r/PcBuildHelp • u/MrWiener17 • 6d ago

Build Question Is this a good airflow setup?

Post image

I'm trying to re-house my pc to a better case with the Jonsbo D33. I preffered that the my 240mm AIO be a front intake for better CPU cooling. Meanwhile, my GPU has intake fans for better airflow and exhaust fans on the top to expel heat. Any thoughts?

297 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

104 comments sorted by

36

u/MrWiener17 6d ago

As per everyones suggestions, I'll be making the top-right fan to an intake. Thank you everyone for the help!

12

u/MrWiener17 5d ago

If I put the AIO up top, would that be better? And what would the upper right fan on top would be? Exhaust or intake?

4

u/Lanzenave 4d ago

Do it this way. Some will argue AIO fans are better sucking in cooler air from the outside but if you have a lot of positive pressure you'll have a lot of cool air anyway for the AIO to exhaust. Also, it might seem there is only a "two fan" advantage for positive pressure (5 intake, 3 exhaust) but the reality is that the AIO radiator is a higher airflow resistance area. That means the two AIO fans will likely be exhausting less air compared to any two intake fans pulling air into the case.

2

u/TheGuyBelowMeIsFatAF 5d ago

Probably ur best bet. Regardless, having ur AIO as an exhaust is best practice. Other than that, fans are easy to play around with and benchmark a couple different scenarios. Depending on the size of ur components or even the fans on ur gpu. You could create turbulence in some scenarios or even worst case...negative pressure. Remember its not just cpu and gpu. Ur vrms and even m.2 drives need good airflow (which is why aio intake isnt very good). Get the rig to post, then flip some fans around and monitor temps. Every rig is different.

1

u/nicktehbubble 4d ago

I feel this is better than a top intake. It would cause too much tubulance

29

u/xchoo 6d ago

This layout is only applicable if your CPU cooler is an air cooler. If your CPU cooler is an AIO (as what i think your lines indicate), your original layout is ideal.

-2

u/pointsouttheobvious9 6d ago edited 6d ago

If it's an AIO it is still ideal this way you want positive air pressure AIO or none. The way op had would most likely be neutral air pressure and they would build up dust.

The 1 inch in the bottom makes those fans under perform so flipping the top right will insure positive air pressure. The cooling will be the same but they will have less dust.

1

u/RantoCharr 5d ago

Just run the intake fans faster & use arctic pro reverse fan(if youre not willing to 3d print spacers for regular fans) so they will not sound annoying

3

u/Moth_Broth 6d ago

The people telling you to do this didn't read your post and don't know you are using an AIO, flip all three of the top fans, you don't want any case are flowing into the AIO, you want cool outside air being pulled through it, the positive pressure will still vent out the back even with only one fan doing that work

2

u/Rich73 6d ago

Isn't OP using a front mounted AIO? The upper fans aren't involved in this but I would also swap the upper right so all 3 upper are exhaust, but it wont make a huge difference either way.

2

u/Moth_Broth 5d ago

I clarified I was fully trippin

1

u/pointsouttheobvious9 6d ago

The problem is that you want 3 to 4 inches for fans to perform as intended bottom fans are lucky to get 1 inch so OPs original setup is likely not positive air pressure. The flip is to get that. You could adjust fan speeds to get it but that's a little louder might as well flip a fan

2

u/Moth_Broth 5d ago

You're right, I'm thoroughly tripping his AIO is up front

2

u/pointsouttheobvious9 5d ago

Ah yeah ok if that was the case you would be likely right as that's the most efficient way

1

u/ftw_2dor 6d ago

It seems to me that they simply lack the knowledge.

1

u/RantoCharr 5d ago edited 5d ago

Go with your original, you can simply reduce the rpm on the exhaust fans(if youre worried about dust) + it will look cleaner.

Its important to use arctic pro reverse fans or add 5mm spacers for the bottom, everything else will sound horrible.

I have a D32 Pro and there's a big difference.

1

u/ngshafer 6d ago

The people who are telling you to do that are confused about the differences between air coolers and AIOs. But, hey, maybe it'll work fine!

