Why didn't I test this sooner?
Top vs. Front radiator placement with different GPUs tested!
▷ CREDITS
Kevin Macleod - www.incompetech.com
Audio file(s) provided by www.audiomicro.com
NoCopyrightSounds
/ nocopyrightsounds
SUBSCRIBE! bit.ly/bitwitsub
Want to Become a Channel Member for Exclusive Perks and Content? bit.ly/bitwitmembership
Check out my Builds Playlist! bit.ly/bitwitbuilds
FLOATPLANE
Watch my videos a week early at bit.ly/2xI0n89
MERCH STORE
www.bitwit.tech/store/
FOLLOW ME
Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | Snapchat
@bitwitkyle
✉ SEND FAN MAIL TO:
Bitwit
P.O. Box 1449
La Mirada, CA 90637
About Bitwit:
Bitwit is a PC gaming and hardware-focused KZhead channel committed to making quality online tech videos for your infotainment! We are a nerdy married couple pumping out 3 to 4 videos a week delivering a mixed bag of content including product reviews, custom PC builds, vlogs, the occasional comedy sketch and more.
Does Radiator Placement Matter? Hint: YES
• Does Radiator Placemen...
Bitwit
/ bitwit
best place to put radiator : outside of the case. outside the house if possible.
Depends. If you live in a hot desert it is better to keep it inside when you have air conditioning running.
Here in Arizona? Check your cold-climate privilege at the door mister!
Andres Jaramillo 😂 I grew up in the Dominican Republic and now live in New England, the cold is so much worse than heat by a long shot...
imgur.com/a/zfJ8q 😂 😂 my pc
Chidiebere Anyahara I know, but I just don't heat up that much, like I wouldn't feel as uncomfortable if it was 90-100 F, than 0-20 F, and I'm more sensitive to cold than to hot
If you are building a PC right now and want to know the answer 12:10 thank me later when your PC is build 10 minutes sooner
Nice one..
Awesome cheers, my case has no GPU so I'm going front on
Love you
You sir are a true gentleman
champ ✊
I just have my radiator hanging out the case in a bucket of ice
I have mine in the Yukon river
0C the easy way
what temps
Legend.
I Have my PC in Antarctica
Great experiment. Just the answers I was looking for at 2 am in the morning even though I have no intention of building a PC. LOL. Great video tho :D
dem im up at 3 am im 1 hr late
LMFAO 2:15AM here, but plan on building a PC within the next week after last couple parts arrive.
lmfaoo 2:10am r n as I watch this
same lamo. Up late as hell lookin for pc parts
Hi, I’ve about to get the NZXT z73 on the case p500a, so I’m wondering if the radiator better sitting on top of the case or in front of the case please?
the benchmark results start at 7:45
so Intel has taken the throne title for thermonuclear reactor
i love you
Gabriel Umoh the whole video is good, but thanks
Gabriel Umoh name of case ?
thanks man
This video made me subscribe, and here's why. I'm using an i7-6700k overclocked to 4.6Ghz with an EVGA GTX 1070 FTW - an open style cooler. My Captain 240 EX RGB's radiator was top mounted in push. I watch this video and think to myself, "This guy is full of shit." I then take the time to dismantle my fan and radiator setup, front-mount the radiator in pull, then set my top fans to push. I also set my rear case fan to pull. I fire the 'ol Magnum Opus (the computer's name) up, launch Open Hardware Monitor and Prime 95... and see my temperature has dropped from 77C under load to 68C. You're the man!
Do you get the same boost speeds on your GTX 1070? Or is it throttling down to maintain temps? very interesting!
It makes sense for front mount to run cooler :)
Why the rear case fan to pull though ? That air goes straight out of the case via the top.
以蔵岡田 you are wrongly comparing 2 different types of loads. AIDA (if I remember correctly), stresses the CPU only, gaming doesn’t typically fully stress a CPU and is more GPU orientated. A more appropriate test is for you to do full synthetic load like running AIDA and FurMark GPU stress at the same time.
