Push/Pull Fan Setup

[teddiric18]

I just recently built a new gaming rig, stats below, and I have a question on the cooling. I have an Antec Nine Hundred case with 3 stock 120mm case fans (2 on the front, 1 on the side) as intake, 1 stock 200mm case fan on the top as exhaust, and 1 120mm fan on the rear as exhaust. This rear fan is in a "Pull" configuration with the Cosair H60 radiator. Will I benefit from putting a second fan on the radiator and create a "Push/Pull" configuration (enough to be worth it)? If so, how do I choose a fan correctly? Do the cfm ratings need to match?

... *Note: During stress testing (P95, Intel Burn-in, Coredamage) my core temps have not gone above 48C at stock CPU settings... however, I want to OC here in the near future and I want to have my cooling system in place before I undertake that project.

...Also... I am using CoreTemp to monitor temp... What is the Tj Max of an Intel i5-2500k?

Thanks!


Rig

Intel i5-2500k

CORSAIR H60 Liquid CPU Cooler

(2) Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5"

Crucial M4 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC SSD

G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600

ASRock Z68 Extreme4 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

EVGA SuperClocked GeForce GTX 560 Ti 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP

Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

CORSAIR HX750 750W

 

[nna2]

as long as the fan fits on the rad, there should be no problem with push/pull, you will benifit some, because the second fan will blow air through faster, i cant tell you how much you will though

 

[chesteracorgi]

Corsair H60 instructions are to draw in ambient air from the room and exhaust it into the case. The Antec H20 620, which is what I use, is designed to exhaust out of the case. I use a push-pull (dual 120 mm fan) configuration and the performance of the cooler is just about as good as the Antec H20 920.

I would recommend that you use a push-pull configuration and exhaust the air outside the case. Get a good quality, good cfm & dBA fan.

 

[teddiric18]

Corsair H60 instructions are to draw in ambient air from the room and exhaust it into the case. The Antec H20 620, which is what I use, is designed to exhaust out of the case. I use a push-pull (dual 120 mm fan) configuration and the performance of the cooler is just about as good as the Antec H20 920.

I would recommend that you use a push-pull configuration and exhaust the air outside the case. Get a good quality, good cfm & dBA fan.

Yea, exhausting in to the case didn't make sense to me at all... so I set it up to exhaust to atmosphere....

The fan i choose, though... does it need to match the cfm of the one in place? does it not matter? or should I just buy two identical fans and use those for the push/pull?

I'm just wondering if the different pressures created by fans rated for different cfms will cause a performance decrease... or even a life decrease of the fans...

I guess I'll just have to play around with it and see what happens

 

[chesteracorgi]

I did't match my push-pull fans. The inside (push) fan is the Antec that came with the H20 620, the outside pull fan is a Xigmatec Crystal. I haven't had any issues in 3 months. But, ideally, I'd match the fans if I were purchasing new.

BTW, I'd rather risk a fan than a CPU. In any case, if one of the fans fails, the other will still work.

 

[teddiric18]

Best answer selected by teddiric18.