Corsair 4000x fan configuration

[kylemarshmallow]

I have a Corsair 4000x and I wanted to change my fans around because I felt like my thermals were pretty hot. I have a Corsair H100i Elite Capellix and 3 120mm fans that came with the case. Right now I have the AIO mounted at the front with one fan under it, and a fan mounted at the top and on the back. I want to put the 240mm AIO on the top and the 3 fans at the front. I was wondering which fans should be push or pull and if the AIO should be push or pull.

[CCFC27]

Intake fans on the front pulling air in, exhaust on top. Or keep rad on the front pulling air in with the fans inside the case from the rad, and 2 exhausts up top, if you currently have the fans right at the front there might be a lot of built up dust hurting performance. Tbh the case has kinda crapy airflow

[kylemarshmallow]

5 minutes ago, CCFC27 said:

Intake fans on the front pulling air in, exhaust on top. Or keep rad on the front pulling air in with the fans inside the case from the rad, and 2 exhausts up top, if you currently have the fans right at the front there might be a lot of built up dust hurting performance. Tbh the case has kinda crapy airflow

I'll probably put the AIO on top with intake fans on the front. So I should make the AIO have exhaust fans?

[CCFC27]

Just now, kylemarshmallow said:

I'll probably put the AIO on top with intake fans on the front. So I should make the AIO have exhaust fans?

I would, yes. It'll be drawing warm air from inside the case, but drawing air in from the top would be going against convection and leaving no exhaust. Maybe if you have a 3090 kicking out tonnes of heat its worth if for your cpu to make sure the rad is getting fresh air, but for overall temps its most likely best to have it exhaust

[thrasher_565]

3 hours ago, CCFC27 said:

I would, yes. It'll be drawing warm air from inside the case, but drawing air in from the top would be going against convection and leaving no exhaust. Maybe if you have a 3090 kicking out tonnes of heat its worth if for your cpu to make sure the rad is getting fresh air, but for overall temps its most likely best to have it exhaust

convection dose not matter even the slowest moving fan over comes it. only if you had no fans then it would be useful.

[CCFC27]

5 hours ago, thrasher_565 said:

convection dose not matter even the slowest moving fan over comes it. only if you had no fans then it would be useful.

no but it is useful in a case with no exhaust, which would be this if the rad was intake at the top and 3 intakes at the front

[thrasher_565]

31 minutes ago, CCFC27 said:

no but it is useful in a case with no exhaust, which would be this if the rad was intake at the top and 3 intakes at the front

there no convection in a case with a fan.  putting fans front to back vs bottom to top makes no difference if everything was equal. say flipping the case so the front is at the bottom you wont gain any performance at all.

 

even a slow fan has a big radias were it desterbs the air you would need a vary large case and fans far enough away for that to matter. it be taking my case and putting fans at the top and un plugin my gpu fans and hopes the convention would do its work... 

 

its like an amp were there's no fan in it so the heat can convention out the (top ideal) or out the sides 

[CCFC27]

7 minutes ago, thrasher_565 said:

there no convection in a case with a fan.  putting fans front to back vs bottom to top makes no difference if everything was equal. say flipping the case so the front is at the bottom you wont gain any performance at all.

 

even a slow fan has a big radias were it desterbs the air you would need a vary large case and fans far enough away for that to matter. it be taking my case and putting fans at the top and un plugin my gpu fans and hopes the convention would do its work... 

 

its like an amp were there's no fan in it so the heat can convention out the (top ideal) or out the sides 

Yes but when there is literally no exhaust it might make a difference, if there was a rear exhaust I'd agree and say no need for top exhaust, but having 5 intake fans and nowhere for air to escape upwards, only through small gaps elsewhere, is a bit har positive air pressure

[Dogzilla07]

56 minutes ago, CCFC27 said:

Yes but when there is literally no exhaust it might make a difference, if there was a rear exhaust I'd agree and say no need for top exhaust, but having 5 intake fans and nowhere for air to escape upwards, only through small gaps elsewhere, is a bit har positive air pressure

Exhaust area without a fan = exhaust area regardless. All the nice open mesh on the back is a nice exhaust area for intake fans to push air through. All that top area is also a very nice exhaust area (slightly less effective due to filter, but still decent exhaust area). There's always exhaust unless all holes are taped off/blocked off. There's no convection if you have decent intake fans/intake airflow, especially in a short case like 4000x.

