Improved airflow for BitFenix Prodigy

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ThumbBumpkins

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Sep 6, 2011
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Hi guys,

A few months ago I built a new gaming pc with the BitFenix Prodigy case. It's been running perfectly so far. I happen to have not been playing anything particularly intensive the past few months, but last night I put it to its first serious stress test, with a couple hours of the Witcher 2.

While the game ran perfectly without incident, after I was done I rebooted to the BIOS out of curiosity to check my temps, and had cause for concern. The motherboard was reporting an ambient temp of 74C, and a CPU temp of 53C, both of which seem quite high.

Currently, I have a 120mm intake fan on the front of my case. I have a Corsair H60 Liquid Cooling unit on my CPU, hooked up to a 140mm fan acting as exhaust.

My thought was, I could rotate the rear fan to also serve as an intake, while purchasing two additional 120mm fans and installing them in the top to act as exhaust.

Does this setup, of intake from the front and back with exhaust out the top, make sense? Does anyone have any other suggestions on how to bring my temps down a little? Should I even be worried?

Thanks for any input.
 
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legend001523
Some cases have fan spaces that are compatible with 120 +140 but check if there are screw mounts for a 140 at the back first, you can also just get new fans altogether for every fan space, like the corsair air series
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Rammy

Rammy

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Sep 3, 2012
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Don't put fans in the top unless you are 100% sure they will improve things - it's highly likely that they won't.
In a more conventional tower, fans in the top can be really useful but I'm far less convinced of their merits in a Prodigy.

As a side note, closed loop coolers are generally going to have a negative effect on motherboard temps as they move the fans away from the board, though in a Prodigy the difference isn't likely to be massively significant.

I'd avoid trying the back as an intake - it might well give you better CPU results due to slightly cooler air being used on the radiator, but that air can also be heated up by the exhaust from the PSU. Factor in that a lot of people will have a relatively enclosed space at the rear of their PC (desk/wall, whatever) and any potential gains aren't likely to be huge.

Here's what I tell everyone getting a Prodigy -

  • ■ If you want better airflow, ditch the stock fans. They are super quiet but don't move much air.
    ■ Upgrade the rear fan to something of better quality, ideally a 140mm (assuming you did this already, though it's a bit odd to have a H60 mounted to a 140mm fan)
    ■ Don't replace the front fan with a 120mm as it's quite poorly located - top one is often not suitable and the bottom one just blows against a HDD cage.
    ■ Use a 140/200/230mm fan on the front as all are centrally located and will blow across your motherboard directly.
    ■ Two fans is plenty - it's a small(ish) case with basically no cable management - trying to route cables and control more fans is only going to add to the hassle.
    ■ I've done some (very) limited testing with my Prodigy(s) and seen near to zero difference in running 2 fans and running 4 fans. Everyone is going to get different results but the characteristics of the case itself definitely will limit the impact of additional fans, depending on component selection.
 
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ThumbBumpkins

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Sep 6, 2011
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I now realize I was incorrect in my first post. I currently have a 140mm intake fan in the front, and the H60 on a 120mm in the back as exhaust. Would it be possible to upgrade the rear fan to a 120 or would that necessitate getting a new CPU cooler as well?
 
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