Not Sure if my Airflow Setup is Good

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woojulee

Aug 31, 2018
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(Sorry if this the wrong category for airflow).
I just got some new case fans, and I'm not sure if my airflow setup is correct.

To start off, my fans are:
2x Corsair Air Series AF120 Led Quiet Edition
Noctua NH-U9S CPU Heatsink/Fan
EVGA Gtx 1070 FTW (built-in fan)
EVGA 600B PSU (built-in fan)
Random Front Panel fan that came with the case.
*I never overclock.

So currently my setup is:
PSU in the left bottom corner facing up.
GPU on top of PSU facing down.
1st Case fan left top corner bringing air in.
2nd Case fan mid top exhausting air out.
CPU fan located mid blowing air right.
*Please take a look at my airflow chart.
https://imgur.com/Lo2K5K3

SpeedFan while running Black Desert Online on highest settings.
https://imgur.com/eZHK64b

These fans, as marketed, are supposed to be silent, but shockingly they seem pretty loud even if I don't have anything running. I have all the fan speeds at default. Should I tweak things on bios to minimize fan noises?

My aim is to have safe temperatures for the system while minimizing fan noises. I'm pretty noob at this. Please help, thanks!
 
Solution
vMax
Yes but one mistake...Make the rear fan an exhaust.....
If you get the 200mm fan working or a new one it will make a huge difference..
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vMax

vMax

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Aug 7, 2006
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First of all, what Case do you have....

Secondly, if it is of a standard layout, I would go in a totally different route to maximise airflow.

1 - Rear fan on case as exhaust
2 - 2 x front fans either 120mm or 140mm as intake
3 - 1 or 2 x 120mm top case fans as exhaust
4 - CPU fan blowing out left towards rear case fan
5 - PSU Fan blowing air out of the case, so fan sucking air in and exhausting out of the back...
 
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Karadjgne

Karadjgne

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Ok. Several assumptions here.

1. Gpu upside down is normal orientation in ATX standards. This means the fans draw air in at the fan, gets exhausted out the sides of the cover, not as your pic shows.

2. The psu does not exhaust into the case, it draws air in at the fan, and exhausts out the back by the plug.

3. Unless you've done something seriously funky with the cpu fan, like mounting it's orientation backwards, the placement is right, direction of flow, wrong.

Theres 2 sides to a fan. The pretty side, where you see the fan blades themselves, or the ugly side where you see the backside of the motor, the motor housing supports, wire etc. Air goes in the pretty side, out the ugly side.


Airflow should look something similar to this. If the psu is fan upwards, that's fine, it acts as an exhaust. If it's fan down that's fine too, it's just separate and doesn't affect case airflow.
 
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woojulee

Aug 31, 2018
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I have Apevia X-Sniper 2 Gaming Mid-Tower - part of cybertron borg q.
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?reviews=all&Item=N82E16811144286
I don't think there's a space for another front fan. It originally came with 1 fan.
Also my window fan is not working since one of the wires of the molex cable came off (not sure if it's worth ordering for replacement).

To follow your suggestions I should:
Keep PSU as it is (facing upwards).
Move the CPU fan to the left side (facing the rear fan).
Install another top fan for exhaust.
Flip over the rear fan as an exhuast.

My only concern is there's not enough intake since I'd only have 1 front fan
as limited by the case. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Also, there is a place mid-bottom where I can install a fan.
Should I use that spot for intake as well? I guess the air would suck in the bottom air and go out the vent at the top (?).
Please reply. Thanks!
 
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vMax

vMax

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You have a couple of options. 1 - Add another normal 120mm fan to the plastic side panel where the original 200mm fan was, you can in fact fit 2 x 120mm fans there as I have checked the spec on your case..You can also buy a 200mm for not much money like this to replace the original:

https://www.amazon.com/Thermaltake-200x30mm-Anti-Vibration-Mounting-CL-F015-PL20BL/dp/B00J0NZFIA/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1537273492&sr=8-7&keywords=200mm+fan&dpID=41JD6YZebCL&preST=_SX300_QL70_&dpSrc=srch

You can also get a LED version for a couple of bucks more and this would be the ideal solution to making sure you have great airflow.

If not then, use the top fan as an intake as well....

 
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woojulee

Aug 31, 2018
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So taking what everyone said into consideration.
I'm going to make the following changes:

1) Flip over the psu so the fan is facing downward.
2) Make the rear fan as intake.
3) Make top fans (x2) as exhaust.
4) Add bottom fan as intake.
5) CPU fan faces the rear fan.
6) Replace the side panel fan with 200ml intake.

Please check. Thanks!
 
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Karadjgne

Karadjgne

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Um, actually yes psus are built to assist or even be considered as primary or even sole exhaust. Especially top mount psus where the fan is down. It's entirely acceptable to have the psu bottom mount be fan up. It's also actually better, for the psu and pc safety in general as orientation of thermal circuitry is more accurate. No joke, got schooled by Jonny Guru on that one day. A bottom mount psu, fan up, also creates a vacuum near the front of the gpu (rear of the case) which facilitates airflow towards the gpu and can to some extent in shorter cases be the primary exhaust for gpu heat instead of allowing it to rise past the cpu.

@Op,
1) up to you, either way is fine.
2) rear ports as exhaust only. Pretty side of the fan faces the inside of the pc.
3) perfect.
4) goto 6)
5) yes, pretty side of fan faces front of pc. This puts cpu fan exhaust going through the cpu cooler, and gets picked up and exhausted by the rear fan.
6) a 200mm fan is a huge amount of moved air. But, it can create as many issues as it solves. As a side mounted fan, it can be used as exhaust for hot running gpus, or can be used as intake. But you will need to control fan curves to maintain good flow. Ultimately you want cooler air moving in from below/front, and hot air moving out top/rear in a continuous stream. A 200mm intake at high speeds puts a huge amount of air into the case, every which way and can destroy good flow.

Just throwing fans into a case doesn't mean you'll get good airflow, just air. Throwing a bunch of cooler air at the exhausts does nothing if it forces the hotter air away from the fans, you get a circulatory pattern, not a cleaner flow pattern.

With bottom/front intakes and rear/top exhaust, the 200mm is probably unnecessary
 
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J_E_D_70

J_E_D_70

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I see what you/he are saying but psu’s today have fan cutoff and cases dont top mount, do have grills in the bottom, and do have shrouds to separate psu from everything else for a reason.

I would never use my psu to exhaust the hot air from a full load gpu as that is what would occur. But to each their own.
 
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Karadjgne

Karadjgne

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Huh, there's plenty of cases that top mount, mostly mITX, micro mini towers, good chunk of prebuilts etc. It's mainly atx/full that bottom mount. Asus even built a Ryzen 1700x with a gtx1080 build and the only fan other than the cpu cooler was in the top mount psu. No intakes at all. My Dell 8400, ATX case, top mount psu as only case exhaust the cpu used its fan in a shrouded exhaust. No other fans or even fan placement ability other than zip tie under the hdd rack.

Yes, many better grade psus have a Semi-fanless mode, most OEM do not, nor do most mid-grade or budget psus.
 
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