Starts at 4:43 and ends at 10:05, so it's five minutes and twenty-three seconds of actual content, and five minutes and seventeen seconds of fluff. Almost exactly a 50:50 split of actual content and fluff. That's horrendous
THANK YOU.....I'm so glad you showed these results. I've been doing one of my top fans as intake instead of exhaust and have had much lower temps to the CPU in doing so. SO many tech channels place those top fans as exhaust fans and never bothering to show the test results of changing the front/top/rear fans in a different layout. Try this out next time though.....place the top fan that is over the CPU as an exhaust, and the other top fan(s) as intake (if the case allows for 3 top fans). That way the 2 fans closest to the CPU is pulling heat away (the top and rear), and all the other fans are delivering fresh cooler air into the case. I've notice it does affect the temps, not by much, but each case could provide different results. And to lower the GPU even more with the fan configuration I mention, you can add a small 80mm fan to the back of the case as an exhaust at the bottom to help pull the heated air from the GPU so that it doesn't recycle into the case. I typically just use a USB 80mm fan and mount it on the outside of the back of the case where the GPU lies. It further helps stabilizes the temperatures.
Thanks for this comment! I was thinking that only 1 exhaust fan seems a bit off-balanced for airflow. I have the 500DX and I'm going to try this: 1 rear exhaust 140mm 1 top exhaust (the back) 140mm + 1 top intake (front) 140mm 3 front intake 120mm
If you put the fan above cpu as exhaust and the other top as intake, this last one is gona be pulling the hot air, that the other fan just pushed out, back into the case.
I just ordered 4 x noctua redux p14s for the same 500DX, intended to mount 2 front intake, 1 top and 1 rear exhaust. Guess I could use another p14s as top intake as well for a total of 5 fans?
@@absgames9425 not exactly. hot air rises, cold air falls and combine with the fact that the hot air is mixing with fresh air even if it's being pulled back in it's still gonna provide additional cooling.
It'd (at least to me anyway) would probably be interesting to see other cases showed any (if possible) difference in temps but I'd assume most likely not.
So Dimitri! I have 6 fans in my case: 3 in front, 2 on top, and 1 at the rear. After seeing this video, I reversed my top 2 fans from exhaust, to intake. This made a total of 5 intake fans, and 1 exhaust. I have a Noctua U12A on my Ryzen 3700X. Before the switch, my cpu would bottom out at 41 C for the lowest temperature. Now that a switched the 2 top fans to intake, it now bottoms out to 37 C, sometimes 36 C in rare occasions. My GPUs hasn’t seen any difference with its arctic accelero Xtreme III on it. So thanks for this experiment good sir!
I am so grateful for discovering this video. I was about to add 2 exhaust fans to the top because it only sounds logical to have hot air raising out of the case. But this video has demonstrated otherwise. I will be sticking to stock 3 front and 1 back.
A positive airflow keeps also the dust outside the case better! So 2 fans in front sucking air in and 1 blowing out gives the best result in temp and dust.
From what I been reading, the consensus is that a neutral airflow works best for generally most cases especially for those who is unsure where and how to position their fans. While positive airflow being the most commonly used and is the default installed orientation is like every PC case that come with fans, positive airflow also have the lowest level of dust build-up. Negative airflow meanwhile works better in certain cases especially if you have larger/better fan(s) doing exhaust though the major downside of negative airflow is that it has the highest level of dust build-up.
@@Arkenas99 you don't need exhaust, if you have enough intake. If the exhausts improve temps, it's because your air intake sucks, either because of the case, fans, or their configuration. Think of air like it would be water, and you'll figure it out why. This case can fit all the 3 fans in front of the case. If you remove front filter, (front panel already acts as a filter), remove drive cage, clear PSU shroud of cables, mount the fans on the interior of the bracket, Dimitry here would've easily gained 2-4°C in CPU temps and 5-8°C in GPU temps over the best configuration he tested in his review. Also these changes I'm mentioning are even more visible when running case fans, GPU and CPU cooler fans at normal speed instead of max.
I feel like it would have been extremely interesting to see what the temps looked like if you had moved the rear fan also to the front of the case. Because for this case. It seems like it really enjoys the front air stream. That's where the greatest gains are to be made.
@@nexolas9500 For a radiator no, but with a radiator the internal airflow pattern is also very different, since there is no cpu cooler on the motherboard. With a radiator just make sure there is ample airflow to the GPU, and then set everything else to exhaust.
For those of you that clicked for the title, the test results start at 5:14. The rest of the video is a case review, and should be split out or labeled as such in the title.
I really wish they'd start making front panels magnetic on higher-end cases... my Define S2 feels like I'm gonna snap it trying to pull the front panel off to dust it out.
I built my new pc in February and in my research found that more intake than exhaust seems to be best. Exhaust fans have few options for positioning in most cases, so I put the two exhaust fans in the rear and top rear. While keeping two intake in the front panel with a third fan added to the bottom front. My intention was to create a positive pressure atmosphere that would channel diagonally across the components. With the power supply drawing in from the bottom and out the back for isolated flow. Since I used a Fractal R6 case, I had options for the driver trays. I left the tray setup in the "hidden" configuration which does put the two HDs horizontally placed in the path of the front fans. But I used this to help deflect some air flow from the bottom fan, toward the GPU, while positioned in the middle of the front fans to minimize resistance. Basically forming a "T" when lined up with the front fans. I think this has worked well with average game temperatures in the mid 60C range with a Noctua nh-u12s black on the CPU. Other components include the MSI MEG X570 ACE, RTX 2070 Super, and three M.2 mvme SSDs.
Same. It's a really poor design for a panel that needs to be removed regularly for dust cleaning. Even my cheap, old Antec case has a hinged magnetic door.
I've seen some comments about people mentioning that the temperatures are higher than they like. You have to keep in mind, that CPU is overclocked for 4.8ghz, which makes it run hotter regardless. I would venture a guess and say if run at stock speed or a small overclock, seeing temps in 60s would be the norm. I'm glad I found this video, as I just purchased this case to build in, and I was questioning how I was going to set up the fans.
Be quiet is such an interesting brand if you think about it. Someone must have been like "let's call our company be quiet and aim to make the most silent fans out there!". Besides airflow, noise it the other thing most looked at when buying a fan. And to build a whole brand around the noise aspect is really a pro gamer move. So simple.
I feel one configuration that is missing is two front intakes and 1 rear and 1 top exhaust. Ideally, so to not starve the components of air (and therefore have them heat up as you're seeing), you want intake and outflow of air balanced, with slight positive pressure better then negative, for the sake of avoiding dust accumulation via various openings not covered with filters. Having tried this myself however, I don't think you'll notice much difference between 2 front intake 1 rear out, and 2 front intake 1 rear 1 top out. Mine were only a degree difference so I didn't bother with a top exhaust in the end. One comment you should incorporate however, is difference in these configurations when you have a graphics card with exhaust of warm air out the back of the case vs. into the case as this will affect both the airflow within the case as well as overall case temperatures, and might be different for different case fan configurations. Just something to think about :)
I am going to buy this case and I think I will do the 2 front intake 1 rear 1 top out. How much difference was between this and the 2 front intake 1 rear out?
It's more about positive vs. negative pressure than "how many fans". Try setting both the top and front ones to have them pull air in your case, leave the back for exhaust.
@@itsyoboig3325 Yeah and the anwswer is a little complicated. 2x 140mm > 3x 120mm (IF u don't use any HDD) BUT I opted for something that I didn't know was possible at the time of writing that comment. It is possible to place 2x 140mm and under them 1x 120mm (Which surprisingly fits). It's totally unnecessary if u're not using any HDD's tho and the stock setup turnes for some amazingly anyway so either way, you're set after the purchase.
