Cooling with fans on top outside of a "too smal" case, rad inside. Does this really work?

Jon-Abraham · Apr 12, 2017

Hi,
just installed my new Nepton 240 M closed-watercooling in my old Factial design R3 case.
My MOBO was to large so I had to put radiator inside (top) and fans outside (top) pulling (as CoolerMaster video on youtube did).

Is this really a good solution? I am not too impressed by temps around 30-35 celsius idle. I also installed a 140mm side-fan as extra intake, the speed of this makin almost 10-15 degrees different in temps by variating rpm, while radiator fans doesnt seems to do more that 3-5 degrees difference by variating rpm from idle (700 rpm) to 100 % (2200 rpm) - and some cases even seems like the temp goes up by amping cpu fans (rad-fans) =S ????

Does this has anything to do with negative pressure or something?
I also wonder about the efficiency of the pulling fans on top. They are suppose to drag hot case-air through the radiator by pulling. I'm not to confident that the pulling works through the metal mesh that compose the caseing. I imagine that the pullforce is weakend by having a disrupting heksagon-metalmesh in between the fans and the radiator on the other side. Does mye suspicion apply or is it wrong? Should I rather turn the fans into push?

Plz, give your taughts about this, I cant seem to find the answer to this spesific worry.

My gig:
MOBO: Asus P8P67
Fractial Design Black Pearl R3 (1 exaust 120mm; 2 intake 120mm (front); 1 intake 140mm (side); 2 radiatorfans 120mm outside case (fans-casemesh-radiator)). Watercooled (Nepton 240 M)
CPU: Intel 2500
GPU: MSI GTX 1060
RAM: 3x4gb Vengence = 12 Gb.

Also, what temp should I expect with this gig idle? and,
What should be my main concern about controlling fans with taughts to pressure?

Thanks alot!

Eximo · Apr 12, 2017

Idle temperatures aren't particularly important as CPUs are never truly idle and will be constantly bouncing around. Load temps are what matter, and as long as the CPU isn't thermal throttling you have achieved appropriate CPU cooling. Though for an i5-2500, there isn't much need for additional cooling.

Should be fine as long as air is moving through the radiator. Do you feel heat coming out of it when the system is under load?

I typically advise against a top mounted intake radiator. Just going to end up filling the computer with dust. Though intake is the way to get the absolute best temperatures, but we are talking a few degrees under load.

coozie7 · Apr 12, 2017

Turn off or remove the rear 120mm exhaust, it's not doing any good, just making excess noise and robbing the Nepton of air.
Make sure the Nepton fans are exhausting (blowing out), not working as intakes, otherwise they'll be fighting the dual front intake fans of the case.
In most cases you can remove that mesh on the top of the case and it will help airflow if you can.

Jon-Abraham · Apr 12, 2017

Eximo :

I have no top intake, only side/rear and front

And I use the OC Tuner for my CPU, why I upgraded from stock aircooler.
The watercool is an investment to future build, I just try to give my rig one more year.
So I suppose you deny my argument of disrupting mesh between rad and fans?

Jon-Abraham · Apr 12, 2017

coozie7 :

Thx for presise answer. I can even plug the rear 120 mm exaust? Will it get the pull from top fans better maybe? My fans are pulling so it is blowing out by negative pressure, so in a way "blowing" out air. I see your point of that.

Gam3r01 · Apr 12, 2017

I did the same thing in my system:

Eximo · Apr 12, 2017

Jon-Abraham :

Then you have an i5-2500k? That is different from an i5-2500.

I think you misunderstood. I am not saying you are doing intake, it was one of the ideas you mentioned. I advise against it.

Complete reverse flow systems are a thing. You could potentially flip all your intakes to exhaust and have the radiator as intake. I don't like the idea because it meas that dust is pulled in from the top and blows through the case. Where as the way you have it the dust should get caught in the front panel mesh or filters. Keeping the interior relatively clean.

The key here is the temperatures. Top mounted radiators as exhaust has always worked, even when the fans aren't in direct contact with the radiator. That small gap isn't as big a factor. The heat will naturally rise from the radiator and be pulled into the fan. Most radiators in your typical case get mounted with steel between the radiators and fans as well. You might also note that even if the fan is directly mounted to the radiator there is quite a bit of space between the actual fins and the mounts. Many fans also have additional spacing.

On my system I have actually flipped my rear exhaust to be an intake, that made a small but noticeable different in temps. (actually I still need to pick up a filter for that)

Jon-Abraham · Apr 12, 2017

Eximo :

Jon-Abraham :

Then you have an i5-2500k? That is different from an i5-2500.

I think you misunderstood. I am not saying you are doing intake, it was one of the ideas you mentioned. I advise against it.

Complete reverse flow systems are a thing. You could potentially flip all your intakes to exhaust and have the radiator as intake. I don't like the idea because it meas that dust is pulled in from the top and blows through the case. Where as the way you have it the dust should get caught in the front panel mesh or filters. Keeping the interior relatively clean.

The key here is the temperatures. Top mounted radiators as exhaust has always worked, even when the fans aren't in direct contact with the radiator. That small gap isn't as big a factor. The heat will naturally rise from the radiator and be pulled into the fan. Most radiators in your typical case get mounted with steel between the radiators and fans as well. You might also note that even if the fan is directly mounted to the radiator there is quite a bit of space between the actual fins and the mounts. Many fans also have additional spacing.

On my system I have actually flipped my rear exhaust to be an intake, that made a small but noticeable different in temps. (actually I still need to pick up a filter for that)

I actually turned my exaust as intake myself, figured that out myself #proud.
Thx for reply

coozie7 · Apr 13, 2017

^ Good idea to reverse the rear fan lads.

As I said, it's usually possible to remove that top mesh but if the rad is already fairly tight against it you won't lose much airflow to leaks and even it it's not tight against the mesh itself as long as the rad is tight against the case top it won't leak there either.

One point is that the gap between the fans and rad may actually be helping, every fan has a significant dead zone caused by the motor hub, by spacing the hub away from the rad that effect is reduced, effectively increasing the radiator surface that is ventilated.

As a final suggestion you could try hunting up a pair of slim fans, at 12-15mm thick depending on maker it looks like they might just squeeze under the rad, giving the system a push-pull configuration which may help quite a bit, especially if the Nepton has closely spaced fins.

Jon-Abraham · Apr 13, 2017

coozie7 :

It might be a good idea but the rad is almost bending the condensators and connectors on top of my MOBO, so there is a too tight squeese i think. But thanks for your views, almost great to have a second opinion.

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