How to optimize your case airflow!

Neutral, haha! tell me you ride a motorcycle without telling me you ride a motorcycle.

Jay, I'm having some trouble finding neutral on my motherboard. Should I just keep my foot on the clutch? Or do I keep slamming it into the next gear with no clutch? (Shifts faster that way) lol

um for us its m³ Per minute

Nah, that’s just your opinion, mines fine with my 9900KF 200mm intake 2x 92’s out thermals always below 50c in thermaltake core v1

This is priceless advise right here.

Holy crap I loved the DUST reference to Counter Strike Dust map hah!

Great video!

I'm still putting off the operation for a day or two, since I just bought a new case and plan to migrate my existing system from the old one into the new one... and that will be a bit of a nightmare, I assume. But hey... my current bequiet PureBase 600 won't allow me to front mount the rad with the hoses down (or to put the rad in the top of the case), plus its front panel is super restrictive (noise optimized case).
Anyway: Fractal Design Pop Air XL - not planning on using any of the pathetic 1200 RPM 120mm fans that come with it (three in the front, one in the rear, I think).
I currently have a 240mm Lian Li AiO for the CPU, 2x140 bequiet! Light Wings, and an 120mm Iceberg Thermal RGB. I was planning on putting the rad in the front, with its fans taking in air through the all-mesh front panel. 120mm as a rear exhaust of course and the 2 140s in the top, also as exhausts. This probably won't give me positive pressure, but I'm not sure I want my hoses hanging down from the roof and, more importantly, I'm not sure having the rad get fed hot air from inside the case would be the best setup for CPU-temps.
Am I overthinking this?
I think the best airflow I've ever had was in the days of 120mm AiOs. My puny Corsair H60 between two high-pressure fans sucking in fresh air at the top rear mounting point. 200mm fan mounted right above that in the roof, exhausting. That really worked a treat and noticeably lowered CPU temps compared to other setups I tried with this configuration.

Good advice! One thing though - convection is not that weak of a force. It can make a difference. That's why your exhaust fan is rear top. And that's why you should keep it as an exhaust, not intake.

what case is this...

Jay, what if we have a full mesh case like the darkFLash DLC29 or a Fractal North with a mesh side panel?

I have my back and rear top as exhaust then 4 intakes plus the psu pointing in and seems great!

The most efficient airflow happens when you get closer to equilibrium between intake and exhausted air, doesn't matter much whether its positive or negative in the end its the closer you get to equilibrium. less positive of negative pressure is better but there's a point where getting to complete neutral pressure has diminished returns, cuz the other equation is that more air movement the better so the most air movement going through the case while keeping the pressure closer to neutral. The more 4 pin PWM connectors on the motherboard the more control you have, leave no PWM connector unused.

A lot of people forget about their power supply fan. Depending on the PSU orientation, it may be pulling air from inside the case and pushing it out, so 2 in the front, 1 out the rear, 1 out the PSU, so it becomes close to neutral. Luckily some cases (like the one Jay is showing here) have it turned so the PSU intake pulls from outside and exhausts back out right away with minimal/no air from inside the case.

First.

I wonder how many outtakes he had for this video? 🤔

As someone studying aerospace engineering, this excites me!

Feet and inches, pounds and ounces, and miles per hour... None of this foreign rubbish thank you. Yes, I'm in Great Britain :-)

Mike Rowe Center

Fancontrol baby - Jay being all Zen with the incents (see what I did there?) On a more serious note, I am replacing the motherboard today (come Amazon!!) and my single tower already had the dust markings of the fan. Gives me something to think about.

Jaytwocents!!! Wow its been a long while.

The Techpriests of Mars approve this appease to the Omnissiah by incensing the PC Case before use

I'm surprised there isn't some sort of air flow simulator program that lets you enter specs such as case, fan types, etc. that would help you determine the best placement and speeds of your fans.

i have 3 120 intake fans and two 120 exhaust fans on top and one 120 in back was hoping that would get the best airflow in my system

I manually configure my fans so that every single one of them is blowing air IN to the case.

Uh I seem to have the same case or a super similar case, the font of mine are 2 140 mm with a cut out on the bottom for the extra space for the fans.

I have a serious question: intake and exhaust fans, how do you know which ones to buy? does it say it on the fan? or the box?

