AIO orientation question .

[alinashul]

Hello guys .
I just installed a few days ago my new pc parts , but the case is the same i had for like 111 years. The reson for that is that my case needs to be on the left side of the desk. So the only option i had was to buy the Corsair 600C Inverted. The problem now is that i bought a new AIO and i placed it on the bottom . I tried to make the hoses be more high than the pump itself , but id like some advices. 
 

I had another AIO before this , installed in the same position since 2016 , it didnt cause any troubles, now im a bit "concerned" because of a video i saw on youtube from GamerNexus. 

Is this ok or should i try to mount on the front plate ? I dont know if it will fit , because this radiator of the artic freezer 3 is very thick . And if i could mount it to the front , should the fans remain in exhaust position ? or intake ?

[Dedayog]

2 minutes ago, alinashul said:

Hello guys .
I just installed a few days ago my new pc parts , but the case is the same i had for like 111 years. The reson for that is that my case needs to be on the left side of the desk. So the only option i had was to buy the Corsair 600C Inverted. The problem now is that i bought a new AIO and i placed it on the bottom . I tried to make the hoses be more high than the pump itself , but id like some advices. 
 

I had another AIO before this , installed in the same position since 2016 , it didnt cause any troubles, now im a bit "concerned" because of a video i saw on youtube from GamerNexus. 

Is this ok or should i try to mount on the front plate ? I dont know if it will fit , because this radiator of the artic freezer 3 is very thick . And if i could mount it to the front , should the fans remain in exhaust position ? or intake ?

In no Universe would I mount an AIO like that. 

[alinashul]

1 minute ago, Dedayog said:

In no Universe would I mount an AIO like that. 

ok , thanks , but an explanation of how should i mount it would be better.

[Dedayog]

1 minute ago, alinashul said:

ok , thanks , but an explanation of how should i mount it would be better.

You know how you should, that's why you posted this. 

 

The water is sitting at the bottom and has to be pumped up TO the CPU.  Any air is then accumulating potentially at the CPU.

 

Also, which many don't think about, is that the water is at the bottom of the radiator and will be unable to be pumped up the hose sooner than other orientations.  

 

Primarily top mount is the key here.

[alinashul]

13 minutes ago, Dedayog said:

You know how you should, that's why you posted this. 

 

The water is sitting at the bottom and has to be pumped up TO the CPU.  Any air is then accumulating potentially at the CPU.

 

Also, which many don't think about, is that the water is at the bottom of the radiator and will be unable to be pumped up the hose sooner than other orientations.  

 

Primarily top mount is the key here.

my man , i cant mount the AIO on the top of the case , i have an inverted case. I can try to mount on the front , but im not sure it fits , thats why im asking here. Its not like i like wasting time on forums , i have a job a wife + kids ......

[Dedayog]

1 minute ago, alinashul said:

my man , i cant mount the AIO on the top of the case , i have an inverted case. I can try to mount on the front , but im not sure it fits , thats why im asking here. Its not like i like wasting time on forums , i have a job a wife + kids ......

Mount it in front, tubes up.  So would be mounted upside down in a normal case.

 

Best you can do, with the decisions you made.

[alinashul]

16 minutes ago, Dedayog said:

Mount it in front, tubes up.  So would be mounted upside down in a normal case.

 

Best you can do, with the decisions you made.

And the 2 intake fans i have now on the front ? i put them at the bottom still on intake ? 
So i'd have the 2 AIO fans takeing air out of the case thru the radiator , 2 140mm fans in the bottom middle pulling air into the case  and 1 x 140mm exhaust on the rear . 

"Best you can do, with the decisions you made." - 
There's nothing i can do about the case, my office is set up in such a manner that i need a case with the glass on the right side , thus the case needs to be inverted. There are no inverted cases on the market , so my only optiuon was to keep using this case that i bought a long time ago.I dont care about aesthetics , i care about me seeing the components from time to time making sure they dont burn, blow up or fall  T_T.

[Crunchy Dragon]

27 minutes ago, alinashul said:

And the 2 intake fans i have now on the front ? i put them at the bottom still on intake ? 
So i'd have the 2 AIO fans takeing air out of the case thru the radiator , 2 140mm fans in the bottom middle pulling air into the case  and 1 x 140mm exhaust on the rear . 

AIO mount in the front as an intake, fans on the bottom as an intake, exhaust wherever else you can fit. Clean and dust regularly.

 

General best practice is to mount the AIO in the top of the case, or in the front of the case tube side up. 