How come you set the rear to pull? You don't use it as an exhaust? Curious if you tested both. Never tried it myself. I'd assume that would create negative pressure
Regarding the results at 12:08 - *It makes total sense why front is the best. The radiator has a big surface area (which means the heat is very spread out and "mild" at the radiator) and it has 2 or 3 big fans. The air therefore moves quickly through the radiator fins, so the air does not become significantly warmer since the contact is so brief. So the still mostly-cold air goes into the case, where the GPU eats it and loves it and then spits out very hot GPU air (definitely not something you'd wanna pull into an exhaust-radiator). You also wanna be sure to get all of the warmed radiator and GPU air out of the case in the rear/top sides so that it doesn't stay around in the radiator/GPU areas. This explains why the radiator should be the front-intake (preferably with a mesh-front case for airflow), and the other fans in the top/back should be the exhausts to ensure the hot air moves out and away from the components.*
this comment is really helpful
CPU temps would prolly drop another 2 or 3c if the radiator was flipped so the i/o were at the bottom. The way it is set up all the air bubbles are collecting in the pump causing hot spots.
The radiator is blowing cool air because the CPU is not in use. It's running a GPU intensive test.
Front mount is the worst. The radiator is for radiating heat outside of your components.
12:10 - you came here for this.
im assuming you’re wearing a cape so i’ll say: all heroes wear capes
.... *looks at his rear-mounted radiator* *cough* *quietly moves radiator*
Lol.
*It makes sense why front is the best. The radiator has a big surface area (which means the heat is very spread out) and 2 or 3 big fans. The air therefore moves quickly through the radiator fins, so the air does not become significantly warmer since the contact is so brief. So the mostly-cold air goes into the case, where the GPU eats it and loves it and then spits out very hot GPU air (definitely not something you'd wanna pull into an exhaust-radiator). You also wanna be sure to get the radiator and GPU air out of the case in the rear/top sides. This explains why the radiator should be intake, and the other fans in the top/back should be exhausts.*
@@BenderdickCumbersnatch so, questions, lol. Putting my radiator in the front would have the air moving directly across 2 HDDs and an SSD. Will this cause an issue with warming the air before it gets to my blower style GPU? My side panel has a mount for 2 fans as well. So if I put my radiator in the front, and I decide to put 2 fans on top and 2 fans on the side, how should they be situated for intake and exhaust (assuming I keep the radiator in the front)? This all assuming that I actually have room to mount it on the front. Not sure how much clearance I have and I won't be home for another day to take a look at it. I haven't bought my cooling system yet, btw. Just looking ahead so that when I get it, I can just slap it in since I'll already know the optimal setup.
@@jazzcat9363 . SSD and HDD's shouldn't create a significant amount of heat. Intake onto the radiator (cooling system) and pull air out from everywhere else, no need to create air pressure in the system.
Soft tubing detaching from radiator: _Allow us to introduce ourselves_
THANK YOU! This is exactly the kind of test I've been looking for and while the video is a year and a half old this is still very useful information.
Thanks so much for putting this video out! I’m in the middle of building my first gaming pc and with my cpu cooler I bought I can only fit it to the front of my case which looks to be the better placement so that has calmed my nerves down! Thanks again!
OMG THANK YOU. I've been searching all over the web for an answer and it's 50/50 everywhere. This test is just what I needed and I can finally move on to the next steps. Keep up the good work :D
Do a 212 evo style cooler horizontal vs vertical mounting temperatures.
nah
Sure the 212 Evo isnt great but tons of people have them and I'm pretty sure horizontal is better but who knows maybe vertical is better. It's a quick and informative video to make.
you may think it's trash but it still holds its place in the market
yes. having the hot air blow upwards is a slight difference. I have my wifes fx-6120 OC'd to 4.6GHz and the difference is worth it with that chipset since max temp recommended by AMD is 61c. I can make a video about it if you want but I don't see a need. have fun. and to clumsy tiger, a lot of people use this cooler and with 2 fans on it I get roughly similar performance to my H100i. so for 1/3 of the cost, if I could go back I would have bought another 212 evo.
