Fractal North Xl fan config

[YeahYeahYouKnowMe]

I had just finished a build with the Fractal North Xl mesh version and I have a problem regarding case fan placement. Right now I have 3 120mm fans for front intake, a 360Aio mounted at the top for exhaust, and 1 140 fan in the rear for exhaust. I’ve read that I need to have an equal amount of intake and exhaust fans in the pc for cooling and I want to know if there’s anything I can do to improve the cooling. The Mesh XL has an option for a side mounted fan, but due to the size of my gpu, the pcie cord gets in the way of the side mount.

[Dedayog]

4 minutes ago, YeahYeahYouKnowMe said:

I had just finished a build with the Fractal North Xl mesh version and I have a problem regarding case fan placement. Right now I have 3 120mm fans for front intake, a 360Aio mounted at the top for exhaust, and 1 140 fan in the rear for exhaust. I’ve read that I need to have an equal amount of intake and exhaust fans in the pc for cooling and I want to know if there’s anything I can do to improve the cooling. The Mesh XL has an option for a side mounted fan, but due to the size of my gpu, the pcie cord gets in the way of the side mount.

I have that case as well, but it comes with 3x 140mm fans.  With those in front, a 360mm AIO exhaust top and another 140mm exhaust rear.... it's balanced enough.

 

I also added 2x 120mm fans for the side mount as well.

 

Where are your 140m front fans?

[YeahYeahYouKnowMe]

1 minute ago, Dedayog said:

I have that case as well, but it comes with 3x 140mm fans.  With those in front, a 360mm AIO exhaust top and another 140mm exhaust rear.... it's balanced enough.

 

I also added 2x 120mm fans for the side mount as well.

 

Where are your 140m front fans?

I’ve read on a review that the included fans weren’t good so I opted to have them replaced with a fan set from Arctic. I still own them so I can just replace them if that’s a better solution. I think I can use the side mounted fan at the top that would blow on the cpu but I’m not sure on how that would affect air flow.

[Dedayog]

28 minutes ago, YeahYeahYouKnowMe said:

I’ve read on a review that the included fans weren’t good so I opted to have them replaced with a fan set from Arctic. I still own them so I can just replace them if that’s a better solution. I think I can use the side mounted fan at the top that would blow on the cpu but I’m not sure on how that would affect air flow.

The included fans are just fine as far as I can tell. 

 

I wouldn't use anything pointed at the CPU since you have an AIO, won't do much good.  My 2 side fans directly feed the GPU.

[YeahYeahYouKnowMe]

24 minutes ago, Dedayog said:

The included fans are just fine as far as I can tell. 

 

I wouldn't use anything pointed at the CPU since you have an AIO, won't do much good.  My 2 side fans directly feed the GPU.

Okay. With your config though, if you have 2 side mounted fans, wouldn’t there be a total of 5 intakes and 4 exhaust? Are you having any problems with this setup? 

[Agall]

1 hour ago, YeahYeahYouKnowMe said:

I’ve read that I need to have an equal amount of intake and exhaust fans in the pc for cooling and I want to know if there’s anything I can do to improve the cooling.

You don't want an extreme on either end of positive or negative, some where in the middle based on the design of the case and wattage of components.

 

Considering 3/4th of your exhaust fans are on a radiator, you've got a solid overall configuration with likely a slight positive bias. You could likely remove the rear exhaust fan and see an improvement, since there's less air being starved from the rear most top radiator fan.

 

Fan speed also matter is this discussion, since the intake to exhaust proportion can be dialed in with fan speed to an extent. If you had just 3 in take in the front and 3 radiator mounted exhaust, you could keep the fans all at a relatively low RPM and be just fine.

[Dedayog]

2 hours ago, YeahYeahYouKnowMe said:

Okay. With your config though, if you have 2 side mounted fans, wouldn’t there be a total of 5 intakes and 4 exhaust? Are you having any problems with this setup? 

As @Agall mentions... Fan speed plats a role.

 

I use Fan Control to set up a more balanced curve for them all.

 

 

[Kolchak]

I have always been a fan of positive air pressure with filtered intakes, it helps to keep dust out.