My fan orientations

[Dean.P.]

So I have recently finished my new build and have crammed as many fans as possible into my baby but was wondering whether I have got my fan orientation best optimised so any and all opinions are welcome. The case is the Fractal Design Meshify C, CPU is the AMD 3900X, Motherboard is ASUS Crosshair Hero VIII WIFI (X570), GPU is the MSI Ventus RTX 2080 ti 11G and finally the RAM is the Vengeance LPX 3200MHz 2 x 16gb sticks, I picked this ram due to its low profile nature and the compatibility with my NH-D15. 

 

Starting from my intake fans I have the following setup as shown on the attached picture. On the front I have 2 x 140 mm industrial 3000 RPM Noctuas to feed the CPU and the GPU, I also have a Fractal Design case fan (120 mm) tucked/ squeezed at the bottom alongside a Corsair fan facing up in hope that it directs some air towards the GPU. The top Corsair fan above my postcode is to feed into the NH-D15 which is feeding towards the back of my case, i was going to have this as an exhaust fan but thought it would steal the air away from my CPU cooler. At the back of the case as another industrial Noctua drawing hot air upwards and another Corsair fan taking hot air out the case. Please critique and let me know what I could tweak for improved performance. One of my concerns is related to the top fans and whether a potential re-circulation of hot air could happen?

  

 

Edit: Yeah the picture is quite dark but just go from the arrows I drew over it  

 

So annoyed with myself for fitting the heat sink upside down ^ I don't think it will have any affect on performance as it seems to be bi-directional, just does not look as aesthetically pleasing however, once my glass side panel is on you cannot see it.

[RAS_3885]

7 hours ago, Dean.P. said:

- SNIP -

Generally, I like to have the air all flowing in one direction since that naturally how it wants to behave.  This means I tend to avoid additional fans blowing in from the top/bottom of the case unless I need to.  With the 140 mm Noctuas up from and the dual fans on the CPU cooler you have tons of fore/aft airflow in the case.

 

Personally, I would start with x2 140 mm Noctuas in the front of the case (spacing the bottom one down a little bit to better feed the GPU) and move the remaining Noctua to the exhaust spot.  3 case fans total.  If temps and noise can be kept in check with that configuration then I'd run with that long-term.  If temps weren't quite where I want them then I'd add another intake fan first, then a rear/top exhaust as a secondary measure.

 

Regardless, I don't think the two Corsair fans you have as a top and bottom intake are necessary and likely create extra turbulence in the case.

 

What are your temps currently?  You may ultimately be fine as is if the temps and noise are good.

[Dean.P.]

8 minutes ago, RAS_3885 said:

Generally, I like to have the air all flowing in one direction since that naturally how it wants to behave.  This means I tend to avoid additional fans blowing in from the top/bottom of the case unless I need to.  With the 140 mm Noctuas up from and the dual fans on the CPU cooler you have tons of fore/aft airflow in the case.

 

Personally, I would start with x2 140 mm Noctuas in the front of the case (spacing the bottom one down a little bit to better feed the GPU) and move the remaining Noctua to the exhaust spot.  3 case fans total.  If temps and noise can be kept in check with that configuration then I'd run with that long-term.  If temps weren't quite where I want them then I'd add another intake fan first, then a rear/top exhaust as a secondary measure.

 

Regardless, I don't think the two Corsair fans you have as a top and bottom intake are necessary and likely create extra turbulence in the case.

 

What are your temps currently?  You may ultimately be fine as is if the temps and noise are good.

Hi, I actually have no cooling issues at all at peak loads on a p95 I hold stable at 75C, I have noticed that each fan I add does make improvements but the added return is less but it's still fun hearing it go at full blast. Regarding the corsair fans they're quite old so they are totally over powered by the 140mm Noctuas, but they probably aren't really necessary. 

[LogicalDrm]

Flip top to all exhaust, otherwise its all good.

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I find that the best setup for those cases is 2x 140mm intake at the front, a single 120mm at the rear.  Anything more and the temperature gains don't make up for the increased noise level.  Diminishing returns and all that. 

 

If you like the noise however, by all means keep them as they are. 

 

 

[Dean.P.]

On 8/25/2019 at 8:35 PM, LogicalDrm said:

Flip top to all exhaust, otherwise its all good.

My dear turning them both to exhaust is you'll suck in fresh air and exhaust it before it reaches the CPU cooler due to the path of least resistance and all that

[Dean.P.]

On 8/26/2019 at 2:39 PM, Captain Chaos said:

I find that the best setup for those cases is 2x 140mm intake at the front, a single 120mm at the rear.  Anything more and the temperature gains don't make up for the increased noise level.  Diminishing returns and all that. 

 

If you like the noise however, by all means keep them as they are. 

 

 

That is fair enough I might tail back the fan curves on the non critical ones and see the impact it had on the cooling performance

[LogicalDrm]

8 minutes ago, Dean.P. said:

My dear turning them both to exhaust is you'll suck in fresh air and exhaust it before it reaches the CPU cooler due to the path of least resistance and all that

You can make exhausts slower, if you worry that. Test it out. I doubt you will get any big differences anyway. You have fan blowing directly to CPU cooler. 50-70% of that fans airflow will be on CPU cooler even if both top were exhausts.

[thinwalrus]

I would take that front top roof fan out completely. No use to blow air out before it heat ups from any components and if intake it will only create turbulance for the front panel intake.

[Dean.P.]

58 minutes ago, LogicalDrm said:

You can make exhausts slower, if you worry that. Test it out. I doubt you will get any big differences anyway. You have fan blowing directly to CPU cooler. 50-70% of that fans airflow will be on CPU cooler even if both top were exhausts.

 

50 minutes ago, thinwalrus said:

I would take that front top roof fan out completely. No use to blow air out before it heat ups from any components and if intake it will only create turbulance for the front panel intake.

I think I'll have to do some experiments to see what works best but as you guys are saying I don't think it'll really make any noticeable differences. Thanks is for the input though!