Top Mounted Radiator Questions

[andrewryan13]

Hello,

 

I am planning to mount my radiator on the top of my case and was wondering if I should set it up as exhaust or intake? If I set it up as intake, my only exhaust fan would be a Single 140mm fan at the back of the case and the power supply. Would that be enough exhaust for my case?

 

My plan:

Front---2x 200mm fans(intake)

Top---2x 120mm Static Pressure fans.......Better to use as exhaust or intake?

Rear---1x 140mm Air Flow fan(exhaust)

 

 

Thanks!!!

[W-L]

Have the top and rear as exhaust, heat naturally rises so you'll be promoting it to leave by exhausting and since you have two 200mm intakes it should still give slightly positive air pressure to keep the dust from entering from gaps.

[andrewryan13]

Do you think the air inside the case will be cool enough for the radiator to keep the CPU cool?

 

I have been leaning toward using the Radiator as an exhaust, but I'm just a little nervous if it will be cool enough inside the case.

 

 

Also, does it matter if the fans are above or below the radiator?

[brob]

Most early benchmarks of AIO showed only 1 - 3 degrees C difference with intake vs exhaust. Presumably that result will be similar for any radiator.

[Wats]

Do you think the air inside the case will be cool enough for the radiator to keep the CPU cool?

 

I have been leaning toward using the Radiator as an exhaust, but I'm just a little nervous if it will be cool enough inside the case.

 

 

Also, does it matter if the fans are above or below the radiator?

You should have more than enough to deal with the hot case air blowing through your rad and keep the cpu cool.

 

More exhaust fans will help for sure.

 

If you use the fans in push (below), they'll be easier to install. If you use them in pull (above), it will be easier to clean dust from the rad.

[Lays]

Have the top and rear as exhaust, heat naturally rises so you'll be promoting it to leave by exhausting and since you have two 200mm intakes it should still give slightly positive air pressure to keep the dust from entering from gaps.

 

 

Heat doesn't naturally rise in PC cases, it's never stagnant long enough to be effected by convection.  In PC cases, air goes where it is pushed, or pulled.  If you have no fans, or extremely extremely low airflow, then convection would play a part, but in most modern cases + systems have plenty of airflow, so it's not relevant.

 

 

@Op General rule of thumb I've always had success was with 3:1 intake to exhaust ratio, if you have high heat components, 3:2 ratio is good as well.

 

I think the best thing to do would be to set aside maybe an hour when you're not busy, test having the rads fans as intakes, then try them as exhausts, make sure you're measuring temps each time to see which has the better outcome, since many systems differ in airflow, component choice, etc.

[mkflux]

i have mine pulling hot cpu air over GPU, it raised GPU temp by 3-6C and lowered CPU to 40 @ load from 68. I recommend pulling air out of case since ho air moves up anyway.

[©D0n7H8M3™®]

I have 2 120 on the front, 2 120 on the bottom, and one 120 on the back as intake and I have 2 120 on the top as exhaust (which is my rad on the top) so meh you can do what ever you want 

[VSG]

Heat doesn't naturally rise in PC cases, it's never stagnant long enough to be effected by convection.  In PC cases, air goes where it is pushed, or pulled.  If you have no fans, or extremely extremely low airflow, then convection would play a part, but in most modern cases + systems have plenty of airflow, so it's not relevant.

 

 

@Op General rule of thumb I've always had success was with 3:1 intake to exhaust ratio, if you have high heat components, 3:2 ratio is good as well.

 

I think the best thing to do would be to set aside maybe an hour when you're not busy, test having the rads fans as intakes, then try them as exhausts, make sure you're measuring temps each time to see which has the better outcome, since many systems differ in airflow, component choice, etc.

 

 

Thank you! I still can't believe how the whole idea of convection is fixated in PC cases, especially watercooled builds where it plays next to no role. In my 900D, I had 18 fans intake and 2 on exhaust and the case temperature was the same as ambient. I won't even get into what it is going to be in the TX10 case lol.

 

OP: If you have every intake filtered and the case has openings for natural flow of air (such as hex meshes or even an opened PCI slot cover), there is no such thing as too much positive pressure. Have it any way that makes sense to you- fans on intake gives best performance with rads.

[harrynowl]

I have 2 120 on the front, 2 120 on the bottom, and one 120 on the back as intake and I have 2 120 on the top as exhaust (which is my rad on the top) so meh you can do what ever you want 

That's a lot of rads... I'm guessing you're on about fans and not radiators, you'd probably have saved money fittings/tubing going with 240s over 500 120mm rads

 

Also your PC is... interesting to say the least. 

 

Mid range gpu, silly cpu and 64gb of RAM. No SSD

[ChristophersonofGray]

Exhaust.