croyrig h7 ftw
Except if you have an AMD rig, in which case the thermonuclear radiator is located in the CPU socket.
lel
EpikSquared rocken a fx 9370 overclocked to 4.7ghz with a aio and im not going crazy hot
Except that is for GPU's. FX cpu's run pretty cool if you throw the stock heatsink in the trash where it belongs. Its amazing what the difference is when you allow thermal conductivity between the chip and heat spreader
I have 8370 and it's running 25 idle, 40 max with air ... I don't get where you guys are getting that insane heat ?
Wow, you're fun at parties.
Front mounted radiators should have the tubes on the down side, so air bubbles gather on the radiator top. That will be most silent. Your front radiator is setup really bad because its ALSO lower than the pump is meaning air bubbles will gather in your pump
I was actually going to comment the same thing but you beat me too it lol. I used to make this same mistake and somthing so simple will actually reduce your temps because instead of an air bubble in the pump making contact with the CPU plate there is more room for water.
Yes we all watched the GN video as well
@@tmcleung GN video?
@@LawfullSpook gamer nexus. Go look up his AIO video
@@LawfullSpook you see this mistake EVERYWHERE I’m currently looking up if i can fit a 360mm radiator 3 fan aio in my new be quiet pure base in the correct orientation. The only time people put the tubes at the top is when the hose length is too short.
Even tho this video is 3 years old it still helped me because I'm about to build a pc
same
how did your build go?
@@alexanderballance2996 still in the process of building it. I had to get a whole desk, chair, etc. First and I wanted an ikea karlby countertop desk so it took forever for those to be in stock on too of the adils legs. But I am ready to start buying parts now that I got my monitors, keyboard and mouse, USB stick with windows 10 64 bit on it and everything else I need before hand
@@alexanderballance2996 I built mine, and after a bios update everything worked perfectly!
@@YakuzaMenace what are the components
Have you tried adding more RGB?
I've heard that a PC with enough RGB can sometimes even reach sub-zero temps. Yet to test it.
OH MY GOD. IT WORKED. I put RGB EVERYWHERE and my Temps got to -40 celsius!!!!
Lol
I added more RGB and my computer froze.
It definitely runs cooler now.
One of the most interesting videos on this topic and it simply makes sense, as the radiator will receive cold air from the exterior instead of hot built on the case interior. Thank you
Very useful test, detailed (with various setups) and objective. Thank you for all videos you make!
I wanted mine on top but this was my first PC build and didn't notice my ram stuck out to much so tried a front mount to try something different and I guess it wasn't as bad as I thought. I knew my cpu wouldn't be bothered but I was worried about other things. Thank you for the video :)
Was the graphics cards fans running at the same rpm all the time? Since the temps was identical?
Incredibly thorough and well articulated info. Great video!
Would like to see the same test with and without top exhaust with the front rad and a single rear exhaust. Does the top exhaust make much difference!
Top search result in KZhead genuinely helpful shock! Still useful 4 years down the line. I'm also better educated about where the fans should be, and in which direction the air should flow. Many, many thanks for sharing this.
You just found a new subscriber. Clear and to the point, great communication of information. Hard to find in tech vids with people trying to be funny or being pretentious and snobby.
you have no idea how much this video helped me. liked, subbed and notifications
Crypto NWO how much difference did you see?
Watch the new gamers nexus vid for best info. He cuts a window into the radiator and pump head so you can see what's going on and prevent air bubbles from ruining your AIO. Good vid.
Hi, I’ve about to get the NZXT z73 on the case p500a, so I’m wondering if the radiator better sitting on top of the case or in front of the case please?
@@Kholaslittlespot1 I saw that video...was excellent but still am lost as to best spot, lol
Umm, your gonna blow a pump with front mount hoses up.
