@@DabbathaHut I agree my experience is that your GPU staying cooler is far better overall at least when it comes to gaming. Both my cpu and GPU usually stay in high 40s low 50s when playing games with it set up top, when it was on the front the GPU would peak into 60s and I did t like that
Right people keep talking about the best placement for temperature…. In reality you do this because idk physics… and that’s the best way for water to pump
I learned the hard way with my last case, having the AIO as intake, TERRIBLE FUCKING IDEA. Makes the exhaust way hotter to the point of being physically uncomfortable to be near the PC during operation. At least, if you have a CPU with a 360mm rad requirement (13700kf in my case). I do not, and will never understand how people sit in the same room as a 14900...
@@goldenhate6649 Genuine question: Were you running it as a push pull through the AIO on the side of the case? Idk if that would make a difference in your case, just wondering.
Jayztwocents made this comment about the AIO on top: the hot air going through will be far cooler than the temp of the radiator even with it being warmer than the ambient temp. Also, having it on top helps to make sure the pump isnt the highest point in the loop.
this is true, ZTT is talking about min-maxing (best possible situation) here though which isn't entirely wrong. front-mounted push-pull with barbs on the bottom is the best possible scenario, but any other orientation works just fine. personally i recommend people with 10+ core CPU's to not mount it on the top since their rig would be more cooler-dependent.
@ste11ar A top mounted CPU AIO cooler should still be able to handle 10+ core CPUs. I run a 12900k Overclocked and have an AIO top mounted, with no issues. Max my Temps get too are 70ish at load. In my own opinion, unless you are hard overclocking the best of the best in terms of hardware, top mounting will work just fine. If it isn't, you've either got a bad cooler or you may need to look at other cooling options (Custom Loop or a larger AIO, for example).
While true, side or front mount with tubes at the bottom do the same thing while also letting it be an intake. This is the best setup you can do for temps. But as ZTT said, if your temps are fine, then it's just aesthetics.
My wife's PC had a side exhaust for pretty much this exact reason. In my opinion it's unnecessary but, it definitely makes it so that her machine is basically impossible to over heat. Of course, she still refuses to overclock it. LoL :P
I live in the Australian desert and my office regularly sits above 30c so top mounted AIO saves my GPUs ass. It meant the two fans on the old CPU cooler are now extracting heat rather than just moving it around inside the case.
Gamers Nexus did a video on radiator placement. placing the rad at the front or side with fans as intake will technically affect the temperature of the graphics card.
You always want the air from the radiator to be pushed out of the case. I get some cases force you into certain orientations, but you never want the air going through your rad and into your pc case.
@@ronniekregar3482ok look at Linus tech tips they did an experiment with like 5 thick boy radiators they laid them out creating a lop and got numbers, then they connected them all back to back, difference is 1c thermodynamics is tricky but it works like it wants to not how you think it should be.
I technically have full reverse flow. The rear is intake, as well as the bottom. The Top and Front (Side) are outflows. Never have any issues. I do get some dust, but nothing an occasional shutdown (discharge), and then light dusting can't fix. If I really wanted to, I could cannibalize a mesh from another case and slap it on the back, but I am lazy.
Most GPU's run @70 degrees (unless you have a 5700 XT Refrence) A lot of new CPU's run way hotter than that while they are basically the same sillicon. I would say CPU thermals are more important and if you are worried about your GPU temps you can always just make your fans run faster using MSI afterburner
For the AIO the best position is on the top of the case, in that case the air left in the AIO will stay always in the radiator instead going into your pump and killing it.
In the front mounted position the radiator is still above the pump and the air can't escape into the pump because the tubes are on the bottom. And you also get fresh cool air as an intake through the aio
Just make sure that the pump *IS NOT* the highest point in the water cycle! Or else air will end up in the pump it can't pump water anymore and can even brake in the worst case.
Yes your right never put the pump high, infact make it the lowest possible point possible cause if a connection blows it's likely to happen at the pump and turn your PC into a very pretty aquarium. But also, did you not bleed the system? You gotta bleed the air out or else you'll burn out the motor in the pump and have worse cooling
This was actually really helpful, my new PC components are about to arrive and i was just gonna put the radiator up top, but i gotta get out every degree with the 14th gen i9 KF, thanks!
