[bigblueshock]

Buddy of mine told me I have too much negative pressure in this setup.

1 - 120mm rear fan - exhaust
2 - 140mm front fans - intake

Side radiator 3 120mm fans - Exhaust
Top radiator 3 120mm fans - Exhaust

Is he correct? If so, what would be best way to fix, should I just turn the side rad fans into an intake?

 

[JSHamlet234]

I like negative pressure in many applications including this one, but it requires a different approach to dust management than positive pressure. Blow it out often, and you'll be good to go.

 

[bigblueshock]

Thanks. I'm used to bi-yearly cleanings, but may have to do more often then

 

[StAndrew]

I like negative pressure in many applications including this one, but it requires a different approach to dust management than positive pressure. Blow it out often, and you'll be good to go.

Negative pressure in this case would reduce the radiator efficiencies. Easy fix, turn the rear fan around and add a third fan on the front (if it will fit).

 

[bigblueshock]

Negative pressure in this case would reduce the radiator efficiencies. Easy fix, turn the rear fan around and add a third fan on the front (if it will fit).

Interesting. I can turn the rear fan around, however I can't add another 140mm fan to the front. I would have to remove both 140mm's and add three 120mm's which I don't have.

Should I just turn the rear around regardless to help a little?

 

[fray_bentos]

Buddy of mine told me I have too much negative pressure in this setup.

1 - 120mm rear fan - exhaust
2 - 140mm front fans - intake

Side radiator 3 120mm fans - Exhaust
Top radiator 3 120mm fans - Exhaust

Is he correct? If so, what would be best way to fix, should I just turn the side rad fans into an intake?


View attachment 2542723

You might as well put the rear fan as an intake; it'll cool your VRMs and you don't really have any front to back air flow anyway (any air pushed in the front is more than being pulled out by the side radiator). You could also put your CPU rad fans at the top as intake; your CPU won't pump much heat into the case anyway and the CPU cooling will be better (and therefore fan speed can be lower and quieter). GPU rad definitely needs to go straight out of the case due to being the largest source of heat in the PC.

 

[StAndrew]

Should I just turn the rear around regardless to help a little?

It'll help. I don't know if it will be immediately noticeable by you but it will help.

 

[8051]

Considering the pitiful static pressure created by consumer fans the whole idea of pressurizing or creating a vacuum in an unsealed PC case seems unrealistic.

 

[Mopar63]

Buddy of mine told me I have too much negative pressure in this setup.

1 - 120mm rear fan - exhaust
2 - 140mm front fans - intake

Side radiator 3 120mm fans - Exhaust
Top radiator 3 120mm fans - Exhaust

Is he correct? If so, what would be best way to fix, should I just turn the side rad fans into an intake?


View attachment 2542723

The configuration your fans are in makes very little sense as the majority of the cool air intake from the front is going to be immediately diverted and exhausted out the side. and the top, it will not travel deeper into the build.

 

[GenkiM]

The configuration your fans are in makes very little sense as the majority of the cool air intake from the front is going to be immediately diverted and exhausted out the side. and the top, it will not travel deeper into the build.

The fans on the side are pushing through a rad though, so I can see the reasoning behind the setup...?...but I agree re. the cool air not making it to the rest of the components...the airflow through the case is pretty severely disrupted by the configuration.

If it's primarily and mainly used for gaming I'd swap the radiators, so that the GPU rad is in the top of the case and the CPU rad is in the side of the case; and I'd switch the fans on the rad in the side of the case to intake, just to help airflow through the system.

As for positive pressure reducing dust, this article shows it to pretty much be a myth: Dust Prevention and Case Pressure: Does It Really Matter? - Overclockers ...but turning all the fans apart from those on the top radiator to intake, will vastly improve airflow and also force more air through the top radiator, which is potentially going to mean less work for the top radiator's radiator-fans, which potentially means less noise. If you swap the GPU radiator into the top of the case then that should be a pretty nice bonus.

Also, if possible, I'd lower the top fan on the front of the case, so that it avoids blowing onto the cooler assembly. Lash it to the case mesh with cable-ties if you have to. If you could swap out the two 140s for three 120's then even better.

If gaming, the GPU is by far going to be the hottest component, so putting the radiator in the top of the case will remove its heat from the build entirely.

And yes, there's probably not as much air getting to the motherboard components as there could be, but, from the look of the board, I'd imagine you have a pretty solid VRM and you've got a RAM cooler, so, that's not too much of a problem? Heat will reduce the lifespan of your components, but the speed at which hardware becomes obsolete, I doubt you'll be on that board long enough for it to really effect you? But that having been said, it would probably still be better to switch the fans on the side radiator to intakes.

