Help me setup my case airflow please, plus some questions

[Salamand4r]

I just got a Noctua NH-D15 and this is the first time i deal with a CPU Air cooler as i had a single rad water cooler before it. I have some questions:

 

I plan to Overclock soon so keep this in mind.

1- Will I have better performance if I switched the fans it comes with with 1 or 2 NF-F12 industrialppc-3000 pwm fans?

2- Covering less heatsink surface with 120mm fans will be an issue or not? if i want to add the second NF-A15 fan it wont fit because its a 150mm high fan and rams get in the way.

 

3- Is push-pull configuration always good? when is it bad and when is it good? would the 2 NF-F12 industrialppc fans out perform 2 NF-A15 in this configuration? (Note the size difference)

 

4- is having too much Static Pressure bad or good? as 2 NF-F12 industrialppc-3000 pwm fans will have way too much and i'm wondering if thats going to cause a problem. (on full fan speed)

 

 

now about setting up my airflow, first here's the set up:

Case: Corsair C70

Fans: 4x NF-S12A
           4x NF-F12 industrialppc-3000 pwm

           2x NF-F12
           2x NF-A15 (came with the heatsink)

 

Help me decide how to setup my fans, think of every possibility like NF-A15 on exhaust as they can fit in the top or whatever you guys come up with.


Some ideas i came up with :

1-                  2- 

 

 

3-   

 

 

one last thing, I have a MSI GTX 980 which means we cant rely on it to be an exhaust as fans will stop spinning on low loads. (if anyone ever takes GPU into consideration when it comes to this) 

 

Please be as specific as you can with the suggestions as fan speeds are confusing me because i don't know if they will hinder each other or what not and which fans would be where and so on.

Thanks in advance.

[SpamBrie]

1. Hard to tell although I don't imagine it would make a significant difference.
2. Again you may lose a degree or two but if you have good overall airflow it should not make much difference.
3. Slightly outdated but still relevant:

Personally I'd go with 3 as everything goes in one direction so there is less vortex which could cause air to become trapped which could possibly increase the case temp as there is less room to move. Bit wishy wasy but that's generalized.

I'd recommend experimenting with different configs and seeing what works best as there are so many variables which make it difficult to calculate!

[Dzzope]

3.. You can have the cooler facing the back or top.

[Salamand4r]

@SpamBrie Yeah I'm also leaning towards picture 3 but taking fan speeds into account, would that make the fans work against each other or cause a vortex as you mentioned? im confused because of how fast the NF-F12 industrialppc-3000 pwm can be and where should i use them if i HAVE to?

 

 

3.. You can have the cooler facing the back or top.

 

I thought about it but i dont like the idea of it facing the top as it would be pulling heat from the GPU under it, unless thats not a problem at all?

[Dzzope]

Try and see..

 

Although with the D15, it MAY be a little close for it to pull air through the fan efficiently..

Testing and monitoring temps is the best way to find out.

[Salamand4r]

yeah there's that too.

also would supplying fresh cold air to the CPU cooler as shown in pic 1 and 2 make a difference with temps ? i mean air not going through the lower side of the case and then to the cpu but instead directly from the room to the cpu.

 

we're talking about overclocking cooling as temps would be pushed as close as 80c as i can get

[martward]

1 - NF-F12's are very good fans (I have heard), the industrial ones do tend to be a little bit louder as their RPM is higher.

 

2/4 - If you use a push/pull configuration, go with static pressure fans for the push. These fans are optimized to push air through a surface which is partly blocked, such as you heatsink. Also, 12mm fans probably won't cause major increases of heat but do tend to be a little louder. So in setup 3 (which I recommend) you would use a static fans on the cooler, and airflow fans on the intake. I am not too sure about the exhaust, but I think SP fans are better there as well.

 

3 - Push/pull is good as long as the air which is pushed through the heatsinks is then pulled to an exhaust. Never let the air from the cpu get back in the case (in you drawings back in the case would be to the right or the bottom) since that will heat up your case. Setup 3 looks very well (I am going to go with that exact configuration in my next case).

Setup 2 is bad since you get fresh air, warm it up with you cpu and then release it into your case. Setup 1 has two fans blowing into each other, which is highly inefficient.

 

In short:

- Use setup 3

- Use Static pressure SP fans on you cpu cooler which blow to either the back or the top (as long as there is an exhaust fan)

- You can use AF fans for the other fan ports

- Noctua fans are very good, no point in replacing them unless you find them too loud

- Use as many exhausts as intakes

 

Edit:

You can also have one extra intake to create some positive pressure in the case to make sure dust stays out, but you should really use dustfilters on the fans if you want to do that.