# The big air cooling investigation



## sukesh1090 (Feb 13, 2012)

guys i found this article in bit-tech.com.i thought this the must read for everyone.


> 1. The amount of venting in your case can have a huge impact on cooling, particularly around the CPU area. If you have fan mounts here that are blocked up, unblock them.
> 
> 2. Generally, all other things being equal, it’s better to get hot air out of your case than to pump cool air in, particularly when it comes to CPU cooling.
> 
> ...



link-The Big Air Cooling Investigation
_Published on 10th February 2012 by Paul Goodhead_
-


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## coderunknown (Feb 14, 2012)

nice article. a front mounted fan is important when you have more than 1 HDD. also if someone have a cabinet with facility for mounting fan at the top, better leave it open and concentrate on other areas as hot air will anyway move up or get thrown by a rear fan.


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## topgear (Feb 14, 2012)

@ *sukesh1090* - thanks for the article - I've done everything perfectly inside of my CM Elite 430 with 3x 120mm and 2x 80mm fans


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## sukesh1090 (Feb 14, 2012)

one who is building his rig first time or one who is worried that his computer is running hot then he should read that article.it will help a lot.one thing i found is that side intake fan is very very important to keep gfx card,chipsets and even processor cool.
@topgear,
 welcome bro.



Sam said:


> nice article. a front mounted fan is important when you have more than 1 HDD. also if someone have a cabinet with facility for mounting fan at the top, better leave it open and concentrate on other areas as hot air will anyway move up or get thrown by a rear fan.



but still bro i think the upper exhaust at the back side should have a fan because it will accelerate the movement of air to the outside of the case but the one which is very near to the front intake should be left alone as if we add a fan there then the cool air coming from the front will be thrown out from that fan before it reaches the processor and all.


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## avinandan012 (Feb 14, 2012)

one front intake & atleast one top mounted exhaust is a must


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## coderunknown (Feb 14, 2012)

sukesh1090 said:


> but still bro i think the upper exhaust at the back side should have a fan because it will accelerate the movement of air to the outside of the case but the one which is very near to the front intake should be left alone as if we add a fan there then the cool air coming from the front will be thrown out from that fan before it reaches the processor and all.



if one have more fan (like topgear's 5 fan set) then installing top mounted fan helps. but in case of just 2-3 fan, 2 intake fan helps lot more.


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## dibya_kol (Feb 14, 2012)

very nice article, i am using CM 690. I have 3x120mm fans, one in front(intake), one in side pannel(intake), one in rear side(exhaust), also my psu fan works as exhaust fan . No fan on top.


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## sukesh1090 (Feb 15, 2012)

Sam said:


> if one have more fan (like topgear's 5 fan set) then installing top mounted fan helps. but in case of just 2-3 fan, 2 intake fan helps lot more.



yup the preference is like this,
1.side intake 2.rear exhaust 3.front intake.......


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## topgear (Feb 15, 2012)

&& perfect placement for 2/3 fans.



Sam said:


> if one have more fan (like topgear's 5 fan set) then installing top mounted fan helps. but in case of just 2-3 fan, 2 intake fan helps lot more.



The top fan is for keep the mobo VRM region cool when OCed and at sizzling summer season  or else like you said on a previous post hot air will dissipate through the top vents automatically but adding a fan just accelerate the process more.


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## coderunknown (Feb 15, 2012)

topgear said:


> The top fan is for keep the mobo VRM region cool when OCed and at sizzling summer season  or else like you said on a previous post hot air will dissipate through the top vents automatically but adding a fan just accelerate the process more.



you have Phenom II X4 overclocked so a top fan really helps but Jaskanwar too had found his own way to cool VRMs, if you remember


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## sukesh1090 (Feb 15, 2012)

^^
what was that?


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## Jaskanwar Singh (Feb 15, 2012)

^*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/cpu-motherboards/152074-cooling-vrm.html


btw let me test this now!


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## sukesh1090 (Feb 15, 2012)

^^
but what about NB.how to cool it?btw will adding the tim came with the hyper 212 evo cooler to NB reduce the temp of NB?


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## Jaskanwar Singh (Feb 15, 2012)

^wait 5-10min. let me confirm what that temp belongs to.

yup sukesh that NB temp i think then, because none of tempins changed after i unplugged that fan.  
just tie a small fan on NB cooler. experiment


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## pramudit (Feb 15, 2012)

i too have done jugaad cooling for my passive cooled gpu... will post pics soon....


