@@DabbathaHut I agree my experience is that your GPU staying cooler is far better overall at least when it comes to gaming. Both my cpu and GPU usually stay in high 40s low 50s when playing games with it set up top, when it was on the front the GPU would peak into 60s and I did t like that
Jayztwocents made this comment about the AIO on top: the hot air going through will be far cooler than the temp of the radiator even with it being warmer than the ambient temp. Also, having it on top helps to make sure the pump isnt the highest point in the loop.
this is true, ZTT is talking about min-maxing (best possible situation) here though which isn't entirely wrong. front-mounted push-pull with barbs on the bottom is the best possible scenario, but any other orientation works just fine. personally i recommend people with 10+ core CPU's to not mount it on the top since their rig would be more cooler-dependent.
@ste11ar A top mounted CPU AIO cooler should still be able to handle 10+ core CPUs. I run a 12900k Overclocked and have an AIO top mounted, with no issues. Max my Temps get too are 70ish at load. In my own opinion, unless you are hard overclocking the best of the best in terms of hardware, top mounting will work just fine. If it isn't, you've either got a bad cooler or you may need to look at other cooling options (Custom Loop or a larger AIO, for example).
While true, side or front mount with tubes at the bottom do the same thing while also letting it be an intake. This is the best setup you can do for temps. But as ZTT said, if your temps are fine, then it's just aesthetics.
Right people keep talking about the best placement for temperature…. In reality you do this because idk physics… and that’s the best way for water to pump
I learned the hard way with my last case, having the AIO as intake, TERRIBLE FUCKING IDEA. Makes the exhaust way hotter to the point of being physically uncomfortable to be near the PC during operation. At least, if you have a CPU with a 360mm rad requirement (13700kf in my case). I do not, and will never understand how people sit in the same room as a 14900...
@@goldenhate6649 Genuine question: Were you running it as a push pull through the AIO on the side of the case? Idk if that would make a difference in your case, just wondering.
"Hot air rises" is one of the most often used phrases in PC cooling that sounds like common sense but it doesn't actually matter compared to how fast fans can move the air. If you open your windows while speeding down the freeway you're not going to be able to tell which way the wind is blowing because the speed of the car is so overwhelming it doesn't matter. A more extreme example, but it's the same concept.
Yeah I know I was just thinking this. The convection of the warm air is not enough to make the air rise quickly. It’s the difference in temperature that matters here it’s not like the inside of your case is 200 c and the outside is 0 c. Also air is not very dense which I believe also reducers the convection force because the atoms don’t hit each other very often. In a liquid like water there are more interactions between particles meaning the convection forces are greater
@@daheinz27 You are correct sir. The flow from the fans is far greater than the natural convection of the temperature difference. The only thing that really matters in terms of PC cooling is to not exhaust the hot air beneath the case, because that will eventually rise into the intake fans again. But within the case, you can make your fans blow the hot air wherever you want so long as it's eventually going out the top or sides!
@@Nazareeni Do you have one? Have you tried flipping it on its side and measuring the temperature difference? This may surprise you, but marketing sometimes exaggerates performance claims. The RV02 was a great case because it had 3 big fans that pushed tons of air, not because of the direction of the airflow. Natural convection from "hot air rising" maybe improved temperatures by a tiny fraction of a degree.
For the AIO the best position is on the top of the case, in that case the air left in the AIO will stay always in the radiator instead going into your pump and killing it.
In the front mounted position the radiator is still above the pump and the air can't escape into the pump because the tubes are on the bottom. And you also get fresh cool air as an intake through the aio
Actually its at the front/side with the tubes on the bottom and only gets better when u got it with push/pull and a separate source of air for the gpu like in most fish tanks.
Is there a second pump on the other side, somewhere in between the radiator and the fans? Or does it simply use gravity as a secondary pump? I've only ever had laptops, so I have absolutely no experience.
Gamers Nexus did a video on radiator placement. placing the rad at the front or side with fans as intake will technically affect the temperature of the graphics card.
You always want the air from the radiator to be pushed out of the case. I get some cases force you into certain orientations, but you never want the air going through your rad and into your pc case.
@@ronniekregar3482ok look at Linus tech tips they did an experiment with like 5 thick boy radiators they laid them out creating a lop and got numbers, then they connected them all back to back, difference is 1c thermodynamics is tricky but it works like it wants to not how you think it should be.
My wife's PC had a side exhaust for pretty much this exact reason. In my opinion it's unnecessary but, it definitely makes it so that her machine is basically impossible to over heat. Of course, she still refuses to overclock it. LoL :P
I live in the Australian desert and my office regularly sits above 30c so top mounted AIO saves my GPUs ass. It meant the two fans on the old CPU cooler are now extracting heat rather than just moving it around inside the case.
I technically have full reverse flow. The rear is intake, as well as the bottom. The Top and Front (Side) are outflows. Never have any issues. I do get some dust, but nothing an occasional shutdown (discharge), and then light dusting can't fix. If I really wanted to, I could cannibalize a mesh from another case and slap it on the back, but I am lazy.
safer at the top since inside the radiator there is liquid and air. To keep the air as far as possible from the pump is to put the pump lower than the radiator.
Most GPU's run @70 degrees (unless you have a 5700 XT Refrence) A lot of new CPU's run way hotter than that while they are basically the same sillicon. I would say CPU thermals are more important and if you are worried about your GPU temps you can always just make your fans run faster using MSI afterburner
Just make sure that the pump *IS NOT* the highest point in the water cycle! Or else air will end up in the pump it can't pump water anymore and can even brake in the worst case.
Yes your right never put the pump high, infact make it the lowest possible point possible cause if a connection blows it's likely to happen at the pump and turn your PC into a very pretty aquarium. But also, did you not bleed the system? You gotta bleed the air out or else you'll burn out the motor in the pump and have worse cooling
For anyone who's struggling to understand (that's okay btw), the computer overall produces heat that you need to move away from it, maximizing the order in which you do it is squeezing the last drops of efficiency, not that important as long as everything is properly cooled.
Two disappointing points with this advice: 1. A CPU will almost always tolerate more heat than a GPU, so having the GPU use warm air from the AIO on the front, would likely negatively impact temperatures/performance more 2. The "hot air rises" argument is objectively invalid unless it's a passive system - the airflow from even slow RPM fans will always completely negate any natural convection (with PC heat levels)
@@ronniekregar3482 what would I know, I'm only an electrical and mechanical engineer 🤷 and no, the "literal #1 property of heat" is not that it rises 🤦
@proxyhx2075 still faster than my 9900k...6700k....2600k.....amd 6400 x2 3800+.....Dell dimension 4300 was my first ....from 2 gigs (or 4? I'd have to check my fecords) to 128....always faster...from 32mb video ram..to 24 gigs now ;)
I've done it to try cool my 14900k it bearly made any difference and my cpu power cables were making it difficult that it was not worth it. I just ended up having to get a more powerful aio in the end.