I recently bought a Meshify S2 and I'm already planning on having fans on the front, top, and bottom as intake, and the rear as an exhaust. Should be very chilly for the 3950X
I always thought the optimal use of the top fans is to function those as exhaust, now I understand it's not too good for the CPU. So, exhaust is only done by the rear fan. Thank you for this experiment!
There’s a lot more variables than that. It depends on everything from the CPU itself to the fans to the case. If you have an efficient CPU like a 5600 then temps won’t be too much of an issue. I have 4 intakes total (1 rear + 3 bottom) and 6 exhaust total (3 side wall + 3 ceiling) and my temps are crazy low.
Thank you Dmitry for this video! I'm about to move my hardware from the Meshify C to the Pure Base 500DX next weekend (Heat problems in the Meshify C because too narrow in width for my Asus ROG Strix RTX and the monstrous Noctua NH-D15). In preparation I replaced the three built-in Pure Wings 2 fans with Silent Wings 3, as well as changed the positions to 2 x front intake and 1 x rear exhaust. Today I saw this video from you and it gave me some additional info about this case other reviews didn't. The temperature measurements were particularly helpful. And as always, your video was not only informative but also entertaining. Thanks and keep it up 🙇♂️
It would have been really interesting to go back to the old days and just install ONE fan in the rear. Temp results would have been very interesting and highlight how most of us over cool our PC's.
completely agree, I'm actually here because yesterday I was wondering of how much cooling do the front fans provide (in the old days I always ran just a single rear fan) and so, I unplugged both the front fans and have just a single rear 120mm fan. Turns out the temperatures aren't really higher. They're pretty much the same.
@@Mastermind12358 😁 I know, pretty much everybody over cools PC's these days. And they pay the price acoustically. I have a 12900K and an RTX 3090 and I just have two 140's at the front and a 140 in the rear. I've no doubt I could cut that down. I do like positive pressure though, so would want to retain that, so at least one fan blowing in and one out. And of course it's beneficial to blow air toward the 3090. But yes, it does make me raise an eyebrow when I see people with 6 or more fans. Of course, fan manufacturers are happy. 🙄
Every computer I've built since Core 2 Duo days has been 2 front intake, 1 rear exhaust. That's the secret special tactics. It creates a basic wind-tunnel effect for airflow. (I don't build any computer with liquid cooling, but if I had to do a liquid cooled AIO or custom loop, it'd probably would be better to have the radiator at the top of the case, with fans blowing up, through it to exhaust, and an equal number (or greater) of fans doing intake.
It's nice to see theories backed up with data (numbers), but I felt there was a lot of guessing on the analysis. A smoke/fog machine would be very helpful (just remember that it's not the kind of thing you really want to introduce to your electronics - perhaps demonstrate on an empty case or with an old mobo). Step 1 is going to be making sure you have more fans (or at least higher forced airflow) blowing into the case than blowing out, and that those fans have filters. This gives you positive pressure in the case with clean air. If you have negative pressure in the case (suction) from too many exhaust fans, then you end up drawing dirty air in from every crack and hole in the case. This invites dust and prevents you from controlling the overall flow of air. Dust and grime on your electronics and clogging your heatsinks is going to do far more long-term harm than gaining a couple degrees bench testing. Step 2 is to have an actual planned route for the air. It's not enough just to set several fans blowing in random directions. Hot air rises - use that to your advantage. Draw in cool air from the front, bottom, and lower sides, and help it follow a path up past the GPU to the CPU and then out the top and/or back. Possibly raise your case on blocks or books if it is on carpet. Remember that if your CPU is air cooled, that is a fixed parameter that you are going to have to work within. For example, don't blow air in from the rear of your case toward the exhaust of the CPU heatsink. Also, avoid pushing or pulling too much air through the top perpendicular to the CPU heatsink & fan. In addition to disrupting directional airflow across the heatsink, you can create circular eddy currents that just recycle the heat in circles, or draw cooler air out of the case before it can be used to cool the most important part. Lastly, don't forget about auxiliary heatsinks and chipsets. The Northbridge, Southbridge, MOFSETS, and HDD/SSD drives all need some airflow too, especially if you have watercooling and they cannot rely on residual airflow from the CPU fan. Think of the airflow in your case as a fluid, dynamic system rather than a series of individual points to be cooled. Sometimes too much ventilation can be just as bad as not enough if it is not working together.
The problem with doing this without electronics is that it would ruin the variables of the experiment. The heat and mass airflow restriction from the components is going to affect the case flow heavily.
Thank you, quite interesting as I've spent the past week on and off doing exactly the same thing. One thing I have noticed is to avoid conflicting airstreams. ie I fitted a lower fan blowing upwards, lower front, middle and top, one rear exhaust. The lower front and bottom fan caused turbulence which lessens the GPU (Arctic Excelero iii) fans ability to bite the air properly. I think this because as my GPU got hotter, increasing the gpu fan speed didn't reduce the temps as much as when I had no lower fan. That's my theory, so lower fan now removed and placed back in it's box.
Great review comparison of fan configurations. I wonder what would happen if you used only a single exhaust fan on top in the rear position. The top front exhaust is spitting out fresh air from the front before it has a chance to pass over any of the parts, wasting the cool air. As a way to get even crazier, you could do a top front intake to blow across the VRMs and top rear exhaust.
The reason why 2 Top EXHAUST does not work that well is because of the fresh air coming from the first front fan (higher one) is always gonna be exhaust before reaching the CPU cooler. The second front fan (lower one) reaches GPU just fine so GPU temp is not affected. Since the CPU cooler does not receive enough "fresh air", the temp go back up instead of improving. 2 Top EXHAUST works if you use radiator on either the top or the front. Another suggestion would be to use the 2 top fans alternating. The first fan (towards front panel) as intake and the second fan (towards back panel) as exhaust. I don't think this would be any big improvement happening since the top fans would have the chance of intaking the exhausted air making things possibly worse.
I run an i9-9900 / 12gb 3060 combo with 4 15k 2.5 SAS drives and an LSI 9207-9i controller in a Define R5. The absolute best fan configuration in all of my testing in that case is two front intake, two bottom intake, two top exhaust and one rear exhaust. Those drives can kick up some heat, but it is quickly dissipated in this setup. Removing the bottom intakes raised the temps quite a bit across the LSI controller and GPU.
It would be interesting to see 2 front intake, top (near back) and rear exhaust so the cool air has to pass through CPU tower. In your scenario that top front fan was moving cool air from from front to exhaust right away. A good way to test whether your exhaust fans are effective is to put temperature probe on the exhaust and see if its much higher than ambient. If it's close to ambient than that fan is useless and even harmless.
Added bonus for moving the top fan to the front intake? Less dust in your system. Always setup for a positive pressure with filtered input for a system.
My first build back when I was 14 or 15 had nine case fans in it. Yes, nine. Airflow was IMMACULATE. Today, my much more expensive and much higher-end build has one fan at the back and one at the top. People really spend way too much time and energy on airflow in my opinion. As long as your temps are good, you don't need to worry.
I've seen some other tests recently that had the optimal fan position being so: top and rear fans as intake, with the CPU fan reversed so as to be blowing forward, and then having fans at the front set up as exhaust, so cool air is being pulled directly onto the CPU and then the warmed air is blowing out the front of the case. Strikes me that adding one more 140mm fan to the 3 included would allow to have the right amount of air pressure in the case with this setup (2 intake at rear and top, 2 exhaust at front). Adding that one extra Be Quiet Pure Wings 2 (1000, non-PWM) to the mix is only about an extra €7, too.
