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Lately after a use of 6 months of my AMD FX8350 CPU I'm experiencing high temperatures and loud noise coming from the CPU fan(I set that in order to keep it cooler).
I decided to replace the stock fan with a water cooling system in order to keep my CPU quite and cool and add one or two more case fans too.
Here is my case's airflow diagram: http://www.coolermaster.com/microsite/silencio_650/Airflow.html
My configuration now is:

  • 2x120mm intake front(stock with case)
  • 1x120mm exhaust rear(stock with case)
  • 1 CPU stock

I'm planning to buy Corsair Hydro Series H100i and place the radiator in the front of my case(intake) and add an 120mm bottom intake and/or an 140mm top exhaust fan.

My CPU lies near the top of the MO.
Is it a good practice to have a water-cooling system that takes air in?
As you can see here the front of the case is made of aluminum. Can the fresh air go in?
Does it even fit?

If not, is it wiser to get Corsair Hydro Series H80i and place the radiator on top of my case(exhaust) and keep the front 2x120mm stock and add one more as intake on bottom.

If you have any other idea let me know.
Thank you.

EDIT: The CPU fan running ~3000rpm and temp is around 40~43C on idle and save energy.
When temp is going over 55C when running multiple programs and servers on localhost(tomcat, wamp) rpm is around 5500 and loud!
I'm running Win8.1
CPU is not overclocked.

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  • what sort of temperatures are you looking at?
    – Sathyajith Bhat
    May 28, 2014 at 2:31
  • @Sathya. Thank you for your comment. Check my edited question.
    – fat_mike
    May 28, 2014 at 3:00

2 Answers 2

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The water cooling system moves heat from your processor to your radiator. It makes sense to have it as an exhaust and they usually replace either the back 120mm fan, or the larger top fan. If you have your radiator suck in air, you're taking cool air, warming it up, then pushing it into your case. If you have it exausting, you're sucking out warm case air, adding more heat to it, then out That said, self contained water cooling kits are likely to come with an appropriately oriented fan.

I rather doubt that you can fit in a radiator and a fan into a front fan mount in a case - they tend to be fairly small and narrow. You absolutely want this in the top or back slot, and in this case the H80i is likely a better solution. The H100i is better if you have dual 120mm fans or a 200mm fan on top.

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  • Thank you for your answer. Your solutions seems neat and cheaper. In your conclusion it seems that you don't "trust" H80i as best solution. I can fit up to 140mm exhausting fan on top. Any other ideas? Coolermaster Nepton 140XL?
    – fat_mike
    May 28, 2014 at 12:13
  • Well, I considered the H80 when I built my system - though my case could quite happily swallow a H100i. The larger cosair is not an option here. Happily, my stock cooling works well enough that I put the money into a better graphics card than I had planned. The positioning/size considerations I've mentioned will be true no matter what water cooling set up you buy. I'd recommend reading through some reviews for ideas on what's the best option.
    – Journeyman Geek
    May 28, 2014 at 13:28
  • According to Corsair H80i manual: "For best cooling performance, we recommend mounting the fans as an air-intake to your PC Case" (corsair.com/~/media/Corsair/download-files/manuals/…) on third page. Confused
    – fat_mike
    Jun 2, 2014 at 19:41
  • o0 Thats odd, since I'm pretty sure the rear and top fan mounts they typically use are exhausts by default.
    – Journeyman Geek
    Jun 2, 2014 at 23:58
  • Yes you are right. I've ignored Corsair's recommendation and i followed case's diagram and your example and installed h80i on the back of the case. Temps of CPU, in quite mode, is 34C to 50C at heavy load. Great!
    – fat_mike
    Jun 4, 2014 at 13:13
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The link showing the cooler-master silencio case, shows air being pulled into the case from the front and bottom while exhausting via the top and back of the case. I see this recommendation and similar diagrams from often

I have a case that came with 3 fans and I followed the same air-flow design shown from the link in the initial question I have 2 systems with AMD FX CPUs. FX8300 (95W) & FX8320 (125W)

My initial setup w/stock CPU Fan:

  • Front: single 120mm Intake
  • Top: Single 120mm Exhaust
  • Back: Single 120mm Exhaus
  • PSU: Bottom mount, Bottom intake, & Rear exhaust

My temps:

  • idle: 44C but never exceeded 49C

I guess fluctuation can be due to environment temp. And my intial temps were recorded with the side panel removed

  • Under Load: about 58C-59C

I wanted to install liquid cooling. I wanted a case that could handle a dual RAD & at least 5 fans, 2 of which would be mounted to the RAD. I like to try 140mm Fans but I elected all 120mm and used the same air-flow schematic that seems to be pretty standard, with the RAD mounted up top (inside the case of course)

I like a smaller foot-print but made to house alot with good wire management. The Zalman Z-3 Plus and it came with 3 decent stock fans. The air-flow recommendations from Zalman were just like the link to the diagram in the initial question. You can see here: http://www.zalman.com/global/product/Product_Read.php?Idx=821

I wish I could fit a larger case in my room because I don't like being restricted with wire management in small cases. I had to work at it, but I did get things tucked away, just not very pretty. But as the saying goes; Can't see it from my house.

So here is the Fan/RAD setup after intial installation of the Glacer 240L

  • FRONT: single 120mm stick fan intake
  • TOP: dual 120mm fans exhaust (used 2 fans that came with the radiator)
  • BACK: single 120mm stock fan exhaust
  • Bottom single 120mm stock fan exhaust
  • PSU Bottom mount, Bottom intake, & Rear exhaust

idle: 34C

Under Load: 44C

I stumbled upon a thread where a fellow suggested the same air-flow configuration with one change. It was only a suggestion that might improve temps in some cases. The rear case fan was exhaust. The suggestion was the flip the rear exhaust 120mm fan and make it intake. This would pull fresh air across the CPU block that is part of the liquid cooling setup.

This CM Glacer had a nice CPU block but the connector should have been profiled lower or relocated as it interfered with my memory. But I liked that it was heavy and hoped it would help disapte heat like a heat sink.

As soon as I flipped that rear fan and pulled cooler fresh air across that block, I saw the change in my temps.

Idle temps: dropped from 34C to 31C Under Load: dropped from 44C and never again exceeded 38C

I did change the fan to exhaust again to verify this was not some fluke. It was no fluke. It worked. But I cannot say it is how everyone else's system will react.

Some things I observed: I am using an ASUS motherboard with temp monitors on motherboard components. I had lower CPU temps with the rear fan set to intake, however, I had an 2C increase in temps on the alloy chokes and mosfets. Not really sure if it matters. Another interesting thing I noticed is that when using a CPU Cooling Fan, the temps of those mosfets and chokes were lower than if I used liquid cooling. So I just felt like sharing that in case it matters

Bottom line is, I am in favor of the air-flow configuration setup being supported by Coolermaster and Zalman as per the links in this thread dictate.

http://www.coolermaster.com/microsite/silencio_650/Airflow.html

I may have stumped the teacher by flipping my rear exhaust and making it intake but in the recommended setup, as exhaust, my mosfets and chokes were cooler and I think as a well rounded cooling solution, it makes sense to follow the rule of thumb

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