Fan selection and orientation help for m-atx case.

[Kurt_31]

As the title suggest I'm after some advice/help on selecting the correct fans for my case that will accommodate my future plans.

 

My case is the Corsair 280x

https://www.corsair.com/us/en/Categories/Products/Cases/Crystal-Series-280X/p/CC-9011134-WW

 

I currently have an ASRock steel legend b450m m-ATX mother board however I do plan to change to a m-ITX board for clearance reasons in the future.

 

Now before i ask my question I should explain my plans, i intend to install 2x 280mm radiators in my case, one at the bottom and one up top. I currently have a Corsair H115i Extreme 280mm AIO loop for my CPU and that fits in the top of the case with 2x 140mm fans in front. I shall upload a picture later if need be. Top clearance and front clearance should not be an issue, bottom clearance will be tight however i have seen pictures of 240mm radiators in the bottom with clear fine when using a water cooled GPU. So I believe I will fit a 280mm in the bottom as it will clear the front fans as the top already does. Plan is to mount a pump/res combo in the side compartment and then I have a tubing layout mapped in my head that should work just fine. 

 

Now this brings me to my actual question, what would be my best choice when it comes to fan selection? There is a total of 7 spots for 140mm fans, 2 front, 2 top, 2 bottom and the final one in the side compartment. My thought process is that 7 static pressure fans would be the best way to go as these cases are said to not be great for airflow (I purchased as I love the design and radiator capabilities) and the layout I imagined would be to have the top radiator fans exhaust and the remaining 5 fans as intakes. The reason I feel this would be best is I want to encourage as much airflow through the radiators as possible and having static pressure fans in this layout just makes sense to me. I imagine this would create a nice positive pressure in the case encouraging air flow through the top radiator, but may restrict airflow coming in through the bottom radiator? Also I'm unsure if this will provide adequate airflow over the VRM's and RAM as such. 

 

RGB isn't a requirement but wouldn't hurt imo, I'm currently on the corsair bandwagon with a keyboard, mouse, headset and the case, however that doesn't mean it has to be a corsair fan but I do like the idea of having the ability to play around with fan settings and such in the icue software. I've spent some time looking over different fans and specs and it's gotten to the point where all that information has just amassed into a singularity and I've no idea what to go with.

 

Really interested in what peoples thoughts/recommendations are and thanks in advance. If you need any more info 

[tarfeef101]

I had this case for a while, and did an itx dual-rad loop in it as well. although, i used 240mm rads, not 280. no promises about clearance and compatibility there, you're on your own. 

 

In my case, here's how I handled cooling:

• removed the front glass. this can be done just with (a lot of) screws, and IMO still looks nice, and dramatically increases airflow
• did a 240 rad at the bottom for intake
• did a pair of 240mm fans at the front for intake
• did a 240 rad at the top for exhaust
• the PSU-side of the case was just the PSU and pump, no extra fans

The rad fans, ofc, should be decent static-pressure oriented fans, feel free to go with whatever tickles your fancy. i used arctic f12s on the top and p12s on the bottom because that's what was cheap and what I had on hand at the time. the front can be anything if you remove the glass since there's basically no restrictions other than the filter. this resulted in excellent performance for me. in fact, i sold the case, GPU, PSU, and cooling loop to a friend who is now using it as I set it up, and it is working great for him too.

 

and yeah unless your VRM is terrible, the airflow will be totally fine. everything is so close together, and esp with the freely flowing air from the front, you'll get plenty over the vrm heatsink.

[Kurt_31]

@tarfeef101 Awesome, I imagined it would end up being whichever fans suit my tastes and budget. After posting I realised there may be clearance issues with the side fan depending on how the pump/res fits. I have looked at many water loops in this case and it appears most people go for the 240mm route but I'm somewhat confident I can squeeze 2 280mm radiators in there, I'll upload a picture of my current 280mm AIO loop to show what I mean.

 

Cheers for the speedy reply.

[tarfeef101]

2 minutes ago, Kurt_31 said:

@tarfeef101 Awesome, I imagined it would end up being whichever fans suit my tastes and budget. After posting I realised there may be clearance issues with the side fan depending on how the pump/res fits. I have looked at many water loops in this case and it appears most people go for the 240mm route but I'm somewhat confident I can squeeze 2 280mm radiators in there, I'll upload a picture of my current 280mm AIO loop to show what I mean.