I have an aio with a front mounted push-pull setup. It helps that I put inverse phanteks on it that pushes air right into my amp gpu that is literally side by side to it with ~1mm of clearance. Then I put 2 140mm fans ontop. This is within a corsair 4000d
The gpu will generally heat the most, and also is the most heat-sensitive piece of hardware (vrams especially) so you want to prioritise the cold air from the front panel to the gpu, thats 1 of the 2 reasons why the radiator goes on top
@@Lorentz_Driver It's not bait. It's the truth. Based on all the repairs and new builds I've done and all of the tests I've done while checking thermals, top mount radiator really is the best way to go. Other than that, air bubbles get trapped in the highest point of the loop of an AIO. When you front or side mount with intake, you are not only dumping a bunch of heat into the case, but you are also trapping air bubbles into the point of the radiator with the tubes if they are on top of the radiator standing up vertically, so those air bubbles are making their way back into the pump and shortening the lifespan of the AIO pump. You are also restricting airflow into the case if you front or side mount it for intake while at the same time chocking other components with unnecessary heat. This is especially bad when your case only has front intake and a solid front panel. Zack really just posted a whole bunch of misinformation just now. There's plenty of sources that explain this far better than he would, such as Gamers Nexus, which I highly recommend you check out.
as long as the top of the rad is above the CPU the front orientation is better, I can say I’ve had some pump noise though and had to tip my pc to make it stop a couple times but after 4 years my liquid freezer 240 AIO is still working like when I got it. I have a 5600x oc’d at 4.85 single and 4.7 all core at about 60c
There is a few aio that has the same price as air cooler In my country there is 360mm aio the same price as thermaltake peerlees assassin 120 @@Jsp-hf3mn
To be honest, I vent my hot air out the back. I am taking most of the air in from the top, mixing warm air from the cooler and rising warm air from the gpu, blowing it out the back. There are 3 fans in the front blowing cold air across the MB and GPU. People tend to forget that the MB chipsets also get pretty hot. Warm air may rise, but the short distance inside the case is actually heating the entire case. Best to move as much cold air in as you can. I have one exhaust fan and 8 intake fans.
Its not only about "aesthetics" the benefits of top placement is to make sure the air bubble cant get into the pump, thus, minimize the possibility of pump failure.
The top is best because there isn’t much hot air in the case. The gpu gets hot but front fans keep that air in the bottom half of the case. Ive done front intake, top exhaust, side intake, side exhaust with a corsair 5000d and 360 aio and all temps for my 13900k were the same. Top is best though because the hot air produced from the aio goes directly out the top of your case. If you do front intake aio your gpu, motherboard, ram, etc will all get the heat from your cpu blown on them… not ideal. Also never install an aio in the front like that. Having the pump (usually found in the aio waterblock) above the ends of your tubes can cause bubbling and damage your water cooler.
Many tests have shown that top mount significantly increases CPU temps (5+ degrees celsius is significant) versus front mount AIO. The temp difference between the two for the GPU is negligible though. So no reason to not mount in the front
@@henry3397 not for me. Front mount made my computer case considerably hotter. The hand test on the glass panel told me all I needed to know. My i9 13900k (you know, the hot one) idled at 30 degree no matter which way I mounted it with load temps the same as well… I’m sticking with top mount, makes the room less hot also.
@henry3397 nope...take all "testing" with a grain of salt. Top mount rad in an exhaust orientation 100% of the time, obviously if your case allows it.
@@LawyerSlays doesnt top mount usually means the air bubble in the aio floats into the pump causing reduced cooling and significantly shortened aio lifespan?
This was actually really helpful, my new PC components are about to arrive and i was just gonna put the radiator up top, but i gotta get out every degree with the 14th gen i9 KF, thanks!
What gpu u have?? Gpu is probbly more expensive than cpu so u dont want warm air blowing on ur gpu.. Rather risk few c° more for cpu than blow hot air on rest of components
@@metak-metak2010 ASRock Radeon RX 7900 XT 20g Phantom Gaming OC. But i'll use the pc mostly for music production, it's a studio build. But thanks bro!
In ANY system integrating multiple components, those components can (and often do) synergize in ways which are both unpredictable and counter-intuitive. Any system powerful enough to warrant using liquid cooling usually has a pretty formidable GPU - most typically a triple-fan model. For the majority of builds, this essentially divides the case interior into two distinct 'chambers'; one above the GPU and one below it. The one below the GPU is typically exclusive to the GPU itself. While it commonly also includes the PSU, the PSU not only has it's own compartmentalized cooling but newer cases usually isolate it from all the internal circuitry. This is not to make light of the heat generated by high-end GPUs, but such cards are engineered in such a way as to handle said heat on their own - drawing in cooler air from below and exhausting through the 2-3 slots on the rear. The one above the GPU is the crucial one, as it is the environ for the CPU, RAM, and the majority of critical components of the motherboard. It's also the compartment with the greatest exhaust potential - at least one 120/140mm fan in the rear and at least 400mm of passive venting on top. The common element is that you most certainly do NOT want heated intake in either chamber. Notice in the pictured build (despite being roomier inside than typical cases) how the angled front intake fans are positioned - one providing cool intake for the lower chamber and two providing cool intake for the upper chamber. As pictured, the upper chamber is net-negative and the lower chamber is net-positive - entirely as it SHOULD be. The negative pressure creates a cooling effect unto itself, further aiding the cooling for the RAM and VRM. This also draws airflow along the open side of the case, providing additional cooling for the GPU backplate while bypassing the motherboard entirely. Motherboard designs vary, but performance motherboards (where thermals are more important) often position the primary chipset just below the GPU slot, allowing the GPU cooling system to help dissipate their heat. The net-positive pushes denser air across the chipset and through the GPU (as well as out the rear). Denser air also provides greater cooling for active systems, which is why GPUs always use push orientation (and radiators should always be push vs pull) - an additional reason why the lower chamber should always be net-positive.
I put the radiation on top and used it as an intake. Sure hot air rises but the overall airflow should direct it out the back. I have dust filters on top and the positive pressure should cause all air to flow out of the holes in the case so I don't have to clean it often. Temps are normal as expected. If we would prioritize those more then just as long as it doesn't throttle it's fine then GPUs would have fans up top.
My friend switched his top-mounted CPU AIO to suck air in rather than exhaust it out like it was doing when first installed, and his CPU temperatures went down as a result. The thing is, he is potentially saving the life of a £500 CPU, but blowing hot air taken from that over his £2000 graphics card. Even if the 4090 cooling is well designed, does doing that make more sense than doing it the other way around? In my friend's case (using that word in terms of example and physical enclosure), he has just one intake fan at the front and one rear exhaust fan, but I suppose you can't really escape the fact that all the heat inside his case is likely to be travelling over his graphics card as-configured.
@@soots-stayingoutofthespotl5495 Most gpus blow air up. So most of that hot air coming from above will be blown out the back of the case. And cool air from the front will make it under the gpu where it sucks in air. Just think about it a bit. It's not likely that all that hot air will make it AROUND a massive 4090 and heat it up. Plus those things have massive coolers. It's probably fine.
I have 3 intakes from the lower side (below glass panel), 3 intakes from the front, 3 Exhaust in the top, And 1 exhaust in the back. This way it intakes more cold air and creates positive pressure in the pc. If you have negative pressure in the PC, then there's a potential to draw in more dust that bypasses the fan filters.
@@amlenkNo, the gpu cent heat the air so fast which got blown into the case from the front panel fans. front intake bottom intake top is out and rear is out plus more intake than out
@@MrChocobit The GPU will pick up air and exhaust it throughout the card. The heat won't just "disappear", it will rise (heat rises) to the top of your case and be picked up by the top mounted AIO and exiting your case. Depending on how much load the GPU is under, it will very much heat up the air. The thing is, air doesn't instantly become cool once it exits the case, it will eventually recirculate back into the PC and if you don't have sufficient cooling in your room, the room will become warm and the once "cool" intake air has warmed up.
@@amlenk @amlenk No, this only applies if you don't have enough intake. In addition, the three fans of the GPU are not sufficient to outperform three front fans and three bottom fans thermally. As long as you get more air in than is being processed inside, it will not be able to run as you have written.
@@MrChocobit Positive airflow doesn't negate the existence of the second law of thermodynamics. In a PC system, it means that despite having cool intake air, internal temperatures will stabilize between the cool intake and the heat generated internally. Hence why exhaust temperatures will typically be warmer than intake temps due to this equilibrium. Let me clarify, I am simply stating that AIO placement DOES affects temperature, but not saying that it is significant enough to impact performance.