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## sukesh1090 (Feb 15, 2012)

Jaskanwar Singh said:


> ^wait 5-10min. let me confirm what that temp belongs to.
> 
> yup sukesh that NB temp i think then, because none of tempins changed after i unplugged that fan.
> just tie a small fan on NB cooler. experiment



i can't do that my 212evo is very near to it and now the problem is i guess i won't be able to fit even side panel fan as 212evo will most probably touch the side panel.thats not the problem i just hope that 212 evo just sits inside source 210.


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## topgear (Feb 16, 2012)

Jaskanwar Singh said:


> ^wait 5-10min. let me confirm what that temp belongs to.
> 
> yup sukesh that NB temp i think then, because none of tempins changed after i unplugged that fan.
> *just tie a small fan on NB cooler. experiment *



I will try to do this butwe have to use of 80mm fans ( as fans smaller than 80mm is not easy to find ) and it's not always easy to tie a 80mm fan on NB cooler but I'll give it a try for sure though


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## Jaskanwar Singh (Feb 16, 2012)

sukesh1090 said:


> i can't do that my 212evo is very near to it and now the problem is i guess i won't be able to fit even side panel fan as 212evo will most probably touch the side panel.thats not the problem i just hope that 212 evo just sits inside source 210.



fix 212 evo horizontally. i mean fan facing up 
after that you will get enough space.



topgear said:


> I will try to do this butwe have to use of 80mm fans ( as fans smaller than 80mm is not easy to find ) and it's not always easy to tie a 80mm fan on NB cooler but I'll give it a try for sure though



nice,


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## coderunknown (Feb 16, 2012)

topgear said:


> I will try to do this butwe have to use of 80mm fans ( as fans smaller than 80mm is not easy to find ) and it's not always easy to tie a 80mm fan on NB cooler but I'll give it a try for sure though



but how will you fit fans on the NB? VRM cooling was possible cause Jassy tied the fans to cabinet grill and HSF, maybe but in case of NB you'll have to arrange some kind of mounting mechanism as GPU doesn't have holes nor is it safe to tie anything to the PCB of the graphics card.


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## topgear (Feb 17, 2012)

^^ I've a small fan of 8600GT - 60/40mm may be with 2 pin connector - will try with that 



Jaskanwar Singh said:


> fix 212 evo horizontally. i mean fan facing up
> after that you will get enough space.
> 
> nice,



it it can be done and we set 212 with 2 fans one fan will face NB cooler and other one will face th Top vent - so NB will reamin cool and hot air from cpu cooler will go out quickly using the top vent and it will left a little bit more space on top side so I'll be able to add 120mm on top - but the big question is can we fix the cooler like Hyper 212 horizontally on AMD mobos ???? I've tried but it was not possible though I've placed the cooler horizontally with previous Intel rig


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## Jaskanwar Singh (Feb 17, 2012)

topgear said:


> it it can be done and we set 212 with 2 fans one fan will face NB cooler and other one will face th Top vent - so NB will reamin cool and hot air from cpu cooler will go out quickly using the top vent and it will left a little bit more space on top side so I'll be able to add 120mm on top - but the big question is can we fix the cooler like Hyper 212 horizontally on AMD mobos ???? I've tried but it was not possible though I've placed the cooler horizontally with previous Intel rig



yeah 2 fans is also nice option. 
if you take the case of evo, i did it.


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## freshseasons (Feb 17, 2012)

Adding more Fans helps but as the fan increases so does the noise level.Having very low tolerance for noise i had prefer not more than 2 fans at any time.

  Does the article reflect anything on the size of the fan ?

  Is it better having 1 big sized fan with lower RPM rather than 2 with high RPM ?

  How much does CFM play role in reducing /increasing noise ?


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## sukesh1090 (Feb 17, 2012)

^^
take an example,
a 200mm fan produces 50cfm by running at600rpm
a 140mm fan produces 50cfm at 1000rpm
a 120mm will produce same at 1500rpm
a 80mm will produce same at 2500rpm
 higher the rpm more noise will be produced.