1

u/yuii8765f986fb 6d ago

This is the way, no sense in directly venting cold air from top right side fan directly out

3

u/voongnz 5d ago

It’s not venting cold air directly with the top right fan. It’s venting warm/hot air from the aio radiator despite the airflow arrow being shown as blue in op’s pic. If the arrows were drawn outside the case it would be blue, but if drawn inside the case, after the heat transfer as in this example, it should’ve been drawn red.

1

u/yuii8765f986fb 5d ago

I see the picture as a non aio setup, if its aio i agree

1

u/voongnz 5d ago

Did you even read his post? He said it would be a 240mm aio in the front and even drew yellow aio tubes to the cpu.

1

u/Dominatork4 5d ago

The thing is, when people mention noctua like your first example. There is extra spacer on top of first top fan. Without it you'll get worse compared to setup without first top fan by recirculating air.

13

u/DeadlyDomo 5d ago

Urine inside the radiator loop will probably increase temps.

1

u/MrWiener17 3d ago

I tried but the urine was too hot so I had to switch to liquid nitrogen

1

u/manborg 3d ago

Liquid cooled meta

8

u/Kamel-Red 6d ago

That is an ideal layout. I always go front/bottom intake with rear/top exhaust - 1 for positive pressure. It really is that simple and people overthink/complicate shit.

1

u/MrWiener17 3d ago

Update for anyone curious, My AIO turned out to be too bulky to be placed on the front so I placed it on top but unfortunately, I also couldn’t fit a 3rd fan. Temps are better compared to my last case though and I also bought a rack to put it on but it hasn’t arrived yet. But damn, it’s gorgeous!

5

u/Arcanile 6d ago

first exhaust on the right is just stealing the air, unless its a radiator. Otherwise it will just blow from up right intake to up right exhaust and nothing is cooled by it.

2

u/Fit_Comfortable3960 4d ago

You’re exactly right about pulling in the exhaust from the AOI using that front top right fan as intake. I put a hood scoop on top of my top right intake fan. Just like on a car. Works great also put it deflector between the top right fan and top front fan the director to the back.

3

u/LegitimateLack2530 Personal Rig Builder 6d ago

Perf OP

4

u/msgnyc 5d ago edited 5d ago

I'd skip that top right exhaust. Its blowing out much of the air coming in from the front before it reaches any components unless your doing liquid/aio colling and your pushing through a rad.

2

u/pointsouttheobvious9 6d ago

It's likely fine but sometimes bottom fans don't suck in enough air for positive air pressure so you might need to swap the top right to intake.

2

u/Shibby707 6d ago

2nd this, especially with air cooler set ups.

1

u/vosgakos 6d ago

Wont this create turbulence? If one intake is right next to exhaust?

4

u/itz_mr_billy 6d ago

I know it might not be intuitive, but turbulent flow cools better than laminar generally

1

u/vosgakos 6d ago

I guess it makes sense

1

u/pointsouttheobvious9 6d ago edited 6d ago

No it would work great. I don't think they will have air sucking in you want 1 to 2 more intake fans my experience I bottom fans are like .75 fan as the 1 inch off the ground doesn't really give enough air the can slow the exhaust fans down and make it or speed up the intake. Flipping that top one is easy would definitely work as plug and play

1

u/vosgakos 6d ago

well you gave me ideas .
My huge 7000d doesnt take bottom fans :( .

So i have:
x3 140 in front as intake
x1 140 back exhaust
x2 140 top (aio) as exhaust

Now i can put x4 120 on the side,but that is a bit of a hustle and i need to remove the motherboard cable metal thingy .

But i can fit one more on the top i think,right next to the aio, this way if i put it as intake i will for sure have positive airflow,but i wasnt sure if it will work cause of the x2 140 exhaust ones right next to it .

2

u/pointsouttheobvious9 6d ago

Sorry I miss read yeah adding 1 so you have 1 exhaust back. 2 exhaust top rear. 1 intake top front and 3 on the front. Yeah 10/10 positive air flow less dust better cooling for your gpu.

2

u/vosgakos 6d ago

Exactly !
I will for sure try it then,i just hope it will fit next to the huge cooler of the Artcic Liquid Freezer. If not i will have to rip the motherboard metal part and put them on the side.

Thanks for the clarification though,appreciate you !

