680x bottom fans and vertical gpu

Hi there!

Just going to try and keep the question simple but happy to provide additional specs if needed!

I'm debating whether to mount my Sapphire Nitro+ RX 5700 XT vertically but only if it will be thermally beneficial or sit around the same as horizontal mounting.

I will be keeping the 3 front fans as stock, then attaching 1 rear and 2 bottom ll120's and a 240 platinum rad at top with the 2xll120's that come with it.

What I want to know is if the vertical mount will have enough space with the bottom fans installed? And will I see any change in thermals this way?

Many thanks

I have a 680x with a GTX 1080 vertically mounted in mine. I have no issues with thermals vertically mounted with the two bottom fans installed as intake on the floor of the 680x. (Mine are also LL fans through out the case.)

That case although some complain about the glass limiting airflow.. actually works very well and I have no thermal issues with any of my hardware in there and it runs 24/7 365.

I would suggest mounting the AIO Radiator in the front instead of the top. You want to pull in cool ambient air across the radiator to keep the CPU as cool as possible. If you install it on the top you will be pushing warm air inside the case created by all the internal components through the radiator which in turn will increase the fluid temp. which equals a warmer CPU.

I used a H150i Pro 360mm in the front of the case for the CPU and did the floor as intake and top and rear as exhaust and it has worked out great. Just something to consider.

Installing the LL fans in the floor shouldn't affect you being able to vertically mount your GPU. You will need a Riser cable of course to make the necessary connection from GPU to Motherboard. Corsair has a very nice riser cable for that as well. https://www.corsair.com/us/en//Categories/Products/Accessories-%7C-Parts/PC-Components/Power-Supplies/Premium-PCIe-3-0-x16-Extension-Cable-300mm/p/CC-8900419

Hey,

Thanks for the response and I'm loving the look of your setup!

I'm going to have the radiator top mounted as an exhaust rather than an intake, I've noticed little difference in cpu temp doing this compared to front mounted and i prefer where the pipes sit when its top mounted! Plus with it only being a 240 rad I think that it would look off at the front next to 1 additional fan.

I'm still debating the vertical mount as my particular gpu has some nice rgb on the backplate which will be hidden if I do!

I'll be sure to drop some pics here of the completed build when it's all done :)

Appreciate the reply!

The vertical mounting impact on thermals will vary a bit depending on the card's radiator thickness. with a 2 slots card the temperature rise should be minimal but thicker models will start to warm up more significantly.

That said, the glass door on the 680X is farther away compared to other cases with a glass panel so it should work not too bad.

Maybe you'll be more concerned by the sag though.. The case is made of pretty thin steel and the weight of the card is not supported properly. it may look uglier this way compared to mounting it directly on the motherboard.

If you still plan on mounting the AIO on top then I would flip the fans on the AIO to intake instead of exhaust. Use the rear 120mm as exhaust. If the rest of the fans are set to intake you will have positive pressure inside the case and today's cases are more vented so air escapes easier.

Positive pressure will help keep the internal components cooler and flipping the fans on top to intake will keep the CPU cooler. It will also help keep dust from building up inside the case. You can research positive and negative pressure on YouTube and get videos from Linus tech tips etc that explains it better.

Also that case is designed to vertically mount a GPU. The metal isn't that thin there and sag on my 1080 is non existent. My 680x is my Plex server at home. It's on literally 24/7.. and I've monitored all the temps including the 6 HDD I placed in the rear chamber (I modded the case to house an additional 3 HDD) that is my only complaint with the case is lack of airflow in the rear chamber. I modded the back side panel to add an additional 120mm intake fan and 2 more 92mm fans (one front intake one rear exhaust) to keep drive temps at reasonable levels.

Yeah, I'm up to speed on air pressure but I'm no convinced about having a top mounted radiator with intake... surely I'm just the pushing cold air through a rad and making it hot. Then pushing it downwards into more rising heat from the rest of my system and resting a massive hotspot? Does the top have a filter on it for intake then? I'm assuming so as otherwise your claim regarding dust might be hard to believe.

From what I've seen from various testing, radiator temps are not very often effected too much by position, and my cpu has been nice and cool under load on my current setup whilst have a top mounted 240 rad so I'll stick with it.

I've done some research and it looks like the coolermaster and cablemod brackets work best but they are sold out everywhere with no clues as to restock dates. Any other suggested brackets? (My card weighs 1.6kg)

Correct you are pushing COOL air through a radiator.. isn't that the best idea? Aren't you trying to cool the coolant in the loop? So which is better? blowing cool air through a radiator to cool the fluid or blowing HOT air through the radiator to heat up the coolant?

Having fans on a AIO or Hydro X radiator as intake (bringing in cooler outside of the case air) over a radiator will bring down coolant temps in a loop (AIO or Hydro X) by between 1-3c usually depending on the Ambient air temperature.

You are comparing old cases where air gets trapped inside a case with newer cases that are vented (have holes) and large fans moving copious amounts of air through them to the ones from the 80's and 90's where they were pretty much a sealed up box.

That is no longer the case today. The 680x has plenty of areas for air to escape. Lots of holes and vents. With high static pressure in a case the air is being pushed out all of these holes and vents as well as the 120mm fan in the rear sucking it all out.

I have a Hydro X setup in my main PC. Had my top and rear fans to exhaust and front as intake. By flipping my top fans to intake I gained 3c drop in coolant temps and have monitored all my component temps and they also dropped a bit by bringing in cooler air. If you are still worried the 1 120mm fan isn't going to be enough to vent the internal air and you are dead set on a top AIO rad installation flip the bottom fan to exhaust as well as the rear and do intake top and front. I still believe you will get the best results with all fans intake and the one rear as exhaust. I think you would be surprised at the results.

As for the filter question the 680x is filtered in 3 locations. Top, Bottom and Front.

If you are looking at brackets for GPU sag.. I would wait on that. The GPU mount is designed to hold the GPU pretty level. there are the usual GPU mounting screws that hold it in place as well as a bracket that slides down the applies pressure to the GPU mounting bracket to help keep it more level. I would mount it and see if you like how it looks. I have a EVGA 1080 in mine and it's fairly heavy as well. Doesn't sag.

Hello, I'm interested in purchasing this case for my next build. I want to install my GPU vertically with rad at the bottom but I was wondering if it would fit.

I want to install the ASUS ROG STRIX Radeon RX 6800 XT vertically. The rad + fans are 5.17 cm thick and the GPU's height in vertical position is 13.08 cm.

Is there enough room at the bottom to fit this?

Additionally, I want to install an H115i 280mm rad at the top, but I want to see the RGB fans at the top but don't really want to set it up as pull only since my 5950x probably won't be temps happy.

Is there enough room for push pull configuration at the top? According to tech specs that would be 77 mm thick (27mm for rad and 50 mm for the push pull fans).

Hopefully someone can help me with the dimensions!

First, don't sweat too much about push or pull. it's basically identical.. there's a very tiny difference but we're talking half a bee's d*ck, nothing you'll be able to really measure.

For radiator mounting, i always advise to go pull because it's a tiny wee more silent (subjective.. depends on what fans) but more importantly, you don't have to take the fans out to clean the radiator. all the dust accumulation is accessible for brushing away.

Regarding the videocard i don't understand. you want to install it vertically, so the rad can't be at the bottom ^^' it will be facing the glass door.