Push/Pull Radiator Question

nckoliss · January 26, 2018

So quick question. I've got a corsair h100i v2 liquid cooling setup to cool a i7-8700k for gaming and such. Its a 240 mm radiator setup. What I though about doing was using it at the intake. The radiator comes with stock 2 sp120l's. They are 4 pin and run at max 2700 rpm. However, I wanted to replace these with sp120 rgb fans. The only issue is that these are 3 pin, so no fan control and run at about 1000 rpm. I like having the 3 rgb fans at the front, but I don't want my cpu getting too hot. So I came up with a few ideas. I just want to know what's feasable and best for my system.

1. Just have the rgb fans running at 1000 rpm with no fan control. I know this probably won't be enough to cool the radiator effectively, but it never hurts to ask.

2. Use the original stock fans on the other side of the radiator in a pull config while still having the rpg in the front in a push config.

3. Or give up on my cool rgb dream and put the stock fans back on the radiator.

PrimeSonic · January 26, 2018

12 hours ago, nckoliss said:

1. Just have the rgb fans running at 1000 rpm with no fan control. I know this probably won't be enough to cool the radiator effectively, but it never hurts to ask.

It might actually be enough if you're comfortable seeing your CPU go into higher, though still acceptable, temperatures.

You might want to test that out and see what temps your CPU actually hits under whatever real-world loads you're likely to put it through.

Anything below 80 is considered "good enough". The lower you go, the more you get into the territory of "awesome".

12 hours ago, nckoliss said:

2. Use the original stock fans on the other side of the radiator in a pull config while still having the rpg in the front in a push config.

You can certainly do that. If you don't have enough fan headers, 4-pin and 3-pin splitters for connecting two or three fans into the same fan header are cheap and readily available.

I insist, if you go this route, don't worry too much about "mixing" fans. I've done this sort of myself on my own H100i v2 and there was still a net performance benefit as far as cooling goes, even if it isn't "optimal" fan setup.