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Fans and Fan Placement for Corsair Air 540 & 3-Way SLI

Tags:
  • Cooler Master
  • Components
  • Cooling
  • Fan
  • SLI
  • Corsair
  • Cases
Last response: in Components
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March 12, 2014 10:24:54 AM

Hello, all!

I currently have a Corsair Air 540 using its two stock intake and exhaust fans with 1 Cooler Master R4-S4S-10AK-GP mounted on the top of the case above the rear exhaust. Due to the build of the case, there is also a Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO that extends over the top card.

I have three 4GB EVGA 770 FTWs running in three-way SLI that are, naturally, running hot. I am trying to avoid going the watercooling route if at all possible.

My questions are:

1.) Should I replace the fans with more powerful ones? Noise isn't an issue because I use noise cancelling headphones
2.) What should the placement of fans be? Am I fine with two intake / two exhaust, or should I install a second fan along the top towards the front.

Thank you for any assistance you can provide!


More about : fans fan placement corsair air 540 sli

March 12, 2014 10:30:29 AM

I would get as many intake as possible and keep the one exhaust for a positive pressure setup. Then all the heat from your GPU's should be pushed out any cracks or vents instead of being swirled around inside your case. Plus you won't believe how little dust your system picks up in positive pressure setups, when your filtering the intakes of course.

Now, that's how I do it on any "normal" case (like my Fractal R2 XL for example) but yours is kind of goofy so your results may vary.
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March 12, 2014 10:39:08 AM

Just looking at the overview for the case, you can do 3x 120 in the front, and 2 120 or 140 in the top. I would go with 3 fans in the front as intake, 2 at the top as exhaust, the single exhaust in the rear. That's probably going to be your best cooling configuration, without going to water cooling for cpu or gpu's.
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March 12, 2014 10:43:13 AM

I hadn't thought about the 3 120s up front...I think that would help tremendously!

Any recommendations on 120mm fans?
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March 12, 2014 10:48:13 AM

The Fractal Design ones, the AeroCool Sharks, and the Cougar Hydros, or the cooler Master R4's are usually fine just a bit noisy.
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March 12, 2014 2:14:34 PM

mace200200 said:
I would get as many intake as possible and keep the one exhaust for a positive pressure setup. Then all the heat from your GPU's should be pushed out any cracks or vents instead of being swirled around inside your case. Plus you won't believe how little dust your system picks up in positive pressure setups, when your filtering the intakes of course.

Now, that's how I do it on any "normal" case (like my Fractal R2 XL for example) but yours is kind of goofy so your results may vary.


According to this guide from Tom's Hardware on PC Cooling, wouldn't I want a negative pressure setup since my GPUs have their own exhaust? For years, I was actually unaware that these systems existed, and basically just kept the ratio of intake to exhaust even.

It's a new concept for me, and maybe I should start my own thread for it, but I'm a little unclear on why to choose one over the other for my setup.
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March 13, 2014 8:48:02 AM

Reference cards have their own exhaust, third party coolers tend to just toss air around the case.
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