Ideally you want to simulate a wind tunnel, front intake, back exhaust. Laminar flow. Fastest recycling of fresh cool air. Top fans in a horizontal tunnel configuration just make the laminar flow turbulent. One notable exception, a bottom fan can push a lot of that stagnant low GPU air up into the tunnel since the bottom back of the case has the least help from the wind tunnel and it doesn't disturb the tunnel that much being at the end. Since heat rises, theoretically a vertical wind tunnel would have an easier time, though it faces some challenges. Not many cases support this obscure configuration, and a flat GPU will obstruct a lot of that flow. So maybe a vertical GPU? And I know the Lian Li O11 Dynamic can handle that configuration, and has been tested to be the best airflow config. (though bottom fans have little clearance to suck air in) Would need to elevate the foot pads to let the bottom intake breathe easier.
I have that same configuration going on in my tower right now with front and top both as intake. I ended up with a couple spare fans after installing my new AIO, so kinda just did it on a whim to satisfy my OCD for having positive pressure in the case. It's nice to see from your testing that the configuration can be a viable choice.
@@slothy89uni There are cases that don't come with fans, and it would had given a nice point of comparison to see how much the fans actually affect things.
@@MidWitPride there's an LTT video on the same subject which demonstrates the effect of having no fans vs 2+ fans. Just by adding 2 fans to a case can have a huge impact on temperatures than having no fans. 3 fans is a good sweet spot, anything else seems to offer diminishing returns.
@@GDRobbye Yea, and others testing this have figured it out that with modern hardware you don't even need a case(or case fans for that matter) for the system to not thermal throttle. Unless you have a air-proof case with no openings at all, it's really difficult to choke a system due to lack of case cooling. Usually the CPU and the GPU fans alone move air around enough that there won't develop any significant heat pockets as long as there's some holes in the case. Warm air tends to rise on its own, so after some point the heat kinda gets rid of itself, and you won't hit the thermal throttle.
Bought the case after seeing this. Going to use 2 top intake, 1 rear exhaust and one aio 280 in front with 2 intake. Replacing all the fans with Noctua NF-P14s Redux 1200 PWM. Thanks for the video.
I think a config with 5 x 140mm fans would be best in this case. Here's how I'd configure it: Front: 2 intake Rear: exhaust Top-front: intake Top-rear: exhaust
I find balanced to positive pressure works best. Negative pressure seems to cause the GPU to recycle it's own air. My GPU (MSI 2070 Super) never reaches 70 degrees Celsius. Full transparency, I utilize G-sync and have the max frame rate locked to 144 FPS (in NVIDIA's control panel 3D settings) at a resolution of 2560x1080 to match my monitors capability.
2-3 intake fans in the front, 1 exhaust fan in the back to create positive pressure to minimize sucking in dust by unfiltered openings and keeping that ideal directional airflow. This has been solved years ago. Quality and usefulness of your videos are rapidly dropping, and you have been my 1st source for any new PC tech releases. It looks more and more like commercials.
@@Nunez87 Loool! I was worried whether having three 140mm intakes at the front, now three at the top, and only one exhaust might not work well. My case is huuuge, but it's the Strix Helios so not that many vents for air to escape from.
Thank you very much for this Video. 🎉🎉🎉🎉 I had my 240mm AIO as Outtake and my 5800X3D as my RTX 4090 were both overheating and it was loud. Now I have 3 120mm Lightwings in Front as Intake and 240mm AIO as Top Intake and an 140mm Lightwing as Rear Outtake. IT IS NOW DEAD SILENT and 18°C cooler! THANK YOU SO MUCH ❤🎉❤🎉❤❤🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉
I tried 1 rear exhaust, 1 top exhaust (closer to the back), 1 top intake (closer to the front) and the 3 intake fans at front that came with the CM TD500 Mesh, I noticed its the best setup. My CPU is a Ryzen 3600 with CM Hyper 212 with 2 CM sickleflow 120mm fans, the case fans are all CM sickleflow 120mm fans as well. My theory was, I had 3 fans at the top as exhaust, and I felt cool air coming out of the front 2 top fans.. while the rear top fan was pushing out hot air. The 2 exhaust fans on top shooting cool air, must have been stealing the cool air that was brought in by the 3 front intake fans, not allowing it to reach the CPU/GPU before shooting it back out. Locked my CPU to 2.8 GHz, and set voltage to 1.1V My temps at idle right now with room temperature, 36 degrees idle CPU, 60 degrees Prime 95 for an hour Not locked allowing 4.2 GHz boost and auto voltage, idle temps were 38 degrees, and 75 degrees Prime 95 for an hour GPU is a Zotac 1050 Ti OC edition (replaced thermal paste with MX-4) idle at 25 degrees and never gets over 44 degrees in Furmark stress test 1440p.
You can get a few extra degrees, if you close all unpopulated holes next to intake fans with paper and duct tape. Especially in situation with one fan on the front panel.
Yep, I have great temps with minimal fans. I also electrical taped shut the removable panels on top of the case and the vented GPU inserts on the rear to prevent leakage. Also fan SPEED is important! I find using this order from greatest to least rpm speeds works best: Exhaust>CPU>Upper Front Intake>Lower Front Intake, and GPU should be tweaked based on model. System: up front: x2 Noctua NF-A14 140mm Rear: 1 stock Phanteks exhaust fan Case: Phanteks P400s (with all mesh front cover) CPU Cooler: Dark Rock Pro 4 CPU: 8700k Delided 65c max GPU: 3080 FE 66-72c max
You should have tested with only ONE fan exhausting at the top rear. Could have been the best result. All the top front fan does is disrupt the air flow, either as exhaust or intake.
Two input fans in the front, one pushing out behind a noctua CPU fan (a BeQuiet would work fine as well), and the power supply pushing out on the bottom. That gives you two in and two out, with a CPU fan pulling clean, cool air and pushing hot air straight to output fan behind it. My fractal meshify has super cool temps (45-51 degrees) and runs silently with fans at 54% with this setup. Much love! That front panel should be magnetic without the plastic snaps. They shouldn't have cheaped on that.
This helps me feel good about my 3x 120mm front and 1x 140mm rear. It keeps temps decent at low/quiet fan speeds, and creates lots of positive pressure, so there's almost no dust inside the case, even after years.
Hey dude i have the same case, i adjusted fans to smart mode but they don't go above 1000rpm, maybe it just don't need to? My gpu temp is 69c in cod warzone and im trying to drop it to lets say 64. can i force my fans to go above 1500rpm when its needed?
I got 6 120mm case fans and 2 140mm fans for my AIO in a 5000D airflow case and this is one of the quietest desktops I have ever had. They all run 700 - 1000 RPM and temps stay a bit under what this PC was doing. 3080 TI, 5950X. I love these type of cases.
I just finished reeranging my case fans. Just installed one of the top fans as an intake. Cpu temp went down about 1 degree Celsius. It wasn't precise, because I used folding@home for it not to waste this power for nothing, but still... Cpu and gpu power usage was mostly the same so it shouldn't be far from truth. Maybe I'll do some extended tests some other day... PS It was in my 220t from Corsair. Now I have 4 intakes (3 in front and one top fan on the front of the case) and 2 exhausts (rear and top rear fan). I didn't see anybody try this on yt but it seems to work ;)
From what I've seen in videos is you want a slightly positive airflow. You want more coming in than out. That way any nooks and crannies that aren't filtered have air blowing out of them so that dust can't get in. Neutral airflow is still better than negative though. I think in this be quiet case having the fans like that is smart because then all your intake is filtered.
There's also the fact that intake fans usually have dust filters, which will introduce resistance and limit how much air they actually pull.... so yes, definitely more intake than exhaust fans. If you have filters, and same number of intake and exhaust, it is effectively negative
Have the white version of this case and its a thing of beauty, for a case with a small footprint, you sure can fit a lot of hardware into it. Best case I ever owned.