28 minutes ago, alinashul said:

There's nothing i can do about the case, my office is set up in such a manner that i need a case with the glass on the right side , thus the case needs to be inverted. There are no inverted cases on the market , so my only optiuon was to keep using this case that i bought a long time ago.I dont care about aesthetics , i care about me seeing the components from time to time making sure they dont burn, blow up or fall  T_T.

Not trying to be a jerk and criticize your setup at all, but if your only reason for having an inverted case is so you can see the components from time to time, you really don't need an inverted case with a window for that. Regular dusting on a schedule will get you plenty of looks inside your PC, and you can always pop a side panel open from time to time if you really want to look in there.

 

Aesthetics are just about the only reason inverted cases ever existed and came to market in the first place. 

[alinashul]

1 hour ago, Crunchy Dragon said:

AIO mount in the front as an intake, fans on the bottom as an intake, exhaust wherever else you can fit. Clean and dust regularly.

 

General best practice is to mount the AIO in the top of the case, or in the front of the case tube side up. 

Not trying to be a jerk and criticize your setup at all, but if your only reason for having an inverted case is so you can see the components from time to time, you really don't need an inverted case with a window for that. Regular dusting on a schedule will get you plenty of looks inside your PC, and you can always pop a side panel open from time to time if you really want to look in there.

 

Aesthetics are just about the only reason inverted cases ever existed and came to market in the first place. 

Hey, thanks for the reply , but wouldn't the AIO fans as intake drive the heat from the radiator on my GPU ? and inside all the case ? 

"Not trying to be a jerk and criticize your setup at all, but if your only reason for having an inverted case is so you can see the components from time to time, you really don't need an inverted case with a window for that. Regular dusting on a schedule will get you plenty of looks inside your PC, and you can always pop a side panel open from time to time if you really want to look in there." 
- agreed , but i think u underestimate how lazy i am ..... since my last PC parts upgrade ( in 2018 ) i only cleaned my PC one time , the 2nd time being now when i switched components  and i'm a heavy smoker , in a 5m X 4m office , so imagine the chaos inside the case

[manikyath]

it's not an "immediate death" thing, but you should be very aware that if your pump is above your radiator, any air at all getting into that AIO will directly lead to reduced cooling and increased wear on the pump, and by extension quicker death of your AIO.

 

either you fix this and have your AIO last longer, or you choose aesthetics and have it die quicker.

 

i'd say do the right thing and put the rad on the front fan mounts, IMO with the fans on the inside pulling air trough the radiator from the front, that way should be the most maintenance friendly. yes in theory having the rad on intakes will increase case temp a bit, but assuming your case has dust filters i'd rather have that over everything being full of dust from pulling air in trough the back.

[alinashul]

11 minutes ago, manikyath said:

it's not an "immediate death" thing, but you should be very aware that if your pump is above your radiator, any air at all getting into that AIO will directly lead to reduced cooling and increased wear on the pump, and by extension quicker death of your AIO.

 

either you fix this and have your AIO last longer, or you choose aesthetics and have it die quicker.

 

i'd say do the right thing and put the rad on the front fan mounts, IMO with the fans on the inside pulling air trough the radiator from the front, that way should be the most maintenance friendly. yes in theory having the rad on intakes will increase case temp a bit, but assuming your case has dust filters i'd rather have that over everything being full of dust from pulling air in trough the back.

HI, thank you for your reply. 

So , if i understand corectly. If my AIO fits on the front panel ( the front panel is ready for 280mm AIO's , im worried about the thinkness of this particular AIO model ) , i have to flip the 2 fans on the AIO , no ? If im not mistaken , the fans as are now placed ( you can see in the picture ) they suck air out of the case . Then the 2 140mm fans i have now on the front of my case , i put them on the bottom taking air INTO the case , and i only let the rear fan to be exhaust ? did i understand corectly ? 

What if i let the AIO fans as are now , to blow air out of the case . I put the 2x140mm fans to pull ait INTO the case from the bottom , and the 140 noctua from the back to be an exhaust too ? so i'd have 2 front exhausts , 2 bottom middle intake and 1 rear exhaust. 

Yes , my case has frontal and bottom filters .  

[alinashul]

.

[manikyath]

1 minute ago, alinashul said:

What if i let the AIO fans as are now , to blow air out of the case . I put the 2x140mm fans to pull ait INTO the case from the bottom , and the 140 noctua from the back to be an exhaust too ? so i'd have 2 front exhausts , 2 bottom middle intake and 1 read exhaust. 