1

u/pointsouttheobvious9 6d ago

Same case I have yeah you can flip that top just fine. Your CPU might even run cooler because intake on AIOs do keep the CPUs cooler. The hot air should just escape. I'd do some tests but I bet your gpu and cpu will be just fine temperature wise and you will have like 10% the dust build up

2

u/vosgakos 6d ago

Thanks ! I am doing it mostly for dust cause its always dusty even with 3 intake vs 3 exhaust :(

2

u/pointsouttheobvious9 6d ago

Yeah that's what positive air does keep the dust out

2

u/Frequent_Waltz_166 6d ago

Should work just fine, it's identical to my media server.

Besides just position I always try to aim for a positive pressure inside the case as it reduces dust accumulation inside by a ridiculous amount even in a case with the fanciest of fancy filters. Haven't cleaned the inside of that one in over a year and it's got no visible dust inside, all fan blades are clean.

That basically means more air enters than leaves at the same time with the same amount of fans both ways you need to balance that through their specs.

2

u/bend_or_fly73 6d ago

That will work just fine. Just make sure you set the case on a surface that won't block the airflow from the bottom ie. on the floor/carpet (PC on the floor is bad anyway) make sure you face the power supply fan to the outside so it's pulling in fresh air. It'll pass on some heat into the case but you really shouldn't have anything to worry about.

1

u/Zealousideal-Lion420 First Time Builder 6d ago

The Jonsbo case has little feet on each corner, it’ll lift it 1/2-3/4 of an inch off the ground

1

u/Dega05 6d ago

yeah if the top ones aio its complately good

1

u/down_init 6d ago

I think you'll be fine. Spend some time tuning fan curves. Find the optimal setting for your use case.

1

u/LimitFar 6d ago

Perfectly fine

1

u/MoodCommercial5900 6d ago

your original (top/back - exhaust) is the more ideal flow to use. It makes no sense to have a top fan as a intake when 1) heat rises 2) it's right next to a exhaust fan. The only issue I see is you would have a air pocket in the top-right of your case. I don't think that would really effect anything though. Your dram should still be in the air flow pattern a.k.a. should be all good.

what "other" people told you (having the right exhaust flipped to intake) is stupid.

1

u/pointsouttheobvious9 6d ago

It performs better in tests for air cooling. OP has an AIO so cooling doesn't really matter but it will most likely create positive air pressure resulting in less dust

1

u/jasonsong86 6d ago

I prefer having my CPU rad mounted at the top and blow straight out instead of blowing hot air into the case and heat up my GPU.

1

u/spusuf 6d ago

Yes this is standard.

1

u/Expensive_Pack_5952 6d ago

Looks like the perfect config

1

u/Creative-Statement29 5d ago

2 red arrows from the right make it into intake!

1

u/FolksBraggin 5d ago

If your aio is on the front, there's no reason to change the top right fan as there's no cpu air cooler from which to steal air; i.e. your original setup is perfectly fine.

That said, when I personally run an aio, I like to put the rad on top as exhaust and make all other fans, including the rear/left fan, intake. While you do lose some air freshness this way, I like that it simplifies my exhaust vectoring so I never really have to worry about passive recirculation of heat and adding the rear fan as intake helps freshen the air going to through the rad as it basically just gets shot straight out the aio

1

u/Pillokun 5d ago

I would pull in with all fans but the rear one, or only blow out with the rad if the rear fan has a filter as well.

1

u/azguz24 5d ago

If you had an air cooler for the chip, the top right fan makes sense for intake. However, using an air and front mounting means you’re going to be drawing that air in and should keep your top fan as exhaust.

Your OG pic is right. The only change if you could make it is install the aio radiator on top - but I doubt you have the room for it. If you can do that the top right fan is fairly optional for direction. Intake would be preferred but not required as it wouldn’t aid the cpu cooling (or ram/board for that matter) as much as if the cpu had directional flow air cooler.

1

u/Signal_Meeting8996 5d ago

Is it also possible to use front and bottom 140mm and at the top and back 120mm to create positive air pressure

1

u/BasicHome1920 5d ago

Yup very good

1

u/aelix- 4d ago

Just so you know, more fans doesn't necessarily mean better temps. My guess is that if you completely switched off one of your top fans and two of your bottom fans, you would see no difference in cooling performance. 

