Nzxt Zero 2 positive or negative airflow case

[lw3]

I own the nzxt zero 2 case and while i was reading the manual that came with the case i noticed it said something about being able to put 4 120mm exhaust fans on the side of the case. i originally had these fans in the intake position but after changing to exhaust my motherboard temps dropped from 31c idle to 28c idle. my cpu temps went down from 40c idle to 38c idle but when playing bf3 my cpu goes up to 56c vs at 54c with the side panel fans in the intake position. my cpu is an amd 965 black edtion oc'd to 3.8. im wondering whats going on here and if anyone else has this case or something similar can help me with the best cooling option. i also have 1 120mm front intake, 2 120mm rear exhaust 1 80mm top exhaust and 1 80mm bottom intake.

 

[WR2]

Hello lw3;

Experiment with different fan locations and orientations. Test the configuration.
Let the testing and temps show you what gives you the best result.

 

[nickw2142]

I'm thinking that when your cpu's idling, the heat from eveyrthing (gpu, cpu, psu) isn't getting that hot, and it's also being exhausted very quickly. Having it exhausted less quickly but having more intake at idle means the extra cool air has more time to heat up before its exhausted, resulting in higher temps.

However, when everything's at a heavy load, things get hotter a lot faster. With the extra fans as exhaust, the smaller amount of intake air is heating up extremely fast, regardless of how fast its being exhausted. there's just not enough fresh air, resulting in higher temps. When they're intakes, there's more air to heat up so even though its being heated at an accelerated rate, there's more to heat up. This results in more air at a lower temperature being exhausted more slowly.

If you want to see how fast air is moving, get some smoke matches and put them in front of the intakes and see how fast it clears out.

 

[lw3]

I'm thinking that when your cpu's idling, the heat from eveyrthing (gpu, cpu, psu) isn't getting that hot, and it's also being exhausted very quickly. Having it exhausted less quickly but having more intake at idle means the extra cool air has more time to heat up before its exhausted, resulting in higher temps.

However, when everything's at a heavy load, things get hotter a lot faster. With the extra fans as exhaust, the smaller amount of intake air is heating up extremely fast, regardless of how fast its being exhausted. there's just not enough fresh air, resulting in higher temps. When they're intakes, there's more air to heat up so even though its being heated at an accelerated rate, there's more to heat up. This results in more air at a lower temperature being exhausted more slowly.

If you want to see how fast air is moving, get some smoke matches and put them in front of the intakes and see how fast it clears out.

That makes alot of sense actually. well i switched my fans back to intake. thanks man

 

[lw3]

Best answer selected by lw3.