that is a good question. i suppose it depends on how much space you have at your disposal? my watercooling stuff is all inside my case; my shroud is one inch deep.
how deep can you make it befor the fan is useless? unlimited? someone should make a variable shroud with a max distance something bizarre like 20 or 30 feet. get an airflow meter to see if the distance affects the fans performance.
hmm....i have a spare fan and a dead 'core....and a LOT of cardboard boxes. whats a decent airflow meter that doesn't cost too much?