What gpu u have?? Gpu is probbly more expensive than cpu so u dont want warm air blowing on ur gpu.. Rather risk few c° more for cpu than blow hot air on rest of components
@@metak-metak2010 ASRock Radeon RX 7900 XT 20g Phantom Gaming OC. But i'll use the pc mostly for music production, it's a studio build. But thanks bro!
For anyone who's struggling to understand (that's okay btw), the computer overall produces heat that you need to move away from it, maximizing the order in which you do it is squeezing the last drops of efficiency, not that important as long as everything is properly cooled.
In ANY system integrating multiple components, those components can (and often do) synergize in ways which are both unpredictable and counter-intuitive. Any system powerful enough to warrant using liquid cooling usually has a pretty formidable GPU - most typically a triple-fan model. For the majority of builds, this essentially divides the case interior into two distinct 'chambers'; one above the GPU and one below it. The one below the GPU is typically exclusive to the GPU itself. While it commonly also includes the PSU, the PSU not only has it's own compartmentalized cooling but newer cases usually isolate it from all the internal circuitry. This is not to make light of the heat generated by high-end GPUs, but such cards are engineered in such a way as to handle said heat on their own - drawing in cooler air from below and exhausting through the 2-3 slots on the rear. The one above the GPU is the crucial one, as it is the environ for the CPU, RAM, and the majority of critical components of the motherboard. It's also the compartment with the greatest exhaust potential - at least one 120/140mm fan in the rear and at least 400mm of passive venting on top. The common element is that you most certainly do NOT want heated intake in either chamber. Notice in the pictured build (despite being roomier inside than typical cases) how the angled front intake fans are positioned - one providing cool intake for the lower chamber and two providing cool intake for the upper chamber. As pictured, the upper chamber is net-negative and the lower chamber is net-positive - entirely as it SHOULD be. The negative pressure creates a cooling effect unto itself, further aiding the cooling for the RAM and VRM. This also draws airflow along the open side of the case, providing additional cooling for the GPU backplate while bypassing the motherboard entirely. Motherboard designs vary, but performance motherboards (where thermals are more important) often position the primary chipset just below the GPU slot, allowing the GPU cooling system to help dissipate their heat. The net-positive pushes denser air across the chipset and through the GPU (as well as out the rear). Denser air also provides greater cooling for active systems, which is why GPUs always use push orientation (and radiators should always be push vs pull) - an additional reason why the lower chamber should always be net-positive.
I've done it to try cool my 14900k it bearly made any difference and my cpu power cables were making it difficult that it was not worth it. I just ended up having to get a more powerful aio in the end.
I have an aio with a front mounted push-pull setup. It helps that I put inverse phanteks on it that pushes air right into my amp gpu that is literally side by side to it with ~1mm of clearance. Then I put 2 140mm fans ontop. This is within a corsair 4000d
as long as the top of the rad is above the CPU the front orientation is better, I can say I’ve had some pump noise though and had to tip my pc to make it stop a couple times but after 4 years my liquid freezer 240 AIO is still working like when I got it. I have a 5600x oc’d at 4.85 single and 4.7 all core at about 60c
Two disappointing points with this advice: 1. A CPU will almost always tolerate more heat than a GPU, so having the GPU use warm air from the AIO on the front, would likely negatively impact temperatures/performance more 2. The "hot air rises" argument is objectively invalid unless it's a passive system - the airflow from even slow RPM fans will always completely negate any natural convection (with PC heat levels)
@@ronniekregar3482 what would I know, I'm only an electrical and mechanical engineer 🤷 and no, the "literal #1 property of heat" is not that it rises 🤦
AIOs are a lose lose situation because you either mount it at the top and pull in hot air from the case or mounted at the front or side and heat up your entire case. Just get a regular heat sync they kick off the heat and don’t transfer it anywhere else besides out
@proxyhx2075 still faster than my 9900k...6700k....2600k.....amd 6400 x2 3800+.....Dell dimension 4300 was my first ....from 2 gigs (or 4? I'd have to check my fecords) to 128....always faster...from 32mb video ram..to 24 gigs now ;)
It also causes negative air preassure in the case, causing air to be sucked in through different places that don't have dust filters. You would want to always have more intake fans with dust filters than exhaust fans to avoid getting that much dust in the PC. I have two PC's next to each other, one has 3 exhaust fans and 2 intake fans, the other has the other way around. The difference in the amount of dust in the cases is pretty crazy. Both have the same case and are on at the same time.