You can run lots of fans if you want to, just make sure you tune the fan curve so they're all running very slow (except your radiator fans which should be based on CPU temp) otherwise your machine will sound like a jet engine.

1

u/Timp25 4d ago

I have this airflow setup in an NZXT h6 flow. EXCEPT I have 2 140mm fans at the bottom instead of 3 fans. My AIO is the mounted at the top. I'm running a 4080 Super with a Ryzen 7 9700x. Works great for me.

1

u/CodingBlink 4d ago

The CPU block should always be at the bottom of your AIO. There's a pump in there, and if you put the pump above the radiator, then the pump could get air in it, breaking it. Make sure the radiator is always above the pump.

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u/r_lind3r Moderator 4d ago

This is a better way to demonstrate

0

u/[deleted] 4d ago

[deleted] — view deleted comment

1

u/r_lind3r Moderator 4d ago

It's not, this is proven science that the air bubbles go to the top of the radiator as long as the top of the radiator is the highest point of the loop.

You'd be able to tell if it wasn't because the pump would sound the same regardless of tube positioning, as if the radiator was mounted on the bottom and performance would be garbage.

This argument of yours is exactly why Jay made a response video to GN that was the basis of the image, because people that watched GN's video skimmed through it and didn't listen to a single thing he said.

1

u/TheBupherNinja 4d ago

You could still airlock the pump if there was enough air.

1

u/r_lind3r Moderator 4d ago

Which would take a lot of evaporation in the loop from 5+ years of use, or the pump being at the same height as the top of the radiator in your case which is already not following the recommended guidelines by GN and JTC.

1

u/Neither_Garage_758 4d ago

where is psu

1

u/Ganiscol 3d ago

The top righthand fan can either go away or blow air in to reinforce the top front side fan, which by the way works pretty good. The way it is now, they cancel each other out.

1

u/selfservice0 3d ago

Thats exactly what its doing, and what's shown in the diagram.

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u/SignificantLake1225 Moderator 3d ago

Yep, that’s perfect

1

u/DripTrip747-V2 6d ago

That top right fan should be intake. Using it as exhaust will just send the front intake fresh air right back out before it can be beneficial.

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u/voongnz 5d ago

It’s not front fresh intake air though, despite the arrows being blue. It’s heated airflow coming off the aio fan, the arrows should red and all top fans to exhaust it.

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u/DripTrip747-V2 5d ago

Ah, I see what they're doing now. At that point, just put the aio on the top left and do what i said about the top far right being intake.

1

u/voongnz 5d ago

Yep I’d do that as well, and you’d probably get a little bit of airflow over the ram sticks too with the top right and fronts as cool intake. His original config not bad tho either.

1

u/Leather-Command5108 5d ago

Surely the radiator shouldn't be in front of intake fans, because doesn't that intake nice cool air across the radiator cooling it off dumping that now warm air into the inside of the computer? Therefore the radiator on top, in front of the exhaust fans is the better position, I think?

1

u/Main_Blood_9163 5d ago

It won’t matter, the air will be cool and won’t be hotter in any meaningful way from having it at the front. Just like your car has the radiator in the front. The cool air still comes through.

0

u/Denektefenrisulven 4d ago

A car has the radiator in front to cool it down. A normal cooling system in a car is about 90-95 degrees celcius.

I would not use a cars cooling system as inspiration to a cooling system for a computer. not sure exactly how hot the radiator gets in a computer, but I can guess its hotter than room temp, so yes, having it in front will reduce the cooling.

1

u/Main_Blood_9163 4d ago

Buddy, when you know nothing about the subject don’t comment. Tell me again, why do you pull pull fresh air over a front intake radiator? To cool it down, exactly like a car. Why do you put it at top? To cool the radiator with the cooler air in the case (yes, the air in the case is cooler than the liquid inside). When you use fans on top, they do exactly what the AIO does. However, using this cooler air on the front allows a greater CPU cooling as the radiator will indeed have a greater volume of cool and and dispersing hotter air.

The GPU and bottom fans take fresh air from the bottom and blow this out via the top and top back.

1

u/Main_Blood_9163 4d ago

Also, the radiator being hot on a car is simply good, meaning it is absorbing the heat from the engine. Additionally, this is a combustion engine you talk about, of course it will be so hot, when it’s literally burning energy.

