Case Airflow - Help

N

Namdrater

New member
Hi

I'm very close to purchasing the Antec Kuhler 620: http://www.landmarkpc.co.za/store/antec-kuhler-water-cooling-p-6416.html

And it's just made me think a bit more about how case air-flow works. I'm pretty sure I could spend a bit of time researching this stuff online, but I'm sure a few of you have good experience and first-hand knowledge on this kind of stuff.

I've got a fan in the front, back and top (blowing out) of my case. I was thinking of putting the radiator/fan at the back (blowing out), but I could also put it on top and have space for another fan on top. What would you recommend and what do you think of the cooler? This probably isn't extremely important, but I like to know the fine details. I'll be overclocking my 2500k and have been looking for a silent solution... this seems to be it.
 
the kuhler is a pretty good cooler and you should see it work :D

The case fans is simple

front fans blow in

back and top blow out and side in

I would recommend that you set your kuhler up in push pull system and mount it on the TOP . reason for this is that it gets fresh cool air from OUTside rather than Hot air that has blown over the components.

with that setup blowing IN and change your side panel to OUT

remember you want to have a circuit flowing and not just air blowing onto it.

Think of a fan at your house its not the fan itself that cools you but rather the air that blows over you. If you give that air no where to go it will just be warm air not doing much



Push Pull is basically just the fans that mount on both sides of the radiator and blow in the same direction

so the one is blowing air INTO the radiator and one on the other side is Sucking air OUT of the radiator.
 
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Yeah thanks a lot Cranky! I'll be taking your advice. I don't have a side panel fan, but I'll mount the new cooler on top - I got space for two fans there, would it be best to make both those fans blow in?
 
id say the one closest to the back let it blow out and the closer to the front mount your cooler on that one. do you have space for a second fan in front?

IF not its ok .. the 2 top fans will create circulation with the front fan blowing through.

make sure your cables are managed to a point where it is not obstructing airflow from the front FAN
 
i use this as a guide when i assembled my pcs and any other pc's in general

case_airflow.jpg
 
yip that used to be a standard but look at the warm air over your mobo. that is why a side in helps a lot :D

but he does not have a side fan so the best is 1 top needs to blow air in to get cool air over that radiator otherwise its going to sky rocket in temps.
 
I have the Khuler 920 and to be honest I think even if I had no fans in my case I would still get decent temps.

I idle around 32 and under load goes to about 45. And thats a 2500K OC to 4.3Ghz.

Great cooler! I would get it and then see what your temps are like before worrying about internal fans.
 
Cranky said:
the kuhler is a pretty good cooler and you should see it work :D

The case fans is simple

front fans blow in

back and top blow out and side in

I would recommend that you set your kuhler up in push pull system and mount it on the TOP . reason for this is that it gets fresh cool air from OUTside rather than Hot air that has blown over the components.

with that setup blowing IN and change your side panel to OUT

remember you want to have a circuit flowing and not just air blowing onto it.

Think of a fan at your house its not the fan itself that cools you but rather the air that blows over you. If you give that air no where to go it will just be warm air not doing much



Push Pull is basically just the fans that mount on both sides of the radiator and blow in the same direction

so the one is blowing air INTO the radiator and one on the other side is Sucking air OUT of the radiator.
Click to expand...
Just noticed the Kuhler 620 only has a single fan
 
Yeah I think you're right, I'll get an extra 120mm fan then. Is there much performance / noise difference between 120mm fans? I'm really pushing for minimal noise.
 
So you're saying I should put the cooler at the back of my case like in the pic? I've got an enormous fan on top so that should be good. I think the fan that comes with the cooler is 1500-2000RPM, not sure of its actual quality, but that would get put on the back.
 
yeah . Push pull it OUT o the case through the back. Monitor your temps.. If they are feasible you keep it that way. IF it doesn't work that way you could then just try and wap it to what i would have suggested.

Im just a big fan of getting cool air from the top.

Ive got a 620 that i got for a present. 5 months ago. Im a lazy person and my V8 does the trick. But if i do put it in id would be mounted to my top fans.

Ive got a Df -85 antec case that has 3 x front 2 x top 2 x back and a side panel fan.
 
I've got the Corsair Obsidian 650D. Massive fan on top and in front, so I'd just replace the one at the back with the new one. The push pulls gonna be done using one fan on the radiator pulling and the push effectively being done by the top fan. Like you say, I can play around with it to find what's best. Thanks a lot for the tips, it's always good to learn a thing or two when possible.

Btw, do coolers, or does this cooler, usually come with thermal paste or will I have to purchase my own?
 
They normally do come with thermal paste but ive learned to get some. ITs about R100 and you get the antec formula 7. then you keep it for some point when you need to clean your pc and reseat your heatsink. Thermalpaste is always handy to have around.
 
So I've installed the cooler with just one fan on the radiator blowing out the case with my front and top fans blowing in. I'm around 30 degrees on idle, but can reach around 70 on load. I was probably expecting a bit better to be honest, but I'm thinking it could be a number of things...

I haven't applied thermal paste to a CPU in years and I'm not sure I got the quantity or method correct. I put a little lump on the CPU and let the pressure of mounting the cooler do the spreading, as opposed to spreading it on the CPU before applying the cooler. Not sure how much difference in temps the thermal paste can make if it's not applied in the perfect manner, but initially I thought I'd applied it quite well.

The other thing is that I've got 2 graphics cards which can get +80 degrees on load and I'm wondering if maybe the high case temperature is increasing the CPU temps by more than I'd like.

I'm hoping to eventually add a 2nd fan to the radiator, I just need some big screws to do it! Anyone know a bit about the specs of those screws and where I could get them from? Hardware store? The screws got to be long enough to go through the depth of the fan to reach the radiator.
 
SO.

Use normal short screws for the fa.. The fan has got 2 holes 1 on top and 1 on the bottom.

You insert a small screw and use a screwdriver that can fit through the top hole and you screw it in :D

2ndly you basically need to giv it a week or so to settle in

Too little and 2 few thermalpaste can cause a cpu to run hotter than it should .

Basically you apply a BB bullet size and your supposed to spread it.

I use a BB size but also used the pressure of my cooler when tightening it to spread the paste for me.

yes the temps reaching your cpu may be hot with the GPu`s actually making the air super hot.

YOu might have to resort to placing it on top to pull in fresh cool air.
 
Yeah I probably got the thermal paste level right, I was thinking about redoing it, but I'll wait a week or so to see how things turn out, maybe try again and see if I get better results.

What type of screwdriver fits through something that small! I might have a really crappy one actually, I'll try that!

Thanks Cranky, you're a beast.
 
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