Corsair Carbide R500 - Airflow

[Lorunification]

Hello everybody on linustechtips and welcome to my first post,

 

i already did quite a bit of research concerning my question but did not manage to get a sufficient result. So here i am asking you!

 

As the title suggests i own a Carbide R500 midi-tower which has 6 mounting points for case fans - not counting the side panel fan as i don't want to use that one.

 

The mounting points distribute over the case as follows:

• 1x Back
• 2x Top
• 2x Front
• 1x Bottom

I now have 4 Noctua NF-F12 fans to cool the case and my question is what is the best arrangement in order to achieve the best cooling result.

 

I already got lots and lots of different opinions roaming from 3x exhaust (top,top,rear) and 1x intake (front) to 3x intake (front,front,bottom) and 1 exhaust (rear).

 

Personally i would assume to get the best results with a 2/2 setup having 2x exhaust (rear,top) and 2x intake (front,front).

 

Has anyone experience with this (or similar cases) and can give me a hint on how to arrange the fans? Is it in general better to have 2x top exhausts instead of rear,top? Or is one exhaust enough and i should use 3 intake fans?

 

I am pretty confused by reading (probably too much) about this in various forums.

 

Furthermore i am asking myself if it makes any sense to cover the side panel?

The system houses a GTX 670 OC Windforce which blows hot air out of the sidepanel. 

 

Thank you in advance,

Lorunification

 

Edit: The CPU is cooled by a Noctua NH-U14S which blows air from front to the back and directly upon the rear fan mounting point.

[LogicalDrm]

There are few options for you. First is to do it like I have. Two front intakes (I got 1x200mm), U14S blowing to top and 2 exhaust on top. With U14S blowing to rear, you are better with rear+top exhaust and 2 front intakes.

 

GPU isn't blowing towards sidepanel. Its intaking with those fans and blowing hot air all over the from where it raises to U14S and out from case. You can verify this with your hand.

[Lorunification]

Thank you very much for your reply. So my assumption was pretty much correct.

 

Now i have one last question: Since there are two mounting slots on top of the case, do i preferably use the one closer to the back or the one closer to the front? The second one (which is closer to the front) is directly over the CPU cooler while the back one is slightly behind it on the exhaust side of the CPU fan.

 

Is there any difference? Like stealing air from the CPU fan or something?

 

As for the GPU airflow, i am pretty sure the Windforce coolers are sucking air from below the GPU and exhaust them upon the sidepanel.

(Reference: 

)

 

Would an additional fan thats blowing air from the bottom onto the GPU improve GPU cooling? That would result in 3x intake (front,front,bottom) vs. 2x exhaust (top,rear) and thereby generate possitive air pressure. What would be your recommendation on this?

 

Thanks again in advance!

[LogicalDrm]

Is there any difference? Like stealing air from the CPU fan or something?

 

Would an additional fan thats blowing air from the bottom onto the GPU improve GPU cooling? That would result in 3x intake (front,front,bottom) vs. 2x exhaust (top,rear) and thereby generate possitive air pressure. What would be your recommendation on this?

 

Thanks again in advance!

 

If you are worried over CPU getting hot (which shouldn't be problem), have the front top fan intake and rear top exhaust. Or just rear and top rear as exhaust.

 

As for GPU, you are partly right. But Windforce is ACX style cooler. It intakes with all fans and exhaust to all directions, not just to sidepanel. So most times its more efficient to have sidepanel intake or passive than exhaust.

 

As for adding bottom fan. If you can get it clear from PSU cables and don't have other cards in the way, then it will provide extra air for GPU. But usually, reasons mentioned before, its near to useless.