Nope..You're getting dust either way. In fact, the cases ive built with more intake fans ALWAYS had more dust, but whatever. The whole point of PC cooling is to expunge hot air.
The gpu will generally heat the most, and also is the most heat-sensitive piece of hardware (vrams especially) so you want to prioritise the cold air from the front panel to the gpu, thats 1 of the 2 reasons why the radiator goes on top
@@Lorentz_Driver It's not bait. It's the truth. Based on all the repairs and new builds I've done and all of the tests I've done while checking thermals, top mount radiator really is the best way to go. Other than that, air bubbles get trapped in the highest point of the loop of an AIO. When you front or side mount with intake, you are not only dumping a bunch of heat into the case, but you are also trapping air bubbles into the point of the radiator with the tubes if they are on top of the radiator standing up vertically, so those air bubbles are making their way back into the pump and shortening the lifespan of the AIO pump. You are also restricting airflow into the case if you front or side mount it for intake while at the same time chocking other components with unnecessary heat. This is especially bad when your case only has front intake and a solid front panel. Zack really just posted a whole bunch of misinformation just now. There's plenty of sources that explain this far better than he would, such as Gamers Nexus, which I highly recommend you check out.
safer at the top since inside the radiator there is liquid and air. To keep the air as far as possible from the pump is to put the pump lower than the radiator.
There is a few aio that has the same price as air cooler In my country there is 360mm aio the same price as thermaltake peerlees assassin 120 @@Jsp-hf3mn
The most important thing here is that in many cases the water pump is at the highest point of the loop and this causes noise and damage to the pump due to air in the loop, so the best position, or the safest, is on top... if you report something, do it well.
The best way is to mlunt the aio on the side (if u have a fish tank case) and put intake fans from bottom and the top and one exhaust in the rear ( i know that heat goes up and all that stuff but trust me inside of a case with an RTX 4080 is NOT THAT HOT that u might think and the main reason that we use fans inside the case is just for ventilation
The top is best because there isn’t much hot air in the case. The gpu gets hot but front fans keep that air in the bottom half of the case. Ive done front intake, top exhaust, side intake, side exhaust with a corsair 5000d and 360 aio and all temps for my 13900k were the same. Top is best though because the hot air produced from the aio goes directly out the top of your case. If you do front intake aio your gpu, motherboard, ram, etc will all get the heat from your cpu blown on them… not ideal. Also never install an aio in the front like that. Having the pump (usually found in the aio waterblock) above the ends of your tubes can cause bubbling and damage your water cooler.
Many tests have shown that top mount significantly increases CPU temps (5+ degrees celsius is significant) versus front mount AIO. The temp difference between the two for the GPU is negligible though. So no reason to not mount in the front
@@henry3397 not for me. Front mount made my computer case considerably hotter. The hand test on the glass panel told me all I needed to know. My i9 13900k (you know, the hot one) idled at 30 degree no matter which way I mounted it with load temps the same as well… I’m sticking with top mount, makes the room less hot also.
@henry3397 nope...take all "testing" with a grain of salt. Top mount rad in an exhaust orientation 100% of the time, obviously if your case allows it.
@@LawyerSlays doesnt top mount usually means the air bubble in the aio floats into the pump causing reduced cooling and significantly shortened aio lifespan?