But how many outtake fans should you have

Only missing that Push-Pull Configuration here! I know you mentioned that in one of your other more recent videos. But can't find it or recall which vid you had or what you said about it precisely, because it was too early on in my learning and I couldn't absorb it or have anything to compare it to then. So, any help from peps who know just how much more helpful or not that Push-Pull is could comment and let me know (again). But IF it only helps Cool or Moves air by the very smallest of factors That would be enough for me to simply ignore, because of The Noise Factor & Bulky Looks of it all. I'd want a Huge payoff for Push-Pull. AND adjusting the RPM speeds def is helpful going forward with Airflow. Love That!!! Thanks.

Outtakes are more important than intakes to get hot air out.

So......is putting all fans into intake not great?

I dident really understand this case as an example,. if you put a aio in the top, with 2 140's, you will have 3 exhaust fans. 2 140, and 1 120, and you have 2 140 intakes in the front. That would mean it would be negativ preasure, and all 3 exhaust would have to be trimmed down in pwm ios settings? Would be easier to follow this with a example case with 3+3 fans, and some images with arrows for flow etc.

Yeah I didn't know about the RPM distinction. I do use two 140mm fans for my intake, and two 120mm fans for my exhaust, aslo my gpu fans are right next to a mesh panel so I think they pull some air through there.

Thank you.

Hey Jay, thanks for the video. So, I could go without a rear fan, and just run 3-120mm fans on the front, right, depending on RPMs. Positive pressure.

A rule of thumb (not feet) is to calculate mesh as eating 50% of the airflow and each 90 degree turn is a 33% decrease in airflow. Hence
2x front intake fans with mesh = 1 exhaust(out-take) fan.
3x front intake fans with mesh = 1 top exhaust fan.
This assumes the fans are of the same size, has same airflow and runs at the same RPM.

I suppose the fact that filters are usually applied to the air IN must be accounted for

I cut a quarter of my front and top panels to have a big intake and exaust. Buy a cape to protect the PC when i'm not using and, buy a blower to keept it clean. Done. Even in summer.

I really wish you'd stop using the term pressure improperly.
Fans do not create pressure, they create volume. Air that cannot escape faster than the incoming air creates pressure within the case due to restriction of flow, creating a back pressure. You also cannot blow pressure with your lungs, you can displace volume, when you change the size of the exit orifice (your lips) there is a back pressure that will form inside your mouth and lungs, and the velocity of air exiting the orifice will increase.

Twin stack cpu coolers:

Triple fan, front and back, front and middle, middle and back, front only, middle only, back only?

What about plugging up the holes in the case?

I make mushroom grow rooms and we always use negative pressure, because it removes every inch of air, the downside is it requires more fan cleaning, and having booster fans on the intake help a lot

Bro thought me Physics, even better than my lecturer...!

Another thing to check pressure is to tape a small strip of tissue paper to each fan

I've been building my own PCs since the early 90s. And I'm still amazed how bad airflow is in this consumer cases all the time compared to the professional world. As if that (and physics) does not exist and the sole purpose for those cases is to sell people overpriced crap with shiny RGB LEDs and cheap glass panels.

Now my current PC is just from one of the Usual Suspects. My CPU has 280 W TDP and the CPU cooler is still just a passive cooler and it can run maxed out all day long. It just works and it is reasonably quiet. Just some proper classical engineering with some proper airflow management went into it. Just shrouds directing the airflow making sure that all critical components are covered at all times. Aerodynamic basics really.

You could even do that with some clear plastics and still keep the somewhat (highly subjective of course) cheap gamer optics.

I'll have 3 120's on intake, but 3 120's and a 140mm on exhaust, but the 3 120's on exhaust will by trying to push through a dense 360mm Lian Li Performance radiator. Hmm. Could be almost neutral, but hard to tell. The CPU temps will change the radiator exhaust pressure, right? So, my pressures could change.

I will this week be swapping my case fans. A lot of people don't seem to understand what I am trying to do though. My computer is very quiet, my thermals are fantastic. I just don't like how the acoustics of the air flow sounds. So I am going to be swapping in fans that when at the same rpm as my existing fans are acoustically quieter in the way the move the air. But when I talk to people everyone goes straight to thermals and rpm. I can't get them to understand the acoustics of what I am talking about. It is like not liking the way the wind sounds outside.