Also, while you've got an AIO on the GPU, rather than having the airflow follow the path of least resistance through the back of the case, I agree with turning the extractor fan in the rear of the case to an intake, just to get some fresh air to the motherboard VRM and to feed the top radiator rather than having it compete with and/or starve it. If you could do that and swap out the two 140mm fans in the front of the case for three 120mm fans, and turn the fans on the side-radiator into intakes, then (if you move the GPU rad to the top of the case) you'll be vastly improving your airflow, and forcing even more air through the GPU radiator (assuming you've moved it to the top of the case), meaning the GPU rad fans won't have to work as hard.

But, if you only do one thing, I'd definitely switch the rads, so that you can get the heat from the GPU out of the system entirely.

 

[Raimond]

GPU tubes look strained in this setup, I would watch out for leaks.

I really think one of the radiators should be intake.
I would place the gpu radiator at top for excaust,(because most likely this one produces t the most heat,and heat goes up so)
CPUradiator at the side as intake,
Front should be all intake fans
Back fan,should be outtake

 

[GenkiM]

GPU tubes look strained in this setup, I would watch out for leaks.

I really think one of the radiators should be intake.
I would place the gpu radiator at top for excaust,(because most likely this one produces t the most heat,and heat goes up so)
CPUradiator at the side as intake,
Front should be all intake fans
Back fan,should be outtake

I agree re. moving the GPU radiator to the top of the case.

Heat radiates, hot air rises (because when it heats up it expands and changes in density (I think?)...so it's kind of "squeezed" upwards by the cold air? (or at least I think that's how it works, roughly speaking)).

Convection (rising heat) is powerless against a fan so you don't have to worry about your fans conflicting with convection currents, but you should probably still configure your fans to blow hot air upward, because you want to draw in cold air from lower in the room and push the hot air to the top of the room, mainly because you don't want to re-circulate heat back into the PC.

Also, yeah, if you switch the side-radiator fans to intake, then probably best to switch the rear fan to extract air. That would be better for airflow across the VRM.

Also, you might want to check out this video re. the cooler on the Kingpin...

...to get the most out of that card, it looks like it might be worth trying to find a reliable 3rd party AIO, or maybe even investing in an entry-level custom water-cooling loop...

...although, to be honest...?...the uplift you could get from being able to overclock the RAM a little higher...?...probably isn't worth the expense.

 

[fray_bentos]

Considering the pitiful static pressure created by consumer fans the whole idea of pressurizing or creating a vacuum in an unsealed PC case seems unrealistic.

I also thought this. However, I have currently have 6x 140 mm fans blowing into my case (all filtered) and only one 120 mm fan and my 3080 FE blowing air out. As you say, my case, like most others has LOTS of meshed/holes that the "excess" intake air clearly flows out of.

I do seem to get a lot less dust in my case in this configuration compared to a previous setup where I had I had 3 x 140 mm intake and 2 x 140 mm outlet.

 

[GenkiM]

Considering the pitiful static pressure created by consumer fans the whole idea of pressurizing or creating a vacuum in an unsealed PC case seems unrealistic.

I guess it depends on your definition of "pressurise" etc.?

 

[8051]

I guess it depends on your definition of "pressurise" etc.?

Something measurable by a manometer. Air flow DNE pressure. Computer cases are hardly sealed environments (although they do manufacture computer cases that are sealed for industrial applications).

 

[fray_bentos]

Something measurable by a manometer. Air flow DNE pressure. Computer cases are hardly sealed environments (although they do manufacture computer cases that are sealed for industrial applications).

Indeed, I think dust collection likely has more to do with pockets of "dead" non-circulating air. Certain fan configs will have such dead spaces, which then accumulate dust. In addition, "negative pressure" configs (in equalising the pressure) will tend to pull air (and dust) into the case from places where the air isn't being filtered.

 

[GenkiM]

Something measurable by a manometer. Air flow DNE pressure. Computer cases are hardly sealed environments (although they do manufacture computer cases that are sealed for industrial applications).

I tend to use it in a (much) wider, more general sense? Given the context, we're not really talking about creating pressure vessels or vacuum chambers? PC's can have positive or negative pressure setups? It's accepted terminology in general use?

 

[8051]

I tend to use it in a (much) wider, more general sense? Given the context, we're not really talking about creating pressure vessels or vacuum chambers? PC's can have positive or negative pressure setups? It's accepted terminology in general use?

I'm talking about proving there is a pressure differential between the inside of an unsealed PC case and the environment. The pathetic static pressure created by consumer fans makes me believe there won't be such a pressure differential.

 

[GenkiM]

I'm talking about proving there is a pressure differential between the inside of an unsealed PC case and the environment. The pathetic static pressure created by consumer fans makes me believe there won't be such a pressure differential.

So, what terminology do you think the PC community should adopt instead?

Edit: When a fan spins and pushes air doesn't it create an area of low pressure behind it...?...causing air to fill the potential vacuum that nature abhors? 😊