Intake vs Exhaust

[w8kdrifter]

I am using the Corsair H150i AIO and 5000D airflow case; CPU is an intel i7 13700K and need some input for cooling. 

 

The fans are currently set up to have the 3 front and top fans as air intakes, with a 120 mm exhaust fan in the rear. I feel like I am running on average slightly hotter than with my older fan set up (Corsair LL 120). I am wondering if I am pulling in too much air and not exhausting it efficiently? 

 

Would it make sense to have the fans on the AIO and rear fan exhaust air and only have 3 fans in front as intake, or use the AIO as intake and the back and front fans exhaust? 

 

Thanks in advance for your input. 

Fans - Corsair.heic

[Shimejii]

Realistically, it wont make much of a difference. As long as you have airflow of a decent amount in your current setup, i generally prefer top and front intakes with back exhaust, in most cases its fine.

 

As long as the front is intake, you should be fine to put the top as intake or exhaust.

 

It wont make enough of a difference since you have it in an already good enough state.  That case is more then fine with what fan setup you have

[PDifolco]

1 hour ago, w8kdrifter said:

I am using the Corsair H150i AIO and 5000D airflow case; CPU is an intel i7 13700K and need some input for cooling. 

 

The fans are currently set up to have the 3 front and top fans as air intakes, with a 120 mm exhaust fan in the rear. I feel like I am running on average slightly hotter than with my older fan set up (Corsair LL 120). I am wondering if I am pulling in too much air and not exhausting it efficiently? 

 

Would it make sense to have the fans on the AIO and rear fan exhaust air and only have 3 fans in front as intake, or use the AIO as intake and the back and front fans exhaust? 

 

Thanks in advance for your input. 

Fans - Corsair.heic 2.2 MB · 2 downloads

Front intake, rear and top exhaust, having the front fans run faster to avoid negative pressure

[w8kdrifter]

14 minutes ago, PDifolco said:

Front intake, rear and top exhaust, having the front fans run faster to avoid negative pressure

 

Thank you. In iCue, is there a way to make the front fans run at a constant faster rate than the others? I only see pre-sets with quiet, balanced, and extreme. From my experience, the fans do what they want regardless of where I set the presets. iCue is not intuitive for me, at all. 

[PDifolco]

1 minute ago, w8kdrifter said:

 

Thank you. In iCue, is there a way to make the front fans run at a constant faster rate than the others? I only see pre-sets with quiet, balanced, and extreme. From my experience, the fans do what they want regardless of where I set the presets. iCue is not intuitive for me, at all. 

I don't use ICue, get FanControl and enjoy freedom  

[jmwhite33]

Uhmmm, heat rises, so intake low, exhaust through the top is the most logical answer.

why fight physics?

[w8kdrifter]

5 hours ago, jmwhite33 said:

Uhmmm, heat rises, so intake low, exhaust through the top is the most logical answer.

why fight physics?

I guess the question is why run hot air directly through the radiator, which is what is cooling the liquid in the AIO? That makes zero sense to me. 

 

Edit: I cannot do an intake from the bottom in my case. My thought process was with the top fans being intake, it is pulling cooler air through the radiator than what is in the case. 

[Ralfi]

5 hours ago, w8kdrifter said:

guess the question is why run hot air directly through the radiator, which is what is cooling the liquid in the AIO? That makes zero sense to me. 

 

Edit: I cannot do an intake from the bottom in my case. My thought process was with the top fans being intake, it is pulling cooler air through the radiator than what is in the case. 

Having never used a AIO, this has always been a conundrum to me also. I guess it’s a case + fan orientation/balance dependant?

[thrasher_565]

On 5/24/2025 at 7:25 PM, w8kdrifter said:

I guess the question is why run hot air directly through the radiator, which is what is cooling the liquid in the AIO? That makes zero sense to me. 

 

Edit: I cannot do an intake from the bottom in my case. My thought process was with the top fans being intake, it is pulling cooler air through the radiator than what is in the case. 

running hot air thow the rad is not ideal. cooler air cooler temps but its a compromise over having the aio in the front will blow hot air at the gpu witch is also not ideal. a good "water" cooled case wont have hot air thow the rad or at the gpu. the difference we are talking like3-5ish degree. unless your throttling or attempting over clocking a few c cooler dosen do much. atlest for the cost to profromace ratio. lower temps could mne quieter rpm on the fans witch is nice. is it worth the cost up to you.