It's ALL baloney, air rising from heat is a TINY force that fans will overpower 10.000x in lowest rpm. Also hot air? you have water cooling on the CPU and a GPU without there. THINK about it. you EITHER throw out the "hot" air (I get back to it) with exhaust fans THRU the radiator, or throw "hot" air IN the case for the GPU to munch... It makes no difference. With the amount of fans in that white case, air won't be longer in there then 1-2 seconds.. good luck in heating that so fast. Direction doesn't matter, as long as you make sure the heated air is going in a direction that won't get sucked back into the case. In general that is to be on top, and back, and intake from bottom and front. (while in winter you might like hot air over you, in summer you don't.
@@DataStorm1 You don't have a water block on your GPU? I am not really understanding this hot air for your GPU comment. When you build your loop you generally don't have any serious heat sources in a modern system, yeah ram and some mosfets on the motherboard as well as your drives put off some heat but nothing that won't be handled by standalone heat sinks and general case airflow unless you went for one of those silly glass box cases that were big 2017 till nowish, but that was for the I buy boutique gamer systems for rgb LED set, not people who care about cooling.
@@OmniMontel My post is all about the TINY force of slightly warmer air that will rise, any fan overpowers that by 100.000x. Hence I say its baloney. And I meant the PC in the video doesn't have a water block on the GPU... The whole idea that air needs to exit thru the top because of hot air rising is bs, if you want it thrown out of the bottom, its fine, the back? sure is fine too. Just don't put intake and outtake next to each other, for the one pulling in will suck in what the other is throwing out.
Since CPUs usually generate less heat than GPUs, it makes sense to have the AIO as intake, while having a couple of bottom fans blowing fresh air into the GPU. That way both major components get fresh air and the secondary components that require a bit of cooling like the RAM, chipset and drives, can rely on the slightly warm intake air without any issue.
The best way is to mlunt the aio on the side (if u have a fish tank case) and put intake fans from bottom and the top and one exhaust in the rear ( i know that heat goes up and all that stuff but trust me inside of a case with an RTX 4080 is NOT THAT HOT that u might think and the main reason that we use fans inside the case is just for ventilation
In a car radiator, you pull air in from outside because it's cool and exhaust it underneath the car. In this case, you should be pulling outside air from the top and exhausting thru the back so there's equal pressure in the case for better cooling.
Mount your radiator at the top directly or indirectly depending on what your radiator instructions suggest. Remove the dust filter on the top and have your pump tubs facing 3 or 6 o'clock.
It's better to exhaust your hot air out of your case. The tiny efficiency loss to the individual radiator doesn't offset raise the overall temp inside the case.
Actually did turn the fans on my top mounted aio to intake, coolest it has ever been. For context: Lian li o11 Evo, intake from the bottom and top. Exaust through the side and rear. It really does run cooler temps. Been 2 months, no real dust build yet. However what is true, less rgb.
Better explanation. CPU or GPU focused cooling. In fishtank cases there are also fans that blow above the GPU -> mostly fresh air that gets directly to the AiO
AIOs are a lose lose situation because you either mount it at the top and pull in hot air from the case or mounted at the front or side and heat up your entire case. Just get a regular heat sync they kick off the heat and don’t transfer it anywhere else besides out
You would just be taking the heat from the radiator and throwing it back into your case. That's why the fans should exhaust through a radiator. If you want fresh exterior air through the radiator, I suggest creating some kind of fan shroud that causes intake from the nearest vent.
Or, and hear me out, you have two AIO coolers (one for CPU, one for GPU) mounted in *both* positions! 🤣 Seriously, though, the internal case temp is rarely that hot... It's far more important to have any air (even warm) moving over the hot parts than where the radiator is placed. It's the air current that carries away the heat, not the temp of the air being moved. Like he said, the different is miniscule.
If you are going to put the rad in the front, the tubing should be at the top of the radiator. you want the tubing to go up from the pump so that air bubbles dont collect in the pump.
Also there's the whole point about making the intake and output valves on your radiator higher than your CPU. This is so that as permeation occurs and your IAO gets air pockets, the air stays at the highest point in the loop and doesn't get sucked to your cpu, potentially trapping the air, forcing the pump to work harder AND increasing your temps at the same time as more air in the CPU block means less water in the block that cools your cpu
5 degrees is the difference between my CPU and graphics card melting and being able to play modern games at an affordable price. I'll take the 5 degrees. I shouted at the last guy I paid to build my PC who put it up top. I do it myself now.
5 degree is not the difference between something melting cpu or gpu wise, stop being dramatic. and having the rad as intake will raise the temp of the cpu by roughly the temp above ambient. so if ambient is 20C and the rad is 40C(common temp for one) then the gpu temp will increase by 20C if fan speeds on the gpu remain the same. but your gpu will just be forced to run its fans like mad to compensate, hopefully theres enough headroom!
Fun fact, it ultimately doesnt matter. What is more important in my opinion is having more intake flow than exhaust. This ensures a positive internal air pressure, which ensures you arent sucking air in through cracks in the panels where unfiltered air can cake everything in dust.
I've heard of putting the AIO fans at the front because case space, but never because it's apparently BETTER than at the top. That's like having AC on the wall, and passing it through a furnace so that the inside of the house is colder X-X Hot air comes out, Cold air comes in. Especially with positive/ negative pressure as this keeps the air moving, thus the air being sucked into the top AIO fans from the inside isn't even that much warmer than room temp. It's just actively pumped through. Also it's better for the liquid inside but that's another topic unless you mount it at the front tubes at the top? If I'm not mistaken. If it's the other way around you get air trapping.
the liquid inside the AIO will be much hotter than the air inside the case. just like in summer time the air will be 100F but the liquid inside your car's radiator will be around 190F-220F. As long as the surrounding air temp isn't the same or greater cooling by liquid radiator isn't an issue
Placing your radiator up top is best, it's because the air in the loop rises to the highest point. If the rad is below or the same level as the cpu block the air can collect inside the cpu block causing an air gap which drastically lowers the cooling efficiency and causing excess eroding and oxidisation
My Cooler Master Q500L microATX case lays on it's side due to our desktop set up. I have two 140mm intake fans on the front, a 120mm rear exhaust fan and got a Corsair H100x 240mm AIO in the "top" position pulling in. My CPU at full tilt runs in the upper 60's, lower 70's. Neither my CPU or GPU throttle, so YMMV. Just need to keep in mind how your case flows best.
Negative pressure (more exhaust fans than intake fans) also means you'll end up with more dust inside your PC, since it will suck air/dust IN through gaps and holes in the case, instead of pulling air through a dust filter and the positive pressure pushing air/dust OUT through all those gaps and holes in the case.
Keep the exhaust fans on the top. Add in intake fans to the front. You bring in fresh cooler air from the front, that is sucked across the the components by the fan in the back and the fans at the top. Airflow matters.
My Corsair 280mm AIO shows in the manual that the optimal fan orientation when top mounted is to be an intake fan. So I have mine mounted as intakes with a big dust filter on the top. Makes it easy to keep the case clean. I have 2 more 140mm fans as intake on the front of the case so there is a lot of hot air that gets blasted out the back.
Unless it is in an excessively ventilated room, the temperature of the air coming out of the case will rapidly equalize with the ambient air. Having the radiator as an intake will have the air inside your case that is meant to cool your RAM and Motherboard (Chipset/VRM) and usually GPU is already significantly above ambient.
we use them as outbound because you heat the whole case or have semi-thermally loaded air cooling your CPU. with enough additional fans the air flows from the top back in and then out the rad is almost ambient.
