Airflow: Truth Of Best Set-Up?

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PainInverter

Limp Gawd
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Dec 10, 2009
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There's been much debate about this over the years, and I've experimented quite a bit with different airflow set-ups, but am not sure what has actually been "proven" to be the best set-up.

Originally, and still today, the "front-to-rear" (intake/exhaust) has always been the "standard", as it brings in cooler outside air to flow across your components, and exits the heat out the rear.

However, side intake has been the "big thing" in recent years, having air blowing directly on your mobo and components, and exhausted out the top.

I've always thought (and have even seen diagrams showing the airflow) that side intake airflow just makes a mess of hot air in the case in general, even though air blowing directly on components from the side I'd think would cool better.

I know there's only so much you can "do" with air in terms of cooling, but what are your opinions?

Now that I'm running a GTX 480 and running games like Mafia 2 (demo) which has me cranking the fan to 80%, which is truly obnoxious, I'm thinking of moving out of my Antec 1200 and back into my HAF 932 to get more air directly from the side onto the GPU and it's heatpipes to see if it keeps it cooler at lower fan speed. Even though I do have a fan right in front of the 480 right now (extra internal fan mount in the 1200) blowing right over the top from front-to-back.

Not sure if it would make a different, side intake right on the GPU and mobo to keep things cooler, so I'm just curious what peeps here think.
 
I think the biggest improvement with cases has been Silverstone's Raven02 where you've got the 3 massive fans along the bottom and the mobo rotated so that all the hot air is being pushed up and out.

Side intakes can be good, but most of the time it's just people thinking more fans = better cooling. Not necessarily true. There has to be a flow of air which is usually disrupted by that side intake and then things just get ruined. I've seen a few threads where some temps actually increased after adding a side intake just cause their air flow had been ruined.

Your best solution for the situation would be an aftermarket cooler which will run cooler and quieter.
 
but what are your opinions?
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My opinion is that every case/motherboard/heastsink/viideo card/hard drive is unique depending on if air or water cooling, video card spacing and card lenght, board orientation and if a heatpipe assemebly is used, number of hard drives and their mounting location and the case and its available fan locations and I almost forgot the power supply with its fan size, fan location and mounting location. Then you have to factor in the noise level desired and how much if any OC will be run.

Makes one almost wish for the days when a top mounted power supply in a standard atx mid tower was all that there was. Almost.

I will just mention that a side vent in the proper place has kept many a high end video card from cooking itself when the lower front of the case is filled with drives that block/kill the lower front intake fans air flow.

A lot of interesting designs out there now making a careful choice of a case necessary. Some of them are not good for OCing even when they at first glance look excellent. The good news is that regardless of what hardware configuration you come up with, with all that diversity somewhere there is a case that should do a good job.
 
Completely agree with what's been said, as some of these things I've thought/experienced myself.

So, which do you think is generally truly more effective in just a "standard" set-up?

- air flowing across components front-to-rear?
- side intake blowing directly on components, exhausted out top/rear?

The bottom-to-top config (case) you're talking about I've considered, and you can almost do that with the HAF932, except the air isn't flowing over the top of the GPU unless the mobo is rotated. Still, though... close...

I'm running a Gigabyte UD5 board w/ a GTX 480, 6GB RAM, i7 950 (stock) w/ aftermarket cooler (air) and my temps seem good... but have been feeling they could be better, especially with as hot as the 480 gets, for which there is no aftermarket cooler except water, which I don't mess with. I also feel I do want my PSU back to being mounted on top, as I find it better for cable management etc., and in the Antec 1200 that's a bit of a pain.

In my situation as an example: do you think side intake (perhaps bottom-up as well) blowing directly on my RAM, 480 (air blowing directly on/over heatpipes and top) and mobo would help keep things cooler? Perhaps even keep the NB/SB cooler? Maybe if I used four 120mm fans instead of one 200mm fan?
 
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WiLLiSTER said:
Side intakes can be good, but most of the time it's just people thinking more fans = better cooling. Not necessarily true. There has to be a flow of air which is usually disrupted by that side intake and then things just get ruined. I've seen a few threads where some temps actually increased after adding a side intake just cause their air flow had been ruined.
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I agree with this totally. If you're running hot as hell graphics... an intake is worthless. Turning it into an exhaust is another story. Try it (even more so with SLI/X-fire) and feel the heat pouring out. Using the Antec 902 I have 1 side, 1 rear, and the big ass top fan as a exhaust fans... with the front two fans as intake. Its a good system as far as I'm concerned.
 
I've got a positive air pressure setup with back exhaust, top exhaust; front, side, and bottom intakes. That's going to change slightly once the water system is fully in place. The air flow won't matter as much because the waterblocks will be wicking away most of the heats to the rads.
 
It completely depends where your components are. For myself, my PSU is in the front so it made sense to have positive pressure from the back, the top (might add fans on the bottom eventually) and have it exhaust out the front. It also keeps me warm in winter as I don't need a space heater as the hot air blows right at my face!!!

lianlia05nbairflow.jpg


If you are looking for the best setup though, for my money, this is the best air cooling configuration, with cool air from the bottom being exhausted out the top where airflow is assisted by natural convection and the heat will rise to your ceiling without any chance of recyling.

raven26.jpg
 
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Spare-Flair said:
It completely depends where your components are. For myself, my PSU is in the front so it made sence to have positive pressure from the back, the top (might add fans on the bottom eventually) and have it exhaust out the front. It also keeps me warm in winter as I don't need a space heater as the hot air blows right at my face!!!

http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/6020/lianlia05nbairflow.jpg

If you are looking for the best setup though, for my money, this is the best air cooling configuration, with cool air from the bottom being exhausted out the top where airflow is assisted by natural convection and the heat will rise to your ceiling without any chance of recyling.

http://img708.imageshack.us/img708/628/raven26.jpg
Click to expand...

Wow thats great.. what case/company is that?
 
There's also an improved version of the Raven that's supposed to be coming out. Biggest thing that stood out to me was the rotated hard drive rack so that air can pass vertically in between drives.
 
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