Are front mounted intake radiators bad for case temps?

[AdmiralWen]

Currently I have my CPU cooled using a 240mm top exhaust radiator (H100i). I want to add another 280mm radiator to my system to cool the GPU (using the Kraken G10). It would be mounted at the bottom front as an intake, and I'm wondering if this would be bad for the internal case temperatures, and will it significantly impact the CPU cooling?

Has anyone used this kind of setup before? Researching online a bit turns up mixed results, so I'm uncertain.

My case is a FD Arc Midi R2, if that helps.

[ericlee30]

As long as you have enough exhuast fans pushing air out you should be fine.

[AMICLG]

It's a good config as your pulling in air and bringing it across the motherboard and back of the GPU then the heat rises to the top of the case were it's then exhausted.

[Jodomcfrodo]

'I have a 360mm in the front of my air 540 and have no problems. 

[The_Strict_Nein]

It'll maybe increase CPU temps a couple of degrees but will also significantly lower GPU temps, by around 20 degrees or more, depending on the card

Well worth it. Plus, you'll still have two fans at the front pulling cool fresh air in

[Peopie]

It's a good config as your pulling in air and bringing it across the motherboard and back of the GPU then the heat rises to the top of the case were it's then exhausted.

 

I think if you have enough case ventilation, the fans can overpower the natural rising of air due to heat.

[airdeano]

well TTL did notice in his AIR540 when running the r295x2 that the internal CPU

temps did get a lil annoyingly warmer than desirable (+5°). but that is with only

the r295x2 as intakes only and no other intake air used.

 

G10 and 280 is far overkill for GPU cooling. swipe the intake air for the G10 kit

from the floor and leave the front intake as fresh air intake to keep internals

comfortable. no sense in killing the VRM in temperatures to throttle any overclocking.

[rjbarker]

 you guys seem to be all under the assumption that Cases are "Air Tight"....we all know theyre anything but that...setting up "positive pressure " in a case is an ideal way to go imho...I've got all of my 3 rads set up as Intakes...to me its just plain "wrong" to run anything but "fresh air" over a heat exchanger....I've never noticed any build up of warm airin my Case, certainly notice the air being forced out of all the little vents, crook n crannies though...hold a match or a smoke up against a crack or vent on a massive "positive pressure" case and "you'll get it"............a single exhaust fan top / rear is all thats necessary... 

[TheProfosist]

you guys seem to be all under the assumption that Cases are "Air Tight"....we all know theyre anything but that...setting up "positive pressure " in a case is an ideal way to go imho...I've got all of my 3 rads set up as Intakes...to me its just plain "wrong" to run anything but "fresh air" over a heat exchanger....I've never noticed any build up of warm airin my Case, certainly notice the air being forced out of all the little vents, crook n crannies though...hold a match or a smoke up against a crack or vent on a massive "positive pressure" case and "you'll get it"............a single exhaust fan top / rear is all thats necessary...

Ill just say that I disagree with this and that's it rather off topic to the op.

[rjbarker]

^^^ Its been heavily debated thats for sure....it certainly isnt off topic at all...OP's asking if his front mounted Rad as "Intake" is good or bad....and how it will effect temps..whether good or bad....in fact..when I switched all my rads to Intakes my Loop Temps dropped a couple of degrees...this was some advice a couple of other Members over at Overclock.net and HWC provided,,,,,glad I got over my stubborness and listened / tried

 

OP...dont sweat it...a front mounted Rad as Intake is just fine   (be sure you have at least one (( preferably a 140mm)) Fan as Exhaust top / rear and your golden)

[TheProfosist]

^^^ Its been heavily debated thats for sure....it certainly isnt off topic at all...OP's asking if his front mounted Rad as "Intake" is good or bad....and how it will effect temps..whether good or bad....in fact..when I switched all my rads to Intakes my Loop Temps dropped a couple of degrees...this was some advice a couple of other Members over at Overclock.net and HWC provided,,,,,glad I got over my stubborness and listened / tried

 

OP...dont sweat it...a front mounted Rad as Intake is just fine   (be sure you have at least one (( preferably a 140mm)) Fan as Exhaust top / rear and your golden)

Running a rad as an intake youll get better temps on what ever the rad is hooked to, well pertaining its pulling in cooler air than what would be in the case already. The only downside is that the temps of everything in the case that arnt hooked up to that rad will be higher.

Now to running every fan as a intake, hell no, especially on heavily sound damped cases like mine there are very few places for air to get out other then fans. Even then my fans are generally running as low as possible so the amount of pressure is minimal so pushing out of the cracks in the case is in no way ideal. I want to get hot air out as much as I want cool air in.

[Platinumjsi]

Sorry to necro..

 

I have a Meshify C with a front mounted 280mm EVGA rad and when gaming its causing the fans on my GPU to hit 2700RPM and screem.

On my old setup which was a Corsair 350D case with the rad mounted at the top the GPU was silent even under full load.

 

Checked a few vids on Youtube, the LTT one had the fans set to 60% which I think would put them about the same as my new setup i.e screaming along so not sure about that one.

The one thing I did notice is they all used standard length cases and the front rad was a lot further away from the GPU than mine, its almost touching for me, I am thinking this is making a big difference?

 

[Leonard]

Yes it is bad for case temperatures but this is on a case by case basis, some cases have really good airflow so this would not be a huge issue for those cases but for those that have like the foam inserts on the panels and not ventilation then those cases would heat up quick. Gamer Nexus is currently showing how the newer cases are proving to be piss poor regarding airflow for the price of the case.

[PrimeSonic]

I've got an Air540 with radiators on every possible fan placement location.

So all intakes and exhausts have radiators on them.

Temps tend to be just about 2-4 degrees over ambient at idle and are always under 60C when under gaming/rendering grade loads.

This was a case with airflow in mind though, and the radiators are of a low FPI to help with that as well.

I can always run the fans at 30-40%, inaudible for my purposes, even in a quiet room. Seriously, the fridge is louder than my PC.

 

So if your case doesn't make air flow restrictive on its own, then adding however many radiators you want shouldn't be impacting temps as much as you think they might.

[Brett_Bst]

5 hours ago, PrimeSonic said:

I've got an Air540 with radiators on every possible fan placement location.

So all intakes and exhausts have radiators on them.

Temps tend to be just about 2-4 degrees over ambient at idle and are always under 60C when under gaming/rendering grade loads.

This was a case with airflow in mind though, and the radiators are of a low FPI to help with that as well.

I can always run the fans at 30-40%, inaudible for my purposes, even in a quiet room. Seriously, the fridge is louder than my PC.

 

So if your case doesn't make air flow restrictive on its own, then adding however many radiators you want shouldn't be impacting temps as much as you think they might.

hard line tubing  would look boss in there, just saying

[Mick Naughty]

Ive done in on both rigs. rasies temps in every way. Sometimes a lot, sometimes just enough to piss me off. My cheap rig has poor airflow. Only good for cpu w/c. Other rig flows quite great. Decent temps with a front mount but id rather not have it and actually have fresh air at some point in the system.

[PrimeSonic]

17 hours ago, Brett_Bst said:

hard line tubing  would look boss in there, just saying

Yeah, I know it's not the prettiest thing.

But I was working with all straight fittings.

 

I've already got an order in Performance-PCs for a bunch of angle fittings and new tubing.

It'll look much better once I'm through with it.

 

I'm not quite ready to go hardline just yet but I have no doubt that I will someday.