Gamer Nexus did a video on this. The reason why they put it on the top is because with time some of the liquid in the radiator will evaporates. That way you have constant coolant, going through the tubes and not air.
at 00:24 there is clearly a set of 3 fans blowing fresh cool air into the case, providing air to every component inside the case. Placing the CPU rad in the front will cause hot air to blow inside the case.
but remember NEVER install the cooler at the very bottom because it will destroy the pump in the cooling block, and placing it at the front is also not the best.
Acktwually the reason is air in the loop. You always want your pump to be lower than the highest point in the loop. Typically the pump is in the cpu block, so you will want the cpu block below the highest point of the radiator. The system would work with the pump being the highest point, at least right up until enough fluid has evaporated and the pump is trying to pump air instead of fluid. As the fluid also lubricates the pump, air in the pump will kill it far quicker than it would otherwise. All this means that you want the pump in your loop to not be at the highest point in the loop as that is where the air bubbles will end up.
Lian li lancool cases have a mesh psu enclosure side panel and you can put fans on the bottom, inside the main chamber. This essentially acts as a secondary fresh air source that ports cool air straight into the GPU, couple that with front facing cpu aio and beefy exhaust fans to keep mobo and ram from cooking themselves and you have the "META"
And then there is the AIO pump where having all the liquid on top makes it efficient whereas mounting the radiator at front can create a situation where air gets trapped in the pump housing
From what i remember the aio is actially optimal on the top because bringing in the air from the front, is blowing through the rad which heats up the air. So its better to have direct cool air cooling the entire pc while no excess heat from the rad being blown into the case
When you are intaking a radiator you are only warming up the air youre pulling into the case as the radiator will be hot. Its better to have a frwsh supply of cool air into the case that can be sucked out along all the components and pushed across the radiator to help cool it. This will give you effective air and water cooling.
I did put the radiator infront once. The cpu gets just a little bit cooler but my gpu temp increases due to the hot air being pump into the case. Now when i placed the radiator on top, added fans to the front to blow in fresh air, my gpu temp drops and balanced out with my cpu temp while gaming. It's better to have fresh air coming into your case and exhaust fans to take all of the hot air out. That way you'll have better air circulation, cooling down your other components in the case like your ssd's, hdd's, motherboard, ram, etc and hopefully prolongs the lifetime of your pc components.
There's also another issue. If you improperly mount the radiator to the front you can create a air bubble that would over time degrade performance and eventually cause the pump to die. Another point is that there could be more noise due to this sound. Gamers Nexus did a good video explaining on how to avoid these issues but top mounting the radiator is just overall a better solution as water flows from the high point to the lowest.
TBH, as long as your fan configuration doesn’t rely on static pressure, but high flow rates, then it really doesn’t matter. If it matters to you, then which configuration you choose is entirely dependent on whether you want to prioritize cooling your CPU or your GPU.
The reason the aio is on top is mostly because the tubes accessing the radiator should be higher than the pump and when you do it like this the tubes will always be under water level of the radiator. Which will work best and prevents noice. Placing the pump in front you have 2 options. 1. Placing the tubes entering at the top of the radiator. This can cause bubbly noices in the radiator. 2. Placing the tubes at the bottom. Resulting in the pump being higher which can cause bubbly noice in the pump. Placing it like this can also be a problem because with full cases the tubes are to short.
Front fans pulls in cold air, giving AIO on the top some cold air, and GPU hot air is exhausted through the fan in the back of the case. If you have your AIO in front, then in any CPU intensive workload, rendering for example, your case just pull in hot air. So if in doubt, just upgrade your intake and exhaust fans
the water flow into the radiator matters more and the front side installed radiator you showed is pulling from instead of pushing air into the radiator so it's less optimal too
My rig has the radiator in the front pulling in, then top and back fans pushing out. It's how I've run it for years, and it's still going strong like this.
you have two options:
1. your cpu heats your gpu
2. your gpu heats your cpu
pick your poison
Right lol I choose gpu heats cpu cuz a 5800x3d is cheaper than a 3080 😂
AIO out the top for my gpu, AIO out the back for my cpu, intake on the front ant bottom of case. I pick no poison.
@@numnut1516 me too, my front fans blow air over my oversized cpu and gpu heatsinks 🫠 and the back and top fans pull the hot air out
I mean, unless you go all out with 2 custom loops... but at this point, everything runs below 60° so it doesn't matter.
@@DabbathaHut I agree my experience is that your GPU staying cooler is far better overall at least when it comes to gaming. Both my cpu and GPU usually stay in high 40s low 50s when playing games with it set up top, when it was on the front the GPU would peak into 60s and I did t like that
Jayztwocents made this comment about the AIO on top: the hot air going through will be far cooler than the temp of the radiator even with it being warmer than the ambient temp. Also, having it on top helps to make sure the pump isnt the highest point in the loop.
He’s been my favorite for like a 1000 years
this is true, ZTT is talking about min-maxing (best possible situation) here though which isn't entirely wrong. front-mounted push-pull with barbs on the bottom is the best possible scenario, but any other orientation works just fine.
personally i recommend people with 10+ core CPU's to not mount it on the top since their rig would be more cooler-dependent.
Also doesn’t overheat your gpu if your cpu runs hot. If you’re doing extensive gaming top mounting the gpu makes much more sense.
@ste11ar A top mounted CPU AIO cooler should still be able to handle 10+ core CPUs. I run a 12900k Overclocked and have an AIO top mounted, with no issues. Max my Temps get too are 70ish at load.
In my own opinion, unless you are hard overclocking the best of the best in terms of hardware, top mounting will work just fine. If it isn't, you've either got a bad cooler or you may need to look at other cooling options (Custom Loop or a larger AIO, for example).
While true, side or front mount with tubes at the bottom do the same thing while also letting it be an intake. This is the best setup you can do for temps.
But as ZTT said, if your temps are fine, then it's just aesthetics.
The highest priority should be not killing your water pump
Right people keep talking about the best placement for temperature…. In reality you do this because idk physics… and that’s the best way for water to pump
the correct answer lol
Cant bealive its 2024 and ppl still think side mounting will kill your waterpump...
I learned the hard way with my last case, having the AIO as intake, TERRIBLE FUCKING IDEA. Makes the exhaust way hotter to the point of being physically uncomfortable to be near the PC during operation.
At least, if you have a CPU with a 360mm rad requirement (13700kf in my case). I do not, and will never understand how people sit in the same room as a 14900...
@@goldenhate6649 Genuine question: Were you running it as a push pull through the AIO on the side of the case? Idk if that would make a difference in your case, just wondering.
"Hot air rises" is one of the most often used phrases in PC cooling that sounds like common sense but it doesn't actually matter compared to how fast fans can move the air. If you open your windows while speeding down the freeway you're not going to be able to tell which way the wind is blowing because the speed of the car is so overwhelming it doesn't matter. A more extreme example, but it's the same concept.
Tell that to the Silverstone Raven 2-evo
Your analogy and comment are so wrong 😂
Yeah I know I was just thinking this. The convection of the warm air is not enough to make the air rise quickly. It’s the difference in temperature that matters here it’s not like the inside of your case is 200 c and the outside is 0 c. Also air is not very dense which I believe also reducers the convection force because the atoms don’t hit each other very often. In a liquid like water there are more interactions between particles meaning the convection forces are greater
@@daheinz27 You are correct sir. The flow from the fans is far greater than the natural convection of the temperature difference.
The only thing that really matters in terms of PC cooling is to not exhaust the hot air beneath the case, because that will eventually rise into the intake fans again. But within the case, you can make your fans blow the hot air wherever you want so long as it's eventually going out the top or sides!