@@amlenkNo, the gpu cent heat the air so fast which got blown into the case from the front panel fans. front intake bottom intake top is out and rear is out plus more intake than out
@@MrChocobit The GPU will pick up air and exhaust it throughout the card. The heat won't just "disappear", it will rise (heat rises) to the top of your case and be picked up by the top mounted AIO and exiting your case. Depending on how much load the GPU is under, it will very much heat up the air. The thing is, air doesn't instantly become cool once it exits the case, it will eventually recirculate back into the PC and if you don't have sufficient cooling in your room, the room will become warm and the once "cool" intake air has warmed up.
@@amlenk @amlenk No, this only applies if you don't have enough intake. In addition, the three fans of the GPU are not sufficient to outperform three front fans and three bottom fans thermally. As long as you get more air in than is being processed inside, it will not be able to run as you have written.
@@MrChocobit Positive airflow doesn't negate the existence of the second law of thermodynamics. In a PC system, it means that despite having cool intake air, internal temperatures will stabilize between the cool intake and the heat generated internally. Hence why exhaust temperatures will typically be warmer than intake temps due to this equilibrium. Let me clarify, I am simply stating that AIO placement DOES affects temperature, but not saying that it is significant enough to impact performance.
It's better to exhaust your hot air out of your case. The tiny efficiency loss to the individual radiator doesn't offset raise the overall temp inside the case.
It's ALL baloney, air rising from heat is a TINY force that fans will overpower 10.000x in lowest rpm. Also hot air? you have water cooling on the CPU and a GPU without there. THINK about it. you EITHER throw out the "hot" air (I get back to it) with exhaust fans THRU the radiator, or throw "hot" air IN the case for the GPU to munch... It makes no difference. With the amount of fans in that white case, air won't be longer in there then 1-2 seconds.. good luck in heating that so fast. Direction doesn't matter, as long as you make sure the heated air is going in a direction that won't get sucked back into the case. In general that is to be on top, and back, and intake from bottom and front. (while in winter you might like hot air over you, in summer you don't.
@@DataStorm1 You don't have a water block on your GPU? I am not really understanding this hot air for your GPU comment. When you build your loop you generally don't have any serious heat sources in a modern system, yeah ram and some mosfets on the motherboard as well as your drives put off some heat but nothing that won't be handled by standalone heat sinks and general case airflow unless you went for one of those silly glass box cases that were big 2017 till nowish, but that was for the I buy boutique gamer systems for rgb LED set, not people who care about cooling.
@@OmniMontel My post is all about the TINY force of slightly warmer air that will rise, any fan overpowers that by 100.000x. Hence I say its baloney. And I meant the PC in the video doesn't have a water block on the GPU... The whole idea that air needs to exit thru the top because of hot air rising is bs, if you want it thrown out of the bottom, its fine, the back? sure is fine too. Just don't put intake and outtake next to each other, for the one pulling in will suck in what the other is throwing out.
I put the radiation on top and used it as an intake. Sure hot air rises but the overall airflow should direct it out the back. I have dust filters on top and the positive pressure should cause all air to flow out of the holes in the case so I don't have to clean it often. Temps are normal as expected. If we would prioritize those more then just as long as it doesn't throttle it's fine then GPUs would have fans up top.
My friend switched his top-mounted CPU AIO to suck air in rather than exhaust it out like it was doing when first installed, and his CPU temperatures went down as a result. The thing is, he is potentially saving the life of a £500 CPU, but blowing hot air taken from that over his £2000 graphics card. Even if the 4090 cooling is well designed, does doing that make more sense than doing it the other way around? In my friend's case (using that word in terms of example and physical enclosure), he has just one intake fan at the front and one rear exhaust fan, but I suppose you can't really escape the fact that all the heat inside his case is likely to be travelling over his graphics card as-configured.
@@soots-stayingoutofthespotl5495 Most gpus blow air up. So most of that hot air coming from above will be blown out the back of the case. And cool air from the front will make it under the gpu where it sucks in air. Just think about it a bit. It's not likely that all that hot air will make it AROUND a massive 4090 and heat it up. Plus those things have massive coolers. It's probably fine.
