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Gaming PC airflow Questions

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Last response: in Systems
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August 30, 2014 1:15:56 PM

Hey everyone, so since I posted a picture of my airflow and no one seemed to understand what I was trying to illustrate I figured I would just write it all out. I want help with airflow in a very hot and densely packed desktop equipped with some seriously hot components listed below. This is my very last step before I actually buy this new PC for games, video editing, data chewing in SPSS, as well as many other things that seriously devour RAM, CPU and GPU resources. I will certainly want the best airflow or else the fans will be on higher and louder.

My case is probably going to be the Corsair Obsidian 750D

So this idea includes the cooler/radiator being placed on the top-rear (instead of the top) to keep the top of the case free for natural hot air exhaust since hot air rises naturally regardless of air pressure
So...
1) 2x 140mm AF bottom intake fans pulling air in
2) 2x 140mm AF front intake fans pulling air in
---SO this means that the air should be sucked in at a north/northwest direction toward the top of the case
3) GPU fans pointed down will push the air down toward the bottom intake fans which because they are pulling air in, should force hotter air into a rising circle back up to the top exhaust fans (to prevent hot air stagnation from negative pressure).
---Hot air naturally rises
4) Air then flows up out of the case AND is blown out by the top 2x 140mm AF exhaust fans
5) Radiator stays out of the way by being placed at the top-rear so that the air flows out perfectly with less required guidance by air pressure. And since the top is unblocked by a cooler, when the fans are idling on low or even off all of the heat will still be able to naturally flow up and out of the top of the case whether the pressure in the case is positive or negative

Is this bad logic? I am not 100% on airflow since the radiator has its own push pull going on, but I think you get the picture I am trying to paint here. So correct me as brutally as you want because I want this build to be PERFECT :D 

And thanks!

MY RIG:
CPU: AMD FX-9590 5.2GHz 8-Core Processor
MOBO: ASUS Crosshair V Formula-Z AM3+ AMD 990FX
RAM: AMD Radeon R9 Gamer Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR3- 2400MHz
------NOTE: RAM underclocked to 1866MHz, tightened the timings to 7-8-7-27
HDD: 2x 2TB HYBRID Seagate 7200RPM SATA III 6Gb/s w/64MB Cache and 7.8GB NAND Flash Cache
GPU: 4GB Gigabyte Radeon R9 290 4GB WINDFORCE
--
COOLER: Corsair Hydro Series H100i Extreme
PSU: Corsair RM 1000W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX (900W for second GPU)
7x 1200RPM Corsair Air Series AF140mm LED Quiet Edition High Airflow Fans 67CFM
CASE: Corsair Obsidian Series 750D Full Tower
--
ASUS 12x Blu Ray Reader and Writer
Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit SP1

More about : gaming airflow questions

a b 4 Gaming
August 30, 2014 1:24:49 PM

Your picture did not get attached. Nor did your questions.
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Best solution

August 30, 2014 1:56:52 PM

just make sure everything goes like this Back[<<<<<<<<]Front. Also , if you have a liquid CPU cooler don't worry about the aiflow in the CPU region.
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August 30, 2014 6:59:49 PM

viewtyjoe said:
Your picture did not get attached. Nor did your questions.


Oops well I fixed it! What do you think ?
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August 30, 2014 7:00:42 PM

jezeey said:
just make sure everything goes like this Back[<<<<<<<<]Front. Also , if you have a liquid CPU cooler don't worry about the aiflow in the CPU region.

I fixed the picture ! What do you think ?
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a b 4 Gaming
August 30, 2014 7:35:25 PM

I have no idea what you are trying to do with this, in general (like, what is this for?) or with the cooling, but it's very confused - there's quite a few significant mistakes. All of these work on the logic you aren't going to do significant modding or anything.

You can't buy 280mm fans, at least not mainstream ones.
The front fans will not be restricted because A) drive bays aren't heatsinks/radiators and B) most people will remove the middle bays as they don't need them. This means AF fans not SP.
The case comes with two 140mm fans at the front anyway (and they are variants on the AF140)
Your H100i takes 120mm fans, not 140mm.
You can't mount a H100i on the rear of (m)any cases, and definitely not this one.
You can mount a radiator on an intake or on an exhaust location but the difference in performance won't be dramatic. Generally speaking using it as an intake (at the front of most cases) will give you better CPU temps due to cooler air passing over the radiator, but as this heat is then pushed into the rest of your case it can have a negative effect on other components which neutralises much of the benefit. Most H100i or similar will be mounted in the roof of the case as an exhaust location simply due to practicality and the CPU location.

