Fan and Part Placement

Howdy!

 

I am trying to figure out the best placement of a few components in the Corsiar Carbide Air 740 case for optimum cable management and air flow. Any suggestions would be appreciated! Here are my components:

 

Case: Carbide Air 740

Fans:

- CPU: H110i AIO Cooler (Currently the radiator is mounted as intake in a pull configuration on the front of the case) I have also upgraded the fans to ML140 Pro fans.

- Case Fans: 2 SP120 Quiet Edition fans located bringing air from the bottom.

- Case Fans: The two stock 140mm fans that came with the H110I mounted to the top and are exhausting. 1 stock 140mm non-pwm fan as a rear exhaust.

Fan Controller (Particularly looking for suggestions on placement of this and the temp sensor placement): Corsair Commander Pro

Graphics Card: Asus Strix 1060 6GB

 

Let me know any suggestions you would have on placement of the fans, aio radiator, and where the fan controller should go.

 

One other question is the RM750x, can the fan point inward towards the mobo in this case or should it point outward to the cover of the case? It looks upside down if it is mounted that way but seems like the fan would work better.

 

Thanks in advance!!

My preference would be to move the H110i to the top of the case as exhaust. When in the front it serves as a substantial restriction to your intake airflow and also dumps waste heat into the case. That is a workable arrangement, but on a decent volume sized case like a 740 with a really good airflow, it would be a shame to waste those benefits.

 

Front Intake - 2x140 or 3x120

Bottom Intake 2x120 or 2x140 (both are optional and not required)

 

Top exhaust - H110i 2x140

Rear Exhaust - 1x140

 

A 1060 is fairly efficient card, so you won't have tons of heat to get out of the case. With the H110i dumping its heat out the top, you shouldn't need much fan speed and can keep things quiet.

 

As for the PSU, there is only one way to set this up on the 740. The PSU sits on its side with the large radial fan facing the side (with dust filter). The fan is the intake and the heat will blow out the back by the power plug and switch.

 

My Corsair Commander Pro sits in the "cold half" of the case in the HDD slots behind the main power switch. I don't have any HDDs, so that is an open space. Plenty of places to stick in the 740 and it shouldn't need too much air for circulation. I wouldn't lay it down on the PSU, but other than that, you can more or less stick it anyway that is in reach of the fans and board headers. As for the temp sensors, that depends on what you are looking to measure and/or control with that data. I think one of the more useful ones is rear exhaust temperature. This can be used for rear fan speed control (if using the C-Pro for fan control) and even if not, it tells you how much heat is coming off the GPU. You could stick another one on the bottom of the case or taped to the rail in front, just as a general case ambient temp value. I am not sure you need to use more than that. You can do the same thing with the H110i top exhaust, although the value should be a directly related to the coolant temp (H110i temp), which is already measured.

Re Radiator placement....

 

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the results may surprise you.... I'm a front mounted intake (and push/pull) type of guy my self... and top fans also intake

 

to add.. my dad came up with a good thought on it (he is in his 70's).. been an engineer all his life.. built engines for fun etc... anyways.. he said "isnt the heat already in the case?" which when you think about it... it is lol... food for thought

Thanks for the input from both of you! I chose front intake like Zotty mentioned mainly because I have my CPU pretty heavily overclocked and I was more worried about cooling it than heating up the other parts. I don't get the top fans as intake though, Zotty? Since heat rises exhausting from the top allows for the best performance at the lowest RPM levels based on my experimenting.

I don't get the top fans as intake though, Zotty? Since heat rises exhausting from the top allows for the best performance at the lowest RPM levels based on my experimenting.

 

i tried the fans both ways. found zero diff with ambient temps in the case but having as exhaust gave me negative pressure which saw the case sucking dust in from all its unfiltered gaps/holes

Every set up is unique and I can think of reasons why you might place the radiator as front intake, however I cannot think of a good reason to do so with your hardware and this case. There is little advantage in using "cooler intake air" on a case like the 540 or 740 and no drive blockage. If you do, you will not overheat or harm your components. Presumably you were interested in optimal theory and the comparisons out there that only measure CPU or GPU temp are not a very good measurement of actual results.

 

No, the hea isn't already in the case. Unless you have absolutely zero wattage to dissipate, the air cmoing out the back of the radiator will always be warmer than what went in, thus you are theoretically worse off. Of course, the amount can be small and not overly impactful. However, without a doubt a radiator is an obstruction and will reduce the air flow across the front of the board. This may have a noticeable impact on temperature sensitive devices like m.2 drives or possible the PCH.

I beg to differ with the heat already in the case situation.. ram...HDD's heat sinks on mother board... m2's etc etc... heat rises,,, gets sucked through rad and out the top. so will also have an effect on liquid temps... lots of schools of thought on this subject. And as you said. each build is different..

 

my two HD140's in the top also blow cool air across said items.. rear fan and two in the bottom of the case take it away,, well thats the plan anyways lol... i dont suffer heat issues but i do live in the uk so ambient room temps are never crazy hot anyways :)

 

in reality.. unless your an on the edge type of guy trying to squeeze the last drop of power out your machine it doesnt really matter.. IMHO of course :D :)....

 

i have probes in front/behind my intake (push) and exhaust (pull) rad fans and theres 1c diff between intake and exhaust with normal usage.... when gaming it will may be a 2c difference

 

While typing this and downloading a new game aswell as listening to some music. my system temps are

 

Room temp 26c

intake 26c

airflow (air from fan on back of rad inside the case) 27c

back of motherboard (probe stuck to the metal plate at back of cpu area) 30c

Liquid 28c

cpu avg 31c

psu temp 27c (fan on low pulling air from the case)

Gpu (980ti blower) 37c

ssd 35c

hdd 35c

hdd 37c

in reality.. unless your an on the edge type of guy trying to squeeze the last drop of power out your machine it doesnt really matter.. IMHO of course :D :)....

 

I do agree with that. Most things work, until you get into set-ups with extreme hardware (980 Ti type GPUs, multiple GPUs), horrible or niche case design, or just completely twisted arrangements (all fans set to intake, etc.).

 

You can't compare trying to get rid of 100-200W of CPU heat to the trickle that comes off the DRAM or motherboard capacitors. My X99 VRM heatsink gets fairly warm and can affect the area around it, but nothing like the torrent of 50C air coming off the back of the GPU radiator. That 1C difference from intake to exhaust air temp on the radiator seems a bit off. The air temp coming off should be very close to the coolant temp on the radiator. At idle, I can see a 1C temp difference, but that seems too low for any type of load.

 

Regardless, the primary reason to put the H110i in the top for the case is designed for it. The top radiator with 140's , 140 rear, and either 2x140 or 3x120 front fit the frame of the case just right. I can't think of any advantage to putting the radiator in the front for this specific set-up. There won't be a GPU heat penalty on a case this size with a 1060 and keeping the top fans all the way up will likely diminish any direct cooling on the VRM heatsink. These days, the VRM is often the hottest item in the case.