This is a spin off of a reply to a thread asking about cooling a computer.
i have had a few people argue with my point saying things like "heat rises" or "pushing cold air on the card is better"
the simple fact that side case fans as intake will actually increase your card and/or case temps.
- in short, side case fans should only ever be EXHAUST, if by the graphics card. -
- as stated before this was done up for another member of the site. from here out, its just a copy and paste -
- Lets get to the logic. -
here is your case with fans in the top, pretty good pictures also.
http://www.overclock.net/t/1309420/case-mod-ideas-needed-cooler-master-elite-430
if the fans arent super thick they will work just fine up top. you'll want to put the fans in first then put in the motherboard or you'll have a issue trying to get the screws in.
your clearance in that case for fans looks identical from the MB to the fans, as my cm690ii
here is a picture of your graphics card
as you can see the top section is not closed off.
so as the air is pushed down onto the headsink it will then flow threw the bottom
it will then be stopped by the card its self and be forced mostly out of the top part of the card
and for "Top" i mean the first picture i posted of it where the heat pipes are.
this portion of the card will be facing directly at the fan or very close to it.
if you point a fan at the card, that hot air gets trapped in the card for the most part.
this will result in higher temps and those temps will then heat up the internal air of the computer.
most people like to think that this is how cards and air flow work
however they couldnt be anymore wrong. even reference cards push hot air out of the sides and even portion of the card that faces the front of the case. before someone says no hot air comes out of the front, this isn't always true for all reference cards but for me has been common. while its not much heat there still is air that will come out there.
this is a good picture of how the air flow looks
now since cards are usually pretty tall and take up a good deal of room. you can almost call it a partition in the computer.
if you have + air from the front, and + air from the side, theres pretty much no place for that hot air to excape.
cards do have an external vent but they tend not to work all that well for dumping out hot air unless it is a reference card.
here is one last picture to show air flow of the card.
it does show the arrow going up for the side of the card, but that is only if the case has zero fans in it. the majority of that air will hit the side of the case and split into two major paths, vertical up and down.
this will cause hot air from the card to be recirculated back into the card.
with fans its pretty much the same issue, but if you place a fan blowing onto the card it forces pressure on that side escape to have resistance.
to really see the difference, run both configurations for yourself while stress testing the graphics card. keep the fans at a constant % using msi after burner or another application that will let you see both temps and fanspeed.
then do another test with auto % for fan and stress test again to watch what configuration will make the fan spike higher.
side fan being an exhaust will always win.
going to repost this as a full thread also. many of the community members are doing this totally wrong.
i have had a few people argue with my point saying things like "heat rises" or "pushing cold air on the card is better"
the simple fact that side case fans as intake will actually increase your card and/or case temps.
- in short, side case fans should only ever be EXHAUST, if by the graphics card. -
- as stated before this was done up for another member of the site. from here out, its just a copy and paste -
- Lets get to the logic. -
here is your case with fans in the top, pretty good pictures also.
http://www.overclock.net/t/1309420/case-mod-ideas-needed-cooler-master-elite-430
if the fans arent super thick they will work just fine up top. you'll want to put the fans in first then put in the motherboard or you'll have a issue trying to get the screws in.
your clearance in that case for fans looks identical from the MB to the fans, as my cm690ii
here is a picture of your graphics card
as you can see the top section is not closed off.
so as the air is pushed down onto the headsink it will then flow threw the bottom
it will then be stopped by the card its self and be forced mostly out of the top part of the card
and for "Top" i mean the first picture i posted of it where the heat pipes are.
this portion of the card will be facing directly at the fan or very close to it.
if you point a fan at the card, that hot air gets trapped in the card for the most part.
this will result in higher temps and those temps will then heat up the internal air of the computer.
most people like to think that this is how cards and air flow work
however they couldnt be anymore wrong. even reference cards push hot air out of the sides and even portion of the card that faces the front of the case. before someone says no hot air comes out of the front, this isn't always true for all reference cards but for me has been common. while its not much heat there still is air that will come out there.
this is a good picture of how the air flow looks
now since cards are usually pretty tall and take up a good deal of room. you can almost call it a partition in the computer.
if you have + air from the front, and + air from the side, theres pretty much no place for that hot air to excape.
cards do have an external vent but they tend not to work all that well for dumping out hot air unless it is a reference card.
here is one last picture to show air flow of the card.
it does show the arrow going up for the side of the card, but that is only if the case has zero fans in it. the majority of that air will hit the side of the case and split into two major paths, vertical up and down.
this will cause hot air from the card to be recirculated back into the card.
with fans its pretty much the same issue, but if you place a fan blowing onto the card it forces pressure on that side escape to have resistance.
to really see the difference, run both configurations for yourself while stress testing the graphics card. keep the fans at a constant % using msi after burner or another application that will let you see both temps and fanspeed.
then do another test with auto % for fan and stress test again to watch what configuration will make the fan spike higher.
side fan being an exhaust will always win.
going to repost this as a full thread also. many of the community members are doing this totally wrong.
