Big cases?

[captain_cereal_hands]

Is there such a thing as too big in terms of case with respect to the parts you have? Like I have a 750D Airflow edition and I've been thinking of changing to something a little smaller. I have an unnecessary amount of fans (11 in total). I think I should down size.

This is my part list https://pcpartpicker.com/list/K6Q4Dx

I don't run SLI or even custom water cooling.

 

So is there such a thing as too big when it comes to case size?

[Bombastinator]

Matter of opinion.  Some people like huge cases, some don’t.

[captain_cereal_hands]

I mean but like can having a small amount of parts in a giant case affect performance? 

[Himommies]

4 minutes ago, captain_cereal_hands said:

I mean but like can having a small amount of parts in a giant case affect performance? 

Like yes it can definitley choke airflow but unless you never clean your dust filters or have a insane amount of 3.5 HDD it'll never be a issue. If your going to downsize, apart from part compatibility and upgradability threes not much your sacrificing

[Bombastinator]

4 minutes ago, captain_cereal_hands said:

I mean but like can having a small amount of parts in a giant case affect performance? 

Not really.  A bench mount is effectively a case the size of an entire room.

[captain_cereal_hands]

True. I do wanna move to like a mid tower but idk why. I don't really need and I'm trying to talk myself out of it but I keep taking myself into it.

[alyen]

It won't really affect performance, but maybe make your fans less efficient compared to a smaller case. I find my Fractal R5 to big these days and only have a single HDD or none in my systems today. I really like SSD and M.2 NVME small form factor. Too many drive bays seem to be a thing of the past for me.

[Bombastinator]

7 minutes ago, captain_cereal_hands said:

True. I do wanna move to like a mid tower but idk why. I don't really need and I'm trying to talk myself out of it but I keep taking myself into it.

Ah.  You want to be talked into it.  OK.  How’bout this one:  how much spare space would you have and where else could you put your computer if the case wasn’t huge?

[captain_cereal_hands]

I have one M.2 1 SSD and 1 HDD. The 750D is massive and I'm thinking of going down to something like Crystal Series 680X RGB ATX High Airflow and cutting down the number of fans.

 

[captain_cereal_hands]

If I went with a case like this 
https://www.corsair.com/us/en/Categories/Products/Cases/Crystal-Series-680X-RGB-High-Airflow-Tempered-Glass-ATX-Smart-Case/p/CC-9011168-WW#tab-tech-specs

and put my 360 rad in the front and 2 140's in the top and 1 140 in the back and had top and front be intake and back be exhaust but would the one exhaust be enough. It's 3000rpm.

[alyen]

The top fan closest to the back and rear fan are usually used for exhaust. The extra top fans are not necessary unless you have a radiator up top for most typical builds. With 2 exhaust fans you may not want the fans to be running at 3000rpm.

[TVwazhere]

13 hours ago, captain_cereal_hands said:

360 rad in the front and 2 140's in the top and 1 140 in the back and had top and front be intake and back be exhaust but would the one exhaust be enough. It's 3000rpm.

RPM's dont mean much. It's CFM rating that matters, which is a measurement of the volume of air that can be moved in a minute. A higher value means more air can be pushed through it. So if your top and front fans spin slow, a fan with a good CFM rating can exhaust most if not all the air out the back. 

[Bombastinator]

13 minutes ago, TVwazhere said:

RPM's dont mean much. It's CFM rating that matters, which is a measurement of the volume of air that can be moved in a minute. A higher value means more air can be pushed through it. So if your top and front fans spin slow, a fan with a good CFM rating can exhaust most if not all the air out the back. 

..true.  As long as the pathway is unimpeded.

[TVwazhere]

Just now, Bombastinator said:

..true.  As long as the pathway is unimpeded.

You'd have to seriously try to get a noticeable reduction in airflow that impacts temperatures (on the inside at least)

TL;DW, only when they stuffed it full of junk and boxes did they get a notable temp increase. (arguably their test methodology wasnt as good as it could have been, but eh)

[Bombastinator]

“Unimpeded” was an overly vague term.  I apologize.

 I was thinking of filters and radiators and air restrictions like side or bottom case fronts.  Radiators go inside a case.  It was a very narrow point.

[captain_cereal_hands]

10 hours ago, alyen said:

The top fan closest to the back and rear fan are usually used for exhaust. The extra top fans are not necessary unless you have a radiator up top for most typical builds. With 2 exhaust fans you may not want the fans to be running at 3000rpm.

I just meant that my fans can run up to 3000rpm not that I would run that high.

[captain_cereal_hands]

My front fans would be 3 of these https://pcpartpicker.com/product/Mb4gXL/noctua-case-fan-nff12industrialppc3000pwm

and the top and back would be 3 of these https://pcpartpicker.com/product/ntXfrH/noctua-case-fan-nfa14industrialppc3000pwm

2 on top and one in rear.

[TVwazhere]

2 hours ago, Bombastinator said:

“Unimpeded” was an overly vague term.  I apologize.

 I was thinking of filters and radiators and air restrictions like side or bottom case fronts.  Radiators go inside a case.  It was a very narrow point.

In that instance, yes static pressure maters more than CFM. I made the assumption that the new case would have a mesh front similar to the 750D Airflow Edition. 

1 hour ago, captain_cereal_hands said:

My front fans would be 3 of these https://pcpartpicker.com/product/Mb4gXL/noctua-case-fan-nff12industrialppc3000pwm

and the top and back would be 3 of these https://pcpartpicker.com/product/ntXfrH/noctua-case-fan-nfa14industrialppc3000pwm

2 on top and one in rear.

