Push or Pull

slayer91

Hi,

Starting a PC building and all squared away but for 1 question.

It has a liquid cooling H115 pro for CPU only. I would like to mount the radiator on the top of the case.

In my view, I think the cooling fans on the radiator 2of should pull 'cooler' room temp air across the radiator and into the case. The heat in the case would be expelled by 1x back mount fan and 2x front mounted fans.

The fans expelling the hot case air have a higher flow rate that the radiator fans pulling the air into the case

The graphics card is fan only.

Does this make strategy make sense?

Thanks in advance

Regs

K.O.Kiki

Won't make too much difference - maybe 1-2C.

I'd go pull if you have dust filter on the top of the case, otherwise go for push (expelling air upwards).

BloodBath

What about the gpu then? It still needs airflow.

You're better off mounting it on top with the fans on the top side blowing out as exhaust so you can clean the radiator of dust without having to remove it.

K.O.Kiki

BloodBath wrote: »

What about the gpu then? It still needs airflow.

You're better off mounting it on top with the fans on the top side blowing out as exhaust so you can clean the radiator of dust without having to remove it.

GPU will get its air from fans pulling air in through the front panel.

BloodBath

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

GPU will get its air from fans pulling air in through the front panel.

He said he was going to use the front fans as exhaust. No point battling physics. Heat rises, use your top fans as exhaust.

K.O.Kiki

Derp, misread that.

@slayer91

I'd remount the front fans for intake tbh, you want as much cool air flowing to your GPU as possible.
CPU will be fine in either push or pull with the AIO though.

Calibos

I'm actually with OP on this one.

Push into the case and front exhaust.

Behold my Corsair Air 540 on its side with front exhaust.





Cooler outside air to the AIO Rad.
Cooler outside air to the GPU.
More exhaust than normal yet still positive pressure.
CPU not getting recycled heated GPU air.
GPU not getting recycled Heated CPU air.

Its irrelevant that my case orientation throws the 'Hot Air Rises' equation out the window because its not really part of the equation in an case in any orientation anyway. Thought it was common knowledge that it wasn't worth taking into account unless you are talking passive cooling and Stack/Chimney effect designs. Lots of airflow tests have been done that demonstrate that the weakest of fans and poorest airflow designs in any case will still easily overwhelm warm/hot air buoyancy inside a case.

BloodBath

In fairness your use case is completely different. You have a **** load of fans and bottom intakes. In his case there would be 0 fans feeding the gpu. The only airflow would be coming from the aio cooler having already cooled the cpu. I'd sooner have the fresher air getting to the gpu. Cpu's don't get worked half as hard as well as using a lot less power in most cases.

Nice setup though. What is that desk?

EoinHef

Was watching a video recently which claimed that some of the best results with using an AIO come from mounting the AIO at the front intaking air through the rad into the case,then rear and top exhausts.

Using the rad at the top of the case pulling air from the case and exhausting out the top increased CPU temps as its pulling hot air from the GPU to cool CPU. The air intake from the front going through the rad wasnt enough to really increase GPU temps so that was preferable.

The take away being that the GPU is really the biggest heat producer so best to look after that first before worrying about the CPU temps and rad position. The GPU was a dual fan not a blower cooler

Ill be testing this out during the week with a new build. Have a H100i that im gonna mount in an NZXT H500 at the front as intake and see how temps go.

Calibos

BloodBath wrote: »

In fairness your use case is completely different. You have a **** load of fans and bottom intakes. In his case there would be 0 fans feeding the gpu. The only airflow would be coming from the aio cooler having already cooled the cpu. I'd sooner have the fresher air getting to the gpu. Cpu's don't get worked half as hard as well as using a lot less power in most cases.

Nice setup though. What is that desk?

Basically two His & Hers Ikea Malm Desks one of my brothers and his Fiancee no longer needed. Bit a jiggery pokery, a few chipboard screws, a second ikea Malm beside drawer unit to go with the one I already had (€35), A Lack coffee table (€6) and a Lack floating wall shelf (€12) and 8 capita angled brackets between the Drawer units and table surfaces (4x €13) and Capita legs for the monitor shelf (€13) and PC cases (2x €12). The 4 side legs of the Malms and the Lack coffee table make up the back 'wall' of the desk.