Does AIO location matter?

[GamerBlake]

Like can I put it on the front of my case and expect the same performance as if I put it on top or in the back? Or is there an ideal location to mount AIOs?  

[Xkillerpn]

SImple as this, if you have a rad on the front dumping heat to the inside of the case all of the stuff will get hot, if its all cooled by the rad its fine.

 

So with this if there is a gpu in there it will get the heat if not watercooled.

[For Science!]

It's not so much the location as opposed to whether it is intaking or exhausting air. Assuming of course the two locations have an equal access to air (impedance), if one location is blocked off by TG, and another is meshed, then the location will matter.

 

If you are intaking air, while it has access to cooler air outside the chassis, it will be sending warmer air (how warm depends on how efficient the radiator is, and how hot the CPU is) towards the inside the chassis. This will negatively affect the temperature of components in the chassis (normally the GPU).

 

If you are exhausting air, the heat from the CPU is removed directly from the chassis and thus does not affect negatively the other components in the chassis. However this means that it has to use the air from inside the chassis to cool the radiator and so if your chassis internal temperature is warm, due to having a open shroud GPU for example, the CPU temperatures will suffer.

 

"Heat rises so you should....." types of advice are almost myth-class unreliable since active airflow in the form of fans negate most of convection/radiation based cooling. Front intake, front exhaust, top intake, top exhaust, rear intake, rear exhaust, each have their time and place.