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The amount of time spent changing the orientation of my fans and radiators in my PC in search of the best performance to fan acoustic levels... has literally been hours. Must the radiator be on top? or on the side etc? I have researched a fair bit on the internet and experimented to find what i think is now the ideal orientation ... The point of this post is to impart some of my learning's ... be challenged on them and i guess help someone in this small little way. Maybe someone thinks this post is humurous or pointless ... Its fine ... But hoping some see the value in it. Yes a lot of what ill post has been said before ... but there is some info ive not seen anywhere mentioned which was actually quite intriguing for acoustics and performance which i will get to
so...
I think its safe to say that many on Carb have an AIO cooling their CPU with a fan type GPU or in some instances a blower type. And the configuration for most of us is like below
In the diagram above we have the Radiator on top and fans exhausting heat through the radiator and this makes sense (warm air rises, so lets push it all out). Intake fans bring in cold air and having intake fans positioned lower down the case is ideal (if not filling the front with intake fans). With respect to the GPU, the picture here shows a blower type FE card as an example that sucks in air from the bottom and channels the air out the back of the card. For a blower type card this is the perfect setup ...
Things get a little more complicated with a fan type GPU which many have as in the second picture below
The thing with this type of setup is that the GPU sucks air from the bottom pushes this through its fin stack and all that juicy warm air sits in the case. With the radiator on top this warm GPU air is sucked into the radiator warming up the coolant and as a result you will see higher CPU temps in this setup. So its actually not ideal and a video by BitWit proved the inefficiency in setting your radiator this way with a fan type GPU ... where the below setup is more ideal
This setup works simply because gaming does not tax the CPU ... the GPU is doing all the grunt work ... so the air coming into the PC through the radiator whilst not crispy cold is warmer but not hot such that CPU temps and GPU temps are acceptable ... but what i have found with this setup with the radiator being lower down the front panel is that air is pushed across the face of the GPU fans and whilst this theoretically seems good it does create some turbulence and the fan acoustics on the GPU develop this swooshing chaotic sound ... and if one configured all the fans (including radiator) to track the GPU and CPU temps you will find that as the fans ramp up air is forced to the GPU and this is not ideal ... the GPU fans do not pull air at its "pace" ... Akin to forcing water down someone's throat versus the person drinking themselves
After much experimentation ... i decided on the below setup
The difference to the previous picture is the radiator being placed higher up the front of the case. In fact I placed it as high as i could in my case. But doing it this way i give my GPU breathing space to suck air from the lower colder parts of the case and open vents on the case and in this way the card is much quieter and the fan acoustics on the GPU are much cleaner and "smoother" ... at the same time I now have the radiator fans tracking purely the coolant temps
the exhaust fans are set at a max of 67% duty and my PC at full load is very quiet ... gaming in AC odyssey sees my GPU temps hit a mac of 70deg C which is pretty much on par with the previous configuration. CPU temps under 50 deg C ...
I am happy with this configuration and hoping this can help someone else. The last piece has not been mentioned anywhere and is worth a try ... if this does help someone my good deed for the day is done!
please excuse any spelling or grammatical errors
so...
I think its safe to say that many on Carb have an AIO cooling their CPU with a fan type GPU or in some instances a blower type. And the configuration for most of us is like below
In the diagram above we have the Radiator on top and fans exhausting heat through the radiator and this makes sense (warm air rises, so lets push it all out). Intake fans bring in cold air and having intake fans positioned lower down the case is ideal (if not filling the front with intake fans). With respect to the GPU, the picture here shows a blower type FE card as an example that sucks in air from the bottom and channels the air out the back of the card. For a blower type card this is the perfect setup ...
Things get a little more complicated with a fan type GPU which many have as in the second picture below
The thing with this type of setup is that the GPU sucks air from the bottom pushes this through its fin stack and all that juicy warm air sits in the case. With the radiator on top this warm GPU air is sucked into the radiator warming up the coolant and as a result you will see higher CPU temps in this setup. So its actually not ideal and a video by BitWit proved the inefficiency in setting your radiator this way with a fan type GPU ... where the below setup is more ideal
This setup works simply because gaming does not tax the CPU ... the GPU is doing all the grunt work ... so the air coming into the PC through the radiator whilst not crispy cold is warmer but not hot such that CPU temps and GPU temps are acceptable ... but what i have found with this setup with the radiator being lower down the front panel is that air is pushed across the face of the GPU fans and whilst this theoretically seems good it does create some turbulence and the fan acoustics on the GPU develop this swooshing chaotic sound ... and if one configured all the fans (including radiator) to track the GPU and CPU temps you will find that as the fans ramp up air is forced to the GPU and this is not ideal ... the GPU fans do not pull air at its "pace" ... Akin to forcing water down someone's throat versus the person drinking themselves
After much experimentation ... i decided on the below setup
The difference to the previous picture is the radiator being placed higher up the front of the case. In fact I placed it as high as i could in my case. But doing it this way i give my GPU breathing space to suck air from the lower colder parts of the case and open vents on the case and in this way the card is much quieter and the fan acoustics on the GPU are much cleaner and "smoother" ... at the same time I now have the radiator fans tracking purely the coolant temps
the exhaust fans are set at a max of 67% duty and my PC at full load is very quiet ... gaming in AC odyssey sees my GPU temps hit a mac of 70deg C which is pretty much on par with the previous configuration. CPU temps under 50 deg C ...
I am happy with this configuration and hoping this can help someone else. The last piece has not been mentioned anywhere and is worth a try ... if this does help someone my good deed for the day is done!
please excuse any spelling or grammatical errors
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