Top fans necessary?

[Bluescreendeath]

Are top fans very good for cooling your system?

I plan to run a nice OCed i7 and two GTX260s, so my rig will get very hot.

My current system has an Apevia Sniper G midtower case - with a top mounted PSU, a front 120mm fan, side 120mm, and rear 120mm.

Should I buy an Antec900, with a bottom mounted PSU, 2 120mm front fans, 1 120mm rear fan, and 1 200+mm top fan?

How much temperature improvements would I see?

thanks

 

[AKM880]

You'll probably see some improvement for cooling since the Antec 900 case has exceptionally good airflow.

 

[wuzy]

I had quick look at the internals of your case here. Looks good for a ducting mod, using 3x5.25" bays to make a duct to the CPU fan.

That's the surest way to get coolest air straight from outside for CPU overclocking.

 

[jsc]

I like the Antec 900. Cable management is kind of sucky, and it's definitely not a tool less case. But you cannot beat the cooling.

I have the HSF's oriented vertically. I figure warm air want to rise. Why fight physics.

On the other hand, because you already have the Apevia case, wuzy's idea has a lot of merit.

 

[Bluescreendeath]

I had quick look at the internals of your case here. Looks good for a ducting mod, using 3x5.25" bays to make a duct to the CPU fan.

That's the surest way to get coolest air straight from outside for CPU overclocking.

thanks, do you mean a ducting mod to blow air into the CPU fan or out of it? Cuz my HSF/cpu fan has a fan that blows air directly out the rear fan.

 

[wuzy]

thanks, do you mean a ducting mod to blow air into the CPU fan or out of it? Cuz my HSF/cpu fan has a fan that blows air directly out the rear fan.

As in a typical case setup, that only takes care of the exhaust part. The duct mod concerns the intake of the CPU-HSF, getting fresh air directly from outside.

Go to a building depot and find one of those tin-foil type collapsible duct of ~120mm in dia. For the 3x5.25" bays use some kinda mesh grill cut to size to cover it.

This is about as extreme as it gets, on the concept of air ducting.

 

[Bluescreendeath]

dang...this is why we need mainstream BTX cases.

 

[neon neophyte]

i would have to agree with wuzy. its all about getting airflow that is fresh.

my computer runs considerably hotter with 4 harddrives in it, than it does with one. the whole system heats up. gpu runs warmer, so does cpu. if they werent being fed the air off my harddrives, that wouldnt be as much as a problem.