TLDR - The case comes with 3 fans, all of which are well suited to the task and in suitable locations. Putting the H100i in the roof as an exhaust and you really shouldn't have to worry about airflow or buying additional fans.
Stick with conventional wisdom - front/bottom intake, rear/top exhaust.
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August 30, 2014 8:15:14 PM

Rammy said:
I have no idea what you are trying to do with this, in general (like, what is this for?) or with the cooling, but it's very confused - there's quite a few significant mistakes. All of these work on the logic you aren't going to do significant modding or anything.

You can't buy 280mm fans, at least not mainstream ones.
The front fans will not be restricted because A) drive bays aren't heatsinks/radiators and B) most people will remove the middle bays as they don't need them. This means AF fans not SP.
The case comes with two 140mm fans at the front anyway (and they are variants on the AF140)
Your H100i takes 120mm fans, not 140mm.
You can't mount a H100i on the rear of (m)any cases, and definitely not this one.
You can mount a radiator on an intake or on an exhaust location but the difference in performance won't be dramatic. Generally speaking using it as an intake (at the front of most cases) will give you better CPU temps due to cooler air passing over the radiator, but as this heat is then pushed into the rest of your case it can have a negative effect on other components which neutralises much of the benefit. Most H100i or similar will be mounted in the roof of the case as an exhaust location simply due to practicality and the CPU location.

TLDR - The case comes with 3 fans, all of which are well suited to the task and in suitable locations. Putting the H100i in the roof as an exhaust and you really shouldn't have to worry about airflow or buying additional fans.
Stick with conventional wisdom - front/bottom intake, rear/top exhaust.


So the idea was:
1) 2x 140mm bottom intake fans pulling air in
2) 2x 140mm front intake fans pulling air in, and I read the SP fans were the best when bays are in the way
---SO this means that the air will be sucked in at a north/northwest direction toward the top
3) GPU fans pointed down to push the air down toward the bottom intake fans and force hot air into a circle and back up to the top to prevent stagnation
4) Air then flows up out of the case AND is sucked out by the top 2x 140mm exhaust fans
5) Radiator stays out of the way by being placed at the top-rear so that the air flows out perfectly with less required guidance by air pressure. And since the top is unblocked by a cooler, when the fans are idling on low or even off all of the heat will still be able to naturally flow up and out of the top of the case whether the pressure in the case is positive or negative

Is this bad logic? I am not 100% on airflow since the radiator has its own push pull going on, but I think you get the picture I am trying to paint here. So correct me as brutally as you want because I want this build to be PERFECT :D 

And thanks!
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a b 4 Gaming
August 30, 2014 8:44:18 PM

Again, none of this really works.

1) Case only supports 120mm fans in the bottom section, and these are fairly low priority for locations to fill. They might have a positive effect on graphics card temps if you are struggling, but you are best to try it out and see.
2) Nope. Static pressure fans are almost exclusively for radiators and heatsinks though they can sometimes be useful in niche circumstances. Plus, you should remove any unused drive cages anyway. Remember also that every fan has both a static pressure characteristic and a CFM (airflow) one so really they are all just skewed towards a specific desired characteristic. They are only ever going to blow in the direction they are pointing.
3) That's not how graphics card fans work, they blow air at the card and it basically just gets thrown around. It's messy but it does the job.
4) Sure you could put 2*140mm fans in the top section, but where does your radiator go? Again, it cannot be mounted on the rear of the case.
5) Positive/negative pressure is mainly nonsense. The science is fine, but the practicalities of modern cases with fan locations everywhere means there's way too many holes to get a significant change in either direction. It's primarily a non-issue.
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August 30, 2014 8:56:03 PM

Rammy said:
Again, none of this really works.

1) Case only supports 120mm fans in the bottom section, and these are fairly low priority for locations to fill. They might have a positive effect on graphics card temps if you are struggling, but you are best to try it out and see.
2) Nope. Static pressure fans are almost exclusively for radiators and heatsinks though they can sometimes be useful in niche circumstances. Plus, you should remove any unused drive cages anyway. Remember also that every fan has both a static pressure characteristic and a CFM (airflow) one so really they are all just skewed towards a specific desired characteristic. They are only ever going to blow in the direction they are pointing.
3) That's not how graphics card fans work, they blow air at the card and it basically just gets thrown around. It's messy but it does the job.
4) Sure you could put 2*140mm fans in the top section, but where does your radiator go? Again, it cannot be mounted on the rear of the case.
5) Positive/negative pressure is mainly nonsense. The science is fine, but the practicalities of modern cases with fan locations everywhere means there's way too many holes to get a significant change in either direction. It's primarily a non-issue.


So basically then just follow this picture?
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SZ6o3rmHfqY/VAKcNUkM1EI/AAAAA...
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