The more data points the merrier! This saves people a lot of time testing that have a similar configuration with a blower GPU cooler. With my open-air GPU blowing most of the heat up into the CPU cooler, I decided reverse the CPU air-flow and install the stronger Arctic P12 fan as my (only) exhaust in the top. It (the non-RGB version) is not as sturdy as the be quiet! and builds up resonances at certain RPMs, but that can be fixed with a stair-case BIOS fan curve that "skips" over these. As the CPU cooler was pulling in very warm air and had to run absurdly high RPMs this was the best balance for me. (65W CPU + 200W GPU). I also got the impression during testing that you can blow too much air into the case, disrupting the air flow with turbulence and worsening cooling. An even flow with no sharp turns is what I'm trying to achieve. Even put some bent cardboard in to guide the air a bit from the bottom intake to the GPU for half a °C or so. :o)
EXCELLENT VIDEO!! The best I've ever read about is 2 in front, 2 on top, and 1 in rear..and 120s we're used. The dis 2- 129s on the side but not real difference. Myself I'm just going to place my Nocturnal 3k rom SS fan on top and on the rear; knowing the noise will only be an issue if I operate it without any over the ear headphones.
If you're not concerned about loud fans, then two large high rpm fans for intake and exhaust is really all you need. But if you want your computer to stay cool when your system is working hard without sounding like a Jet, then 4-5 fans on low speed will generate similar airflow without being annoyingly loud.
Put a side fan on a case with an open air GPU (not blower style) and the temps will drop by over 5-15c, underrated fan position since many people get windowed cases with no side mount
So this might be one of the first times that I have come back to watch a Hardware Canucks video after upgrading my monitor to the new Samsung G7 and I got to say this video is amazingly sharp and the colorgrade looks perfect :3
Turns out it cooled my cpu, on average, 3°C with no negative effect on my GPU. I’m assuming since I have the Noctua NH-U12A, it’s 2 fans in a push-pull configuration, are keeping air moving quickly enough through my case that it’s not having any negative affects.
On my p400a with all fans populated (4x140mm, 1x120mm), I noted improved GPU temps as I reduced or even turned off my top exhausts. There's a practical reason for this, with a heavy load on cpu and gpu (furmark/prime95 smallfft) there was hot air exhausted from the gpu, rear exhaust, rear top fan, but the front top fan was exhausting room temp air. All the air from that fan is just recirculating room air back out of the case before it hits any hot components. I now have a divider separating the intakes from the top exhaust, forcing all intake air to go through the cpu heatsinks or lower chassis (gpu), and have the top fans stopped until the CPU hits 70c. Not night and day differences, but it results in a somewhat quieter GPU that doesn't ramp to high fans as often.
Hey Dmitry, maybe your air conditioner is blowing cold air more to the top of the case? Idk maybe thats the reason why its better having intake at the top since cold air usually accumilates at the bottom of the room if im not mistaken.
don't forget that GPU and CPU will boost to higher frequency when they run cooler, which will make them hotter again, which might invalidate testing results. either lock the frequencies to be static or show if it has an impact on the clockspeeds alongside the temperatures.
Origin built my pc. 360 radiator in front has 3 pull through fans and there are 2 intake on the top. Only exhaust i have is the rear fan and the 3080 FE. Everything stays quite cool. The whole system rarely goes over 50 degrees.
This makes me happy. I dont have this case but it has a nearly identical design as far as intakes go and the two front intakes and one rear exhaust is exactly what i did. Dont have everything set up to run temp tests yet but sounds like my idea was the right way to go.
There are different goals when it comes to the Fans in a PC-Case. The two extrems would be: Just for cooling, warm air has higher density than cool air. Because of that you need more volume flow for the exhaust. So exhaust is key for the case to the point where you just let cool air get sucked in by under pressure. On the other hand if you want to fight dust inside the case, you want higher static pressure inside the case than outside to keep the dust from creeping into the case thru any gap and hole.
The experiment starts at 4:42
Thanks, I wasn't really looking for a new case to buy, lol.
Wish they at least added "+ bequiet pure base 500dx overview" to the title
Thanks Sr.
yeah there should've been more testing and less reviewing...
Starts at 4:43 and ends at 10:05, so it's five minutes and twenty-three seconds of actual content, and five minutes and seventeen seconds of fluff. Almost exactly a 50:50 split of actual content and fluff. That's horrendous
I wasted my time I didn't want anyone else to
I’m here just to see StarLord talk about a case
Yeah that’s the reason why I subbed to this channel long time ago
Who?
But he is not
@@thgSYgaja what really?! i really thought it was him.
Dante Alighierii how is it that what i was gonna say is the latest comment already.. 🤪
All the fans. Every single one.
All RGB of course
I can double that with fans on both sides of radiators.
Everybody knows RGB further increases airflow. Its just science. It just works.
>all noctua brown of course
FTFY
The only way to fly 🤟
-D.
Adding an RGB light strip provides additional cooling to the GPU and makes you a cooler person
THANK YOU.....I'm so glad you showed these results. I've been doing one of my top fans as intake instead of exhaust and have had much lower temps to the CPU in doing so. SO many tech channels place those top fans as exhaust fans and never bothering to show the test results of changing the front/top/rear fans in a different layout. Try this out next time though.....place the top fan that is over the CPU as an exhaust, and the other top fan(s) as intake (if the case allows for 3 top fans). That way the 2 fans closest to the CPU is pulling heat away (the top and rear), and all the other fans are delivering fresh cooler air into the case. I've notice it does affect the temps, not by much, but each case could provide different results. And to lower the GPU even more with the fan configuration I mention, you can add a small 80mm fan to the back of the case as an exhaust at the bottom to help pull the heated air from the GPU so that it doesn't recycle into the case. I typically just use a USB 80mm fan and mount it on the outside of the back of the case where the GPU lies. It further helps stabilizes the temperatures.
Thanks for this comment! I was thinking that only 1 exhaust fan seems a bit off-balanced for airflow.
I have the 500DX and I'm going to try this:
1 rear exhaust 140mm
1 top exhaust (the back) 140mm + 1 top intake (front) 140mm
3 front intake 120mm
If you put the fan above cpu as exhaust and the other top as intake, this last one is gona be pulling the hot air, that the other fan just pushed out, back into the case.
@@floofyotter Hello. Any results?
I just ordered 4 x noctua redux p14s for the same 500DX, intended to mount 2 front intake, 1 top and 1 rear exhaust. Guess I could use another p14s as top intake as well for a total of 5 fans?
@@absgames9425 not exactly. hot air rises, cold air falls and combine with the fact that the hot air is mixing with fresh air even if it's being pulled back in it's still gonna provide additional cooling.
This is exactly the video I needed right now. Thank you Dmitry
It'd (at least to me anyway) would probably be interesting to see other cases showed any (if possible) difference in temps but I'd assume most likely not.
@@Dlf212 different cases will have better or worse airflow. But the biggest part I've noticed comes from fan placement and how much air they move
Wait i thought his name is hardware canucks???
Lööps 😂
sank you
So Dimitri! I have 6 fans in my case: 3 in front, 2 on top, and 1 at the rear. After seeing this video, I reversed my top 2 fans from exhaust, to intake. This made a total of 5 intake fans, and 1 exhaust. I have a Noctua U12A on my Ryzen 3700X. Before the switch, my cpu would bottom out at 41 C for the lowest temperature. Now that a switched the 2 top fans to intake, it now bottoms out to 37 C, sometimes 36 C in rare occasions. My GPUs hasn’t seen any difference with its arctic accelero Xtreme III on it. So thanks for this experiment good sir!
i don’t know if i have too many fans?, but when i press the power button my case levitates😆
yeah needs some more
Add some more, it’s supposed to be flying
dude its too less it should fly away and go to japan
When I press the button on my pc my ears pop.
Way too funny. Bet it runs cool too eh?
I am so grateful for discovering this video. I was about to add 2 exhaust fans to the top because it only sounds logical to have hot air raising out of the case. But this video has demonstrated otherwise. I will be sticking to stock 3 front and 1 back.
