H80 fan direction

[full_out]

Hey guys. I have an Antec 300 case. I have the 2 fans on the front as intake on medium speed. I have the side fan as intake on medium speed. And the top and the rear as exhaust on full.
Now I am finally upgrading my CPU cooler from stock. I didn't want to go with water cooling but I found a brand new H80 for $60 cash. Can't go wrong with that!

What my question is, which way do I have the fans on the radiator? Am I supposed to suck air into the case with it to get cold air on the rad? Or do I use it as an exhaust and suck air out of the case? Right now the air is cold that is blowing out my exhaust fans so I figured I should use the fans on the rad as an exhaust.

I see that you are supposed to use them as intake, but I don't like the idea of pushing hot air into my case...

Thanks in advance!

 

[socialfox]

Well if you case temperatures are cool then exhaust is fine. I myself find my temperatures lowered by 5-7 degrees with the fan as an intake on my Antec Kuhler 620.

 

[full_out]

So would I make my side fan over my video card an exhaust to make up for more air coming in?

 

[socialfox]

I don't think it will make much of a difference, the intake fan near the video card cools it down. Just make sure the top fan is still exhaust and that will catch the air from the radiator and video card.

 

[full_out]

So with having 4 x 120mm intakes and only 1 x 140mm exhaust I shouldn't run into hot pockets of air swirling around in my case?

 

[socialfox]

I do not have the same setup as you but it would not hurt to try 4 intakes and 1 exhaust. Generally you should get positive pressure in your case and intakes should be greater than exhausts. So my suggestion, try side panel fan first as intake and then try as exhaust. See if there are significant temperature changes to the video card. If this were a side panel fan over the CPU then I would tell you it would be fine to exhaust it since you are using the H60 but because it's over the video card I would keep it there.

 

[full_out]

I'm using the H80 But ya, I'm gonna screw around tonight after I install it and see what happens.
Thanks!

 

[full_out]

I used it as an intake, seems to work good. To lazy to try the other direction lol. Thanks for the info.

 

[full_out]

Best answer selected by full_out.