@@Nazareeni Do you have one? Have you tried flipping it on its side and measuring the temperature difference? This may surprise you, but marketing sometimes exaggerates performance claims. The RV02 was a great case because it had 3 big fans that pushed tons of air, not because of the direction of the airflow. Natural convection from "hot air rising" maybe improved temperatures by a tiny fraction of a degree.
For the AIO the best position is on the top of the case, in that case the air left in the AIO will stay always in the radiator instead going into your pump and killing it.
In the front mounted position the radiator is still above the pump and the air can't escape into the pump because the tubes are on the bottom. And you also get fresh cool air as an intake through the aio
@@xxFobioxx you dont want the heat from the cpu to affect the gpu, the gpu is affected by heat far more than the cpu is
Actually its at the front/side with the tubes on the bottom and only gets better when u got it with push/pull and a separate source of air for the gpu like in most fish tanks.
Is there a second pump on the other side, somewhere in between the radiator and the fans?
Or does it simply use gravity as a secondary pump?
I've only ever had laptops, so I have absolutely no experience.
@@PaulKrawitz94 Why would you need a secondary pump? its a loop it goes in one direction. The two tubes u see are not separated they are in a loop.
Gamers Nexus did a video on radiator placement. placing the rad at the front or side with fans as intake will technically affect the temperature of the graphics card.
"Technically" placing this anywhere in the case will affect the temperature of the graphics card...
@@MoreBollocks-ui2zs It won't if it's the exhaust.
You always want the air from the radiator to be pushed out of the case. I get some cases force you into certain orientations, but you never want the air going through your rad and into your pc case.
@@ronniekregar3482ok look at Linus tech tips they did an experiment with like 5 thick boy radiators they laid them out creating a lop and got numbers, then they connected them all back to back, difference is 1c thermodynamics is tricky but it works like it wants to not how you think it should be.
So can changing fan directions as there's so many variables in a build.
The counter argument is the hot air is already rising so leapfrog that shear flow is better than overall efficiency.
Damn
Since you are changing it from outputting hot air to inputting cold air, you might as well use the previous input fans as output on the top
Hot air rising is a very weak pressure compared to what the case fans are doing. Negligible.
My wife's PC had a side exhaust for pretty much this exact reason. In my opinion it's unnecessary but, it definitely makes it so that her machine is basically impossible to over heat.
Of course, she still refuses to overclock it. LoL :P
@@Pensnmusiclolol, how is the literal #1 property of heat negligible??? People need to stop parroting this dumb talking point.
I live in the Australian desert and my office regularly sits above 30c so top mounted AIO saves my GPUs ass.
It meant the two fans on the old CPU cooler are now extracting heat rather than just moving it around inside the case.
Bro casually said "I live in the Australian desert"
@@tartopom2669 and? What of it?
He casually said it 🗿
@@guska5523 It's a shthole.
There is no benefit to a top mount, GPU are less sensitive to temp increase than CPU 😂
This is why i love the O11 dynamic. Enough fan space for both a front AIO position and exclusive fan intake for the GPU on the bottom.
I technically have full reverse flow. The rear is intake, as well as the bottom. The Top and Front (Side) are outflows. Never have any issues. I do get some dust, but nothing an occasional shutdown (discharge), and then light dusting can't fix. If I really wanted to, I could cannibalize a mesh from another case and slap it on the back, but I am lazy.
safer at the top since inside the radiator there is liquid and air. To keep the air as far as possible from the pump is to put the pump lower than the radiator.
gpu temperature was considered and that seems to be the most important temp
Usually difference too low to consider it at all. It is ONLY aesthetics.
Tests have shown that GPU temp difference between top mount and front mount AIO is negligible. But there is a CPU difference as Zach pointed out
There is some case that have mesh panel on bottom panel for intake air to make gpu cooler tho
Thats never made any sense to me. CPU temps are wayyy more important than GPU temps.GPUs are so efficient at cooling now
Most GPU's run @70 degrees (unless you have a 5700 XT Refrence) A lot of new CPU's run way hotter than that while they are basically the same sillicon. I would say CPU thermals are more important and if you are worried about your GPU temps you can always just make your fans run faster using MSI afterburner
Just make sure that the pump *IS NOT* the highest point in the water cycle! Or else air will end up in the pump it can't pump water anymore and can even brake in the worst case.
So glad someone fucking said it....
Break
Only if you don't know what you are doing to get the air outta the pump in to the top of the rad before install.
Yes your right never put the pump high, infact make it the lowest possible point possible cause if a connection blows it's likely to happen at the pump and turn your PC into a very pretty aquarium. But also, did you not bleed the system? You gotta bleed the air out or else you'll burn out the motor in the pump and have worse cooling
its not even water btw
For anyone who's struggling to understand (that's okay btw), the computer overall produces heat that you need to move away from it, maximizing the order in which you do it is squeezing the last drops of efficiency, not that important as long as everything is properly cooled.
Or a 3rd option. Mount the radiator outside the case. Fresh air for both CPU and GPU
Like the giant radiator Bang4BuckGaming uses
Another important thing is ensuring that there is a part of your AIO that is above your cpu. That way, air can't get caught in the cpu pump
Two disappointing points with this advice:
1. A CPU will almost always tolerate more heat than a GPU, so having the GPU use warm air from the AIO on the front, would likely negatively impact temperatures/performance more
2. The "hot air rises" argument is objectively invalid unless it's a passive system - the airflow from even slow RPM fans will always completely negate any natural convection (with PC heat levels)
Yeah exactly I'd rather have the CPU run warm cause I'm mostly gaming and that doesn't utilise 100% cpu all the time
That's insane. CPU temps are wayyyyy more important than GPU temps.
Lol, the literal #1 property of heat is most certainly not objectively invalid. People need to stop parroting this dumb ass talking point.
@@ronniekregar3482 what would I know, I'm only an electrical and mechanical engineer 🤷 and no, the "literal #1 property of heat" is not that it rises 🤦
@@gtf600 okay Mr engineer, dense molecules don't go to the bottom as soon as heat is produced?
GPU cooling matters more than CPU cooling.
Until I got this freaking stovetop 14900k
@@75ur15bruh get liquid nitrogen
@@75ur15 A very expensive mistake right there..
@proxyhx2075 still faster than my 9900k...6700k....2600k.....amd 6400 x2 3800+.....Dell dimension 4300 was my first
....from 2 gigs (or 4? I'd have to check my fecords) to 128....always faster...from 32mb video ram..to 24 gigs now
;)
@@proxyhx2075 Ryujin III 360 will fix that right up. $350 AiO + $600 CPU
Top mounted AIO with push-pull configuration, that's the meta
I have my AIO front-mounted with push pull configuration.
No shot. Front mount is best. And the GPU temp for either orientation is negligible
Most cases don’t have the space but if they it’s definitely the meta
I've done it to try cool my 14900k it bearly made any difference and my cpu power cables were making it difficult that it was not worth it.
I just ended up having to get a more powerful aio in the end.
I have an aio with a front mounted push-pull setup. It helps that I put inverse phanteks on it that pushes air right into my amp gpu that is literally side by side to it with ~1mm of clearance. Then I put 2 140mm fans ontop. This is within a corsair 4000d
The gpu will generally heat the most, and also is the most heat-sensitive piece of hardware (vrams especially) so you want to prioritise the cold air from the front panel to the gpu, thats 1 of the 2 reasons why the radiator goes on top
Is this bait
@@Lorentz_Driver It's not bait. It's the truth. Based on all the repairs and new builds I've done and all of the tests I've done while checking thermals, top mount radiator really is the best way to go. Other than that, air bubbles get trapped in the highest point of the loop of an AIO. When you front or side mount with intake, you are not only dumping a bunch of heat into the case, but you are also trapping air bubbles into the point of the radiator with the tubes if they are on top of the radiator standing up vertically, so those air bubbles are making their way back into the pump and shortening the lifespan of the AIO pump. You are also restricting airflow into the case if you front or side mount it for intake while at the same time chocking other components with unnecessary heat. This is especially bad when your case only has front intake and a solid front panel. Zack really just posted a whole bunch of misinformation just now. There's plenty of sources that explain this far better than he would, such as Gamers Nexus, which I highly recommend you check out.
