Case Airflow for radiators...?

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Pcro95

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Jul 25, 2014
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I'm currently in the middle of my first gaming PC build and I am planning on overclocking my CPU. So I've been trying to find a good CPU water cooler (any recommendations?)

I've been looking into airflow and I have learnt that, front and bottom fans should be intake and top and rear fans should be exhaust (is this correct?)
On pc builds I always see the Radiator either placed on the top or rear of a case, now if the radiator is also the exhaust I would imagine it is recieving warm air from inside the case and I can't imagine this being any good? I also seen something about positive and negative air pressure within a case, what is this?
Any help would be brilliant!
Thankyou in advance :)
Specs...

Case: Fractal design refine R4
(not purchased)

Mobo: Asrock Z77 extreme4 (purchased)

CPU: I5 3570K
(not purchased)

GPU: GTX 770 SC ACX
(Purchased)

Ram: G-skill ripjaw (2x4gb)
(not purchased)

PSU:
Corsair builder series Cx600m 600w
(Not purchased)
 
Solution
Rammy
There's a difference between "proper" water cooling, and closed loop coolers (AIOs) like the Corsair H100i.
Closed loop coolers are increasingly popular, though the reasons for why this is are pretty vague. They don't really convey any performance, value or practicality benefit over a conventional air cooler.
Things like the H100i are incredibly popular, but there are a lot of options here including slightly more unusual options like the Silverstone TD02.

You are correct about basic case airflow, you want to have a consistent direction if possible and going front to back and bottom to top is the logical way to accomplish this in most cases.

Radiators are usually placed where they are most convenient rather than where they provide the...
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Nuckles_56

Nuckles_56

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May 25, 2014
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why not get a haswell i5 instead of the i5-3570k. I would also get a better PSU as those corsair ones aren't eh best, I would get a seasonic, evga or xfx one of the same wattage.

As for the air flow, you are correct about the way the fans should be set up. As for why the radiator is set up that way is to make sure that the hot air is vented out of the case once it has been used to cool the CPU and thus even if the air has been heated up a bit by its passage through the case it doesn't matter too much.

I would suggest the corsair h100i water cooler as it is one of the best
 
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Rammy

Rammy

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Sep 3, 2012
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There's a difference between "proper" water cooling, and closed loop coolers (AIOs) like the Corsair H100i.
Closed loop coolers are increasingly popular, though the reasons for why this is are pretty vague. They don't really convey any performance, value or practicality benefit over a conventional air cooler.
Things like the H100i are incredibly popular, but there are a lot of options here including slightly more unusual options like the Silverstone TD02.

You are correct about basic case airflow, you want to have a consistent direction if possible and going front to back and bottom to top is the logical way to accomplish this in most cases.

Radiators are usually placed where they are most convenient rather than where they provide the most performance. You are correct that in theory a radiator used as an intake will outperform a radiator as used as an exhaust. What you are missing is that the heated up air is then being put into your case and has the potential to effect the rest of your components. We are generally talking about pretty small differences either way.

Positive and Negative air pressure is a completely over-discussed topic on forums like these, it's primarily a non-issue. There's arguments for both sides, but most ignore the fact that modern cases are generally heavily vented - making any significant pressure difference impossible anyway. The only thing you really need to worry about is airflow, and as long as you have at least one intake and one exhaust fan, you are probably going to be fine.

As a side note, I'd suggest swapping out the PSU for something better if you haven't bought it yet. Most of your build isn't cheap, but the PSU is fairly low end.
 
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