Couple big mistakes in this video that people should know... Top radiator: that radiator should be mounted 2/3rd's towards the front (as opposed to towards the rear as in this video), so that the radiator fans are sucking in air from the front fans and NOT the hot air directly above the CPU & GPU as is shown in this video. A 3rd exhaust fan would be mounted in the rear-most space (360mm total fan space), next to the radiator fans, 90° from the primary rear exhaust fan. Consequently, the majority of air flow will pass through the case and to the two perpendicular exhaust fans. The radiator fans, with mitigated vacuum due to the radiator's interference, will be exposed to fresh air from the front intake fans while having negligible influence on the overall flow and in the end, there should be a roughly positive pressure inside the case. This is an optimal setup. Secondly, with the CPU pump mounted at the highest point in the AIO system, it is effectively a noisy, gurgly heat pipe or a pneumatic AIO because all the air inside that system is up in the pump. Most AIO systems contain 5-10% air. All around, those numbers should have been substantially different.
do you have a video for your instructions or somethin?
makes sense, thank you!
I STill don't fucking understand
@@bear-wq8uu i took air cooling, thank god
First solution: Don't get an aio. Problem solved. Second solution: You need to prove this. This comment is explained so horribly you are confusing people more than helping.
Hey man love your channel. Used to watch four years ago when I built my first PC, and just recently found you again as I’m looking for upgrades. I’ve seen a couple tests on this topic since I was curious, and since like many I believed that front mount rad would adversely affect case/GPU temps. But so far in the tests I’ve seen, it hasn’t. Seems like the way to go is open air card, and front mount radiator. Advantage is that you won’t leak coolant all over your GPU if you ever get a leak. Also, I know this is an old video, but you should have the tube inlet and outlet to rad be at the bottom, because the air bubble will sit at the top, and typically the inlet will be the hottest temp location on the radiator, so you don’t want to diminish cooling by placing the air bubble there.
Glad I watched this video. I'm about to get my liquid cooler and I was surprised to see a huge difference in temp. according to where you place it.
Thank you! This video alone has helped me feel better about an imminent new build in a Phanteks P400s Tempered Glass. Slapping the AIO in the front as intake.
Eric Divine how did you get on with your build? I have the same case and trying to figure out the best setup for coolermaster liquid 240mm atm
hey man recently starting a build on that case, was looking for some tips can i shoot you a message?
I put a 240mm rad at the upper two fans in the case and left the lower fan "open" so it can blow cold air near my gpu. Works pretty neat.. but doesn't look that great
Might be a really late reply but I've got this case and you can actually do a push/pull suprisingly. If anybody have any questions I'm happy to answer them.
JK hey man what did you find works the best ? I have this case and a 280 aio
This is the first video of yours I have ever seen Kyle. Good video and you are a good performer. I enjoyed what you had to say about placement. Thank you.
Hey Kyle, did you remember to change the fan direction on the radiator when placing it from top to front and vice versa ? Since front mounted requires intake and top mounted requires exhaust ?
Very much so. I was overclocking my 4790k with the radiator on the back blowing out. I had it stable and decided to try a benchmark. Once the graphics card got going it obviously heated the cases internal temperature. 5min in and it blue screened. So I moved the radiator to the front - pulling only cold air from the outside. No issues and was able overclock even further. A good 20 degree drop.
Nice Kyle! Your tips are always helpful!
I flipped my H100i Pro to front mount from a top mount with an EVGA RTX 3090 which is open. It held my cpu temp on heavy load for 30 mins at 62 C vs top mount 76 C. I ran Godfall on full settings while streaming and playing music for both. Big help here, thank you for running these tests!
thanks. it is a very helpful experiment as i was confused about front mount and top mount
this video made a whole lot of diiference to my machine temps, thanks kyle, love you bro
Johan Kabir you tried both, how much difference was it?
This really is one of my favorite videos (at least when you get to the point! :P ). I'd love to see someone with a custom cooling loop that cools both the CPU and GPU run a comparison of front vs top radiator mounting. Alternatively, how a top mounted radiator to cool the CPU along with a rear radiator and water block for the GPU would compare in your setup.
