Whats up with this new "Inverted ATX design"?

I looked at the brand new cases Carbide 600Q and 600C.

And they have something called "Inverted ATX Design", where the motherboard is mounted upside down, and PSU on top, almost like the "old style" computers but with the difference that the motherboard is mounted upside down (with the CPU at bottom and graphics cards at the middle).

What is the point of this? According to marketing details, it gives "better airflow", but at the expense of having the PSU cope with almost all the heat load?

Since hot air rises upward, this means that even if the front or bottom fan places are set to exhaust, its still that most of the hot air will be forced through the PSU.

The rear fan escape is also mounted on the lower portion of the cases, making airflow management more difficult.

Also, most graphics cards are oriented with the fan opening downwards in a normally mounted ATX motherboard, to ensure that when any air is heated up inside the graphics card, it will not escape again in small openings, instead its caught inside card and forced out of the case with the fan airflow.

So what was the tought when these "Inverted ATX" cases was created?

Just seen a couple videos on it [Linus]

Look great!

Natural convection is extremely weak and easily overpowered by even the slowest fan.

 

We flipped the enclosure to allow end users to mount their radiators and cooling to the bottom of the case instead of letting that noise escape from the top of the chassis. It also allowed us to put the 5.25" drive bays and PSU back on the same plane at the top of the chassis, helping us open up the interior for a direct airflow path with no obstructions.

 

These design changes were made with the goal of reducing overall system noise. You can fit your radiator in the bottom of the case instead of the top, and the direct airflow means fans don't have to spin as hard to provide the same level of performance. The less a fan has to work, the quieter it becomes.

 

While some ambient heat will likely travel through the power supply, yes, it certainly won't be enough to really affect performance or longevity of the PSU.

Can we get some diagrams of suitable fan orientations? Is this a positive or a negative air pressure kind of case or does the notion of old school airflow design even matter with this kind of mobo orientation?

I know Silverstone have had alternative mobo mount cases and at the time I found them interesting but looks like it was meant more for watercooling enthusiasts than for standard run of the mill air coolers. This was about 5 years ago and watercooling, be it aio or custom loops, have become more and more accessible and financially viable than ever before.

I think the new case looks pretty sweet, I might pick one up for Christmas.

Ironically, those Silverstone designs were more ideal for air cooling than liquid, as there was no good place to really put the radiator to exhaust heat outside of the case.

I love my Corsair 760T and I would like to see The 760T in a 90 degree mount! I believe it would be a better spaced out interior and a better design vs my old FT02.

I would like to see The 760T in a 90 degree mount!

I'd love to see a corsair 90 degree mount case, it doesn't necessarily have to be the 760T (although that would look killer as well) but a completely new case for 2016.

I'd love to see a corsair 90 degree mount case, it doesn't necessarily have to be the 760T (although that would look killer as well) but a completely new case for 2016.

Ironically, those Silverstone designs were more ideal for air cooling than liquid, as there was no good place to really put the radiator to exhaust heat outside of the case.

 

Honestly, the basic fan design - two front intakes and one rear exhaust - really gets the job done. Personally, when I go to tart the whole thing up with a custom loop, I'll be setting the front fans and the rear fan as intakes and then putting three bottom fans in as exhausts.

The bottom fans would have enough pull to purge the case? Did you guys do any tests with heatmap cameras? I really wish there was more information other than 'trust me' it's better for cooling.

Not that I distrust Corsair, you guys rock, but it would be much more pleasant to review data and results, rather than second hand interpretation.

Could you guys share some of the test results? :D

Ironically, those Silverstone designs were more ideal for air cooling than liquid, as there was no good place to really put the radiator to exhaust heat outside of the case.

 

Honestly, the basic fan design - two front intakes and one rear exhaust - really gets the job done. Personally, when I go to tart the whole thing up with a custom loop, I'll be setting the front fans and the rear fan as intakes and then putting three bottom fans in as exhausts.

So if someone was going to use a couple of liquid-cooled video cards and a 280mm liquid cpu cooler in one of these cases, ideally they'd want to mount the gpu radiators to the front fan locations set as intake, and the cpu radiator mounted to the bottom set as exhaust? And theoretically flip the back fan so it's intake as well, or leave that as exhaust?

I'll be setting the front fans and the rear fan as intakes and then putting three bottom fans in as exhausts.

Thats my setup now and will be my setup with the next case. Sadly the mesh on your cases isn't flat so installing a dust filter isn't as easy as it could be.

And thats one of the very few things i really hate about the cases from Corsair.

We just announced the 400Q/C series and they have PSU covers.

 

Carbide 400Q Product Page

Carbide 400C Product Page

 

Looks awesome but not really what I'm looking for as I still use an optical drive :/