I'll be getting my R3 later this week but I'm not sure about the air flow model I should be using. I have an H50 so it makes it a little more confusing on my part. So far it goes like this 2x120mm intake front 1x140mm intake bottom 1x120 intake rear 2x140mm exhaust top I'm still not sure what to do about the 140mm side panel fan. Also do you have recommendations for 140mm fans that are semi-cheap and not so loud.
dont use too many fans as it will ruin the airflow 2 fans in the front for intake 2 exhaust fans in the roof Use the rear for your H50, you can have it as in intake seeing as you will have 2 140mm in the roof as exhaust 1 on side panel, forget the bottom intake.
So should the side panel be intake or exhaust? Or would it be better to forget the side panel and make the bottom an intake? Also, recommendations on 140mm fans?
side panel should be intake. see ive got a fractal arc midi and my temps for my gtx 580 at idle were 61c which was really high i just this evening installed an intake side panel fan 140mm (bitfenix cheap jobby) and the temp at idle is now 41c
There is an article on the website about cooling that case with different fan configurations. Sent from Bittech Android app
Here you go The_Beast, lots of threads about R3 cooling for you to look at with plenty of information. http://forums.bit-tech.net/search.php?searchid=13776912 I have a lot of fans, all on a controller because my ambient gets very high: 2 x 120 mm Silverstone Penetrator - Front intake 1 x 140 mm Silverstone Penetrator - Card cooler (in front of hard drive cage) 1 x 140 mm NZXT FN-140RB rifle - Card exhaust (side panel) 1 x 120 mm Scythe Gentle Typhoon 1850 - Rear exhaust 1 x 140mm Enermax top intake for CPU The top intake idea came from the Bit-Tech write up about R3 cooling from 3 days ago
On mine, with the side panel on intake, my GPU idles at approx 5c higher and goes around 12c higher at load compared to exhaust. (My GPU dumps hot air inside the case) Makes no difference to the CPU temps either way. Also, there is no dust filter for the side panel unless you buy one separately.
Thanks for the help +rep for help Edit: After reading that it seems like the bottom and side fans are more of a hinder than a help So: 2x120mm Fractal front intakes 1x120mm Corsair rear intake 2x140mm BTD top exhaust I still have a Antec 120mm 3 speed fan laying around that I'll test the side/bottom with (or do a push pull on my H50) instead of buying a 3rd 140mm fan
Don't do rear as an intake. I have 2x 120mm air penetrators front, 1x Be quiet USM bottom, and a 1850 GT for the rear 'exhaust' You want to use your H50 has your rear exhaust with 2 front intakes and a bottom intake.
Corsair recommends that the H50 be inside the case and as an intake so it's not sucking in hot air from the system
Yet another helpful post feathers. Reported! I have an r3 and an h50 I have the 2 front fans as intakes and the h50 in push pull on the rear exhaust. I have not put anything on the top bottom or sides. I will get around to setting the top as an exhaust too at some point i think. I may also add a side fan to provide cool air for the graphics. I saw no real temp difference between exhaust or intake configuration of the h50 by the way.
personally on my r3, i use two 120's as front intakes, a 120 as a rear exaust and a 140 as a side panel exaust, all fractal branded fans. it would probably be better to have a roof exaust judging by the bit tech article but when i tested it previously i did't like all the extra noise. temps wise; cpu: idles in the low 30s, loads at the low 50s. gpu: idles in the low 30s, loads max at 65c. using core temp and gpuz to measure. not stunning temps i know but i like balance between temps and noise.
The bit-tech tests suggest that the bottom or side fans are particularly useful, as it creates a better airflow working with the rear exhaust -- and to use these before you add a front fan. I've got this case and have added a bottom fan, and have noticed an improvement in temperatures. I always run my front fans pretty low (about 700rpm) anyway to avoid noise, and because the extra fan is at the bottom of the case noise is dampened quite a lot compared to a side one. So I have two front fans running quietly, a rear exhaust running quietly (all three are controlled by the motherboard according to CPU temp), and a bottom intake running at full (1200 rpm I think).