If you mount it up front. Make sure the tube's connecting to the radiator are up top!
heat naturally rising has a very insignificant impact on the cooling. Radiator on top is best for lifespan of pump.
The #1 property of heat is not insignificant lol....its always best to have your rad on top in an exhaust orientation.
@@ronniekregar3482 did, just stop
You have to put the radiator above the pump so air Bubbles don't damage you pump ...
as long as the top of the rad is above the CPU the front orientation is better, I can say I’ve had some pump noise though and had to tip my pc to make it stop a couple times but after 4 years my liquid freezer 240 AIO is still working like when I got it. I have a 5600x oc’d at 4.85 single and 4.7 all core at about 60c
Air cooler all the way no pump failures!
air cooler all the way cuz I'm poor
@@Jsp-hf3mnrelatable
Freezer all the way im too broke and i dont have a case
There is a few aio that has the same price as air cooler
In my country there is 360mm aio the same price as thermaltake peerlees assassin 120 @@Jsp-hf3mn
Well yeah unless you have a top of the line cpu which get toasty
To be honest, I vent my hot air out the back. I am taking most of the air in from the top, mixing warm air from the cooler and rising warm air from the gpu, blowing it out the back. There are 3 fans in the front blowing cold air across the MB and GPU. People tend to forget that the MB chipsets also get pretty hot. Warm air may rise, but the short distance inside the case is actually heating the entire case. Best to move as much cold air in as you can. I have one exhaust fan and 8 intake fans.
Its not only about "aesthetics" the benefits of top placement is to make sure the air bubble cant get into the pump, thus, minimize the possibility of pump failure.
The top is best because there isn’t much hot air in the case. The gpu gets hot but front fans keep that air in the bottom half of the case. Ive done front intake, top exhaust, side intake, side exhaust with a corsair 5000d and 360 aio and all temps for my 13900k were the same. Top is best though because the hot air produced from the aio goes directly out the top of your case. If you do front intake aio your gpu, motherboard, ram, etc will all get the heat from your cpu blown on them… not ideal. Also never install an aio in the front like that. Having the pump (usually found in the aio waterblock) above the ends of your tubes can cause bubbling and damage your water cooler.
Many tests have shown that top mount significantly increases CPU temps (5+ degrees celsius is significant) versus front mount AIO. The temp difference between the two for the GPU is negligible though. So no reason to not mount in the front
@@henry3397 not for me. Front mount made my computer case considerably hotter. The hand test on the glass panel told me all I needed to know. My i9 13900k (you know, the hot one) idled at 30 degree no matter which way I mounted it with load temps the same as well… I’m sticking with top mount, makes the room less hot also.
And there's case that have mesh on the bottom panel and fan mounting too, so it comes back to preference imo
@henry3397 nope...take all "testing" with a grain of salt. Top mount rad in an exhaust orientation 100% of the time, obviously if your case allows it.
@@LawyerSlays doesnt top mount usually means the air bubble in the aio floats into the pump causing reduced cooling and significantly shortened aio lifespan?
This was actually really helpful, my new PC components are about to arrive and i was just gonna put the radiator up top, but i gotta get out every degree with the 14th gen i9 KF, thanks!
What gpu u have?? Gpu is probbly more expensive than cpu so u dont want warm air blowing on ur gpu.. Rather risk few c° more for cpu than blow hot air on rest of components
@@metak-metak2010 ASRock Radeon RX 7900 XT 20g Phantom Gaming OC. But i'll use the pc mostly for music production, it's a studio build. But thanks bro!
@@metak-metak2010 Besides, music production is way more CPU than GPU intensive, so i gotta prioritize my CPU, but thanks!
Having the pump at the bottom of the loop is optimal for its survival.
Just make sure the tubes are above the pump and you are fine.
Holy crap this is something I've been curious about for a while, thanks
In ANY system integrating multiple components, those components can (and often do) synergize in ways which are both unpredictable and counter-intuitive.
Any system powerful enough to warrant using liquid cooling usually has a pretty formidable GPU - most typically a triple-fan model. For the majority of builds, this essentially divides the case interior into two distinct 'chambers'; one above the GPU and one below it.
The one below the GPU is typically exclusive to the GPU itself. While it commonly also includes the PSU, the PSU not only has it's own compartmentalized cooling but newer cases usually isolate it from all the internal circuitry. This is not to make light of the heat generated by high-end GPUs, but such cards are engineered in such a way as to handle said heat on their own - drawing in cooler air from below and exhausting through the 2-3 slots on the rear.
The one above the GPU is the crucial one, as it is the environ for the CPU, RAM, and the majority of critical components of the motherboard. It's also the compartment with the greatest exhaust potential - at least one 120/140mm fan in the rear and at least 400mm of passive venting on top.
The common element is that you most certainly do NOT want heated intake in either chamber. Notice in the pictured build (despite being roomier inside than typical cases) how the angled front intake fans are positioned - one providing cool intake for the lower chamber and two providing cool intake for the upper chamber.
As pictured, the upper chamber is net-negative and the lower chamber is net-positive - entirely as it SHOULD be. The negative pressure creates a cooling effect unto itself, further aiding the cooling for the RAM and VRM. This also draws airflow along the open side of the case, providing additional cooling for the GPU backplate while bypassing the motherboard entirely.
Motherboard designs vary, but performance motherboards (where thermals are more important) often position the primary chipset just below the GPU slot, allowing the GPU cooling system to help dissipate their heat. The net-positive pushes denser air across the chipset and through the GPU (as well as out the rear). Denser air also provides greater cooling for active systems, which is why GPUs always use push orientation (and radiators should always be push vs pull) - an additional reason why the lower chamber should always be net-positive.
5C difference is a lot though, thats so much room for overclocking.
There is almost zero benefits of overclocking cpus today, gpu however yes.
More than just aesthetics though, you also have it above to guarantee no air bubbles potentially get in the system.
I put the radiation on top and used it as an intake. Sure hot air rises but the overall airflow should direct it out the back. I have dust filters on top and the positive pressure should cause all air to flow out of the holes in the case so I don't have to clean it often. Temps are normal as expected. If we would prioritize those more then just as long as it doesn't throttle it's fine then GPUs would have fans up top.
My friend switched his top-mounted CPU AIO to suck air in rather than exhaust it out like it was doing when first installed, and his CPU temperatures went down as a result. The thing is, he is potentially saving the life of a £500 CPU, but blowing hot air taken from that over his £2000 graphics card. Even if the 4090 cooling is well designed, does doing that make more sense than doing it the other way around? In my friend's case (using that word in terms of example and physical enclosure), he has just one intake fan at the front and one rear exhaust fan, but I suppose you can't really escape the fact that all the heat inside his case is likely to be travelling over his graphics card as-configured.
@@soots-stayingoutofthespotl5495 Most gpus blow air up. So most of that hot air coming from above will be blown out the back of the case. And cool air from the front will make it under the gpu where it sucks in air. Just think about it a bit. It's not likely that all that hot air will make it AROUND a massive 4090 and heat it up. Plus those things have massive coolers. It's probably fine.
I have 3 intakes from the lower side (below glass panel), 3 intakes from the front, 3 Exhaust in the top, And 1 exhaust in the back. This way it intakes more cold air and creates positive pressure in the pc. If you have negative pressure in the PC, then there's a potential to draw in more dust that bypasses the fan filters.