A positive airflow keeps also the dust outside the case better!
So 2 fans in front sucking air in and 1 blowing out gives the best result in temp and dust.
From what I been reading, the consensus is that a neutral airflow works best for generally most cases especially for those who is unsure where and how to position their fans. While positive airflow being the most commonly used and is the default installed orientation is like every PC case that come with fans, positive airflow also have the lowest level of dust build-up. Negative airflow meanwhile works better in certain cases especially if you have larger/better fan(s) doing exhaust though the major downside of negative airflow is that it has the highest level of dust build-up.
Got this case myself and I really love it ^^ the Leds are just enough for adding to the eastatic without going overboard with it.
me too, loving it, just like you said, and the airflow is nice aswel.
Maybe you should reach out to bequiet, so they can do two front intake one rear exhaust by default.
That's what every case needs at minimum. I agree with you Hulala.
It seems like be quiet doeesn't make thermal testings with their cases. They had to see that this configuration ist better than their default one. lol
@@Arkenas99 you don't need exhaust, if you have enough intake. If the exhausts improve temps, it's because your air intake sucks, either because of the case, fans, or their configuration. Think of air like it would be water, and you'll figure it out why.
This case can fit all the 3 fans in front of the case.
If you remove front filter, (front panel already acts as a filter), remove drive cage, clear PSU shroud of cables, mount the fans on the interior of the bracket, Dimitry here would've easily gained 2-4°C in CPU temps and 5-8°C in GPU temps over the best configuration he tested in his review. Also these changes I'm mentioning are even more visible when running case fans, GPU and CPU cooler fans at normal speed instead of max.
@@TTks124 One rear exhaust is mandatory because without heat will concentrate and GPU or VRM will be hotter.
@Ignatius David Partogi yo can you point me to any video showing and talking about this? Much appreciated!
I feel like it would have been extremely interesting to see what the temps looked like if you had moved the rear fan also to the front of the case. Because for this case. It seems like it really enjoys the front air stream. That's where the greatest gains are to be made.
How about 2x front intake, rear & top rear as exhaust and front top as intake?
According to my testing it works the best...
yep its the best but im thinking about putting a 240 rad at top but should i have 2 different direction fan on a single rad
Or also 2x front intake and 2 exhaust (rear and top rear).
@@nexolas9500 no. Fans should be blowing in same direction with RAD!
Kami, are these all 140 fans? Same case? Are all the fans the same as what comes with the case?
@@nexolas9500 For a radiator no, but with a radiator the internal airflow pattern is also very different, since there is no cpu cooler on the motherboard. With a radiator just make sure there is ample airflow to the GPU, and then set everything else to exhaust.
For those of you that clicked for the title, the test results start at 5:14. The rest of the video is a case review, and should be split out or labeled as such in the title.
Thanks for this
I really wish they'd start making front panels magnetic on higher-end cases... my Define S2 feels like I'm gonna snap it trying to pull the front panel off to dust it out.
Yes, they should not be a struggle to get off. I am happy with the Bequiet 802 solution too which slide up and is removed without struggle.
It's been the one thing case manufactures haven't changed! lol
I built my new pc in February and in my research found that more intake than exhaust seems to be best. Exhaust fans have few options for positioning in most cases, so I put the two exhaust fans in the rear and top rear. While keeping two intake in the front panel with a third fan added to the bottom front.
My intention was to create a positive pressure atmosphere that would channel diagonally across the components. With the power supply drawing in from the bottom and out the back for isolated flow.
Since I used a Fractal R6 case, I had options for the driver trays. I left the tray setup in the "hidden" configuration which does put the two HDs horizontally placed in the path of the front fans. But I used this to help deflect some air flow from the bottom fan, toward the GPU, while positioned in the middle of the front fans to minimize resistance. Basically forming a "T" when lined up with the front fans.
I think this has worked well with average game temperatures in the mid 60C range with a Noctua nh-u12s black on the CPU. Other components include the MSI MEG X570 ACE, RTX 2070 Super, and three M.2 mvme SSDs.
Video title: HOW MANY FANS
Half of the video: CASE COMMERCIAL!
Not so much a commercial/ad as it is a showcase/review though is it.
@@guppo26 what is the difference?
@@rubino7 are you serious? If bequiet was sponsoring, this would be an ad, even with a review.
that's 10mins revenue for you guys didn't know. they need irrelevant shit to reach 10mins video to earn up $$$$$
XPkake he is sponsored by be quiet
5:00 So you're telling me that a computer can make hot pockets?
I'm in.
roflmao
I honestly thought I was going to break the 500dx front panel the first time I took it off!
Same. It's a really poor design for a panel that needs to be removed regularly for dust cleaning. Even my cheap, old Antec case has a hinged magnetic door.
I'd recommend placing a tiny 60mm Exhaust fan below your GPU and see what it does for the GPU temp.
"How many fans do you need?"
Me: "Yes."
Dang it. I had to delete my comment. I posted the same thing and then checked the comments to find yours. Well done, well done.
Same maby
@El Cactuar Never. Cause it's true.
just fill the whole thing with decent-cheap RGB fans
so it looks better with many fans and they do effect the tep.
I've seen some comments about people mentioning that the temperatures are higher than they like. You have to keep in mind, that CPU is overclocked for 4.8ghz, which makes it run hotter regardless. I would venture a guess and say if run at stock speed or a small overclock, seeing temps in 60s would be the norm.
I'm glad I found this video, as I just purchased this case to build in, and I was questioning how I was going to set up the fans.
2:25 Dmitry finds everything "Tasteful".
Be quiet is such an interesting brand if you think about it. Someone must have been like "let's call our company be quiet and aim to make the most silent fans out there!". Besides airflow, noise it the other thing most looked at when buying a fan. And to build a whole brand around the noise aspect is really a pro gamer move. So simple.
Not a gamer, but I like a quiet computer, so I bought the Be Quiet! 500DS.
I feel one configuration that is missing is two front intakes and 1 rear and 1 top exhaust. Ideally, so to not starve the components of air (and therefore have them heat up as you're seeing), you want intake and outflow of air balanced, with slight positive pressure better then negative, for the sake of avoiding dust accumulation via various openings not covered with filters. Having tried this myself however, I don't think you'll notice much difference between 2 front intake 1 rear out, and 2 front intake 1 rear 1 top out. Mine were only a degree difference so I didn't bother with a top exhaust in the end. One comment you should incorporate however, is difference in these configurations when you have a graphics card with exhaust of warm air out the back of the case vs. into the case as this will affect both the airflow within the case as well as overall case temperatures, and might be different for different case fan configurations. Just something to think about :)
I am going to buy this case and I think I will do the 2 front intake 1 rear 1 top out. How much difference was between this and the 2 front intake 1 rear out?
It's more about positive vs. negative pressure than "how many fans". Try setting both the top and front ones to have them pull air in your case, leave the back for exhaust.
I'm actually interested if changing 2x 140mm fans for 3x 120mm on the front would change anything in terms of acoustics and cooling in this case.
U ever found out ?
@@itsyoboig3325 Yeah and the anwswer is a little complicated. 2x 140mm > 3x 120mm (IF u don't use any HDD) BUT I opted for something that I didn't know was possible at the time of writing that comment. It is possible to place 2x 140mm and under them 1x 120mm (Which surprisingly fits). It's totally unnecessary if u're not using any HDD's tho and the stock setup turnes for some amazingly anyway so either way, you're set after the purchase.
@@Kasilias could I add fans under my GPU ? Like in the case or is that bad
I recently bought a Meshify S2 and I'm already planning on having fans on the front, top, and bottom as intake, and the rear as an exhaust.
Should be very chilly for the 3950X
Dust will not be an issue for me. I own an air purifier that runs in my living room
@Click to Confirm No accumulated dust 6 months already. I love it.
