AIO rad push or pull fan setup

[Lightning_fingers]

Simple question really, should a fan setup for an AIO be between the case and rad (pushing air through the rad) or mounted onto the rad (mounted to the case) pulling air through the rad.

on a car, the fan on the rad pushes air through, should it be the same for an AIO in a pc?

[Bombastinator]

32 minutes ago, Lightning_fingers said:

Simple question really, should a fan setup for an AIO be between the case and rad (pushing air through the rad) or mounted onto the rad (mounted to the case) pulling air through the rad.

on a car, the fan on the rad pushes air through, should it be the same for an AIO in a pc?

Push is usually preferred over pull.  Sometimes both are done but it is only useful in specific circumstances.

[Anomnomnomaly]

13 hours ago, Lightning_fingers said:

Simple question really, should a fan setup for an AIO be between the case and rad (pushing air through the rad) or mounted onto the rad (mounted to the case) pulling air through the rad.

on a car, the fan on the rad pushes air through, should it be the same for an AIO in a pc?

The reason the fan on a car is in that config is because you can't obscure the radiator from the front... A car cools it's rad when driving around with cooler air being forced through the rads. The only time the fan should come on is when it's sitting idling with no airflow across the rads, in which case it's PUSHING the air through the rad. (unless it's a really old car with a direct belt fed fan, but those haven't been a thing for 40-50yrs)

[Lightning_fingers]

11 hours ago, Anomnomnomaly said:

The reason the fan on a car is in that config is because you can't obscure the radiator from the front... A car cools it's rad when driving around with cooler air being forced through the rads. The only time the fan should come on is when it's sitting idling with no airflow across the rads, in which case it's PUSHING the air through the rad. (unless it's a really old car with a direct belt fed fan, but those haven't been a thing for 40-50yrs)

Yup so the question applies to my AIO, it’s stationary, should the fans inside the case push or pull air through the rad.

 

i also read there is quite a difference of opinion as to whether air should flow into or out of the case through the rad

[Bombastinator]

19 minutes ago, Lightning_fingers said:

Yup so the question applies to my AIO, it’s stationary, should the fans inside the case push or pull air through the rad.

 

i also read there is quite a difference of opinion as to whether air should flow into or out of the case through the rad

Push.  Push works better.  It has to do with HOW propeller fans work. 

 That wasn’t a whether it was done that way it was a why I think.

[Mr Nobody]

You don't want to introduce warm air into your case, so you should push the air through the rad out of the case.

[Bombastinator]

3 minutes ago, Mr Nobody said:

You don't want to introduce warm air into your case, so you should push the air through the rad out of the case.

There’s a question of how warm the air would actually be though.  The thing about watercooling is if there isn’t a lot of albedo between ambient and the water and there isn’t a ton of watts being thrown by the part being cooled by the radiator while the air will be warmer it often won’t be very much warmer.

[Mr Nobody]

8 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

There’s a question of how warm the air would actually be though.  The thing about watercooling is if there isn’t a lot of albedo between ambient and the water and there isn’t a ton of watts being thrown by the part being cooled by the radiator while the air will be warmer it often won’t be very much warmer.

Linus has done tests on this (Jay has as well I think) and a PC puts off a considerable amount of heat, so I have to disagree that there isn't much of a difference between ambient temperature and the air being pushed through the radiator. If the radiator isn't dispersing that heat, then it isn't very efficient.

[Bombastinator]

1 minute ago, Mr Nobody said:

Linus has done tests on this (Jay has as well I think) and a PC puts off a considerable amount of heat, so I have to disagree that there isn't much of a difference between ambient temperature and the air being pushed through the radiator. If the radiator isn't dispersing that heat, then it isn't very efficient.

A whole PC does.  Individual parts often don’t. Particularly CPUs a 65w cpu puts out 65w while a 200w gpu puts out 200w.  The GPU is apparently on air and not part of the loop.  Nor is the PSU or the motherboard.  The radiator apparently cools only the CPU and a 360 rad cooling less than 100w just isn’t going to have to do a lot of work.  Efficiency is based on albedo. The difference in temperature between ambient air and the part being cooled.  The whole point of water is it works well with low albedos.  Effective inefficiency.  

[Touch My Hamm]

Lots of people like push but as much hate as Ill get pull has its advantages. Most of which is that its easier to clean out dust from the rad than a fan. On a rad you can get most by blowing air through it while fans like to cake on the blades and it can be hard to get in each nook lol. Just food for thought. Most rad setups have enough cooling to be ok with the small difference in performance you would get. But it also depends on the look you want. at times fans look nicer than just having a bare rad sticking out. 

[Bombastinator]

7 minutes ago, GodSeph said:

Lots of people like push but as much hate as Ill get pull has its advantages. Most of which is that its easier to clean out dust from the rad than a fan. On a rad you can get most by blowing air through it while fans like to cake on the blades and it can be hard to get in each nook lol. Just food for thought. Most rad setups have enough cooling to be ok with the small difference in performance you would get. But it also depends on the look you want. at times fans look nicer than just having a bare rad sticking out. 

It can also be quieter.  Iirc there is one cooler being sold that comes with 1 fan in pull standard for less noise.