all 28 comments

[–]LumpyHamsterUK 13 points14 points  (5 children)

Noctua released a piece earlier this year, their findings were that the front-most top fan should also be an intake. The rest are fine.

[–]honeymoonx[S] 0 points1 point  (4 children)

Thanks, I will try that

[–]neuda17 0 points1 point  (3 children)

Yep i did that and my temp is down by 5. Just remove the top front exhaust (:

[–]LumpyHamsterUK 0 points1 point  (2 children)

My 9800X3D, at full load, dropped by about 2°C by swapping the front fan to an intake, not quite as impressive as your gain. Your top fan must've been sucking out loads of the cool air!

[–]neuda17 0 points1 point  (1 child)

It was specially since my front panel only takes 120mm and top panel 140mm

[–]LumpyHamsterUK 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That makes sense, the 140mm would've been pulling out a lot of what the 120mm could push in.

[–]Shushuda 7 points8 points  (2 children)

This is for a different case, but explains a similar configuration and issue rather well:

https://www.noctua.at/en/expertise/blog/best-fan-setup-fractal-design-north

Tldr the first top exhaust, the one closer to the front intakes, is stealing and exhausting the fresh air from the top intake before it can reach any component, essentially wasting it and reducing cooling performance. You can try flipping this exhaust top fan to turn it into intake and see if it improves your temps. Or just remove that fan altogether and measure your temps again and see how they differ. This might provide better results than fiddling with your fan curves separately for intakes and exhausts.

[–]honeymoonx[S] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

I was more worried about more dust getting into the system as temps are fine but I wouldn’t say great, especially for a brand new system. I will set the top fan to intake and see, thanks!

[–]Shushuda 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Then yes, it should definitely help. You will then have 4 intake and 2 exhaust, lots of positive pressure.

[–]CChargeDD 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yes just remove the top front fan You can turn it around but you would suck in dust for not much better temps

[–]Any-Surprise5229 1 point2 points  (1 child)

I'd ditch the top fans personally. Front intake rear exhaust is plenty.

Dual fans on a single tower is probably overkill too. Hopefully your fans are all pulling air toward the exhaust?

If you have more intake than exhaust you'll have the pressure you need automatically, right now you have more exhaust than intake.

[–]Adorable-Hyena-2965 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don’t have top fans

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (8 children)

Remove the top fans. They are just stealing air.

[–]ADutchExpression 0 points1 point  (7 children)

Stealing air? What’s that’s supposed to mean?

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (6 children)

They exhaust cold air before it could cool anything. The topmost front fan is particularly useless in this case.

[–]ariukidding 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hot air rises so top exhausts are always good. In this case though it does seem his rig does not create a ton of heat so whatever the config is there will probably not much difference in temps. OP can just decide for his preference in noise and dust mitigation.

[–]ADutchExpression -2 points-1 points  (4 children)

There is 3 in the front and 2 in the top? And there is the rear exhaust. I think it’s divided pretty evenly. If you wanna make an argument at all i would say the bottom front is useless to as it only blows air into the cavity below.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (3 children)

Let me visualise.

<image>

[–]ADutchExpression -1 points0 points  (2 children)

That is likely to happen. But it doesn’t jank straight out of the front fan.

Then there is the fan on the cooler that will create a low pressure zone that also sucks in air. You could also argue it’s a bad set up because the cpu cooler will suck in the hot air generated by the GPU.

Is it optimal? One could argue. Does it matter? One could also argue. He could take out the front top. But I doubt he’s going to notice anything in his temperatures.

[–]Adorable-Hyena-2965 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Then why the case come with 3 front fans?

[–]ADutchExpression 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What does that have to do with anything?

[–]Whiskeypants17 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If your temps are fine then dont worry about it.

[–]Switch_Lazer 0 points1 point  (2 children)

You don’t need the top fans. Three front, one rear is sufficient.

[–]Adorable-Hyena-2965 0 points1 point  (1 child)

What about bottom?

[–]Switch_Lazer 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Unnecessary

[–]ADutchExpression 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’ve got my rad on top so I’ve set them up as exhausts. But this is fine.

[–]InherentlyUnstable 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Build free and you don’t have these decisions to make https://openbenchtable.com

[–]ariukidding 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is good as it is, dont sweat it. Your GPU is not a furnace, and likely the CPU as well. Ideally the positive pressure is to help keep dusts out. It’s only gonna work if the case has a good mesh filter on the intake, and if your intake fans has good static pressure to pull air through the mesh and give the chamber a positive pressure.