"Hot air rises" is one of the most often used phrases in PC cooling that sounds like common sense but it doesn't actually matter compared to how fast fans can move the air. If you open your windows while speeding down the freeway you're not going to be able to tell which way the wind is blowing because the speed of the car is so overwhelming it doesn't matter. A more extreme example, but it's the same concept.
I have 3 intakes from the lower side (below glass panel), 3 intakes from the front, 3 Exhaust in the top, And 1 exhaust in the back. This way it intakes more cold air and creates positive pressure in the pc. If you have negative pressure in the PC, then there's a potential to draw in more dust that bypasses the fan filters.
Lian li lancool cases have a mesh psu enclosure side panel and you can put fans on the bottom, inside the main chamber. This essentially acts as a secondary fresh air source that ports cool air straight into the GPU, couple that with front facing cpu aio and beefy exhaust fans to keep mobo and ram from cooking themselves and you have the "META"
Put your fans above the radiator instead of under it and in an exhaust position. The fans are still pulling from the radiator but because the fans a further away, the air in all areas of the case move through all areas of the radiator. While this might seem like it does nothing, you're actually exhausting at a greater flow and you're not focusing heat towards the center of the radiator. Plus, you see colours above your case now.
the liquid inside the AIO will be much hotter than the air inside the case. just like in summer time the air will be 100F but the liquid inside your car's radiator will be around 190F-220F. As long as the surrounding air temp isn't the same or greater cooling by liquid radiator isn't an issue
I have an Omen 45L case, and I think it's cool because I get the best of both worlds. My radiator is at the top but has its own housing above everything else. Cool ambient air flows from underneath the rad and through it. My AIO is underneath in the main case on the CPU doing its thing. It also keeps the pump from running dry. (Look up HP Omen 45L Case for reference)
Keep the exhaust fans on the top. Add in intake fans to the front. You bring in fresh cooler air from the front, that is sucked across the the components by the fan in the back and the fans at the top. Airflow matters.
You have to remember you are running a whole system and not just a CPU. If you have intake fans in the front, the air coming in is cool. The GPU will make heat and expel it into the case, which is in part what the fan on the back does - it sucks the heat out. Remember, heat rises, and the combination of cold in mixing with the GPU air leads to a warmer stream heading out the back. Pulling a mixture of air through the rad and pushing it up will effectively cool the radiator enough for most jobs, and will actually help you have a balanced temperature system. Overall, this layout is plenty effective for most situations.
As others have said, if the AIO is intake, then the hot air from that will just heat up your GPU. Mine is up top because that's where it will fit, but I have temp probes in the case tied to both front and rear fans, but with a bias to the rear, so if the temp gets too hot in the case it will spin up and get it out. As opposed to normal use where I try to have most of the exhaust going through the AIO
You would just be taking the heat from the radiator and throwing it back into your case. That's why the fans should exhaust through a radiator. If you want fresh exterior air through the radiator, I suggest creating some kind of fan shroud that causes intake from the nearest vent.
I did put the radiator infront once. The cpu gets just a little bit cooler but my gpu temp increases due to the hot air being pump into the case. Now when i placed the radiator on top, added fans to the front to blow in fresh air, my gpu temp drops and balanced out with my cpu temp while gaming. It's better to have fresh air coming into your case and exhaust fans to take all of the hot air out. That way you'll have better air circulation, cooling down your other components in the case like your ssd's, hdd's, motherboard, ram, etc and hopefully prolongs the lifetime of your pc components.
My Corsair 280mm AIO shows in the manual that the optimal fan orientation when top mounted is to be an intake fan. So I have mine mounted as intakes with a big dust filter on the top. Makes it easy to keep the case clean. I have 2 more 140mm fans as intake on the front of the case so there is a lot of hot air that gets blasted out the back.
When you are intaking a radiator you are only warming up the air youre pulling into the case as the radiator will be hot. Its better to have a frwsh supply of cool air into the case that can be sucked out along all the components and pushed across the radiator to help cool it. This will give you effective air and water cooling.
