Question about airflow in my case

[MGsubbie]

I'm using the Corsair Graphite 230t (mid-tower ATX), which came with two 140mm intake fans on the front and a 120mm outtake on the back. At first the PC was resting on a carpet, and with the feet being rather low I didn't trust putting the PSU intake on the bottom, so I turned it up to use air from within the case. I'm also using an NH-D14 CPU cooler. That thing is absolutely massive.

 

It sits really close to the rear fan, and I was a bit worried this would mean all the hot air would travel through the cooler, making it less effective. For that reason I bought a fan filter and turned the rear fan into an intake, to blow fresh air straight into the cooler.

 

I also bought two 120mm fans that I mounted on the top of my case to work as outtake. (PS : Yes I know the cable management in this picture below is horrible, but this was taken months ago right after I built it. Not representative of its current condition.)

 

 

 

As you can see my PSU isn't all that good. I recently ordered an EVGA Supernova G2. I took out the top shelve of my closet (wardrobe? whatever the word is), placed it on my carpet, and put my PC on it, allowing it to have proper access to air from the bottom. And it's time for a clean-up inside as there is some dust build-up. So I'm thinking of moving my fans around a bit while I'm at it.

I'm planning on

• Setting the PSU with the intake on the bottom (case has a built-in fan filter for it.)

• Turning the rear fan back into exhaust and remove the fan filter.

• Remove one of the top exhaust fans, put the fan filter on it, and place it on the bottom as an extra intake fan.

• Leave one exhaust fan on top.

Is this a solid set-up for good airflow? Or do you suggest placing things differently? Would it be better to leave the top exhaust on the back of the case, right above the CPU cooler, or put it in the front slot (roughly the middle of the case)?

Some extra information that might be necessary :

• I've maxed out the number of fans I can use on my motherboard.

• GPU is MSI GTX 970 reference with OC set by MSI, I'm planning to further overclock it.

• CPU is a 3770k OC'd to 4.2Ghz, currently never goes above 58° on full system load.

[Trik'Stari]

two words.

 

Cable Management.

[MGsubbie]

two words.

 

Cable Management.

I know, it's much better by now, this was taken months ago, right after I put everything inside.

[zzenigmaxzz]

have the rear as exhaust with the cpu cooler blowing the same way and put 1 fan on the top of the case as exhuast. for intake put one on the bottom (provided its not on carpet still) and 2 in the front this will give you positive pressure and help blow the hot air from the heatsink right out of the case .... and yes please clean up that cable mess you have going on there

[MGsubbie]

have the rear as exhaust with the cpu cooler blowing the same way and put 1 fan on the top of the case as exhuast. for intake put one on the bottom (provided its not on carpet still) and 2 in the front this will give you positive pressure and help blow the hot air from the heatsink right out of the case .... and yes please clean up that cable mess you have going on there

Would you recommend the top exhaust to be on the back mount, right above the CPU cooler, or the front mount, in the middle of the case?

[zzenigmaxzz]

Would you recommend the top exhaust to be on the back mount, right above the CPU cooler, or the front mount, in the middle of the cae?

i would put it closer to the front, the back corner is pretty well taken care of by the rear fan

[MGsubbie]

i would put it closer to the front, the back corner is pretty well taken care of by the rear fan

Alright, thanks.

[Alas]

Ok here is the breakdown you almost never want that rear fans set as intake heat rises so since on most case that fan slot is up much higher it will take all the hot air with it if you are worried about that fan pulling air through your heatsink it really wont and what air it does pull through it wont effect performance that much seeing as you have a VERY high tdp heatsink which will be plenty to cool your CPU so i would recommend putting the fans at the front of your case as intake and that rear fan as exhaust and put those fans on top as intake. Hope this helped!