Noctua SSO bearings for case fans that need to fit in tight spaces

cleric_warlock · May 21, 2022

I've been working with a corsair 7000D airflow case and have my build fully up and running, now it just needs to be optimized for overclocking. So far have an arctic liquid freezer ii 420 aio cpu cooler completely covering the top exhaust panel, a 360 mm liquid cooler for my gpu covering most of the side exhaust panel (right next to the front intake) and 3 stock corsair 140 mm fans, 2 providing front intake and 1 providing rear exhaust. I prefer to keep all of my aio coolers in push orientation as they are now to minimize stray heat dissipation from the radiators to the interior of the case. If I switched to a pull orientation for my gpu cooler I would be able to neatly fit 4 x 120mm fans onto my case's fan grating at the cost of putting my gpu radiator right next to my main intake airflow which I would prefer to avoid.

If I keep my gpu cooler in push orientation i can still fit in the extra 120mm fan, but it becomes a tight fit and i would need to be creative in securing the top of my fan with tape or something along those lines. I checked the fit with a foam block that I cut to the dimensions of a 120 x 120 x 25 fan. Some nearby components of my cpu radiator, cabling, and case could exert constant pressure on the fan's frame, but won't interfere with the fan itself at all. I know from experience that this can be a problem for fluid dynamic bearing fans as contact pressure on the frame can drastically increase noise and wear while the internal friction and heat of the bearings can result in some noxious fumes. Do SSO fans have this issue when their frames are under pressure? If so, what bearing type would be best for this situation?

LIGISTX · May 21, 2022

5 minutes ago, cleric_warlock said:

I've been working with a corsair 7000D airflow case and have my build fully up and running, now it just needs to be optimized for overclocking. So far have an arctic liquid freezer ii 420 aio cpu cooler completely covering the top exhaust panel, a 360 mm liquid cooler for my gpu covering most of the side exhaust panel (right next to the front intake) and 3 stock corsair 140 mm fans, 2 providing front intake and 1 providing rear exhaust. I prefer to keep all of my aio coolers in push orientation as they are now to minimize stray heat dissipation from the radiators to the interior of the case. If I switched to a pull orientation for my gpu cooler I would be able to neatly fit 4 x 120mm fans onto my case's fan grating at the cost of putting my gpu radiator right next to my main intake airflow which I would prefer to avoid.

If I keep my gpu cooler in push orientation i can still fit in the extra 120mm fan, but it becomes a tight fit and i would need to be creative in securing the top of my fan with tape or something along those lines. I checked the fit with a foam block that I cut to the dimensions of a 120 x 120 x 25 fan. Some nearby components of my cpu radiator, cabling, and case could exert constant pressure on the fan's frame, but won't interfere with the fan itself at all. I know from experience that this can be a problem for fluid dynamic bearing fans as contact pressure on the frame can drastically increase noise and wear while the internal friction and heat of the bearings can result in some noxious fumes. Do SSO fans have this issue when their frames are under pressure? If so, what bearing type would be best for this situation?

Pull vs push doesn't really make any difference in cooling or stray heat. And putting the rad in the flow of intake air also isn't going to make any difference. The VAST majority of heat is dissipated by the fins, the body of the rad is going to radiate about the same amount of heat with or without direct airflow from intake fans blowing by it.

cleric_warlock · May 21, 2022

2 minutes ago, LIGISTX said:

Pull vs push doesn't really make any difference in cooling or stray heat. And putting the rad in the flow of intake air also isn't going to make any difference. The VAST majority of heat is dissipated by the fins, the body of the rad is going to radiate about the same amount of heat with or without direct airflow from intake fans blowing by it.

What you're saying makes total sense, push or pull, the airstream from the intake through the radiator should be the same, keeping heat bleed into the case to a minimum but it's a struggle fighting my monkey brain instinct that says push = good, pull = bad XD. Pull on the gpu rad it is.