In the front, coolers before the radiator to send cold air faster, and the pipes should be always on the top as high as possible to trap the air bubbles. That air then cools also the GPU and put a rear fan or a top fan to take the hot air out and you are done.
Good to know I actually have the good setup (which also has the absolute coolest visual down the front of my computer, all 3 are RGB fans, and I have a tempered glass front so they can glow)
Better explanation. CPU or GPU focused cooling. In fishtank cases there are also fans that blow above the GPU -> mostly fresh air that gets directly to the AiO
we use them as outbound because you heat the whole case or have semi-thermally loaded air cooling your CPU. with enough additional fans the air flows from the top back in and then out the rad is almost ambient.
People choosing to sacrifice CPU temps over GPU temps are crazy. I don’t think y’all understand just how strong, and efficient most GPU coolers are built nowadays. I’ve ran both top-mounted, and front-mounted rad with a 5700X3D, and a 3080, and CPU temps spiked more when the rad was top-mounted. GPU temps barely changed in both scenarios, it was like 3 a degree difference for the GPU at max, but 10 degrees minimum for the CPU.
Installing a radiator in the front only reduces CPU temps slightly while increasing GPU temps by a lot, and installing it on top is the best to make sure the air inside of the AIO doesn't get sucked into the pump and kill it, if you do install it in front, make sure to have the tubes point down and only do it if the top of your radiator ends up being higher than the pump
at 00:24 there is clearly a set of 3 fans blowing fresh cool air into the case, providing air to every component inside the case. Placing the CPU rad in the front will cause hot air to blow inside the case.
for video games typically the gpu gets hotter than the cpu so radiater at the top in exhaust is usually best. some workloads like rendering require more cpu, in which case you would do the intake position. if you’re gaming this is already the optimal setup with the exhaust.
the water flow into the radiator matters more and the front side installed radiator you showed is pulling from instead of pushing air into the radiator so it's less optimal too
Ajo for 7900xtx is set to exhaust through bottom of case. AIO for cpu is set to exhaust through middle-side panel. Front panel is intake. Top is intake. Rear is intake. I know it’s not conventional but I get insanly good temperatures. And my VRMs stay very cool.
From what i remember the aio is actially optimal on the top because bringing in the air from the front, is blowing through the rad which heats up the air. So its better to have direct cool air cooling the entire pc while no excess heat from the rad being blown into the case
The reason the aio is on top is mostly because the tubes accessing the radiator should be higher than the pump and when you do it like this the tubes will always be under water level of the radiator. Which will work best and prevents noice. Placing the pump in front you have 2 options. 1. Placing the tubes entering at the top of the radiator. This can cause bubbly noices in the radiator. 2. Placing the tubes at the bottom. Resulting in the pump being higher which can cause bubbly noice in the pump. Placing it like this can also be a problem because with full cases the tubes are to short.
di the testing there is less than a 2 degree delta in water temp with the AIO at the top with fans as an exhaust vs AIO at the front and fans as intake. This being said fans of similar types can push air through a rad easier than pull.
I intake my aio at the top of my case, i also have intake in the front of my case, my exhaust fans are at the back and bottom. That way air flows through pretty much the whole case.
Also there's the whole point about making the intake and output valves on your radiator higher than your CPU. This is so that as permeation occurs and your IAO gets air pockets, the air stays at the highest point in the loop and doesn't get sucked to your cpu, potentially trapping the air, forcing the pump to work harder AND increasing your temps at the same time as more air in the CPU block means less water in the block that cools your cpu
On most modern cases you will or should have a greater amount of air forced into the case generally from the front (positive pressure). You want a flow of air from one end of the PC to the other. By say having 3 fans pushing air in from the front and 3 extracting from the top you should be exchanging the entire volume of air way before any heat really builds up inside. Also most air cooled GPUs and PSUs actually help this flow by taking in the internal heated air and exhausting this air either from the rear (GPUs) and either below or rear of the case for PSUs.
