z390 motherboard selection for SPEC-OMEGA RGB

Greetings, building a new PC on a new Carbide Series SPEC-OMEGA RGB case.

1. Looking for a advice which z390 mobo to buy to be able to run all fancy LEDs on a case and stock fans? Or any with a 4 pin 12v led connector will work with iCue? Or maybe I don't even need it since SPEC-OMEGA have own command module?

I'm looking for a budget mobo 120-175$.

2. Some youtube video reviews show, that my case does not allow to mount watercoolers on top of the case together with high profile RAM? (no space)

I have 2 coolers

• Hydro Series™ H60 120mm radiator + fan
  
• similar cooler for GPU 120mm radiator + fan
  

Paired with VENGEANCE® RGB PRO RAM.

How to solve that? Obviously mounting them on a front panel is not an option, since that would completely ruin airflow.

You don't control the Corsair RGB with a 12V connector; all of the Corsair RGB is 5V so 12V would blow them out. And the Spec Omega comes with a Lighting Node Pro with one channel for the front panel and one channel for the included fans.

Front mounting the cooler is fine. That's exactly how my son's case is configured and it's fine. IIRC, if you put a 240mm in there, you'll actually have an open fan mount for a 120mm fan as well for direct airflow. If you use a 120mm fan, you can put that in the rear exhaust.

On a final note, use caution with a budget z390 if you are going for the i9-9900K. The VRMs on most of those aren't up to handling the extra power requirements for the 9900K, particularly if you want to overclock.

Thanks for the reply!

Front mounting the cooler is fine. That's exactly how my son's case is configured and it's fine. IIRC, if you put a 240mm in there, you'll actually have an open fan mount for a 120mm fan as well for direct airflow. If you use a 120mm fan, you can put that in the rear exhaust.

There is a glass at the front and no place for a hot air to go. If a put intake fan at the bottom, then part of that hot exhaust will be soaked back to the case. Plus an intake airflow from that bottom fan going to HDDs, and blocked under the plastic cover.

At the back, there is a place for only 1 radiator, but I have 2.

Here is a pic how it looks like

On a final note, use caution with a budget z390 if you are going for the i9-9900K. The VRMs on most of those aren't up to handling the extra power requirements for the 9900K, particularly if you want to overclock.

I'm looking at Gigabyte Z390 UD, the internet says that this particular board got good VRM.

Dude ... if you front mount a radiator, it should be configured as intake, not exhaust.

Rear and top should be exhaust.

So your diagram is incorrect - it's pretty much backwards.

Dude ... if you front mount a radiator, it should be configured as intake, not exhaust.

Rear and top should be exhaust.

So your diagram is incorrect - it's pretty much backwards.

Like this?

Yes, though that seems a bit oversimplistic about the airflow.

My son has his set up very much like this except with an H115i Pro - so only the radiator in front. Works well for him.

Yes, though that seems a bit oversimplistic about the airflow.

My son has his set up very much like this except with an H115i Pro - so only the radiator in front. Works well for him.

There is no intake air, its solid glass/plastic panel with a tiny nonfiltered hole at the bottom.

And what's the point to draw hot air through the case? There are many components like ram, chipset, VRMs, NVMe with no active cooling.

Blow on them with a 60-70+ C hot air simply makes no sense to me.

First, the air blowing on them is not 60-70+C. The air from the radiator is typically about 0.5C higher than the coolant temperature - and that should stay pretty well under 35-40C. And, with the 240mm radiator, you'd have a separate fan at the bottom pulling in cool air.

Second, there is enough intake there. Exhaust would be an issue with that setup but intake is not - this is something that we've seen on multiple cases, not just Corsair ones.

Like I said before - my son has a very similar setup. And it works fine.

Alright, ty.

I'll try to build it and measure temps

Dude ... if you front mount a radiator, it should be configured as intake, not exhaust.

Rear and top should be exhaust.

So your diagram is incorrect - it's pretty much backwards.

DevBiker, help me out here please. Why does it matter if the airflow is front to back or back to front?

I agree the top should be exhaust because heat rises. But I can't think of a scenario it would matter if you have intake in the rear.

DevBiker, help me out here please. Why does it matter if the airflow is front to back or back to front?

 

I agree the top should be exhaust because heat rises. But I can't think of a scenario it would matter if you have intake in the rear.

Air cooled GPU and PSU have rear hot air exhaust, as you mentioned, hot air rises and then soaked by a single rear fan, which is not good.