As long as the front and top fans are spinning slow, the rear shouldn't have too much issue exhausting most of the air. Personally, I'd make the top fans exhausts to help even the air flow pattern out though, so that all fans can run at the same or similar flow rate which could make fan tuning easier (for both performance and noise) In this case, I'd imagine the NF-F's would spin a little faster than the NF-A's since they have to overcome the radiator resistance. 

[captain_cereal_hands]

Yeah so that is my main question if I go with this case that has 2 140's on top a 140 in back and 3 120's in front. What would be the best setup. My Mobo doesn't have great fan headers so I'm gonna get a 4 pin fan header. Just figuring which should be exhaust and what kinda fan speed I want is the challenge.

[Tristerin]

Research: Positive, Negative and Neutral Air Pressure to decide which orientation you like for your situation (do you have carpets, is your PC near the carpets, are you in a dusty house, hot ambient temp, etc)

 

I prefer positive pressure.  I put in as much ambient (coolest air possible) air into the case as possible so that its literally blowing air out of the seams of the case to get more cool air in.  So I have more fans intaking, then exhausting.  

 

In my personal daily rig I have 4x120mm intake, 1x80mm intake, 1x200mm intake, 6x120mm exhaust.  Has more intake then exhaust, therefore is positive pressure.

 

EDIT - quick notes - Positive pressure means you are going to introduce the most amount of dust - so ensure you have fan filters to catch it or clean your stuff every 6 months I advice.

Negative pressure - you are exhaust so much air that its trying to pull in air from any crack in the case it can.  This typically causes dust buildup in specific nooks and crannies in the case, make sure everything is sealed tight and intake fans are filtered to keep things clean

Neutral pressure - same/same intake/exhaust - cleanest possible route for dust.  Also from my experience the higher temp of the 3 choices.

[captain_cereal_hands]

I deff want positive pressure. I know that from use over time.

 

Edit: also the 3 120's in the front will be for the CPU cooler. So not sure if I should have a static speed there.

[Bombastinator]

4 minutes ago, Tristerin said:

Research: Positive, Negative and Neutral Air Pressure to decide which orientation you like for your situation (do you have carpets, is your PC near the carpets, are you in a dusty house, hot ambient temp, etc)

 

I prefer positive pressure.  I put in as much ambient (coolest air possible) air into the case as possible so that its literally blowing air out of the seams of the case to get more cool air in.  So I have more fans intaking, then exhausting.  

 

In my personal daily rig I have 4x120mm intake, 1x80mm intake, 1x200mm intake, 6x120mm exhaust.  Has more intake then exhaust, therefore is positive pressure.

 

EDIT - quick notes - Positive pressure means you are going to introduce the most amount of dust - so ensure you have fan filters to catch it or clean your stuff every 6 months I advice.

Negative pressure - you are exhaust so much air that its trying to pull in air from any crack in the case it can.  This typically causes dust buildup in specific nooks and crannies in the case, make sure everything is sealed tight and intake fans are filtered to keep things clean

Neutral pressure - same/same intake/exhaust - cleanest possible route for dust.  Also from my experience the higher temp of the 3 choices.

Your statement implies there’s an advantage to negative pressure in some situations.  It’s possible I guess.  I’m curious as to what they would be though.

[Tristerin]

5 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

Your statement implies there’s an advantage to negative pressure in some situations.  It’s possible I guess.  I’m curious as to what they would be though.

Ive run each instance.  Heres my 2 copper coins based on my PC's locations and ambient temps in my house (and my temp goals)

 

I always prefer positive pressure - gives the best possible temperature to my components, but also introduces the most dust in the case.

 

I never run negative pressure (with intent to keep a negative pressure environment on my PC)- because that means Im putting a large load on the fans pulling air in, when I could more easily just create a positive environment.  I also do NOT buy cases that would force me to run a negative pressure situation.  Its just not as good imho.

 

I have run neutral air pressure.  Temps aren't as low as in a positive, or negative situation but the case remains basically spotless on the inside a year later.

[Bombastinator]

Just now, Tristerin said:

Ive run each instance.  Heres my 2 copper coins based on my PC's locations and ambient temps in my house (and my temp goals)

 

I always prefer positive pressure - gives the best possible temperature to my components, but also introduces the most dust in the case.

 

I never run negative pressure - because that means Im putting a large load on the fans pulling air in, when I could more easily just create a positive environment.  I also do NOT buy cases that would force me to run a negative pressure situation.  Its just not as good imho.

 

I have run neutral air pressure.  Temps aren't as low as in a positive, or negative situation but the case remains basically spotless on the inside a year later.

So negative pressure can be better than positive pressure but only if you can’t use any filters in which case it is less bad.  Negative pressure might be needed over neutral pressure for temps but would be worse for dust.

[Tristerin]

Just now, Bombastinator said:

So negative pressure can be better than positive pressure but only if you can’t use any filters in which case it is less bad.  Negative pressure might be needed over neutral pressure for temps but would be worse for dust.

They all have their pro's and con's based on your environment.

 

I would use Negative pressure only if I had a case that had "hot spots"

I would always use positive pressure because it introduces the coolest possible air into the environment - reason I only buy cases with side intake, multiple front intakes, etc

I would use neutral air pressure only if the amount of fan mounts forced that - and even then I would likely use a much faster RPM/CFM fan as intake to ensure it was positive

 

Hope this helps - its not complicated as you think, but more based on what you are looking to get out of where your rig is situated etc. 

 

You could literally install all fans as intake, or all fans as exhaust and see what results you get from THAT model of case in YOUR house's ambient temps - then go neutral and see what you get.

 

Only time I don't recommend positive - if you are in a SUPER DUSTY environment and aren't going to clean your PC regularly.