Actually, when going custom loop for CPU and GPU, you often need at minimum a 360rad, so that answers the question easily since very few cases have options for top mounting 360 radiators. If you split the loop, again, either way you'd have one radiator on intake, one on exhaust. Heat is dissipated so easily that your case temp will only be a few degrees above ambient.
With custom loops on both it literally won't matter as long as air flow is positive. In and out. Temps will definitely be negligible lol
Front: intake Top: exhaust Back: intake (if radiator in top) I had an old SLI setup with the front being for 2 graphics cards, with the top being for the CPU, and the back blowing air in. Each component had its own AIO. It maintained positive pressure and worked pretty well. Having the back as an intake gave some fresh air to the top radiator.
@@reppy0757 Yep. That's how mine setup. The 360 exhaust up and out. I even put a 140 radiator on the rear exhaust. I have the old school HAF932 case that breaths well.
Front rad & open card results are due to the combination of the top mount fans and the GPU fans pulling air in from other unrestricted openings in the chassis - probably a lot from the expansion card slots.
Great video, great demonstration - answers questions for me as a novice looking at my first AIO cooling system.
I had a top mounted radiator with open card and it was causing my cpu to overheat. I changed to front mount like this video described and have had a significant drop in temps and no issues with crashing during intensive applications.
i know its been a year since the last time you comment in this video. but can i ask u a simple question? you put your rad fans into intakes? not exhaust?
@@antolynmathewguiyab5428 When the radiator in that PC was top mounted i had them as exhaust fans. After moving to the front i put fans as intake on both sides (similar magnetic levitation fans) and saw much better temps. I since have switched my PC build and gave this to a friend who had a much older build prior.
Very interesting, I found this vid very informative, it's made me make up my mind how I will install my rads!
In our experience with custom pc's, yes, front is better with almost 10-20°C. Push-pull is also a good option if the case let you do it. And, another important thing: the exaust vents on the case matter a lot!
Im currently thinking it might be better to have all your radiators Externally of the case. That is the reason im currently planning a build with the Mo-Ra3 420 Pro, look that up, i highly recommend it.
Oh the irony of KZhead automatically playing this video after watching a GamersNexus video explaining why you should not mount radiators on the front with tubes up or mount the front radiator below the pump. There's always some air in an AIO, and it will make its way into the pump if mounted like this. Kyle did both of these things wrong.
Haha the exact same for me. KZhead auto play and then "wtf?!"
In a perfect world we could all mount our AIOs perfectly, but not every case allows for this, and even gamersnexus says this. If you want an AIO you gotta be willing to accept some compromises.
heh, same here :P
Telvana or you can just get a larger case(a decent mid tower case will do) to accommodate your cooler properly
Yea I was about to say. That’s kinda weird
I did this comparison myself last year and i got much better temps on my 6700k! Moved my rad from top to front in my Fractal Define S. GPU was essentially unaffected but CPU could breathe again. Dropped 12c.
I find this all very interesting, I never would have guessed such a difference ... So many verabiles though
Hello m8 I have 6700k too in hafx 942. Which cpu cooling you are using? Stock fans or not? Thnx
I loved this, super helpful. I have to go move my radiator now!
Amazing test it is very insightful. I do like the Clarity of your scientific method. I look forward to binge watching your other videos.
Really cool presentation. My friend just gave me an AIO water cooler, and I was curious about the placement. Thanks for the firm affirmation.
I have mine as the following configuration: Open GPU, front as intake, RAD at top as intake, obviously creating a positive pressure inside of case and my CPU and GPU temps seem to be steady at 65C & 65C under heavy load.
How many intake and exhaust fans do you have? I'm planning on adding a radiator on top as intake as well as 3 fans in the front of the case and 1 in the back as exhaust. Do you think my temps will be ok or are there too many intake fans?
@@mango251 cheers, I wanna do the same as well, have you tried this configuration? I have the radiator at the front but I am struggling with GPU temp.
