Water-cooling Fan Direction
 

Just joined this forum due to the great deal of knowledge that appears to reside here. Just picked up my Antec SX1040 today & am ready to assemble my water-cooler. I want to mount my Black Ice Prime in the top of my case with a cutout for the 120mm Panaflo. Should the fan pull or push. I understand that if it pushes it will push room air across the rad but the warm air from the rad will enter the case. If I pull, warm air from the case will cross the rad. Any & all suggestions would be appreciated.

Most people don't see alot of difference between push and pull. What is crucial however is the standoff of the fan from the fins. 1" is a preferred minimum clearance. Why, because the standoff prevents a deadspace in front of the fan motor (with no air moving through it) from being created ;).

Fan Direction
 

Thanks for the reply. I'm glad you reminded me of the dead space. I had forgotten about it. That will make a big difference in how and where I mount my rad.

it doesn't matter much about push or pull, having the fan off the rad is the first way to get better temps, running two fans helps as well

Well all I noticed when going from push to pull was that the "hissing" sound that came from my rad is now gone. I had 1x 120mm fan attached with a shroud on my rad.

gooFy

when pushin with a fan, you have the air moving at high speed at the rad, this makes the air not want to move, and spread around evently.

when pulling, the air is comming more evenly over the rad.

this effect is more noticible as the sized of the rad is bigger than the fan.


shrouding greately reduces this effect because the farther the fan is from the rad, the less the effect.


sooooo i would have to say that a 1+ inch shroud with a fan pulling would be best, or maybe a much thicker shroud with a pushing fan. but in reality it is whatever works for you.

I've made a ducting in my case so that it takes air from outside of the case through my computer and out through the rad. This way the heat from the rad does not go into the computer and the heat from the computer does not go through my rad. Mashie did a real neat one in his system at http://mashie.glassbil.net/casemods/syrinix.htm

i will be doing a similar project expcept on the side of of my case.

to the original poster, does the bix and the 120mm fan with shround actually fit in the top of the case without taking up drive bays?

also, since i plan to do this on the side of my case i have a quick question.

i want to keep noise to a minimum and will be using some lower flow fans. I think it would be best to use 2 lower flows than 1 really high. would they work well together like this?

fan -> rad ->fan|case

the arrows being the direction of airflow, also there will be a cutout in the side of my case to exhaust hehe.

if you make the radiator the highest part of your loop. Air is more likely to be trapped there. Try and keep your reservoir or fill section the highest part of the loop.

If you can use a push/pull setup for your fans. But if it's only one fan use the pull for reasons stated above. Standing off the fan a full inch may buy you an extra degree or 2.

That's my 2cents.

Throws in a pennies worth
 

If the two choices were pull case air over the rad and exhaust to the outside or pull room air over the rad and exhaust to the inside of the case -

I would tend to pick outside air over the rad since the CPU's temperature is more important than the case temp (and if the rad were at the top of the case and you had an exhaust fan at the back of the case, it would have minimal heating affect on the lower part of the case where everything else is).

However, if you aren't pushing your CPU much in the OC department and have the rad at the top of the case, then I would say go the other way, since the case air isn't usually that much higher than ambient.

But - I prefer to have both intake and exhaust from/to the outside :)


If you put the spacer/shroud for the fan above the rad with it at the top of the case, then you could still have the res/air trap above the rad by mounting the res/air trap directly against the top of the case with the bleed/fill tube extending either up through the top of the case or out the back and up.

i noticed that the air gets pushed more evenly when the fan is pushing air through my heater core, since fans push alot better than they pull, this makes sence.

I use the push/pull of the fans as it balances the air moving through the rad. The fans are mounted 1" off of the rad.

BadLar, This is my Antec 1040 case setup. Depending on where you mount your pump, if you have the rad in the top your going to lose some GPH's if the pump is mounted at the bottom. Air flow in my setup is, < FAN-RAD-FAN-CASE < Arrows show direction of airflow.

DV,

I see you're also in Arizona. :)

What heatercore did you find to fit in your 1040 case? I've tried several from Autozone that including the Chevette heatercore, but all were too wide to fit in the case. The curved metal at the base reduces the interior width.

TIA, Mike

If I'm interpretting this correctly, do you have your rear fans as intake fans? I ask because the 2 120s blowing out would need a lot of intake air I would think.

Mike

mcduffiem, I am using a Chevy Chevette core purchased from Checker Auto. Also my rear fans are blowing out from the case.

Hey DodgeViper, what did you use for your shroud. It looks super sweet!

:D

DV, Do you remeber the dimensions on it. Did you have to mod the 1040 to fit it in?

Thanks, Mike

ME WANT YELLOW WAUTA! i got sum nasty water wetter red colored. can i just use food coloring and dip some in my Jug?

S

The rad is 6-1/8" wide. No it fit right into the case. The shroud is made of 1" x 1/16" brass stock and solder together. The cooling area is 6-1/8" x 6-1/16" and with the top and bottom tanks its about 8" tall.


Try this link on how I built the shroud, CLICK