First Timer! Cooling Configuration

[Denosaur22]

Greetings,

 

I am building my first computer.

 

My primary question is: what is the best fan configuration for cooling for my case.

 

I am only doing air cooling. I am not interested in liquid cooling. I'm not using a radiator either, just a heat sink. I've read and seen many suggested configurations. I am aware of positive, negative, and neutral pressures. 

 

My case has options for 3 front, 3 top, and 1 rear. I was able to aquire T30 fans for a really great deal. So I bought the max of x7 that my case can support.  Specifications provided below.

 

Case: Phantex Eclipse P600s
Fans: Phantex PH-F120T30 120MM Fan (x7)

 

Additional PC Build Information

PSU: Seasonic Vertex 1000 ATX 3.0 (coming)
CPU: Raptor Lake Intel i5-13600k
Heat Sink: NOCTUA NH-D15 chromax.black
Mother Board: ASUS Prime Z790-A WiFi
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090
Storage Drive: Seagate 530 Firecuda SSD 1tb
Memory: G.Skilled Trident Z5 DDR5 Memory 2x16 5600

 

If you have any additional suggestions or recommendations, I am all ears. Thanks in advance for any feedback.

[Ralfi]

1 hour ago, Denosaur22 said:

Phantex Eclipse P600s

This looks like a versatile case in that you can remove the front solid panel when you need more airflow. I suggest you keep this option open as a solid front panel will suffocate your components, especially in the Summer & even with just the side slits used as intake.

 

The included 3 x 140mm fans may do the job…But since you got your own fans…

 

1 hour ago, Denosaur22 said:

Phantex PH-F120T30 120MM Fan (x7)

[Setup A]…You shouldn’t need all of them, so at minimum, I’d start with 3 front intakes & 2 exhausts (1 rear & 1 top-rear)…
 

Check your temps/noise. I think this should be enough, but if you want to make use of the two other fans…

 

[Setup B]…Add 1 intake to the top-front…check temps/noise…

 

[Setup C]…Add 1 exhaust to the top-middle…check temps/noise…

 

Compare A, B & C & decide which is the best overall config you prefer.

 

If you need help with fan curves, let us know as that’ll assist with the noise in each config above, which may let you get away with having more fans in the case.

 

Edit…

Setup A is for an open front panel (Mesh, not solid).

Setup B & C are more for a closed front panel because the extra intake on the top with help the fronts which are behind that solid front panel & hence unable to suck cool air in as efficiently.

 

This is why I highly recommend you remove the solid front panel, as that’s the main intake of cool air, not only in quantity but also efficiency because the air is pointed directly at your warmest components & allowed to flow across your board & then exit in the rear/top-rear corners naturally.

 

If you block off that front entrance, then it throws your airflow way out.

[Denosaur22]

2 hours ago, Ralfi said:

This looks like a versatile case in that you can remove the front solid panel when you need more airflow. I suggest you keep this option open as a solid front panel will suffocate your components, especially in the Summer & even with just the side slits used as intake.

 

The included 3 x 140mm fans may do the job…But since you got your own fans…

 

[Setup A]…You shouldn’t need all of them, so at minimum, I’d start with 3 front intakes & 2 exhausts (1 rear & 1 top-rear)…
 

Check your temps/noise. I think this should be enough, but if you want to make use of the two other fans…

 

[Setup B]…Add 1 intake to the top-front…check temps/noise…

 

[Setup C]…Add 1 exhaust to the top-middle…check temps/noise…

 

Compare A, B & C & decide which is the best overall config you prefer.

 

If you need help with fan curves, let us know as that’ll assist with the noise in each config above, which may let you get away with having more fans in the case.

 

Edit…

Setup A is for an open front panel (Mesh, not solid).

Setup B & C are more for a closed front panel because the extra intake on the top with help the fronts which are behind that solid front panel & hence unable to suck cool air in as efficiently.

 

This is why I highly recommend you remove the solid front panel, as that’s the main intake of cool air, not only in quantity but also efficiency because the air is pointed directly at your warmest components & allowed to flow across your board & then exit in the rear/top-rear corners naturally.

 

If you block off that front entrance, then it throws your airflow way out.

Thank you for the in-depth reply! I greatly appreciate it. I do plan to leave the panels off in favor of the additional cooling. It's mostly going to be out of sight anyway. So nothing to look at. I am not a fancy RGB person. Haha. More performance oriented.