Airflow - Perfect? Or Not.

[Empire24453]

Evening people, Does this image of the cooling seems right?

 

Two 140mm fans from front blowing into the case for the AIO radiator that's mounted in the front, Then two 140mm AIO fans blowing out from the radiator into the case. Then 1x 120mm and 2x 140mm fans from the bac and on top of the case as seen on the image blowing air from inside and out of the case. 

 

 

Before I had all fans going out of case LOL

[Tan3l6]

This is a good airflow model.

It's not perfect, but it's the logical one.
"perfect" would perhaps be the "breathing case":

 

[Hairless Monkey]

Something to consider:

 

Mounting the CPU Rad in the front will improve CPU temps at the expense of GPU temps. Likewise, mounting it on top will improve GPU temps at the expense of CPU temps. I personally tend to go for the latter, since a cooler GPU translates more directly to improved game performance.

[Chris Pratt]

What case is that?

[Empire24453]

It's Phanteks Enthoo Pro, mid size tower. Can't have AIO mounted on top since there is no clearance 

[jaslion]

5 minutes ago, Empire24453 said:

It's Phanteks Enthoo Pro, mid size tower. Can't have AIO mounted on top since there is no clearance 

It's a fine case but older and a LOT of better cases for airflow are out now so if you haven't bought it yet you might want to not buy this.

 

Either way DO NOT mount a rad to the front it will be lower than the pump thus all air will collect in the pump shortening it's life, providing poor cooling due to air being in the way of the water and be quite loud. This case was NOT made for watercooling in the slightest.

[Empire24453]

@jaslion I had the case since 2018. Over three years old now. I'm aware of how AIO works that is why I try to put the AIO as high as I can   so that the pump is lower then the top of the radiator, liquid box location. 

 

 

[Jeppes]

1 hour ago, Empire24453 said:

@jaslion I had the case since 2018. Over three years old now. I'm aware of how AIO works that is why I try to put the AIO as high as I can   so that the pump is lower then the top of the radiator, liquid box location. 

 

 

On that pic all fans are exhaust.

 

That is also a wide case. You really cant fit that rad on roof using the offset mounting?

[RejZoR]

All these schematics work in theory, but it's not really how heat moves inside. I have an extra 80mm fan that feeds air specifically under the graphic card from the front because the front case fans just don't push enough air directly to graphic card. I also recently created a divider from a sheet of transparent plastic that divides feeding of cold intake air to said 80mm fan for graphic card and then it's slope going up to the 240mm AiO on the top of the case. Below the divider air exhausted from graphic card is guided to the rear exhaust so it entirely bypasses AiO radiator on the top. Otherwise all the heat from graphic card was just pulled into the AiO radiator and rear fan only got tiny portion of it. Now it gets all of it.

[Empire24453]

5 hours ago, Jeppes said:

That is also a wide case. You really cant fit that rad on roof using the offset mounting?

Goes front and top, however since the ram sticks are high as they are RGB, time your radiator and fans are mounted it's over the ram sticks however the sticks I got are far higher and won't fit.

 

 

[Watercooledguy]

 

5 hours ago, Jeppes said:

On that pic all fans are exhaust.

 

That is also a wide case. You really cant fit that rad on roof using the offset mounting?

I agree with Jeppes, those fans on the radiator look like they are blowing out the front of the case. If you flipped the fans on the rad to be intake then you're good to go.

[thrasher_565]

11 hours ago, RejZoR said:

All these schematics work in theory, but it's not really how heat moves inside. I have an extra 80mm fan that feeds air specifically under the graphic card from the front because the front case fans just don't push enough air directly to graphic card. I also recently created a divider from a sheet of transparent plastic that divides feeding of cold intake air to said 80mm fan for graphic card and then it's slope going up to the 240mm AiO on the top of the case. Below the divider air exhausted from graphic card is guided to the rear exhaust so it entirely bypasses AiO radiator on the top. Otherwise all the heat from graphic card was just pulled into the AiO radiator and rear fan only got tiny portion of it. Now it gets all of it.

you have a pic of it?

[thrasher_565]

6 hours ago, Empire24453 said:

Goes front and top, however since the ram sticks are high as they are RGB, time your radiator and fans are mounted it's over the ram sticks however the sticks I got are far higher and won't fit.

