Airflow Diagram: Feedback Requested

[nogoodreason]

Hi guys. I've been doing some research on the best ways to mount my fans with my new Corsair H100i and came across this thread, which raised some really interesting points about airflow.

I've put together an airflow diagram for how I imagine things will work in my own case, but am hoping for some feedback regarding whether it will actually work this way, and whether or not I could set my fans up better.

Case: Akasa Venom Toxic Full Tower
CPU Cooler: Corsair Hydro H100i
Motherboard: MSI Z77 Mpower
GPU: Asus GTX 680 DirectCU II - 4GB edition



My plan is to use the 230mm roof fan instead of the default 2x120mm Corsair fans, and set it as an intake. This will bring cool air over the radiator which is then quickly exhausted before reaching the rest of the system.

The 2x 230mm and 1x 140mm intakes will all run at a low speed. While they will pick up some heat from the hard drives, they should still be fairly cool by the time they reach the graphics card.

In theory I think this looks like an OK setup, but I'd be very curious to know what others think and what input they could provide.

 

[Kenmitch]

Welcome to the forum

If it was me I'd just exhaust the upper 230mm fan as it would most likely give you better results. With all the intakes in your image I'd think you'll be pretty close to ambient temps of your room anyways.

 

[nogoodreason]

Thanks for the welcome.

I'm curious... why would making the roof fan an exhaust give better results? It might give the other components lower temps, but I would imagine it would cause the radiator (and thus the CPU) temp to increase. {Admittedly I am no expert on these matters, so keen to learn}

 

[crashtech]

For one thing, you are fighting natural convective flow by forcing air in the top. For another, there is little left in your case to add heat, the CPU and video are taken care of, so all your 230mm intake has to do is cool the southbridge, memory, and drives, which should be well beneath its capabilities. I would assume your case air would be within a few C of ambient with that much flow under most conditions.

It may be interesting to try it both ways and record your results.

 

[Kenmitch]

With the amount of intake fans you'll be using the get the cool air in and out the quickest possible for you will give you the best results. With the upper fan as intake you'll be at the mercy of your loan exhaust fan to do the job. You'll have somewhat of a hot pocket around your radiator. Any heat that escapes thru holes in the top of your case is gonna be sucked back in by the upper intake most likely.

 

[Blain]

Like mentioned above... top fan should be exhausting air not intaking.