Airflow in a flat horizontal case

[notAfanOf]

I recently started a project, my 1st case mod, rebuilding a pc from almost ancient but, at the time, great components. I started with an old cheap metal case and want to "shrink" it and use it horizontally. I have a 280 AIO for the cpu from the build I salvaged. To keep the profile relatively low I'd ideally like to mount it horizontally (at the top). The graphics card and the psu are currently the highest points (about the same height). I haven't planned the case ventilation yet because I wanted to collect some general tips and wisdom on the topic of airflow (especially in a relatively flat, horizontal case). Thank you everyone for your input!

[RAS_3885]

You want smooth airflow from one side of the case to the other without fighting physics too much. Front-to-back or bottom-to-top are typically ideal.

 

Do you have a picture or drawing of what you're intending? Might be easier to make some suggestions with a visual to go off of. Napkin sketches acceptable  

[notAfanOf]

7 minutes ago, RAS_3885 said:

Do you have a picture or drawing of what you're intending? Might be easier to make some suggestions with a visual to go off of. Napkin sketches acceptable

I working on it - I'm not yet sure about everything 

[notAfanOf]

25 minutes ago, RAS_3885 said:

Might be easier to make some suggestions with a visual to go off of

that's what it looks like right now. (I haven't gotten the right drill yet to take out the rivets of the front bays)

I'd like to get rid of as much unused space as possible but to get a psu in horizontally I'd have to put it somewhere in the area of the drive bays.
I imagined the AIO rad on the right side as far up as the case will go when it's shrunk.

[OhioYJ]

9 minutes ago, notAfanOf said:

I working on it - I'm not yet sure about everything 

I've used several of the Silverstone cases for HTPC's over the years now in the horizontal format, and they all use the above mentioned flow through design. You might check those out to get some ideas:

 

I had a couple of these: ML03s - use 4 80mm fans that fill up the entire one side, no fans on the other side except the PSU. So those 80 mm fans just blow air in and across everything (or exhaust if you want) and then out the other side.

 

The GD09 uses fans on both sides, but again just air flow across and out.

 

I'm currently using a couple of these: SG12, not as low of a profile. Also does not cool as good. However the cooling is acceptable for the hardware I'm using in a media machine.

 

Hopefully those will give you some ideas.