I always thought the optimal use of the top fans is to function those as exhaust, now I understand it's not too good for the CPU. So, exhaust is only done by the rear fan. Thank you for this experiment!
Agreed! You can’t just apply one blanket rule for every setup like some ‘experts’ try and do. Sometimes intake on the top can be better
There’s a lot more variables than that. It depends on everything from the CPU itself to the fans to the case. If you have an efficient CPU like a 5600 then temps won’t be too much of an issue. I have 4 intakes total (1 rear + 3 bottom) and 6 exhaust total (3 side wall + 3 ceiling) and my temps are crazy low.
Thank you Dmitry for this video! I'm about to move my hardware from the Meshify C to the Pure Base 500DX next weekend (Heat problems in the Meshify C because too narrow in width for my Asus ROG Strix RTX and the monstrous Noctua NH-D15). In preparation I replaced the three built-in Pure Wings 2 fans with Silent Wings 3, as well as changed the positions to 2 x front intake and 1 x rear exhaust. Today I saw this video from you and it gave me some additional info about this case other reviews didn't. The temperature measurements were particularly helpful. And as always, your video was not only informative but also entertaining. Thanks and keep it up 🙇♂️
how many case fans you need?
corsaid 1000D: yes
Interesting result with the best having the top fan as intake, as most suggest using the top fans as exhaust (for the reason heat rises).
It would have been really interesting to go back to the old days and just install ONE fan in the rear.
Temp results would have been very interesting and highlight how most of us over cool our PC's.
completely agree, I'm actually here because yesterday I was wondering of how much cooling do the front fans provide (in the old days I always ran just a single rear fan) and so, I unplugged both the front fans and have just a single rear 120mm fan. Turns out the temperatures aren't really higher. They're pretty much the same.
@@Mastermind12358
😁 I know, pretty much everybody over cools PC's these days. And they pay the price acoustically.
I have a 12900K and an RTX 3090 and I just have two 140's at the front and a 140 in the rear. I've no doubt I could cut that down.
I do like positive pressure though, so would want to retain that, so at least one fan blowing in and one out. And of course it's beneficial to blow air toward the 3090.
But yes, it does make me raise an eyebrow when I see people with 6 or more fans. Of course, fan manufacturers are happy. 🙄
Every computer I've built since Core 2 Duo days has been 2 front intake, 1 rear exhaust. That's the secret special tactics. It creates a basic wind-tunnel effect for airflow.
(I don't build any computer with liquid cooling, but if I had to do a liquid cooled AIO or custom loop, it'd probably would be better to have the radiator at the top of the case, with fans blowing up, through it to exhaust, and an equal number (or greater) of fans doing intake.
I don't mess w liquid either but have seen enough vids on the subject. A rads maximum cooling potential is always on the intake (coolest air).
literally jsut asked myself this question und then utube recommends this, i like this glassy person thing :D
you
I'm building in this case currently and planning on a 240mm AIO rad on the top so glad to hear 2 front + 1 back works well!
Me with a old laptop running at 98°C constant: *cries in heated corner*
So u cook on your laptop?
Underfoot it, only way
Could be worse. You could have a i9 MacBook Pro.
Bro open that bitch up and clean it out then reapply thermal paste. Undervolting can help a lot too. Only for intel chips idk how to do amd.
I watched at least 30 videos on the subject in the past week, and this one was the best by far, thanks!
It's nice to see theories backed up with data (numbers), but I felt there was a lot of guessing on the analysis. A smoke/fog machine would be very helpful (just remember that it's not the kind of thing you really want to introduce to your electronics - perhaps demonstrate on an empty case or with an old mobo).
Step 1 is going to be making sure you have more fans (or at least higher forced airflow) blowing into the case than blowing out, and that those fans have filters. This gives you positive pressure in the case with clean air. If you have negative pressure in the case (suction) from too many exhaust fans, then you end up drawing dirty air in from every crack and hole in the case. This invites dust and prevents you from controlling the overall flow of air. Dust and grime on your electronics and clogging your heatsinks is going to do far more long-term harm than gaining a couple degrees bench testing.
Step 2 is to have an actual planned route for the air. It's not enough just to set several fans blowing in random directions. Hot air rises - use that to your advantage. Draw in cool air from the front, bottom, and lower sides, and help it follow a path up past the GPU to the CPU and then out the top and/or back. Possibly raise your case on blocks or books if it is on carpet. Remember that if your CPU is air cooled, that is a fixed parameter that you are going to have to work within. For example, don't blow air in from the rear of your case toward the exhaust of the CPU heatsink. Also, avoid pushing or pulling too much air through the top perpendicular to the CPU heatsink & fan. In addition to disrupting directional airflow across the heatsink, you can create circular eddy currents that just recycle the heat in circles, or draw cooler air out of the case before it can be used to cool the most important part.
Lastly, don't forget about auxiliary heatsinks and chipsets. The Northbridge, Southbridge, MOFSETS, and HDD/SSD drives all need some airflow too, especially if you have watercooling and they cannot rely on residual airflow from the CPU fan.
Think of the airflow in your case as a fluid, dynamic system rather than a series of individual points to be cooled. Sometimes too much ventilation can be just as bad as not enough if it is not working together.
The problem with doing this without electronics is that it would ruin the variables of the experiment. The heat and mass airflow restriction from the components is going to affect the case flow heavily.
Thank you, quite interesting as I've spent the past week on and off doing exactly the same thing. One thing I have noticed is to avoid conflicting airstreams. ie I fitted a lower fan blowing upwards, lower front, middle and top, one rear exhaust. The lower front and bottom fan caused turbulence which lessens the GPU (Arctic Excelero iii) fans ability to bite the air properly. I think this because as my GPU got hotter, increasing the gpu fan speed didn't reduce the temps as much as when I had no lower fan. That's my theory, so lower fan now removed and placed back in it's box.
Great review comparison of fan configurations. I wonder what would happen if you used only a single exhaust fan on top in the rear position. The top front exhaust is spitting out fresh air from the front before it has a chance to pass over any of the parts, wasting the cool air. As a way to get even crazier, you could do a top front intake to blow across the VRMs and top rear exhaust.
The reason why 2 Top EXHAUST does not work that well is because of the fresh air coming from the first front fan (higher one) is always gonna be exhaust before reaching the CPU cooler. The second front fan (lower one) reaches GPU just fine so GPU temp is not affected. Since the CPU cooler does not receive enough "fresh air", the temp go back up instead of improving. 2 Top EXHAUST works if you use radiator on either the top or the front.
Another suggestion would be to use the 2 top fans alternating. The first fan (towards front panel) as intake and the second fan (towards back panel) as exhaust. I don't think this would be any big improvement happening since the top fans would have the chance of intaking the exhausted air making things possibly worse.
i literally just got this case yesterday, pretty happy overall but moving top to front makes sense now
Grats, looks like a sweet looking case
@@sevsnk3043 best purchase ive made all year
I run an i9-9900 / 12gb 3060 combo with 4 15k 2.5 SAS drives and an LSI 9207-9i controller in a Define R5.
The absolute best fan configuration in all of my testing in that case is two front intake, two bottom intake, two top exhaust and one rear exhaust.
Those drives can kick up some heat, but it is quickly dissipated in this setup.
Removing the bottom intakes raised the temps quite a bit across the LSI controller and GPU.
It would be interesting to see 2 front intake, top (near back) and rear exhaust so the cool air has to pass through CPU tower. In your scenario that top front fan was moving cool air from from front to exhaust right away.
A good way to test whether your exhaust fans are effective is to put temperature probe on the exhaust and see if its much higher than ambient. If it's close to ambient than that fan is useless and even harmless.
Added bonus for moving the top fan to the front intake? Less dust in your system. Always setup for a positive pressure with filtered input for a system.
