Better Air Flow Management to Cool your Rig I have been reading a bit on air flow management and efficient case cooling and decided to do a write-up. I hope this info could come in handy for bros who are relatively new to cooling (like myself). Any comments, suggestions and contributions are greatly appreciated! Placement of Fans on the Casing Two of the components that generate the most heat in your PC are the CPU and GPU (graphics card). To cool these 2 areas, here are some suggested fan placements. Exhausting Hot Air Out from the Casing - Rear : Heat generated by the CPU needs to be extracted out of the casing. The best way is to install fans at the rear, preferably underneath the PSU. - Top : Everybody knows that hot air rises. Since not all the warm air is extracted out from the fans at the rear, some of the hot air often hovers at the top of the casing, just right next to the PSU. That is why you often find the top part of the casing hot. A blowhole could be made at the top and fans could be installed to extract this hot air out from the casing. Getting Cool Air Into the Casing - Front : Cool air comes in from the front and goes out from the rear and the top. When installing a fan in the front, make sure that there is a hole or a vent in the front through which cool air could enter the casing. Otherwise you are just circulating the warm air within the casing. - Bottom : Elevate the legs at the bottom of the casing and cut blowholes below for fans. This could be useful for casing without any holes for front intake (casing with door). - Side : Another effective method is to install fans at the side, preferably one over the CPU and one over the GPU. Fan at the side blowing directly over the CPU will help drop the CPU temperature by a few degree. You can also use a duct for more streamline airflow directed at the CPU. Now comes the much debated part on how much intake and exhaust for the most efficient cooling. Exhaust = Intake The most common school of thoughts is keeping a 1:1 ratio of intake vs exhaust. The reason for keeping 1:1 is due to : If Exhaust > Intake : Although warm air is extracted from the casing, there is insufficient cool air intake to cool down the system. If Intake > Exhaust : The cool air will come in faster than the warm air gets exhausted. Over time, the temperature in the casing will climb and the warm air will be roaming around in the casing. However, slightly higher intake pressure than exhaust also known as positive pressure, helps create some swirl in the airflow. This will break up dead air spots in the casing, as well as make the air a little denser to cool those heatsinks. Intake > Exhaust Another school of thought is to have a high intake pressure. This is done by having more or bigger intake fans and sealing all the holes and gaps in the casing. Doing this would cause a relative increase is pressure inside the casing. Air at a higher density has a greater capability to cool, as there is now more mass to warm in a given volume of air. I suppose there is no "right" answer to maximizing airflow as different setups work for different systems. The best way to do this is probably through testing with different configs for your system. A fan controller with thermal monitoring should come in handy. Some other Tips - Get a PSU with 2 fans. One exhausting air at the gear and one sucking out air from the CPU at the bottom - Cut away unnecessary grills in the casing. Grills can severely block air flow and block proper air flow - Place your casing in open places on the floor so as not to restrict cool air from entering into the casing. Also place the casing out of direct sunlight. - Clean your fans and heatsinks regularly. - Tidy up the wires in your casing. Untidy wires can disrupt air flow. You can simply tape the wires together or use cable ties. Then, stick the wires to the side of the casing. - Installing a PCI Slot Exhaust is also a good option, it would help you get some of the heat generated by the Video card out of the casing. - Installing a fan on the northbridge, especially if you are coverclocking. - Plug the HS fan directly into the power supply molex. This will guarantee that the HS fan runs at its highest speed all the time. It also takes some stress off of the Mobo. Pls feel free to share your setup and experience as well cheers!
I would like to add the difference between ATX (the standard form factor) airflow, and BTX (which is supposed to replace ATX) airflow. The easiest way to tell ATX from BTX is that an ATX case opens on the left and a BTX case opens on the right. Now, the airflow on ATX : intake is low on the front and high on the back. the airflow on BTX: intake is in the middle at the front and in the middle at the back. Hope this helps a bit
yeh also use 120mm fans for maximum airflow and static pressure while mantaining near silence. any larger typically doesn't fit in cases another location to place a fan would be near in the CD drive cage. just make a makeshift cover and toss a fan in it for some intake. also consider placing fans over your ram and your chipsets.