Yes , my case has frontal and bottom filters .  

well.. you'll be sucking a LOT of dust into that bottom filter, but i dont see why it wouldnt work.

 

i'd probably remove the rear fan entirely in that case, just have the vents there be passive whatever it wants to be. all that fan would be doing in this layout is blow air out that just came in trough the bottom.

[alinashul]

15 minutes ago, manikyath said:

well.. you'll be sucking a LOT of dust into that bottom filter, but i dont see why it wouldnt work.

 

i'd probably remove the rear fan entirely in that case, just have the vents there be passive whatever it wants to be. all that fan would be doing in this layout is blow air out that just came in trough the bottom.

Again , thanks for the reply , what if i buy a small 140mm filter from amazon i put it on the rear and have that fan intake air too ? so i'd have 2 AIO fans exhausting and 3 fans intaking ? 
Also i wanted to ask , the case fans that ill be moveing from front to bottom , those fans are standard corsair fans that came with the case , they are good in my oppinion , no noise and if i put my hand infront of them , they pull alot of air inside , but do you think i should replace them for something else ? like a pair of these Corsair iCUE LINK LX140-R  2x140mm

EDIT : 1 more question , if i move the AIO to the front , the pump is OK as it is placed now ? or i have to rotate it , so the pump tubes face down ?

[Mark Kaine]

5 hours ago, alinashul said:

my man , i cant mount the AIO on the top of the case , i have an inverted case. I can try to mount on the front , but im not sure it fits , thats why im asking here. Its not like i like wasting time on forums , i have a job a wife + kids ......

Turn the PC upside down, problem = fixed! 

[Poinkachu]

3 hours ago, alinashul said:

Hey, thanks for the reply , but wouldn't the AIO fans as intake drive the heat from the radiator on my GPU ? and inside all the case ? 

Yeah.

But surely you have other intake to offset that. 

Plus, if the GPU is not hotbox model (like my previous 3080), most likely it'll be just fine.

 

3 hours ago, alinashul said:

- agreed , but i think u underestimate how lazy i am ..... since my last PC parts upgrade ( in 2018 ) i only cleaned my PC one time , the 2nd time being now when i switched components  and i'm a heavy smoker , in a 5m X 4m office , so imagine the chaos inside the case

My nephew : 
Put his normal case on the left, with the front side facing the wall.

His bonus reasoning : "easier to access all the I/O ports too"

 

But yeah, if you care about things like wrong AIO orientation may cause premature failure, and AIO as front intake driving warm air to GPU...

You should clean your PC regularly. At least yearly. Especially since you are a heavy smoker like I was.

[cmndr]

https://www.google.com/search?udm=2&q=proper way to mount AIO water cooler

Copy the link for photos... 

 

As hinted at, what you've got is not ideal. It's basically either radiator at top OR otherwise positioned such that part of it is above the CPU (or wherever the block is) with the hose underneath. 

[alinashul]

1 hour ago, Poinkachu said:

Yeah.

But surely you have other intake to offset that. 

 

You mean exhaust , no ? 
I have 5 fans in total , all are 140mm fans. 2 are on the AIO , 2 on the front and 1 noctua in the back . 

If i put the AIO on the front and change the fans to intake . Then the 2x 140mm from the front i have to put on the bottom on exhaust , and the noctua from the back to exhaust too , no ? SO the only air going in the case is from the AIO fans wich will bring hot air. Then 3 fans to exhaust .
So my option are these ( but i dont know wich is better ) : 
A . AIo on the front with the fans as are now on EXHAUST . 2 x 140mm fans in the bottom middle intaking AIR pushing fresh air on the GPU and thru the case . The rear fan to intake too. ( ill buy a small 140mm filter )
B . AIO on the front with the fans on INTAKE . 2x140mm on the middle bottom exhausting . The rear fan exhausting .
C . AIO on the front with fans on INTAKE . 2x140mm on the middle bottom exhausting air out of the case . The rear fan on intake . ( this is not ideal since the read intaking will be spewed out by the bottom exhaust ) 

Now im 100% sure that i have to move the AIO to the front , the only thing im missing is how to set up the AIO fans and the case fans. 
Also wanted to ask , if i put the fans on AIO on intake how do i mount them ? case - radiator-fans ( fans have to pull air from outside the case thru the radiator ) or case-fans-radiator .
Thanks.