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## topgear (Feb 18, 2012)

Jaskanwar Singh said:


> yeah 2 fans is also nice option.
> if you take the case of evo, i did it.



buddy if possible post a snap .. want to have a look at it


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## Jaskanwar Singh (Feb 19, 2012)

TP, exams coming. so i will post detail pics later. till then -
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/show-off/151107-my-new-rig-4-core-ka-zor.html


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## topgear (Feb 20, 2012)

^^ thanks for the link - I think I got my answer 

BTW, best wishes for the upcoming exam.


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## vyral_143 (Feb 20, 2012)

Is my fan setup correct ?

*i.imgur.com/5kx4K.jpg

Front - Intake - 120mm 90CFM - to cool 2 HDDs
Side - Exhaust - 120mm 90CFM
Top - Intake - 2*140mm 65CFM - to cool VRMs and NB
Rear - Exhaust - 120mm 42CFM

Top left intake (specially to cool VRMs as OCing) and adjacent rear exhaust is wrong i guess.


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## coderunknown (Feb 20, 2012)

front & side as intake. top as exhaust. you may make the rear fan as intake to cool VRM.


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## vyral_143 (Feb 20, 2012)

Sam said:


> front & side as intake. top as exhaust. you may make the rear fan as intake to cool VRM.



Hmmm
But again air from rear intake wont be sucked up by top left exhaust ?


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## Jaskanwar Singh (Feb 20, 2012)

topgear said:


> ^^ thanks for the link - I think I got my answer
> 
> BTW, best wishes for the upcoming exam.



thanks tp.


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## sukesh1090 (Feb 20, 2012)

vyral_143 said:


> Hmmm
> But again air from rear intake wont be sucked up by top left exhaust ?



keep front and side as intake and rear,top fans as exhaust.


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## topgear (Feb 21, 2012)

finally managed to mount my trusty old CM Hyper 212 horizontally 

I'm still surprised how future proof this cooler is though it was introduced on 2007 ( I'm I remember it correct ) but thanks to AMD for retaining a good and compatible socket type ( still going on ) and CM for making a great cooler like this


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## vyral_143 (Feb 21, 2012)

sukesh1090 said:


> keep front and side as intake and rear,top fans as exhaust.



VRM cooling then ?
OT: We have similar config in terms of Proccy, mobo and HSF.


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## sukesh1090 (Feb 21, 2012)

if you keep the temp inside your cabinet less then the vrm will also stay cool.if you heatsink fan blows air upwards and the top fan blows downwards and both exactly opposite then you can guess what will happen.so it is better to throw the air coming from heatsink fan out with a top fan.even your side intake fan will keep your NB temp cool which reaches very high in this mobo.

here guys another one from "Hardwaresecrets.com",
Which is the Best Place to Install a Case Fan? - Part 1

Which is the Best Place to Install a Case Fan? - Part 2


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## topgear (Feb 22, 2012)

^^ great find ( TFS )  and nice to see they used a CM 430

BTW, a little OT : are you running the cpu @ stock speed - what's the cpu temp under load ??


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## sukesh1090 (Feb 22, 2012)

^^
thanks bro.i am using my 955 in stock speed at 1.25v vcore.right now i am using ubuntu live cd so don't know how to check the temp.will tell you when i get my HDD from RMA and when i get my source 210.


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## topgear (Feb 22, 2012)

^^ ok ..


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## doomgiver (Feb 22, 2012)

sukesh1090 said:


> ^^
> thanks bro.i am using my 955 in stock speed at 1.25v vcore.right now i am using ubuntu live cd so don't know how to check the temp.will tell you when i get my HDD from RMA and when i get my source 210.



right click on the panel (assuming gnome,)
add applet/widget/whatever
scroll down to system monitor or something, add that, and it'll show temps.


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## sukesh1090 (Feb 23, 2012)

^^oh thanks bro but it is unity.now i am using linux mint 12.it is pretty awesome os.looks prettier than windows 7.it has hardware temp widget but it shows in Fahrenheit.do you know how to get it in Celsius?


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## topgear (Feb 24, 2012)

use this 
convertall - Linux Mint


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## sukesh1090 (Feb 24, 2012)

thanks bro.


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## topgear (Feb 25, 2012)

^^ you are welcome buddy 

BTW, check this out :
Case cooling - the physics of good airflow - Technibble


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## Sarath (Feb 25, 2012)

My NZXT Tempest Evo has 6 freaking fans! It's screwed from birth?

Two front 
Two top
One side
One rear 

Half or more are 120mm


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## sharang.d (May 25, 2012)

Great Link... thank you.


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