H60 annoyance

Would it kill Corsair to include an extra four screws with the H60 in order to attach a second fan???

 

I have ordered the H60 but am really cheesed off that I have to go out and try to find four extra screws to attach the second fan.

 

The configuration I want is:

 

An H60 with two Noctua NF-P14 FLX Vortex Control 120/140mm fans pulling air out of the casing (why Corsair recommends pushing air from outside the case through the radiator defeats me - more to that later). The fans are round and have a diameter of 140 mm but have 120 mm attachment points. The overhang allows air movement to the capacitors surrounding the CPU which get VERY hot if not cooled (one of the things I hate about non water CPU coolers is that many of them cover up the capacitors and effectively insulate them, and the premature death of your mobo is pretty much guaranteed).

 

And now my second niggle with Corsair and their water coolers.

 

I have had the H80 in my system now for just over two years.

 

What I find completely nonsensical is that Corsair recommends that one arrange the fans so that they draw in air from OUTSIDE (in a pull configuration).

 

I can see that it makes sense for about the first week or so of the system running, but after that the the heat exchanging veins will get clogged with dust and thus the airflow is reduced and commensurately the cooling efficiency reduced. Also with the pull configuration the heat generated by the capacitors surrounding the CPU, which is substantial, will be pushed further into the housing and blown over the RAM (of which I have 6*4GB) which also churn out a lot of heat.

 

I have arranged my fans in a push configuration (drawing the air from inside the housing) for two reasons:

 

1) The veins don't get clogged with dust (my housing filters out the dust) and thus the cooling is guaranteed to be consistent even though the air drawn through the heat exchangers is warmer.

2) The airflow draws away heat from the capacitors surrounding the CPU.

Yep. I posted similar in a dedicated thread about airflow direction: http://forum.corsair.com/v3/showthread.php?t=117122

 

Drawing air in from outside does cool the radiator better but the downsides of that, as far as the entire system as a whole is concerned, it is a net detriment. It's paying too much attention to one component. If you have good airflow through the case in the first place (which you should), the difference in energy transfer between pulling outside > in and pushing inside > out is negligible. Keeping heat in a case is, IMO, not the best way to do it. Set your case fans up so that there is a bit of positive pressure and that will help the radiator fans get maximum flow through the exchanger.

Yes Speed, my housing has two 200 mm fans exhausting at the top, a 200 mm at front and a 200 mm at the side pushing air into the case.

What case and how did you get two 200mms in the top vent? I have a 650D, which is pretty big, and there's not enough room for two. So the H80i is in the rear fan port? Pressure is negative, though. Might try flipping one of the top 200mms to draw air in over the MB. Have to craft an external filter for it.

When building my new system I did take a look at Corsair cases and the 800D and I think the 650D were in contention as I remember. However as I whittled down the choices by comparing the plus and minus compared to what I wanted I eventually went with the CoolerMaster HAF X.

 

I will be completely honest, I cannot remember what one thing eventually tipped the scales in favour of the HAF X (it might have been the fans).

 

Whenever I am building a new system for myself I always take time over each component and do a lot of comparisons. Then one day I will wake up and make my decision.

 

On the H80 I attached two Noctua NF-P14 FLX Vortex Control 120/140mm Fans. The fans are round and 140 mm in diameter but they have a 120 mm mounting. I have the fans venting out the back, but the overhang of the fans moves some extra air over the capacitors surrounding the CPU.