 

that being said hot air all gets dumped in to the room witch also increases the ambient temp so the cooler air coming in will also be hotter. that's were ac come in play or dumping the hot air out side the room. that were custom loops are nice because you can move the heat source els were. but there's a huge cost like some times 50% of the pc...

Edited May 26 by thrasher_565

[w8kdrifter]

Wanted to update the thread as I made a couple changes and I am now running about 10 degrees C cooler, yay!

 

I swapped the top fans to they are now exhaust as well as used a different thermal paste (Kryonaut thermal grizzly). So I now have the front 3 fans as intake and the top and rear fans as exhaust. Now I wish I had isolated the changes to see which had more effect (thermal paste or fan flow) but at any rate, the result is good. 

 

Thanks again for all of your help! 

[Ralfi]

With AIOs, can the temperature of the water in the reservoir be detected? I’d be interested to know the difference of this temperature before & after similar changes made by @w8kdrifter in this thread. 

[w8kdrifter]

On 5/26/2025 at 2:03 PM, Ralfi said:

With AIOs, can the temperature of the water in the reservoir be detected? I’d be interested to know the difference of this temperature before & after similar changes made by @w8kdrifter in this thread. 

Yes, the fluid temp can be tracked. Top number is coolant temp and bottom is cpu temp. 

IMG_7961.HEIC

[Ralfi]

4 hours ago, w8kdrifter said:

Yes, the fluid temp can be tracked. Top number is coolant temp and bottom is cpu temp. 

IMG_7961.HEIC 1.68 MB · 3 downloads

Ok so what was the fluid temp in your two scenarios, with fans as intake & exhaust?

[w8kdrifter]

On 5/28/2025 at 12:34 AM, Ralfi said:

Ok so what was the fluid temp in your two scenarios, with fans as intake & exhaust?

Not sure. Didn't think to look. 

[NorKris]

On 5/24/2025 at 10:11 PM, w8kdrifter said:

 

Thank you. In iCue, is there a way to make the front fans run at a constant faster rate than the others? I only see pre-sets with quiet, balanced, and extreme. From my experience, the fans do what they want regardless of where I set the presets. iCue is not intuitive for me, at all. 

Icue (When it works...) is great, you can make ur own fan-settings,  u can pick from:

- flat with PWM

-Flat with  % 

-Flat with  DC 

-curves based on CPU or GPU or water temps

@PDifolco   

 

Not sure if any other software can let you do this so easy

 

Aio Radiators should be intake 

 

[Ralfi]

9 hours ago, w8kdrifter said:

Not sure. Didn't think to look. 

I’m just curious to know the differentiation of AIO fan intake v exhaust on the liquid temperature & how it then impacts your CPU temp when combined with your other case intake fans.

[PDifolco]

2 hours ago, NorKris said:

Icue (When it works...) is great, you can make ur own fan-settings,  u can pick from:

- flat with PWM

-Flat with  % 

-Flat with  DC 

-curves based on CPU or GPU or water temps

@PDifolco   

 

Not sure if any other software can let you do this so easy

 

Aio Radiators should be intake 

 

Fancontrol allows you to make mixed controls on max/average of whatever sensor temp, manage fan acceleration/deceleration and delays, and even more !

No RGB tho

Plus it's super light

 

[NorKris]

7 minutes ago, PDifolco said:

Fancontrol allows you to make mixed controls on max/average of whatever sensor temp, manage fan acceleration/deceleration and delays, and even more !

No RGB tho

Plus it's super light

 

but i find it hard to change between DC and PWM

 

and when u want to export ur profils to another pc or next pc installation? 

[PDifolco]

1 hour ago, NorKris said:

but i find it hard to change between DC and PWM

 

and when u want to export ur profils to another pc or next pc installation? 

I only use PWM, pfff

You just have to copy an xml config file to move to another PC, but usually it won't work because the devices won't be the same

[NorKris]

16 minutes ago, PDifolco said:

I only use PWM, pfff

You just have to copy an xml config file to move to another PC, but usually it won't work because the devices won't be the same

ok, its more about the option ppl have as users than  whan me or u   use