 

 

[RejZoR]

5 hours ago, thrasher_565 said:

you have a pic of it?

Here you go. This is of course just a test phase and it looks a bit ghetto as it's not fit perfectly and I'd prefer if graphic cards pass through exhaust would also be routed to the back, but that's just small portion of heat so it's fine. The plastic sheet goes all the way from motherboard to the opposing side so there is no gap except at RAM and AiO block height.

 

AiO tubes are a bit in a way, but I think it separates most of the airflow and they neatly hold sheet in place. Main issue with AiO on top is that it's being fed with hot air from graphic card even though airflow from front should in theory eliminate that, but in practice, it doesn't. Same for graphic card. In theory, it should get air from front fans, but reality is, it just wasn't as case fans on front just don't push air far enough under the graphic card. That extra 80mm fan conveniently lodged under the graphic card acts as extra air feeder and support at the same time. And difference is massive. Without it graphic card was quite audible even under mild loads. Now it's only under heavy loads.

 

The separation of air flow between CPU and GPU part now helps AiO noise. It's now running significantly quieter because huge portion of GPU heat is exhausted directly through rear fan and isn't sucked into AiO anymore.

 

Like I said, one is theoretical stuff how air moves inside case, but reality is quite different and additional air routing is required to really make it optimal.

[thrasher_565]

8 hours ago, RejZoR said:

Here you go. This is of course just a test phase and it looks a bit ghetto as it's not fit perfectly and I'd prefer if graphic cards pass through exhaust would also be routed to the back, but that's just small portion of heat so it's fine. The plastic sheet goes all the way from motherboard to the opposing side so there is no gap except at RAM and AiO block height.

 

AiO tubes are a bit in a way, but I think it separates most of the airflow and they neatly hold sheet in place. Main issue with AiO on top is that it's being fed with hot air from graphic card even though airflow from front should in theory eliminate that, but in practice, it doesn't. Same for graphic card. In theory, it should get air from front fans, but reality is, it just wasn't as case fans on front just don't push air far enough under the graphic card. That extra 80mm fan conveniently lodged under the graphic card acts as extra air feeder and support at the same time. And difference is massive. Without it graphic card was quite audible even under mild loads. Now it's only under heavy loads.

 

The separation of air flow between CPU and GPU part now helps AiO noise. It's now running significantly quieter because huge portion of GPU heat is exhausted directly through rear fan and isn't sucked into AiO anymore.

 

Like I said, one is theoretical stuff how air moves inside case, but reality is quite different and additional air routing is required to really make it optimal.

i would put the fan on the pci slots and block the air from the gpu and the side panel. level with the top of the gpu fans the the hot air going out of the gpu has to go up

[Watercooledguy]

With the plastic sheets in your case you are making the airflow more turbulent and thus slowing it down. The longer the air is in your case, the hotter it is going to get.

[thrasher_565]

3 minutes ago, Watercooledguy said:

With the plastic sheets in your case you are making the airflow more turbulent and thus slowing it down. The longer the air is in your case, the hotter it is going to get.

he trying to keep the hot air from the gpu out of the aio i think.

[Watercooledguy]

1 minute ago, thrasher_565 said:

he trying to keep the hot air from the gpu out of the aio i think.

He should have the rad mounted in the front then. If that's not possible due to tube length, then set the fans on the rad as intake and the rest of the case fans as exhaust. 

[thrasher_565]

3 minutes ago, Watercooledguy said:

He should have the rad mounted in the front then. If that's not possible due to tube length, then set the fans on the rad as intake and the rest of the case fans as exhaust. 

well to be fair the case has no air flow to the gpu or front mesh so you can only do so much.

[Watercooledguy]

Just now, thrasher_565 said:

well to be fair the case has no air flow to the gpu or front mesh so you can only do so much.

yeah, i noticed that the case had limited air flow from the pics. I had a case like that back in 07 and I ended up drilling some holes in the front panel with a hole saw and mounting 92mm case fans as intakes. 

[thrasher_565]

19 minutes ago, Watercooledguy said:

yeah, i noticed that the case had limited air flow from the pics. I had a case like that back in 07 and I ended up drilling some holes in the front panel with a hole saw and mounting 92mm case fans as intakes. 

its funny when we think we buy a case and should be good for years then new problems come up and its no longer usable...