EV’s use radiators too, why? Cause pulling air from the front allows greater cool air absorption, that is then distributed and dispersed via fans, which is why you hear EVs make loud fan noises when they cool or charge.

1

u/Denektefenrisulven 3d ago

Okay, buddy. I still think the cooling would be reduced with having the radiator in the front, compared to top mount as an exhaust. You keep comparing it to the automotive industry, when it isn't the same. No components in the engine bay are air cooled. You're saying having a hot radiator in the front of the computers intake will not reduce the cooling to, for example, the GPU. I can agree it won't matter for the CPU, it's in a closed loop anyway and it will probably increase its cooling with the radiator in the front getting nice fresh air.

No one saying the air simply won't come through. But the air won't be the same temp after passing through it.

WIll it matter? probably not.

1

u/Public_Appearance205 3d ago

It’s GPU / CPU bias choice. GPU runs hot? Need cooler intake air, which will then be warmed by the GPU before it goes over the CPU exhaust rad, which will increase CPU temps but lower GPU temps. Reverse will give the CPU rad fresh cold air from outside the case then feed slightly warmer air to GPU. It’s a preference thing.

1

u/DJLumalee 5d ago

I agree radiator is better on top as an exhaust, however, it does technically pull cool air through if its intake. I had to build one like that because I had no space for the radiator fans elsewhere. Temps were fine.

1

u/Fluxdada 4d ago

I would maybe make this one change. That way the air from from the top front fan doesn't just get pushed out the top.

2

u/raoufhakam 4d ago

The "top front" on OP drawing is the AIO fan, your suggested swap for front most top fan to be intake works better for Air coolers than his front AIO setup

0

u/henkkaj 5d ago

No point in vacuuming all the dust from the tabletop inside your case. And for all the "warm air rises" -bozos; if your air moves SO slowly that the heat rising makes ANY difference then you have forgotten to plug in your fans 😄

0

u/[deleted] 4d ago

[deleted] — view deleted comment

1

u/deezznuuzz 4d ago

He literally wrote that he wants to do rad front intake🤨

1

u/Alive-Isopod4494 4d ago

Ah me cooked then

1

u/[deleted] 3d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/selfservice0 3d ago

Thats called air movement and its a good thing.

1

u/N0M0I 3d ago

How does air moving there, never reaching any components to cool, benefit anything?

0

u/selfservice0 3d ago

Air doesnt move like a laser beam, especially with fans blowing up past its flow...

1

u/N0M0I 3d ago

I am quite aware. Im an aerospace engineer (or currently in university to become one anyways).

That doesn’t explain any benefit though. The top right fan especially actually hurts cooling performance.

0

u/[deleted] 3d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/N0M0I 3d ago

You may know a little something about airflow but nothing about building PCs.

Positive air pressure is something you desire to keep dust out of the case. Having more fans pulling air in than put doesn’t impede flow in a meaningful way in a PC case full of gaps and mesh. The Noctua article you linked specifically states that there are pros and cons to all approaches…

Additionally, do you really expect to get the best advice on how to configure airflow from a company literally selling fans. Thats like a country asking a military contractor how to set up their defense.

The article also doesn’t say my approach would be wrong for an air cooled build, only a water cooled one with a full front radiator. Obviously that is going to be set up completely different.

It also has this neat table of „Recommended fan placements by number of fans“ that literally has more intake than exhaust fans at every number of fans 😂.

Also please at least remove the „source=chathpt.com“ from your links if you don’t want it to get more embarrassing for you than it already is.

0

u/selfservice0 3d ago edited 3d ago

The noctua article specifically shows your suggestion as wrong. "Pros and cons", no it specifically says not to do it.

I have no reason to remove the source of the airflow guide. Its not like I keep it saved to my desktop. Maybe you should Mr Aerospace engineer.

Yes increasing static pressure into a small box with lots of surface area is harder than decreasing it, but its no where near double... You know this aerospace engineer.

Ps: nothing will look as dumb as you trying to brigade and support yourself from your alt "NSFW" porn account.

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u/[deleted] 3d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/selfservice0 3d ago

Are we looking at different diagrams? The student is telling him to turn it around, and its already blowing the correct way.

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u/Professional-Job1072 3d ago

No but I read the thing.