Push or pull fan setup

The cooling performance should be nearly identical either way you decide to mount it. Faithh07 Posted January 3, Ripshod Posted January 3, Posted January 5, Archived This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies. Go to topic listing.

We did not test at exactly the same fan speeds or with the same fan. Martin tested with a fixed pump power at approximately 1. These numbers therefore are not precisely comparable but they are close enough for these purposes given the obvious and large differences in performance. The numbers are relative performance compared to the best radiator. Now the performance gap is even worse! The Kukri fans even have an RPM advantage here. The separation is even larger.

Yes it is noisier — twice as many fans means that noise will increase by about a square root of 2 i. But notice that we said ANY radiator.

That means you can save money by buying the cheapest radiator possible. Here in lies the problem — the additional fan increases the total thickness of the radiator setup by 25mm. This means that the Coolgate G2 that was our overall winner becomes an astonishing mm thick. The thinnest radiator that we tested was 30mm thick. This means that it is acceptable to run one set of fans IF you have less clearance than 80mm. If you are currently running one set of fans then you will get real value by adding some more.

In other words that person should be choosing the radiator based on other more important factors e. Not only are there not statistics on what users really do but if that were the case the manufacturer could easily educate people on this particularly those that offer fans for sale too.

PushPull you are comparing apples and oranges. Fresh air will enter the case, cooling your components. Hot air generated by your hardware rises and will leave through the top exhaust fans. A optimal fan configuration would include intake fans on the front of the case.

Including an exhaust fan on the rear of the case will round out an optimal setup. A configuration like that will let cool air enter in the front, while the hot air from the CPU and GPU then exhausts on the top and rear of the case.

In a standard desktop PC, you want at least one intake and one exhaust fan. Some cheaper cases only include a single intake fan on the front of the PC, or a single exhaust fan at the rear. Spend a couple bucks for another fan so you have both. Like the picture above. Which setup is optimal? Both work just fine. In the example above, the open shroud GPU will also exhaust hot air upwards—a typical setup for a gaming rig. This will slightly increase your CPU temperatures when using an air cooler; you can reduce the heat levels with optimal fan airflow.

What can you do to maximize cooling and airflow? If your case allows it, install fans pushing air upwards towards your GPU on the bottom. This will give cool air directly to the intake fans on the GPU itself.