Ran this configuration with my Corsair H100 for 13 years and never had any issues. Just have good intake fans on the front (or bottom) of your case.
Aren’t the front fans supposed to pull in the cool air? That’s what the aio fans suck in. Plus the exhaust fan at the back.
The GPU exhausts some hot air into the case, so the AIO won’t be picking up as cool air as possible
@@amlenkNo, the gpu cent heat the air so fast which got blown into the case from the front panel fans. front intake bottom intake top is out and rear is out plus more intake than out
@@MrChocobit The GPU will pick up air and exhaust it throughout the card. The heat won't just "disappear", it will rise (heat rises) to the top of your case and be picked up by the top mounted AIO and exiting your case. Depending on how much load the GPU is under, it will very much heat up the air. The thing is, air doesn't instantly become cool once it exits the case, it will eventually recirculate back into the PC and if you don't have sufficient cooling in your room, the room will become warm and the once "cool" intake air has warmed up.
@@amlenk @amlenk No, this only applies if you don't have enough intake. In addition, the three fans of the GPU are not sufficient to outperform three front fans and three bottom fans thermally. As long as you get more air in than is being processed inside, it will not be able to run as you have written.
@@MrChocobit Positive airflow doesn't negate the existence of the second law of thermodynamics. In a PC system, it means that despite having cool intake air, internal temperatures will stabilize between the cool intake and the heat generated internally. Hence why exhaust temperatures will typically be warmer than intake temps due to this equilibrium.
Let me clarify, I am simply stating that AIO placement DOES affects temperature, but not saying that it is significant enough to impact performance.
Aesthetics over 5 degrees? You crazy.
It's ALL baloney, air rising from heat is a TINY force that fans will overpower 10.000x in lowest rpm.
Also hot air? you have water cooling on the CPU and a GPU without there. THINK about it.
you EITHER throw out the "hot" air (I get back to it) with exhaust fans THRU the radiator, or throw "hot" air IN the case for the GPU to munch... It makes no difference.
With the amount of fans in that white case, air won't be longer in there then 1-2 seconds.. good luck in heating that so fast.
Direction doesn't matter, as long as you make sure the heated air is going in a direction that won't get sucked back into the case. In general that is to be on top, and back, and intake from bottom and front. (while in winter you might like hot air over you, in summer you don't.
@@DataStorm1 You don't have a water block on your GPU? I am not really understanding this hot air for your GPU comment. When you build your loop you generally don't have any serious heat sources in a modern system, yeah ram and some mosfets on the motherboard as well as your drives put off some heat but nothing that won't be handled by standalone heat sinks and general case airflow unless you went for one of those silly glass box cases that were big 2017 till nowish, but that was for the I buy boutique gamer systems for rgb LED set, not people who care about cooling.
@@OmniMontel My post is all about the TINY force of slightly warmer air that will rise, any fan overpowers that by 100.000x. Hence I say its baloney.
And I meant the PC in the video doesn't have a water block on the GPU...
The whole idea that air needs to exit thru the top because of hot air rising is bs, if you want it thrown out of the bottom, its fine, the back? sure is fine too. Just don't put intake and outtake next to each other, for the one pulling in will suck in what the other is throwing out.
Since CPUs usually generate less heat than GPUs, it makes sense to have the AIO as intake, while having a couple of bottom fans blowing fresh air into the GPU. That way both major components get fresh air and the secondary components that require a bit of cooling like the RAM, chipset and drives, can rely on the slightly warm intake air without any issue.
The best way is to mlunt the aio on the side (if u have a fish tank case) and put intake fans from bottom and the top and one exhaust in the rear ( i know that heat goes up and all that stuff but trust me inside of a case with an RTX 4080 is NOT THAT HOT that u might think and the main reason that we use fans inside the case is just for ventilation
Or just buy Noctua fans. You dont need a radiator..
You’ll still need a heat sink, you can’t cool a CPU with just a fan
Yeah, not cooling my i9-13900ks with just fans.
👎
Thanks to haven that there are actually useful short videos.
In a car radiator, you pull air in from outside because it's cool and exhaust it underneath the car.
In this case, you should be pulling outside air from the top and exhausting thru the back so there's equal pressure in the case for better cooling.
Always put on top! Because the temps are general better and you lill the airflow by add rad in front
aesthetics????? X3D noti gang gettin lit RN
“Aye bro my pc is over heating”
“But does it look good?”
“Yea”
“Then it doesnt matter”
Mount your radiator at the top directly or indirectly depending on what your radiator instructions suggest. Remove the dust filter on the top and have your pump tubs facing 3 or 6 o'clock.
It's better to exhaust your hot air out of your case. The tiny efficiency loss to the individual radiator doesn't offset raise the overall temp inside the case.
Actually did turn the fans on my top mounted aio to intake, coolest it has ever been. For context: Lian li o11 Evo, intake from the bottom and top. Exaust through the side and rear. It really does run cooler temps. Been 2 months, no real dust build yet. However what is true, less rgb.
Highest priority is air pressure, as long as you have enough intake and enough exhaust regardless of where, you’re fine.
Better explanation. CPU or GPU focused cooling.
In fishtank cases there are also fans that blow above the GPU -> mostly fresh air that gets directly to the AiO
AIOs are a lose lose situation because you either mount it at the top and pull in hot air from the case or mounted at the front or side and heat up your entire case. Just get a regular heat sync they kick off the heat and don’t transfer it anywhere else besides out
You would just be taking the heat from the radiator and throwing it back into your case. That's why the fans should exhaust through a radiator. If you want fresh exterior air through the radiator, I suggest creating some kind of fan shroud that causes intake from the nearest vent.
Hot air does indeed rises.
Or, and hear me out, you have two AIO coolers (one for CPU, one for GPU) mounted in *both* positions! 🤣
Seriously, though, the internal case temp is rarely that hot... It's far more important to have any air (even warm) moving over the hot parts than where the radiator is placed. It's the air current that carries away the heat, not the temp of the air being moved. Like he said, the different is miniscule.
If you are going to put the rad in the front, the tubing should be at the top of the radiator. you want the tubing to go up from the pump so that air bubbles dont collect in the pump.
Me doing research on parts. Ordering parts. Builds PC. Watches you for the first time. Finds we have almost the same pc
One thing I like about my Corsair 4000D, they added a removable panel right behind where the fans go so you can easily fit a 3 fan cooler.
If you have a properly cooled case the front fans should blow in rear out top out no heat can build up enough to make a change
Room ambient temp is the real win here.
Also there's the whole point about making the intake and output valves on your radiator higher than your CPU. This is so that as permeation occurs and your IAO gets air pockets, the air stays at the highest point in the loop and doesn't get sucked to your cpu, potentially trapping the air, forcing the pump to work harder AND increasing your temps at the same time as more air in the CPU block means less water in the block that cools your cpu
5 degrees is the difference between my CPU and graphics card melting and being able to play modern games at an affordable price. I'll take the 5 degrees. I shouted at the last guy I paid to build my PC who put it up top. I do it myself now.
5 degree is not the difference between something melting cpu or gpu wise, stop being dramatic.
and having the rad as intake will raise the temp of the cpu by roughly the temp above ambient.
so if ambient is 20C and the rad is 40C(common temp for one) then the gpu temp will increase by 20C if fan speeds on the gpu remain the same. but your gpu will just be forced to run its fans like mad to compensate, hopefully theres enough headroom!