 

Rad with really slow fans does change this a bit, but you still have the fans on the GPU, they break convection as well.

 

Air in a case behaves like water in a hose with holes, or water in an aquarium.

 

@CCFC27Your advice to be careful with top intake rad is not bad, it's just that it's not convection at play, but other things. The air will go out wherever it can, ideally out the front.

10 hours ago, kylemarshmallow said:

I'll probably put the AIO on top with intake fans on the front. So I should make the AIO have exhaust fans?

Yeah it's more than fine to have AIO take in warm air from the case, A hungry GPU needs fresh air more than a CPU, it doesn't become a significant factor for a CPU before 12900K.

[kylemarshmallow]

7 hours ago, Dogzilla07 said:

Exhaust area without a fan = exhaust area regardless. All the nice open mesh on the back is a nice exhaust area for intake fans to push air through. All that top area is also a very nice exhaust area (slightly less effective due to filter, but still decent exhaust area). There's always exhaust unless all holes are taped off/blocked off. There's no convection if you have decent intake fans/intake airflow, especially in a short case like 4000x.

 

Rad with really slow fans does change this a bit, but you still have the fans on the GPU, they break convection as well.

 

Air in a case behaves like water in a hose with holes, or water in an aquarium.

 

@CCFC27Your advice to be careful with top intake rad is not bad, it's just that it's not convection at play, but other things. The air will go out wherever it can, ideally out the front.

Yeah it's more than fine to have AIO take in warm air from the case, A hungry GPU needs fresh air more than a CPU, it doesn't become a significant factor for a CPU before 12900K.

I put the AIO on top as an exhaust and 3 intakes on the front yesterday. The AIO was pretty loud and I had to set the fans to quiet instead of balanced in the iCUE software to make the fans not obnoxious. I have a GTX 970 and an i7-8700 so with those specs should I change the configuration at all? 

[thrasher_565]

16 minutes ago, kylemarshmallow said:

I put the AIO on top as an exhaust and 3 intakes on the front yesterday. The AIO was pretty loud and I had to set the fans to quiet instead of balanced in the iCUE software to make the fans not obnoxious. I have a GTX 970 and an i7-8700 so with those specs should I change the configuration at all? 

if the cpu is hot and the front looks to be bad air flow only place is the top for aio. to make it the coolest it has to intake from out side only problem is it make other parts inside hotter like gpu / mb. the difference is probably only like 2-5c thow 

 

so i would remove the top filter have the aio intake from the top put a back fan as exhaust and 2 fans up front top, middle 

 

Edited May 24, 2022 by thrasher_565

[Dogzilla07]

16 hours ago, kylemarshmallow said:

I put the AIO on top as an exhaust and 3 intakes on the front yesterday. The AIO was pretty loud and I had to set the fans to quiet instead of balanced in the iCUE software to make the fans not obnoxious. I have a GTX 970 and an i7-8700 so with those specs should I change the configuration at all? 

That's normal, they are fast fans, what RPM speeds are they running, does it say in the iCUE software ?

 

970 and 8700 shouldn't be running too hot, so all combinations in your case should be viable, but you should download hardwareinfo64, and check the temps when doing full load just in case. up to ~80c degrees celsius on both parts is fine.

[mike_seps]

I have the same 4000x and and h100i - my rad is at the top, with those two fans exhausting out the top at 800 rpm fixed.  Three intake fans on the front, the bottom two are tied to GPU thermals and the top is locked at 900 rpm fixed.  Single 120mm fan on the rear exhaust doing, idk, something (not tied into my iCue, and I haven't adjusted it in a while).  AIO pump set to balanced.  EVGA 3080 ftw3.

 

It does take some tweaking in iCue to find your balance of noise and thermals, but I am happy with my current setup.

 

Also, I just want to add that fans WILL overcome convection currents, but convection is still 100% a thing.  It doesn't just go away when you have fans involved. Using top fans as exhaust is beneficial because they're working with the natural flow of the air, not against it.  Going against the ideal flow (in this case, convection) will create turbulence, which is detrimental to both sound, and laminar movement (ideal for cooling).

 

Just realized this thread has been quiet for over a month. Oops.

Edited June 22, 2022 by mike_seps
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