[Poinkachu]

20 minutes ago, alinashul said:

You mean exhaust , no ? 

 

A. Might work, I wont bother with the rear fan.

B. Doesnt make any sense to exhaust to bottom.

C. Again makes no sense to exhaust to bottom.

 

Generally if you want an easier life of cleaning, Case > Rad > Fans. (Pulling air through the rad)

 

Me  : 

Put AIO in front as intake

2 fans on bottom as intake

Unscrew all PCIE bracket covers, DIY mount the rear fan there as exhaust.

 

Again, depending on what the GPU is, it might not even matter how you set it up.

 

[alinashul]

26 minutes ago, Poinkachu said:

 

A. Might work, I wont bother with the rear fan.

B. Doesnt make any sense to exhaust to bottom.

C. Again makes no sense to exhaust to bottom.

 

Generally if you want an easier life of cleaning, Case > Rad > Fans. (Pulling air through the rad)

 

Me  : 

Put AIO in front as intake

2 fans on bottom as intake

Unscrew all PCIE bracket covers, DIY mount the rear fan there as exhaust.

 

Again, depending on what the GPU is, it might not even matter how you set it up.

 

Thanks man . 

For now i have a rtx 4070 , i wanted to buy a new one but i said i wait 1 more generation before upgrading. I dont really play that much , and when i do , i play games like Dota2 and from time to time Delta Force , so this gpu is much more than what i need.
Right now i upgraded my pc parts from an i9-9900k to ryzen 9 9950x3d , my rams and MOBO and bought a new AIO , i heard this one is good and i found it on a 50% black friday discount is that worked for me , i guess . I did the upgrade because , francly i was bored , not that i needed it , and i gifted the components i had to a friend wich goes thru a bad time and he has a very bad PC, so i gave him this components ( i9-9900k , 32gb ram , mobo and PSU ) . since i installed the new parts (3-4 days ago ) all i did was some spreadsheets in excel and played chess and watched youtube videos  .

I got 2 more questions , and i wont bother you guys anymore . 

1.I didnt put the D option of : AIO fans on INTAKE , 2x140mm bottom middle fans on INTAKE , and the rear noctua on exhaust . What about this ? i need an exhaust . The only problem here is that the noctua will exhaust some of the air from the 2 bottom intake fans , no ? I could also install ( i also have a 40mm noctua ( small one ) that i could put on exhaust above the noctua from the rear .

2. If i put the AIO on the from with the tubes facing down , i should change the pump to face downwards too , no ? i mean if you look at the picture , the tubes from the pump are on top , i should turn the pump around  so that the tubes face downwards , no  ? 

Thanks.

[Poinkachu]

7 hours ago, alinashul said:

Thanks man . 

For now i have a rtx 4070 , i wanted to buy a new one but i said i wait 1 more generation before upgrading. I dont really play that much , and when i do , i play games like Dota2 and from time to time Delta Force , so this gpu is much more than what i need.
Right now i upgraded my pc parts from an i9-9900k to ryzen 9 9950x3d , my rams and MOBO and bought a new AIO , i heard this one is good and i found it on a 50% black friday discount is that worked for me , i guess . I did the upgrade because , francly i was bored , not that i needed it , and i gifted the components i had to a friend wich goes thru a bad time and he has a very bad PC, so i gave him this components ( i9-9900k , 32gb ram , mobo and PSU ) . since i installed the new parts (3-4 days ago ) all i did was some spreadsheets in excel and played chess and watched youtube videos  .

I got 2 more questions , and i wont bother you guys anymore . 

1.I didnt put the D option of : AIO fans on INTAKE , 2x140mm bottom middle fans on INTAKE , and the rear noctua on exhaust . What about this ? i need an exhaust . The only problem here is that the noctua will exhaust some of the air from the 2 bottom intake fans , no ? I could also install ( i also have a 40mm noctua ( small one ) that i could put on exhaust above the noctua from the rear .

2. If i put the AIO on the from with the tubes facing down , i should change the pump to face downwards too , no ? i mean if you look at the picture , the tubes from the pump are on top , i should turn the pump around  so that the tubes face downwards , no  ? 

Thanks.

Basically : 

 

1. It is generally a bad idea to put an exhaust immediately after an intake, and vice versa.

Imagine you are blowing air toward your monitor to cool it, and then I blow / suck air right in front, perpendicular from you, towards the side.

-At the very least, it kinda makes the intake less useful.

