Your thoughts on this airflow setup?

Notleh

Limp Gawd
Joined
Aug 5, 2010
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388
This is a new build and I am still tweaking it a bit. Temps are OK, but not as good as I would like.

Case: NZXT Phantom
cpu: i7 930 OC @4Ghz
Mobo: Asus P6T Deluxe V2
GPU: 2X 470GTX
heatsink: Noctua NH-D14

Basically, I have changed the airflow around from a traditional setup. While reading about the H50 and the success people were having with pulling in cool air from the outside to cool the radiator, I thought this might work well for a bigass air cooler as well.

The Phantom has a lot of flexibility in water/air cooling, but in air cooling in particular. So my current design is to pull in cool air from the rear and exhaust it through the 200mm in the top front.

Current-airflow.jpg


However, I am thinking about changing this up a bit by hooking up an ultra Kaze fan for massive cool air intake in the back (the Phantom has a fan controller, so I can dial it down when not needed) and then have the 2X 200mm top exhaust fans exhausting air out of the top. this will require rotating the heatsink 90 degrees clockwise. This will be the "top Zone".

Then the "Bottom Zone" will receive cool air from the bottom and sides and exhaust it out through the 470 rear exhaust (they pull 94cfm at max load).

I was also thinking about setting up a fan on the bottom intake vent, but angled up to blow right on the 470's.

future-airflow.jpg



Thoughts?
 
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Ive tried the rear intake before. The exhaust from your GPU and PSU will be rising up and blowing right onto your processor
 
I will get that rising heat no matter what I do though, right?

He means that the "cool air" behind your computer isn't really all that cool, unless you're somehow whisking that air away with an external fan. Especially if it's right near a wall in a stagnant air situation. That air is heated up by the video cards rear exhaust.

Typically what will happen is that while stress testing just your CPU or sitting idle, your CPU temperatures will be lower with a rear intake configuration than it would be with rear exhaust. However, once you start loading your two GPUs to the max, the rear intake will be sucking a good portion of that hot air back into the case.
 
He means that the "cool air" behind your computer isn't really all that cool, unless you're somehow whisking that air away with an external fan.

Ah, that makes sense. Yet another reason to implement my crazy plan to vent my gpu exhaust through a duct.

I guess I need to test it out and see if the air outside my case is cooler than the air inside my case. Either that or come up with some way to bring in cool air from the front.
 
bring in cool air from the front.

Bay cooler, and line it up as best you can with the cpu cooler and rear fan so as to get a straight shot in the front, over the memory and into the cpu cooler and out the back. If needed put the DVD/CD drive in the lowest bay.


Good spacing on those lower drives btw, Those sideways drive bays are nice but block a lot of airflow and when you dont space them out like you did, it almost kills airflow completely. Even with your good spacing it makes me wonder about fresh air for the video, hopefully case has a vented side panel or perhaps a fan in what looks like a fan postion in the bottom of the case (which I would cut out to further improve air intake) and if necessary set the machine up off of the carpet/floor with small blocks to esure the bottom fan could breath
 
Bay cooler, and line it up as best you can with the cpu cooler and rear fan so as to get a straight shot in the front, over the memory and into the cpu cooler and out the back. If needed put the DVD/CD drive in the lowest bay.

Good idea, and i may do it, but the front has a door over the bays and looks better with the door on. I will sacrifice form for function though if needed.


hopefully case has a vented side panel or perhaps a fan in what looks like a fan postion in the bottom of the case (which I would cut out to further improve air intake) and if necessary set the machine up off of the carpet/floor with small blocks to esure the bottom fan could breath

The side panel has 2X 120mm fans and an optional 200mm fan (which I cannot use with a massive air heatsink). I plan on putting a fan in the bottom and maybe angle it up towards the cards.

I like your idea of cutting out the bottom for airflow and also raising it up, which i will do right now.


Thanks for the ideas everyone.
 
Good idea, and i may do it, but the front has a door over the bays and looks better with the door on. I will sacrifice form for function though if needed.

I didnt realize a door. so dont make it look like crap on my account ;)
 
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