AIO Liquid Cooler - Fan configuration: Have I misunderstood?

[Cyphron]

Hi!

 

So I'm doubting my cooling configuration. When I first built this setup I placed the AIO CPU cooling as the top front intake. Pulling the air through two intake fans and out with a single fan in the back. A friend told me I should consider having the AIO as exhaust as shown in the picture instead. However, after I made the change I've noticed some higher temperatures overall and more heatspikes. After I changed the configuration it can suddenly jump from 35 to 45 with little to no load. I never had this problem with the previous setup. I'm also concerned with having the tubes under more stress this way as there is some more bending having it the way I'm having now. After doing some bit of reading I'm considering buying a extra fan and rather place the AIO to exhaust through the top of the case. 

 

How much stress can the tubing take and what is the optimal cooling configuration?

[PopsicleHustler]

Obviously having AiO fan as intake will get you lower temperatures because it sucking fresh air from outside the case instead of hot air that comes from the GPU.

[Origami Cactus]

Did you rotate the fan the other way, so that it pushes the air out the back? Also i would take on of the front intakes and would put it on the radiator, so that the AIO radiator is sandwiched between 2 fans. Make sure that they both move the air in the same direction thought!

The tubes look fine.

 

Having the AIO as the exhaust means lower temperatures for the GPU, motherboard, HDD, but raises the temperature on the CPU itself.

I think that it is a fair compromise, because GPU's usually get hotter than cpus anyway.

So i would have the CPU AIO as the exhaust, but if your cpu gets too hot then set it as an intake, but keep in mind the effect that has on other components.

[Cyphron]

22 hours ago, Origami Cactus said:

Did you rotate the fan the other way, so that it pushes the air out the back? Also i would take on of the front intakes and would put it on the radiator, so that the AIO radiator is sandwiched between 2 fans. Make sure that they both move the air in the same direction thought!

The tubes look fine.

 

Having the AIO as the exhaust means lower temperatures for the GPU, motherboard, HDD, but raises the temperature on the CPU itself.

I think that it is a fair compromise, because GPU's usually get hotter than cpus anyway.

So i would have the CPU AIO as the exhaust, but if your cpu gets too hot then set it as an intake, but keep in mind the effect that has on other components.

Yes, I did turned the fan to push air out of the case. That would mean I'd have 1 intake fan which have to drag air through a filter. Do you think the overall airflow would be good enough in that case?

 

Aha, thanks for the insight. It doesn't get "too hot" but it gets alot hotter than before and the spikes concerned me. As for "optimal solution", would it be best to place the AIO the top of the case and buy another fan to exhaust?

[Origami Cactus]

6 minutes ago, Cyphron said:

Yes, I did turned the fan to push air out of the case. That would mean I'd have 1 intake fan which have to drag air through a filter. Do you think the overall airflow would be good enough in that case?

 

Aha, thanks for the insight. It doesn't get "too hot" but it gets alot hotter than before and the spikes concerned me. As for "optimal solution", would it be best to place the AIO the top of the case and buy another fan to exhaust?

I would leave it as it is now.

What do you mean by "alot" hotter? What is the max temp for example?

[Cyphron]

12 minutes ago, Origami Cactus said:

I would leave it as it is now.

What do you mean by "alot" hotter? What is the max temp for example?

Max temp under load now is approx. 65 celsius. While I don't quite remember what it used to be, normal workload is around 38-45. while it used to be 30 - 39. I rarely saw temperatures in the upper 40's which now is quite more often during normal use. It also seems my previous Cinabench scores where 1.03x faster. The numbers are by no means in what I would consider in the "danger zone" but I didn't realize or understood the effects and benefits moving the AIO would have on the components.

 

Alright, no more fans then. 

[Origami Cactus]

2 minutes ago, Cyphron said:

Max temp under load now is approx. 65 celsius. While I don't quite remember what it used to be, normal workload is around 38-45. while it used to be 30 - 39. I rarely saw temperatures in the upper 40's which now is quite more often during normal use. It also seems my previous Cinabench scores where 1.03x faster. The numbers are by no means in what I would consider in the "danger zone" but I didn't realize or understood the effects and benefits moving the AIO would have on the components.

 

Alright, no more fans then. 

Yeah IMO the lower GPU and HDD temperatures make up for the higher CPU temperatures.

65c is still very low for a load temp, so i would say that it is fine.

 

You can add 2x top fans if you want to, but right now it doesn't look like it is needed.