Horizontal MATX blower VS open

[ViltiesVance]

I am wanting to build an MATX system in the Lian-Li PC-V359. http://www.lian-li.com/en/dt_portfolio/pc-v359/

Should I go REF 980 or say a Strix 980? I am going to have 2x 120mm side fans right beside the graphics card and exhaust out via the rear 120mm fan. So there will be good airflow. I am just wondering how a horizontal configuration would effect an open air design. Any advice would be awesome! Thank you so much in advance.

I suspect that I will never go SLI in the future.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I am wanting to build an MATX system in the Lian-Li PC-V359. http://www.lian-li.com/en/dt_portfolio/pc-v359/

Should I go REF 980 or say a Strix 980? I am going to have 2x 120mm side fans right beside the graphics card and exhaust out via the rear 120mm fan. So there will be good airflow. I am just wondering how a horizontal configuration would effect an open air design. Any advice would be awesome! Thank you so much in advance.

I suspect that I will never go SLI in the future.

What do you mean when you say "open air design?"

The Lian-Li case has a lot of possibilities. There are ways to improve and focus cooling in that case and many others. It's not so much the shape of the box or the orientation of the motherboard; cooling will depend more on general airflow, cooling strategy, fan choices and other things.

 

[Valantar]

From the looks of that case, you'd be fine with an open-air GPU cooler. Although that depends on the actual thermal characteristics of the case, which I don't know, but from the looks of it they should be good.

The horizontal motherboard mounting shouldn't affect cooling much - it might actually be positive, as it's easier for hot air to flow up from the graphics card.