More intake or more exhaust?

[redcan0]

Hey everyone, My current fan setup is 3 intake at the front 3 exhaust at the top and on exhaust on the rear. I want to change this to 3 front intake and 3 top intake 1 rear exhaust. Which setup would give better CPU temps?

 

Note: I don’t care about dust.

[MarvintheParrot]

13 minutes ago, redcan0 said:

Hey everyone, My current fan setup is 3 intake at the front 3 exhaust at the top and on exhaust on the rear. I want to change this to 3 front intake and 3 top intake 1 rear exhaust. Which setup would give better CPU temps?

 

Note: I don’t care about dust.

1: you really should care about dust, not just because it looks bad, but because it can hinder the performance.

2: Your setup now is fine now, you want to make sure that not one fan is working too hard, for example, if you have 6 intake and 1 exhaust, the 1 exhaust fan will exert more power and will again, hinder the performance of the fan. 

 

For every 2 or 3 intake, I would have 1 exhaust.

[redcan0]

3 minutes ago, jsugarman2005 said:

1: you really should care about dust, not just because it looks bad, but because it can hinder the performance.

2: Your setup now is fine now, you want to make sure that not one fan is working too hard, for example, if you have 6 intake and 1 exhaust, the 1 exhaust fan will exert more power and will again, hinder the performance of the fan. 

 

For every 2 or 3 intake, I would have 1 exhaust.

So actually this how it currently is. I have a 360mm radiator at the very top as exhaust and 1 rear exhaust and 3 intake case fans at the very front. I am planning to move the radiator from the top of the case to the front. And then I will remove the fans that came with the AIO and put them at the very top of the case as 3 intake fans. Would this make sense. I could also use those 3 fans to do a pull/push set up on the radiator.

[Intergalacticbits]

LTT did a video on this question in 2016.

Case Fans - How many do you need? 

Do a search for it and it will come up.

 

They tested different fan setups.

If I remember correctly I think it was 2 in the front for intake, 1 in the top for exhaust and 1 in the back for exhaust.

It said in the video that there is no real benefit in added cooling after the number and placement of fans they show.

I hope that is helpful.

 

 

[WoodenMarker]

System specs?

 

Moved to Cooling. 

[redcan0]

3 hours ago, WoodenMarker said:

System specs?

 

Moved to Cooling. 

Cooler Master TD500 Mesh

Silverstone PF360

Ryzen 5 3600
Asus Rog Strix RTX 2080 Super

[WoodenMarker]

26 minutes ago, redcan0 said:

Cooler Master TD500 Mesh

Silverstone PF360

Ryzen 5 3600
Asus Rog Strix RTX 2080 Super

The 3600 isn't hard to cool and what you have currently is fine. What are load temps?

Moving the rad to the front may be better for temps but I'd recommend doing so only if the tubing can reach when at the bottom of the rad. 

[BruceWayneofLosSanto]

After you move the radiator to the front just use 2 top fans 1 at front and one at back and use the front top for intake and the top rear as exhaust.  If you have the front top as exhaust it will just suck out freshly intaked air.

[RainingTacco]

8 hours ago, redcan0 said:

Hey everyone, My current fan setup is 3 intake at the front 3 exhaust at the top and on exhaust on the rear. I want to change this to 3 front intake and 3 top intake 1 rear exhaust. Which setup would give better CPU temps?

 

Note: I don’t care about dust.

It doesn't matter beside the question -are you willing to dust off your PC once in a while? If you don't mind, then you can have more exhausts. It will just pull more dust from outside. 

[redcan0]

11 hours ago, WoodenMarker said:

The 3600 isn't hard to cool and what you have currently is fine. What are load temps?

Moving the rad to the front may be better for temps but I'd recommend doing so only if the tubing can reach when at the bottom of the rad. 

1.1V 4.2 GHz - Cinebench R23 53 degrees

1.25V 4.4 GHz - Cinebench R23 58 degrees

1.4V 4.6 GHz - Cinebench R23 80 degrees

 

And the tubing won’t reach the bottom as far as I can see I may be wrong though just assuming.

What would happen if thr tubes were up?

Most of my friends are using their AIO at the front with the tubing facing up.

[WoodenMarker]

9 hours ago, redcan0 said:

1.1V 4.2 GHz - Cinebench R23 53 degrees

1.25V 4.4 GHz - Cinebench R23 58 degrees

1.4V 4.6 GHz - Cinebench R23 80 degrees

 

And the tubing won’t reach the bottom as far as I can see I may be wrong though just assuming.

What would happen if thr tubes were up?

Most of my friends are using their AIO at the front with the tubing facing up.

1.4v is probably too high for a static voltage and isn't good for the lifespan of the cpu. What are you able to push with 1.3-1.35v?

Air floats to the highest point in a loop and having the tubing be at the highest point can reintroduce to air into the liquid and increase noise, lower performance, and / or lower lifespan. 

Gamers Nexus has a good video on this: