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Fan Radiator Placement - My observations including one I've not seen mentioned before

adamr

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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

SECzp02.jpg


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

Bkm6ob3.jpg


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

7l4l62E.jpg


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

EXWowac.jpg


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
 
Last edited:
Bargain, when can we organize a Zoom session? 😁

Seriously though, this was a really interesting post, thanks for sharing it.
 
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

SECzp02.jpg


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

Bkm6ob3.jpg


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

7l4l62E.jpg


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

EXWowac.jpg


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

Not sure If I should be embarrassed for my dual AIO setup (definitely didn't put in this much effort) 😅
 
Pretty interesting.

I've also got my radiator mounted to the front. My 9900K benefits a lot from that cool air.
My Strix card is fantastic for GPU cooling but like all other dual or triple fan coolers, it vents hot air in the case literally heating everything else up too (Motherboard VRMs, RAM, M.2 drive above the card, etc)

My 780T case doesn't let me mount my radiator as far up as yours, so the upper fan on my radiator blows over the top of the GPU and the lower one blows under it. This is supplemented by two 120mm fans on the bottom next to the PSU to provide additional cool air to the GPU.

Overall I'm happy with my setup and the relative quietness of my fan profiles which plays a big part at circulating the air.

Been playing Metro Exodus and F1 2020 today and these are the temps I experienced with my fan profiles :
9900K peaked at 60C, push/pull fans on the rad reached 990rpm
Strix 1080Ti peaked at 64C at 49% fan speed.
The two 120mm bottom fans ran at 1150rpm.
The rear 140mm exhaust fan ran at 1250rpm.
The three 120mm top fans ran at 1030rpm.

Surprisingly the Strix fans are the ones I can hear over the other fans. I guess if I dropped the fan speed and let it reach 70C it might be a little quieter but I'm happy with this for winter.
 
Not sure If I should be embarrassed for my dual AIO setup (definitely didn't put in this much effort) 😅

What VRM temps do you reach on your card ? I've heard some horror stories of the GPU temps being fine after installing an AIO, and then the card dies a few months later because of overheating VRMs.

The VRM temps aren't usually in Afterburner, and sometimes they aren't even in GPU-Z.
I've found HWiNFO (not HWmonitor) to be the best at reading sensors particularly for GPU VRMs (it even read the NAND temperature and controller temperature on my NVME seperately which is something no other monitor has done so far).

Edit : If I remember correctly, there are even VRMs on the left side of the 2080Ti GPU which might not be getting cool air as the CPU block is inbetween them and the NZXT fan on the right. I'd be super interested in a screenshot of HWiNFO after gaming, you might be surprised at what the VRM temperatures are.
 
Afterburner reads it at 22 idle (I cross-checked on various software before deciding on Afterburner).

Not seeing anything on HWinfo?
 
Last edited:
Afterburner reads it at 22 idle (I cross-checked on various software before deciding on Afterburner).

Not seeing anything on HWinfo?


Certain models might not have VRM sensors I guess. If the Ventus is based on the reference PCB that might be why.
This is what shows up for me on a Strix card.
HW.PNG
 
What VRM temps do you reach on your card ? I've heard some horror stories of the GPU temps being fine after installing an AIO, and then the card dies a few months later because of overheating VRMs.

The VRM temps aren't usually in Afterburner, and sometimes they aren't even in GPU-Z.
I've found HWiNFO (not HWmonitor) to be the best at reading sensors particularly for GPU VRMs (it even read the NAND temperature and controller temperature on my NVME seperately which is something no other monitor has done so far).

Edit : If I remember correctly, there are even VRMs on the left side of the 2080Ti GPU which might not be getting cool air as the CPU block is inbetween them and the NZXT fan on the right. I'd be super interested in a screenshot of HWiNFO after gaming, you might be surprised at what the VRM temperatures are.
Valid point i need to check these

Sent from my SM-N975F using Tapatalk
 
100% agree with the OP. Also went through the same when I recently got a new case. Temps were very inconsistent and higher when AIO was top mounted.

Also eventually settled on front top mount, now temps are consistent and definitely lower.

Sent from my MAR-LX1M using Tapatalk
 
100% agree with the OP. Also went through the same when I recently got a new case. Temps were very inconsistent and higher when AIO was top mounted.

Also eventually settled on front top mount, now temps are consistent and definitely lower.

Sent from my MAR-LX1M using Tapatalk
Yeah most forget that the gpu exhausts warm air ... Which the radiator soaks up

Sent from my SM-N975F using Tapatalk
 
Last edited:
What a case has no bottom fans? Like the C400, then my preferred is top and back intake (AIO on top) with front exhaust to get better airflow over the GPU.

Best airflow config ever though has to go to the corsair one.
 

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