enough cooling?

[doyll]

Thanks! Here is my thought process for the top of the case with the 3 fans, one exhaust and two intake. Please don't laugh: The two fans closest to the front of the case will bring a lot of air onto the heat sink and the fan in the rear will exhaust the warmer air. What do you recommend for the top fans? What grill on the bottom are you referring to with removing? As for the splitter hubs, my GPU (Nvidia GTX 1050) never uses its fans because this rig is used exclusively for video encoding and taxes the processor so it seems like I would only need one splitter hub? For fans, I have two 150mm on the Silver Arrow, Two 140mm front intake, one 12mm intake on the bottom intake which I THINK IS A WASTE BECAUSE OF THE PSU COVER, and three 140mm on the top.

I would assume I connect one of the splitter hubs to the motherboard (Asrock X399 Taichi.) I have a few options and not sure it matters which one I connect it to:

1.) Chassis Fan/Waterpump fan connector
2.) CPU Fan connector
3.) CPU/ Waterpump Fan connector
4.) Chassis Fan connectors (x2)

Look at image of intake and exhaust fans side by side. Read the details. You will be better of with back fan unplugged. Almost all of my builds for many years now have no exhaust fans. Good intake fans in front and sometimes bottom and plenty of exhaust venting on back of case is all I use. Using top and front or front and bottom intake often has the airflow from front fighting with airflow from bottom .. or from front with top. We need to think of airflow and it's currents the same way we think of water flowing in currents in a lake or ocean. Think of a case as a van in bottom of lake with windows being vents. For water to flow in windows on one side of van the same amount of water has to flow out of other windows in van .. ideally on other side so we end up with flow in one side and out other.

YOU COULD JUST REMOVE THE PSU COVER!!! That is assuming you need bottom intake. Push/pull fans move about the same amount of as as single push or pull do on coolers because cooler fans have almost no airflow resistance, but intake grills and filters are way more resistance. So if we have 2x 140mm intakes running 800rpm they will flow about the right amount of air for CPU cooler's 140mm fan @ 800rpm and a little more to keep moving heated air on back and out of case.

I use CPU fan header for control of PWM hub for CPU cooler fan/s (1 or 2 is still 1 fan of airflow) and 2 front intake fans so they are flowing a little more air then CPU is using.. I use 2nd splitter on fan header using GPU temp to set fans speed for lower front and sometimes bottom intake so they cycle and flow a little more air than GPU is using.

Below link is to basic guide to how airflow works and how to optimize case airflow:
https://hardforum.com/threads/basic-guide-to-improving-case-airflow.1987938/

 

[dpriest]

Look at image of intake and exhaust fans side by side. Read the details. You will be better of with back fan unplugged. Almost all of my builds for many years now have no exhaust fans. Good intake fans in front and sometimes bottom and plenty of exhaust venting on back of case is all I use. Using top and front or front and bottom intake often has the airflow from front fighting with airflow from bottom .. or from front with top. We need to think of airflow and it's currents the same way we think of water flowing in currents in a lake or ocean. Think of a case as a van in bottom of lake with windows being vents. For water to flow in windows on one side of van the same amount of water has to flow out of other windows in van .. ideally on other side so we end up with flow in one side and out other.

YOU COULD JUST REMOVE THE PSU COVER!!!

I use CPU fan header for control of PWM hub for CPU cooler fan/s (1 or 2 is still 1 fan of airflow) and 2 front intake fans so they are flowing a little more air then CPU is using.. I use 2nd splitter on fan header using GPU temp to set fans speed for lower front and sometimes bottom intake so they cycle and flow a little more air than GPU is using.

Below link is to basic guide to how airflow works and how to optimize case airflow:
https://hardforum.com/threads/basic-guide-to-improving-case-airflow.1987938/

Thanks. Not sure if you can tell by the photos but I have no exhaust fans on the back. The airflow is a straight shot from the 2 front intake fans, 2 fans (push/pull) on the Silver Arrow exhausting to the back of the case. I figured I would optimize fans on the top since I have the room. I can switch the 2 front fans on the top to exhaust air as well, having 3 top fans as exhaust unless you recommend otherwise.

 

[doyll]

Thanks. Not sure if you can tell by the photos but I have no exhaust fans on the back. The airflow is a straight shot from the 2 front intake fans, 2 fans (push/pull) on the Silver Arrow exhausting to the back of the case. I figured I would optimize fans on the top since I have the room. I can switch the 2 front fans on the top to exhaust air as well, having 3 top fans as exhaust unless you recommend otherwise.

If you were to change top to exhaust they would be pulling the air coming in the front intakes right out the top .. and this would move heated air from below around the GPU up in path of airflow to CPU. Keep reminding yourself that any air that moves has to have air flow in to where it was before it moved .. and also has to move air where it is moving to. Every movement has equal and opposite movement.

Having 2x front intakes and 2 top intakes means both are trying to push air into the same area in front of CPU. While it is probably fine in your case sometimes it's not. To me me the goal in case airflow is or air to enter front of typical tower case, flow smoothly through case going through CPU & GPU coolers on the way and flow smoothly on on out the back. Too many fans can cause too much case air movement and create turbulence. Turbulence then creates more turbulence mixing cool air with heated air which then goes through coolers .. and ever degree warmer air is become a degree hotter component is at same fan speed .. so then fans have to spin faster creating more noise, turbulence, more mixing of cool and heated air, still warmer air, meaning coolers have to move more air, fans make more noise, on, and on, and on.

This is why when I'm setting up a new system's airflow I use a cheap remote sensor digital thermometer with probe setting about 2cm in front of cooler fan an a thermometer setting in front of case monitoring air temp entering case. Air the same temp enter cooler as is entering case would be ideal, but reality is having only 2-3c warmer air entering coolers when both CPU and GPU are working hard is very good. The link in previous post to how airflow work and optimizing case airflow is basic guide. Follow it and you can have a cool and quiet system. Once you get it all setup with cool air entering component coolers you don't need the thermometer any more. Maybe in super hot summer weather with dirty filters you might need to up fan speeds a little. Once temp : rpm curve is set right you are golden.