My first build back when I was 14 or 15 had nine case fans in it. Yes, nine. Airflow was IMMACULATE.
Today, my much more expensive and much higher-end build has one fan at the back and one at the top. People really spend way too much time and energy on airflow in my opinion. As long as your temps are good, you don't need to worry.
I've seen some other tests recently that had the optimal fan position being so: top and rear fans as intake, with the CPU fan reversed so as to be blowing forward, and then having fans at the front set up as exhaust, so cool air is being pulled directly onto the CPU and then the warmed air is blowing out the front of the case.
Strikes me that adding one more 140mm fan to the 3 included would allow to have the right amount of air pressure in the case with this setup (2 intake at rear and top, 2 exhaust at front). Adding that one extra Be Quiet Pure Wings 2 (1000, non-PWM) to the mix is only about an extra €7, too.
Great vid
Suggestion: adding "500DX" in the title or just more hashtags for ppl are doing research for this case
Ideally you want to simulate a wind tunnel, front intake, back exhaust. Laminar flow. Fastest recycling of fresh cool air. Top fans in a horizontal tunnel configuration just make the laminar flow turbulent. One notable exception, a bottom fan can push a lot of that stagnant low GPU air up into the tunnel since the bottom back of the case has the least help from the wind tunnel and it doesn't disturb the tunnel that much being at the end. Since heat rises, theoretically a vertical wind tunnel would have an easier time, though it faces some challenges. Not many cases support this obscure configuration, and a flat GPU will obstruct a lot of that flow. So maybe a vertical GPU? And I know the Lian Li O11 Dynamic can handle that configuration, and has been tested to be the best airflow config. (though bottom fans have little clearance to suck air in) Would need to elevate the foot pads to let the bottom intake breathe easier.
Finally! I've been waiting for this review!
I have that same configuration going on in my tower right now with front and top both as intake. I ended up with a couple spare fans after installing my new AIO, so kinda just did it on a whim to satisfy my OCD for having positive pressure in the case. It's nice to see from your testing that the configuration can be a viable choice.
I would had loved to see a 1 fan(both intake and exhaust) and no fans included as well
seems a bit redundant since it already comes with the 3.. who would buy a case and remove fans?
@@slothy89uni There are cases that don't come with fans, and it would had given a nice point of comparison to see how much the fans actually affect things.
@@MidWitPride there's an LTT video on the same subject which demonstrates the effect of having no fans vs 2+ fans. Just by adding 2 fans to a case can have a huge impact on temperatures than having no fans. 3 fans is a good sweet spot, anything else seems to offer diminishing returns.
@@GDRobbye Yea, and others testing this have figured it out that with modern hardware you don't even need a case(or case fans for that matter) for the system to not thermal throttle.
Unless you have a air-proof case with no openings at all, it's really difficult to choke a system due to lack of case cooling.
Usually the CPU and the GPU fans alone move air around enough that there won't develop any significant heat pockets as long as there's some holes in the case. Warm air tends to rise on its own, so after some point the heat kinda gets rid of itself, and you won't hit the thermal throttle.
Bought the case after seeing this. Going to use 2 top intake, 1 rear exhaust and one aio 280 in front with 2 intake. Replacing all the fans with Noctua NF-P14s Redux 1200 PWM. Thanks for the video.
I think a config with 5 x 140mm fans would be best in this case.
Here's how I'd configure it:
Front: 2 intake
Rear: exhaust
Top-front: intake
Top-rear: exhaust
I find balanced to positive pressure works best. Negative pressure seems to cause the GPU to recycle it's own air. My GPU (MSI 2070 Super) never reaches 70 degrees Celsius. Full transparency, I utilize G-sync and have the max frame rate locked to 144 FPS (in NVIDIA's control panel 3D settings) at a resolution of 2560x1080 to match my monitors capability.
How Many Case Fans Do You REALLY Need?
Me: Need?? Man, I already have them all
when are this pittyful lines going to die out.. !?!?! ..
2-3 intake fans in the front, 1 exhaust fan in the back to create positive pressure to minimize sucking in dust by unfiltered openings and keeping that ideal directional airflow. This has been solved years ago. Quality and usefulness of your videos are rapidly dropping, and you have been my 1st source for any new PC tech releases. It looks more and more like commercials.
this is why I have my AIO on top as intake, 3 fans at front as intake and 1 rear + psu as exhaust. Keeps everything cooler that way
This is what I'm planning to do when my Corsair iCue H115i arrives. Are you still getting good temps?
@@andrewhezekiahdaniel still maintaining cold temps. Can't even use it as a heater in the winter 😂😭 (a year after)
@@Nunez87 Loool! I was worried whether having three 140mm intakes at the front, now three at the top, and only one exhaust might not work well. My case is huuuge, but it's the Strix Helios so not that many vents for air to escape from.
Thank you very much for this Video. 🎉🎉🎉🎉
I had my 240mm AIO as Outtake and my 5800X3D as my RTX 4090 were both overheating and it was loud.
Now I have 3 120mm Lightwings in Front as Intake and 240mm AIO as Top Intake and an 140mm Lightwing as Rear Outtake.
IT IS NOW DEAD SILENT and 18°C cooler!
THANK YOU SO MUCH ❤🎉❤🎉❤❤🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉
My rule of thumb is always:
How many fans do i need?
YES.
On my corsair 275r airflow I have 3 front intake fans, 1 rear exhaust and 1 top exhaust and I can say that the temperatures are really great
whats your CPU temperature on warzone?
@@ToniDerAlbaner sorry, I don't play warzone
For optimal cooling performance;
Use AC, unrestricted FineMesh front panel, good fans and clean room
I tried 1 rear exhaust, 1 top exhaust (closer to the back), 1 top intake (closer to the front) and the 3 intake fans at front that came with the CM TD500 Mesh, I noticed its the best setup. My CPU is a Ryzen 3600 with CM Hyper 212 with 2 CM sickleflow 120mm fans, the case fans are all CM sickleflow 120mm fans as well.
My theory was, I had 3 fans at the top as exhaust, and I felt cool air coming out of the front 2 top fans.. while the rear top fan was pushing out hot air. The 2 exhaust fans on top shooting cool air, must have been stealing the cool air that was brought in by the 3 front intake fans, not allowing it to reach the CPU/GPU before shooting it back out.
Locked my CPU to 2.8 GHz, and set voltage to 1.1V My temps at idle right now with room temperature, 36 degrees idle CPU, 60 degrees Prime 95 for an hour
Not locked allowing 4.2 GHz boost and auto voltage, idle temps were 38 degrees, and 75 degrees Prime 95 for an hour
GPU is a Zotac 1050 Ti OC edition (replaced thermal paste with MX-4) idle at 25 degrees and never gets over 44 degrees in Furmark stress test 1440p.
DMITRY, GET TO THE PANZERSCHRECK!
What?
@@slurpeemann3524 It's a Call of Duty: World at War reference.
@@gixxerfixxer4159 the Panzerschreck meme existed before the original CoD:WaW tho
Cougar Panzer Max case for me.
*Vasilij
You can get a few extra degrees, if you close all unpopulated holes next to intake fans with paper and duct tape. Especially in situation with one fan on the front panel.
16 of them. And _all_ of them need to be Delta TFC1212DE's.
Yep, I have great temps with minimal fans. I also electrical taped shut the removable panels on top of the case and the vented GPU inserts on the rear to prevent leakage. Also fan SPEED is important! I find using this order from greatest to least rpm speeds works best: Exhaust>CPU>Upper Front Intake>Lower Front Intake, and GPU should be tweaked based on model.
System:
up front: x2 Noctua NF-A14 140mm
Rear: 1 stock Phanteks exhaust fan
Case: Phanteks P400s (with all mesh front cover)
CPU Cooler: Dark Rock Pro 4
CPU: 8700k Delided 65c max
GPU: 3080 FE 66-72c max
You should have tested with only ONE fan exhausting at the top rear. Could have been the best result.
