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Got 2 120mm fans on my 2-342 rad drawing air though (shrouded). Would I be better served by putting one fan on each side (shrouded for spacing) in a push-pull arrangement? Would rather not add fans but can sacrifice som space if you guys think it might be more efficient. Thoughts Please
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Depends on the fans somewhat, but IMHO there are three primary sorts of setups (plus variations on the themes)
1. Put two fans on one side of the rad. (current setup) Will give approx. the free air flow of one fan of the same type. Sucking is better than blowing, (I'm talking about the rad, not my girlfriend, quit thinking dirty
) as long as the fans are properly shrouded and spaced (they should be at least 1" off the rad face) (Key theory, fans in parralel increase volume, but do same pressure. Also per my understanding of BillA, a fan will produce only about 50% of free air volume sucking through a core)
FWIW, I'm planning to use a variant of this setup on my system, which also uses a 2-342
2. One fan on each side of the rad, in a 'push-pull' setup. Downside is MAJOR increase in assembly thickness. Assuming 38mm fans, and a 1.5" shroud on each side, thickness nearly doubles. Add that the shroud probably should be deeper in this setup to get optimal airflow through the entire rad face. I would expect the result to be about a wash, perhaps a bit less flow - Fan theory says that fans in series increase pressure, but do about the same volume. The increased pressure will mean less volume is lost getting through the rad, but probably not enough to make up for only having one fans worth of volume as opposed to two in option one.
3. Double the fans, so there are two on each side, again in a push-pull setup. Should be a MAJOR increase in total flow volume, slightly less than 2X option one or two. However there will also be a great deal of noise increase as well. Considering that the 2-342 is a really effective cooling device, unless you have really incredible heat loads it probably isn't needed...
(Note that I'm NOT BillA, nor do I play him on TV
The above is off the cuff guestimates, and I could well be wrong.)
Gooserider