 

2. Without interference, warmer air move upwards. In a closed space with fans, this might not be 100% true or the effect is diminished.

But the whole idea of PC air cooling is to displace the hot air inside with a less hot air as fast as possible, which includes preventing re-circulation of hot air best as we can.

 

7 hours ago, alinashul said:

2. If i put the AIO on the from with the tubes facing down , i should change the pump to face downwards too , no ? i mean if you look at the picture , the tubes from the pump are on top , i should turn the pump around  so that the tubes face downwards , no  ? 

No idea. I have the same arctic AIO, but not like i ever tried putting the CPU block upside down.

One thing to note is that Arctic mounting bracket is an offset one, it makes the coldest point on the faceplate meets the hottest point on Ryzen.

 

So you may be able to flip it but whether or not it will impact your temp a lot, idk.

As i said, I never tried putting my AIO that way, and I am not interested in dismantling my pc to try 

 

----

 

You have a niche case, best to experiment and see which suits your setup best.

Thankfully it only includes screwing and unscrewing some fans and a rad.

[alinashul]

13 hours ago, Poinkachu said:

Basically : 

 

1. It is generally a bad idea to put an exhaust immediately after an intake, and vice versa.

Imagine you are blowing air toward your monitor to cool it, and then I blow / suck air right in front, perpendicular from you, towards the side.

-At the very least, it kinda makes the intake less useful.

 

2. Without interference, warmer air move upwards. In a closed space with fans, this might not be 100% true or the effect is diminished.

But the whole idea of PC air cooling is to displace the hot air inside with a less hot air as fast as possible, which includes preventing re-circulation of hot air best as we can.

 

No idea. I have the same arctic AIO, but not like i ever tried putting the CPU block upside down.

One thing to note is that Arctic mounting bracket is an offset one, it makes the coldest point on the faceplate meets the hottest point on Ryzen.

 

So you may be able to flip it but whether or not it will impact your temp a lot, idk.

As i said, I never tried putting my AIO that way, and I am not interested in dismantling my pc to try 

 

----

 

You have a niche case, best to experiment and see which suits your setup best.

Thankfully it only includes screwing and unscrewing some fans and a rad.

Thanks for the answer man. 
"No idea. I have the same arctic AIO, but not like i ever tried putting the CPU block upside down." 
- i didnt put the CPU block upside down  , i think you think that because i explained it badly . The case design is inverted , so everything is upside down . As you can see in the picture . That way you can see everything inside , from the right side of the case . On reddit , a guy thought i intentionally put the case upside down for some reason , he was very confused  :)))) 

I will order a pair of 2x140mm ICUE LX  fans and when they get here ill make the switch. 
All this AIO pump orientacion is new to me , like i said , in 2016 , i put on the same position a cooler master 240mm AIO and everything was fine until now , when i replaced him . So 10 years and 1 month in a "bad position" and it still worked and i didnt had problems with the temps .

[Poinkachu]

6 minutes ago, alinashul said:

- i didnt put the CPU block upside down  , i think you think that because i explained it badly . The case design is inverted , so everything is upside down . As you can see in the picture

Currently you are mounting the AIO pump the way Arctic intended it.

 

7 minutes ago, alinashul said:

I will order a pair of 2x140mm ICUE LX  fans and when they get here ill make the switch. 
All this AIO pump orientacion is new to me , like i said , in 2016 , i put on the same position a cooler master 240mm AIO and everything was fine until now , when i replaced him . So 10 years and 1 month in a "bad position" and it still worked and i didnt had problems with the temps .

Again, it is not a "do it x way or it will surely break soon".

It may result in premature failure, it may result in just shitty bubbling noise, it may just be fine for years.

 

 

[freeagent]

With the first few gens of AIO this would be a death sentence for the pump, not immediate.. but it would not take long for it to develop a rattle.

 

We have pumps in rads now, we are on like 12th gen AIO.. I can say I don't know what will happen. Is the engineering there?

 

Only one way to find out..

[alinashul]

On 12/6/2025 at 2:01 AM, Poinkachu said:

Currently you are mounting the AIO pump the way Arctic intended it.

 

Again, it is not a "do it x way or it will surely break soon".

It may result in premature failure, it may result in just shitty bubbling noise, it may just be fine for years.

 

 

Ok i did the changes. 
However i will change the Corsair 140mm fans from the bottom with Noctuas , i dont like the RGB , i dont like the hub idea ( since i dont have alot of fans ) and they are very loud even at 900RPM . Is it ok now ?