If you use more intake fans and run positive pressure in your case the temps flip the other way around. Its important to balance the pressure inside the PC and make sure your not running negative To test this you can light a match or incense and hold it to the back of the PC where there isnt any fans but there are perforations. If its sucking in your negative pressure, if its blowing out your positive on pressure. Test again with gpu fans running high to balance how fast your intake fans should be running
The radiator in the front makes sense if you have long enough tubes to compensate, but up on front i would do a push /pull configuration since pc’s arent actively moving like cars do. Up on the top though, cool air is already in and one would push that air thru the radiator, unless u have a new nvidia founders card where rads just cool better up front lol
Another reason we put on the top is for the gpu to get colder air, because we tend to prioritize the gpu performance when gaming, CPUs are way less likely to throttle due to temp when gaming (considering u r using an AIO)
Negative pressure (more exhaust fans than intake fans) also means you'll end up with more dust inside your PC, since it will suck air/dust IN through gaps and holes in the case, instead of pulling air through a dust filter and the positive pressure pushing air/dust OUT through all those gaps and holes in the case.
If you have your front fans pulling air in and the rear fan pushing air out having your rad at the top wont impact temps to much unless you are running a space heater.
And then there is the AIO pump where having all the liquid on top makes it efficient whereas mounting the radiator at front can create a situation where air gets trapped in the pump housing
The best temps I have found by far with this case was pulling down through the radiator at the top, pulling up through the bottom and exhausting out the side
I have two AIOs in a rather slim mid tower case. Using four static fans on the side intake (no front its glass), one 140mm cfm intake from the rear, and three 120 static for the top exhaust. In my instance, the 3080ti dumps less heat than my 13900k even undervolted. So, having my CPU exhaust hot air from the top, side intake intake cooling the gpu and unrestricted 140 cfm rear intake works very well for me. Gpu temps are great never above 60c and CPU under stress test touches 75c. Figuring out which fans ramp up with what device temp was tricky but worth it having this pretty little case.
What I've understood is that AIOs lose some of the coolant over time so having the pump (which is usually in the CPU block) be the lowest point of the system will help keep the air out.
depends on how many intake fans you have and how much pressure your creating toward your rear exhaust fans. There is more going on here than just heat rising.
A mate had a really cool case on a PC a few years ago. He ordered a pretty high spec custom built system from a small shop and they put it into a high end case they stocked. We never managed to work out who the manufacturer was. It was quite a large, black, full alloy case (No windows) with a 360x120mm radiator in the front, but the side panel had a duct built into it that sealed against a shroud on the fans so it pushed all the hot air straight out the side. I always thought it was a pretty neat design in that it wasn't using already heated air from inside the case to cool the radiator, and wasn't dumping hot air inside. He eventually had to swap the case because he bought a new GPU that didn't fit, and sold the old one to a co-worker. Anyone recognise it from the description?
If it was important cases would have a special space for radiators that takes outside air then reject it directly outside. The fact that this isn’t common is all you need to know about PC cooling. This means that pull or push configuration doesn’t matter that much, as long as you move enough air trough the case.
You put the fans on the top because that way the hoses will go up only as will any air that forms in the loop. If air would get inside the pump than that wouldn't be pushed out of the pump which would cause the pump to be less effective over time.
Having the radiator sit horizontally like on top, causes air to circulate with the fluid, which is where that noise comes from and slowly ages your pump. Where as having your radiator vertically with the lines at the bottom keeps the air in the radiator quieting it down and preventing at the very least *some* of the air from circulating through the pump.
@@unlucky5442 I didn't say make it the highest point. YES. The highest point will still be the radiator - in fact it will be that space at the bottom (which is mounted at the top with the lines at the bottom), so the air will sit there like with a res because it floats and the lower pressure in that larger space. And the only way for that air to get back to the pump is down to the lowest point of the loop where the lines are - the difference is easily audible. With a horizontally mounted Radiator air will circulate through your pump *regardless* because the input, output and bottom of the radiator are all level and the air follow the flow of the water - the way out wont include overcoming floating. Again the difference audible.
I mount my aio on top because I have 3 fans blowing directly into my gpu, so it never gets too hot, so im comfortable with that air going through my cpu that uses less tdp