All the top front fan does is disrupt the air flow, either as exhaust or intake.
Two input fans in the front, one pushing out behind a noctua CPU fan (a BeQuiet would work fine as well), and the power supply pushing out on the bottom. That gives you two in and two out, with a CPU fan pulling clean, cool air and pushing hot air straight to output fan behind it. My fractal meshify has super cool temps (45-51 degrees) and runs silently with fans at 54% with this setup. Much love! That front panel should be magnetic without the plastic snaps. They shouldn't have cheaped on that.
How many? Answer: As many as will fit.
Yolo
4 is enough
@@smgspraysplays7832 Yeah, you go with that...LOL! I'll go with as many as will fit without ruining the aesthetics.
@@out42c good for u 😅
This helps me feel good about my 3x 120mm front and 1x 140mm rear.
It keeps temps decent at low/quiet fan speeds, and creates lots of positive pressure, so there's almost no dust inside the case, even after years.
Hey dude i have the same case, i adjusted fans to smart mode but they don't go above 1000rpm, maybe it just don't need to? My gpu temp is 69c in cod warzone and im trying to drop it to lets say 64. can i force my fans to go above 1500rpm when its needed?
I WAS JUST LOOKING FOR THIS AAAHHHHHHHH
THANK YOU DMITRY! I HAVE JUST ORDERED THE NCASE M1, AND I HAD NO IDEA HOW MANY FANS I NEED IN A CASE.
Me: 3 front 2 up 1 back
back and up out, front in?
I got 6 120mm case fans and 2 140mm fans for my AIO in a 5000D airflow case and this is one of the quietest desktops I have ever had. They all run 700 - 1000 RPM and temps stay a bit under what this PC was doing. 3080 TI, 5950X. I love these type of cases.
i made my AMD Wraith Cooler a Case Fan :D
I just finished reeranging my case fans. Just installed one of the top fans as an intake. Cpu temp went down about 1 degree Celsius. It wasn't precise, because I used folding@home for it not to waste this power for nothing, but still... Cpu and gpu power usage was mostly the same so it shouldn't be far from truth. Maybe I'll do some extended tests some other day...
PS
It was in my 220t from Corsair. Now I have 4 intakes (3 in front and one top fan on the front of the case) and 2 exhausts (rear and top rear fan). I didn't see anybody try this on yt but it seems to work ;)
How many fans? If all the fans are the same, i say "as many as intake and exhaust" like 3 intake fans, 3 exhaust fans.
From what I've seen in videos is you want a slightly positive airflow. You want more coming in than out. That way any nooks and crannies that aren't filtered have air blowing out of them so that dust can't get in.
Neutral airflow is still better than negative though.
I think in this be quiet case having the fans like that is smart because then all your intake is filtered.
There's also the fact that intake fans usually have dust filters, which will introduce resistance and limit how much air they actually pull.... so yes, definitely more intake than exhaust fans. If you have filters, and same number of intake and exhaust, it is effectively negative
Have the white version of this case and its a thing of beauty, for a case with a small footprint, you sure can fit a lot of hardware into it. Best case I ever owned.
This video should be renamed: sponsored case review with airflow review of this case...
The more data points the merrier! This saves people a lot of time testing that have a similar configuration with a blower GPU cooler.
With my open-air GPU blowing most of the heat up into the CPU cooler, I decided reverse the CPU air-flow and install the stronger Arctic P12 fan as my (only) exhaust in the top. It (the non-RGB version) is not as sturdy as the be quiet! and builds up resonances at certain RPMs, but that can be fixed with a stair-case BIOS fan curve that "skips" over these. As the CPU cooler was pulling in very warm air and had to run absurdly high RPMs this was the best balance for me. (65W CPU + 200W GPU).
I also got the impression during testing that you can blow too much air into the case, disrupting the air flow with turbulence and worsening cooling. An even flow with no sharp turns is what I'm trying to achieve. Even put some bent cardboard in to guide the air a bit from the bottom intake to the GPU for half a °C or so. :o)
The title is click bait. This appears to be an advertisement instead of "how many fans do you really need". The title should say ad.
Also the grooves on the blades help straighten the airflow at the other side so creates better pressure and efficiency
Whenever I hear "Air flow" what I think is dust flow.
Excellent demonstration. Not just speculative blather. Keep up the good work.
lol its a bootleg version of the lancool 2 basically with less features.
EXCELLENT VIDEO!! The best I've ever read about is 2 in front, 2 on top, and 1 in rear..and 120s we're used. The dis 2- 129s on the side but not real difference. Myself I'm just going to place my Nocturnal 3k rom SS fan on top and on the rear; knowing the noise will only be an issue if I operate it without any over the ear headphones.
If you're not concerned about loud fans, then two large high rpm fans for intake and exhaust is really all you need. But if you want your computer to stay cool when your system is working hard without sounding like a Jet, then 4-5 fans on low speed will generate similar airflow without being annoyingly loud.
Put a side fan on a case with an open air GPU (not blower style) and the temps will drop by over 5-15c, underrated fan position since many people get windowed cases with no side mount
So this might be one of the first times that I have come back to watch a Hardware Canucks video after upgrading my monitor to the new Samsung G7 and I got to say this video is amazingly sharp and the colorgrade looks perfect :3
I’ve been waiting for this video from someone for ages, thanks.
there are plenty of them out there
VERY interesting results indeed Dimitri! I'm going to flip my top 2 fans fort intake and see what that does fort me. Thanks!
Well?
And?
Turns out it cooled my cpu, on average, 3°C with no negative effect on my GPU. I’m assuming since I have the Noctua NH-U12A, it’s 2 fans in a push-pull configuration, are keeping air moving quickly enough through my case that it’s not having any negative affects.
Add liquid cooling (maybe 2x140) to the configuration, thanks to this the tests will be more universal and will interest a larger number of viewers.
On my p400a with all fans populated (4x140mm, 1x120mm), I noted improved GPU temps as I reduced or even turned off my top exhausts. There's a practical reason for this, with a heavy load on cpu and gpu (furmark/prime95 smallfft) there was hot air exhausted from the gpu, rear exhaust, rear top fan, but the front top fan was exhausting room temp air. All the air from that fan is just recirculating room air back out of the case before it hits any hot components.
I now have a divider separating the intakes from the top exhaust, forcing all intake air to go through the cpu heatsinks or lower chassis (gpu), and have the top fans stopped until the CPU hits 70c. Not night and day differences, but it results in a somewhat quieter GPU that doesn't ramp to high fans as often.
Hey Dmitry, maybe your air conditioner is blowing cold air more to the top of the case? Idk maybe thats the reason why its better having intake at the top since cold air usually accumilates at the bottom of the room if im not mistaken.
don't forget that GPU and CPU will boost to higher frequency when they run cooler, which will make them hotter again, which might invalidate testing results.
either lock the frequencies to be static or show if it has an impact on the clockspeeds alongside the temperatures.
Origin built my pc. 360 radiator in front has 3 pull through fans and there are 2 intake on the top. Only exhaust i have is the rear fan and the 3080 FE. Everything stays quite cool. The whole system rarely goes over 50 degrees.
This makes me happy. I dont have this case but it has a nearly identical design as far as intakes go and the two front intakes and one rear exhaust is exactly what i did. Dont have everything set up to run temp tests yet but sounds like my idea was the right way to go.
There are different goals when it comes to the Fans in a PC-Case. The two extrems would be:
Just for cooling, warm air has higher density than cool air. Because of that you need more volume flow for the exhaust. So exhaust is key for the case to the point where you just let cool air get sucked in by under pressure.
On the other hand if you want to fight dust inside the case, you want higher static pressure inside the case than outside to keep the dust from creeping into the case thru any gap and hole.