Another reason why you might mount your AIO on the front: 😺
If air is pulled out fast, it gotta enter somewhere somewhat because it would make a vacuum, so i think no need to have intake fans
Fun fact, it ultimately doesnt matter. What is more important in my opinion is having more intake flow than exhaust. This ensures a positive internal air pressure, which ensures you arent sucking air in through cracks in the panels where unfiltered air can cake everything in dust.
NOT FOR HONORR BUT FORRR YOUUUUUUUUUUUUU
@@buss1205 In my time, there'll be no one else~
Crime, it's the way I fly to you
I'm still in a dream, Snake Eater~
I've heard of putting the AIO fans at the front because case space, but never because it's apparently BETTER than at the top.
That's like having AC on the wall, and passing it through a furnace so that the inside of the house is colder X-X
Hot air comes out, Cold air comes in. Especially with positive/ negative pressure as this keeps the air moving, thus the air being sucked into the top AIO fans from the inside isn't even that much warmer than room temp. It's just actively pumped through.
Also it's better for the liquid inside but that's another topic unless you mount it at the front tubes at the top? If I'm not mistaken. If it's the other way around you get air trapping.
the liquid inside the AIO will be much hotter than the air inside the case. just like in summer time the air will be 100F but the liquid inside your car's radiator will be around 190F-220F. As long as the surrounding air temp isn't the same or greater cooling by liquid radiator isn't an issue
Placing your radiator up top is best, it's because the air in the loop rises to the highest point. If the rad is below or the same level as the cpu block the air can collect inside the cpu block causing an air gap which drastically lowers the cooling efficiency and causing excess eroding and oxidisation
Top is also recommended for avoding air bubbles getting sucked to pump, so top mounted ensures air bubbles are above pump
My Cooler Master Q500L microATX case lays on it's side due to our desktop set up. I have two 140mm intake fans on the front, a 120mm rear exhaust fan and got a Corsair H100x 240mm AIO in the "top" position pulling in. My CPU at full tilt runs in the upper 60's, lower 70's. Neither my CPU or GPU throttle, so YMMV. Just need to keep in mind how your case flows best.
Negative pressure (more exhaust fans than intake fans) also means you'll end up with more dust inside your PC, since it will suck air/dust IN through gaps and holes in the case, instead of pulling air through a dust filter and the positive pressure pushing air/dust OUT through all those gaps and holes in the case.
Keep the exhaust fans on the top. Add in intake fans to the front. You bring in fresh cooler air from the front, that is sucked across the the components by the fan in the back and the fans at the top. Airflow matters.
My Corsair 280mm AIO shows in the manual that the optimal fan orientation when top mounted is to be an intake fan. So I have mine mounted as intakes with a big dust filter on the top. Makes it easy to keep the case clean. I have 2 more 140mm fans as intake on the front of the case so there is a lot of hot air that gets blasted out the back.
Unless it is in an excessively ventilated room, the temperature of the air coming out of the case will rapidly equalize with the ambient air. Having the radiator as an intake will have the air inside your case that is meant to cool your RAM and Motherboard (Chipset/VRM) and usually GPU is already significantly above ambient.
we use them as outbound because you heat the whole case or have semi-thermally loaded air cooling your CPU. with enough additional fans the air flows from the top back in and then out the rad is almost ambient.
Gamer Nexus did a video on this. The reason why they put it on the top is because with time some of the liquid in the radiator will evaporates. That way you have constant coolant, going through the tubes and not air.
at 00:24 there is clearly a set of 3 fans blowing fresh cool air into the case, providing air to every component inside the case. Placing the CPU rad in the front will cause hot air to blow inside the case.
but remember NEVER install the cooler at the very bottom because it will destroy the pump in the cooling block, and placing it at the front is also not the best.
Acktwually the reason is air in the loop. You always want your pump to be lower than the highest point in the loop. Typically the pump is in the cpu block, so you will want the cpu block below the highest point of the radiator. The system would work with the pump being the highest point, at least right up until enough fluid has evaporated and the pump is trying to pump air instead of fluid. As the fluid also lubricates the pump, air in the pump will kill it far quicker than it would otherwise. All this means that you want the pump in your loop to not be at the highest point in the loop as that is where the air bubbles will end up.
Lian li lancool cases have a mesh psu enclosure side panel and you can put fans on the bottom, inside the main chamber. This essentially acts as a secondary fresh air source that ports cool air straight into the GPU, couple that with front facing cpu aio and beefy exhaust fans to keep mobo and ram from cooking themselves and you have the "META"
Even better when you add a fan per side of the AIO radiator.
Its less about the pulling cold air through to cool the radiator, and more about getting rid of the hot air as quickly as possible.
Good to keep it flat anyway so any air that builds up over time is evenly distributed rather than conglomerating at one end of the radiator.
The cpu isn’t typically the limiter, it’s the gpu. Letting it cool with fresher air is good to give you the boost you need
And then there is the AIO pump where having all the liquid on top makes it efficient whereas mounting the radiator at front can create a situation where air gets trapped in the pump housing
Only if you dont know what youre doing
Gamers Nexus also explained that this is best for the life of the AIO. Least amount of air bubbles getting in over time
From what i remember the aio is actially optimal on the top because bringing in the air from the front, is blowing through the rad which heats up the air. So its better to have direct cool air cooling the entire pc while no excess heat from the rad being blown into the case
Always aesthetics. Form over functionality for everything
When you are intaking a radiator you are only warming up the air youre pulling into the case as the radiator will be hot. Its better to have a frwsh supply of cool air into the case that can be sucked out along all the components and pushed across the radiator to help cool it. This will give you effective air and water cooling.
I did put the radiator infront once. The cpu gets just a little bit cooler but my gpu temp increases due to the hot air being pump into the case. Now when i placed the radiator on top, added fans to the front to blow in fresh air, my gpu temp drops and balanced out with my cpu temp while gaming.
It's better to have fresh air coming into your case and exhaust fans to take all of the hot air out. That way you'll have better air circulation, cooling down your other components in the case like your ssd's, hdd's, motherboard, ram, etc and hopefully prolongs the lifetime of your pc components.
For some reason my balls say "JUST PUT A F*CKING CAR RADIATOR THERE" 💀
There's also another issue.
If you improperly mount the radiator to the front you can create a air bubble that would over time degrade performance and eventually cause the pump to die.
Another point is that there could be more noise due to this sound.
Gamers Nexus did a good video explaining on how to avoid these issues but top mounting the radiator is just overall a better solution as water flows from the high point to the lowest.
5 degrees can be big and it can be small. It's not the numbers that matter. But the scenario
AIO: on top if at all possible.
Custom loop: wherever you want it.
TBH, as long as your fan configuration doesn’t rely on static pressure, but high flow rates, then it really doesn’t matter. If it matters to you, then which configuration you choose is entirely dependent on whether you want to prioritize cooling your CPU or your GPU.
The reason the aio is on top is mostly because the tubes accessing the radiator should be higher than the pump and when you do it like this the tubes will always be under water level of the radiator. Which will work best and prevents noice.
Placing the pump in front you have 2 options.
1. Placing the tubes entering at the top of the radiator. This can cause bubbly noices in the radiator.
2. Placing the tubes at the bottom. Resulting in the pump being higher which can cause bubbly noice in the pump. Placing it like this can also be a problem because with full cases the tubes are to short.
Front fans pulls in cold air, giving AIO on the top some cold air, and GPU hot air is exhausted through the fan in the back of the case. If you have your AIO in front, then in any CPU intensive workload, rendering for example, your case just pull in hot air. So if in doubt, just upgrade your intake and exhaust fans
the water flow into the radiator matters more
and the front side installed radiator you showed is pulling from instead of pushing air into the radiator so it's less optimal too
My rig has the radiator in the front pulling in, then top and back fans pushing out. It's how I've run it for years, and it's still going strong like this.