fit a proper 25m thick one back there. a 240 uptop could work but hate the tubes are always kinked in odd angels and kills aios quickly.

i could flip the back to intake cool air into the chonk heatsink but i dont think the slim noctua would have the hootspa to really make a difference with the 3080ti FE i know the first fan intakes from the bottom and exhausts out the back. the 2nd pulls from the bottom exhausts right into the front of the Gentle typhoon, if i interpreted nvidias slides of how the 2 fans work on founders cards.

 

[CMetaphor]

You could try two fans adjacent on the scythe then? One slim intake from the back and one on the top as exhaust... but then you're pulling gpu air into the cpus heatsink again.

Sorry to say it so bluntly, but the case and/or the heatsink might have to go, as none of these weird setups is really ideal.

 

[Shadowarez]

i can test this orientation on days off i have a few Gentle Typhoons i can swap in since they were the golden standard way way back in day. plus i got 8 intake on the main Rig.

should it leave the fan on the cpu heatsink to least gather the heat the gpu is putting out or remove it so its only path is up/out with that exhaust?

 

[CMetaphor]

I'd try back intake running as loud as you can tolerate before anything else, just to see what it does. Try it with a cou stress test, then with a gpu stress test, then lastly both at once. It will give you a good idea of how much heat the heatsink is getting from the gpu.