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What should i do for better air flow ?
dg29031994
Member UncommonPosts: 135
I am having a NZXT Phantom Full Tower case and this lc:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835181015
As you can see in these pics above, i have a liquid cooling installed with 2 fans "1" and "2", and the pic below it show the side of the case with 2 mini installed intake fans and one 200mm uninstall fan. I want to install that 200mm fan but the fan from the Liquidcooler is preventing me from closing the side panel. The only one way to close the side panel with the 200mm fan installed on it is to take off 1 fan from the liquidcooler which im still considering. I don't know if i should take out 1 fan from the liquidcooler or should i keep the 2 fans from liquidcooler and don't install the side fan.
Which way is better ?
There is one big 200mm exhaust fan on the top, 2 120mm intake fan from the side, 1 140mm intake fan in the front and ofc exhaust fan in the rear
If i have to take off 1 fan from the liquidcooler to install the side fan, then how should i install the liquidcooler? currently, with 2 fans on the liquidcooler i install it as Case-Fan 1-liquidcooler-fan 2. If i take out one of the fan, should i install it as case-lc-fan or case-fan-lc ? And should i take off the case fan or the fan that come with the liquidcooler ?
With the above pic, if u look at the graphic card, It is an ATI 7950 3Gb from Gigabyte with 3 fans on it, u can see it a little bend to the right. Should i ignore this or find something to support it?
Also i will go with crossfire 7950 soon. So i need to come up with a way to prevent 2 cards from bending.
Thanks guys 
Comments
The thing to remember about air-flow is keeping track of how the air moves, where it comes from, and where it goes. Just adding fans does not improve airflow.
Now onto the details. You have something called Positive Airflow. This is the case fans pull air into the case. This is the least effecient form of air flow when using fans. Basically, you are increasing the pressure of air in the case so its forced to move outside the case.
Then you have something called Negative Airflow. This is the case fans pull air out of the case. This pulls hot air out of the case slighting lowering pressure in the case causing a vacuum that pulls in new air.
Finally there is Nuetral Airflow. Nuetral Airflow is you have case fans pushing air in and other case fans pushing air out. Remember on Nuetral Airflow if you don't get it exactly even, weigh in on the side of Negative Airflow. This circulates cold air back into the case the most.
Now that you know about these three types of Airflow, there is direction of airflow.
This is often debatable as several people have sevaral ideas on how to make it work. The typical motion is you have air come in at the front of the case and out the back. You usually have several exhaust fans in the back. You have the PSU, the Case Fan, and the GPU. There may be fans in the front to pull air in. The benefit of this method is the hot elements are usually at the back of the case, so you are not circulating hot air passed your drives in the front. The main heat sources of the CPU, GPU, and PSU are usually along the same vertical plane so they don't end up radiating heat at each other. This way it all heats up at the same point and beyond that point are not heat dependant areas aside from the MOSFETS.
One of the more interesting methods I have seen was what someone called the cyclone method. Basically, he has all fans pointing in with a main exhaust fan at the top of the case and an intake fan at the bottom. This pushes all the air to the center of the case, then pushes it out the top. Pretty sure you need a big case to make this plausible.
The other method I have seen was from bottom to top. Basically you have cold air the lower you go, so you have the main intake at the bottom of the case and it pulls in cold air. Then at the top you have an exhaust fan that pushes air out. The problem with this method is the heatsink fins are usually orientated perpendicular to this flow so the fins end up blocking air flow. There are special cases that adjust the positioning to take this into account.
Now with that in mind the question to ask is where does your air go? There is really no hope of improving upon your current cooling solution without an out of case liquid cooling system for the CPU, PSU, and HDD. Now for your GPU you could mount a fan at the bottom front of the case for air intake. This will help push the air out the back of the case that the GPU is recirculating and help direct the air flow to the rediator fan at the top.
One isn't necessarily better than the other - it depends on what you need. Removing a fan from the push/pull on your CPU cooler will hurt your CPU temps some, but the 200mm fan on the side of the case will improve all of your temps by a decent margin (although due to the nature of the water cooler, won't help your CPU much, if at all).
I agree with Cleffy on the point that adding fans for the sake of adding fans won't get you very far. Is any particular component overheating now? Is there a reason your turning your case into one giant fan?
Really, though, is there a specific reason you are mounting all of these fans into the side of your case (other than to make it a colossal pain to open and close)? Your rig looks like it should be pretty well off for airflow/cooling without any of them on the side panel.
The slight bend in the video card is not abnormal. Make sure the screw that secures it to the case is in tight, and that it's properly aligned when you tighten it. As long as it isn't wiggling around or vibrating the slight bend won't hurt it.
Obviously the best way to test your system is to just use it in the manner in which you originally intended and see what happens. What I would do if you are concerned with overall thermal performance is what I just suggested and run CPUID HWMonitor in the background and periodically check the temps of each part. As long as they are within reasonable temps for each individual part while using an app that stresses said part then you know your current configuration is alright. If you aren't sure feel free to post a screen shot here along with the program(s) you were running and at what intensity. Or simply do a search online. Either way your setup seems pretty standard from the pics you provided.
The following is a pic of the latest system I build for my wife and not only is it fairly small (Silverstone PS07 mATX case) it's dead silent at idle and nearly so at load. All the while keeping thermals well under each parts limits (CPU 35c idle/50c load, GPU 37c idle/70 extreme load) even while being OC'd. You'll notice the only fans in the case are the two at the front that pull air in from around the front panel and the one on the CPU cooler itselt. That's it. No side panel fans or even an actual exhaust fan (I might add one later but at it's current performance level it's not really justified).
Are these reasonable heat?
here is my rig:
NZXT Phantom PHAN-001WT Case
Intel Core i5-3570K ( no OC )
ATI HD 7950 3GB Gigabyte (900 GPU clock, 1250 Memory Clock )
CORSAIR CWCH60 Liquid CPU Cooler
G.SKILL Sniper Series 16GB DDR3 2133
ASRock Z77 Extreme4 Mobo
Antec TruePower New TP-750 750W
Corsair 120GB SATA III SSD
Idle
Guild Wars 2 (auto - High setting)
BF3 ( Auto - High setting )
Under 50C is great. I don't even worry about it until 70C, and some components can chug right along fine as high as 100C.