 

Cheers for the speedy reply.

np, good luck with fitting em. on the bottom, it felt like there was a decent amount of space, i wouldn't expect many issues there. at the top, it might be harder to squeeze cables through the top cutouts and such, and ram/vrm heatsink clearance could be a bit of a challenge. 

 

also i wouldn't bother with a side fan. what is it going to cool anyways, some drives, cables, and a pump??? not worth the clutter/hassle IMO. I'd rather get a quieter ATX PSU and nice D5 pump in the back rather than make it all cramped and putting in a fan with basically nothing to cool anyways. Plus, the more positive the pressure, the more help the top exhuast fans get pushing through that rad and out the sides of the glass-topped area it exhausts out of.

[Kurt_31]

@tarfeef101 The side fan was planned to be an intake, just to bump the pressure up a little or at least to help prevent air routing that way however the vented rear of the hard drive bay would make that redundant anyway and the space is better used to accommodate the pump/res and a fan controller.

 

I have attached pictures to show clearance. I'm now confident that the bottom rad will fit no worries, the top will be tight however I can shift the radiator a fair bit further back with a little encouragement.

[tarfeef101]

10 minutes ago, Kurt_31 said:

- Snip -

Yeah I strongly encourage using that rear space for that other stuff, I think it's much better use of that space. 

 

be prepared to use 120mm fans in the front, you may not have to, but custom loop radiators and fittings are often a bit bigger than AIOs, so you may need that little extra clearance you get from using 120s in the front. also you can use the space between the mobo and front for "activities", personally i mounted some SSDs there just to put something nice to fill that space in, but you COULD do a little pump/res there if you wanted to. 

[narrdarr]

Custom loop vs aio are very different. 

I would highly recommend that you do not use an aio bottom mounted. If you want dual aio then top and front would be best.

 

Aside from the air flow config I would use would be

Bottom in

Front in

Top out

You can also use 2x 80mm on the rear of the case.

[Kurt_31]

@narrdarr Didn't know about 80mm fans fitting, useful information. I don't plan on running AIO's, I'm going with a custom loop for both CPU and GPU. Starting at pump/res coolant will then flow to CPU, top rad, GPU, bottom rad and back to the pump/res.

[narrdarr]

3 hours ago, Kurt_31 said:

@narrdarr Didn't know about 80mm fans fitting, useful information. I don't plan on running AIO's, I'm going with a custom loop for both CPU and GPU. Starting at pump/res coolant will then flow to CPU, top rad, GPU, bottom rad and back to the pump/res.

it not support officially, but they do fit

 

 

[Kurt_31]

@narrdarr ah I see, 2 in there that's a little cheeky. 

 

@tarfeef101 turns out you can definitely fit 2x 280mm radiators https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3yR4dcwmoo

[narrdarr]

5 hours ago, Kurt_31 said:

@narrdarr ah I see, 2 in there that's a little cheeky. 

 

@tarfeef101 turns out you can definitely fit 2x 280mm radiators https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3yR4dcwmoo

You could use only one. With 1 you'll have more options of placement.

I think it would be cheeky if you added a 80mm rad on a single 80mm fan. Lol

 

[Kurt_31]

5 hours ago, narrdarr said:

You could use only one. With 1 you'll have more options of placement.

I think it would be cheeky if you added a 80mm rad on a single 80mm fan. Lol

 

hahahaha an 80mm radiator would be hilarious! The fittings would almost be as big as the radiator!

 

omg, look what google turned up https://www.au.aquatuning.com/water-cooling/radiators/radiators-active/15909/alphacool-nexxxos-xt45-full-copper-80mm-dual-radiator

Edited January 24, 2021 by Kurt_31

[narrdarr]

1 hour ago, Kurt_31 said:

hahahaha an 80mm radiator would be hilarious! The fittings would almost be as big as the radiator!

 

omg, look what google turned up https://www.au.aquatuning.com/water-cooling/radiators/radiators-active/15909/alphacool-nexxxos-xt45-full-copper-80mm-dual-radiator

yea people use them in u1 server case