@@mango251 More intake is better for positive pressure case. I have 2x140 down in front, 1x120 underneath and a Swiftech H240-X with 2x140 up top. All of those are intake. Only 1x140 exhaust out the back. No heat problems while gaming or transcoding with HB. Any extra air just gets pushed out of the cracks.
Hey Kyle. Post watching your video I got intrigued into testing it out on my own; especially since I have a similar config (only GPU) to what you were running your benchmarks on. My results are no where near as calculated as yours but they are still noteworthy. Config: (I havent overclocked anything. Running them just on the manufacturer's default settings) Processor - Intel i7 6700K GPU - Zotac GTX 1070 Amp Edition CPU cooler - NZXT Kraken x61 Cabinet - Corsair 760T Top mounted: CPU was in and around the 50 degree C temperature with I think a max of 56 (Didn't pay much attention during this test) GPU hovered around the 71 degree C temperature throughout Front mounted: CPU was averaging around 40 degree C with only a few sections where it reached about 51 (max) GPU hovered around the 74-75 degree C temperature throughout Thing to note is that during the Front mounted test my ambient temperatures were a bit higher (maybe around 4-5 degrees to when I had done the Top mounted test), so in maybe an identical ambient environment it might just have been lower.
VivekAnand Athanikar So you going to keep it this way or. change it?
definitely keeping it this way :)
Good test. A 10 degree change from a simple radiator swap is significant. This makes sense with this type of setup (air cooled GPU and water cooled CPU) but for those who water cool both the GPU and CPU this won't matter. Do whatever floats your boat. My top 360 radiator is set to exhaust air up and out and the rear radiator does the same with 6 intake fans. Liked and subscribed.
Just got my first AIO yesterday ( MSI 360R ) and im glad I ran into this. Ive been contemplating a top mount
The results are at 12:11
hero
so front mount is actually better... interesting, seeing as how everyone was tearing the s340 apart for its lack of top radiator support...
Thats why I laugh when people bitch and moan about me putting a 280mm aio in the front of my fractal define C :)
The S340 is still lacking rad/fan support in the top. It has support for what, one 120mm fan? Maybe a 140mm? That's ridiculous lol. It's a fine case, but like all, has it's drawbacks. Like my H440's front intake sucks fucking balls. I mean, the S340 does as well, but still.
3 140s and 1 120 at the rear. front intake is fine, i've done both air and water in mine, and as far as i can see, it doesn't need anything more. for its size and price, there's really not much that could be improved. my 5820k is kept at about 72° by a dark rock pro 3 currently at 4.4 ghz, and my inno3d 980 barely passes 70° @1495 mhz. before that i had a sapphire r9 280x in there, didn't heat up above 75°, and that is one hothead of a card... i don't think much more cooling power is required for 95% of all systems out there, and those systems would probably not be built in a decidedly compact 70 bucks case... the h440s intake situation is way worse than the s340s, there's a huge gap between fans and front panel on the s340.
givemeajackson The S340 absolutely does not have support for 3 fans in the top. It has 2x140(280mm) in the front or one 120/140mm fan up top. The H440 intake isn't significantly worse than the S340. The S340 is better, but only slightly. Both cases are poss poor options for thermals since I'm both situations, there are better cases for the same price for cooling performance. I paid for the looks with my H440. To be fair though, H440 and S340 were two of the first to the game with PSU shrouds, which was a necessity for me when I bought my H440 a few years back.
givemeajackson also the 280x wasn't that bad a GPU for temps I'm sure. 70c range sounds about right, which back then for a mid ranged GPU wasn't terrible.
I can corroborate these results, and I have the same cooler you're testing with (H115i 280mm). I didn't put a whole lot of thought into how my cooling system was configured at first. I had the AIO against the side wall next to the mobo (I think just because my new case could actually fit it there), and only 2 fans on it (not even sure if push or pull). Then 5 more 140mm fans - 2 front intake, 2 top exhaust (because heat rises hur hur), and 1 rear exhaust. So I had negative or neutral pressure in the case, no continuous airflow path, and not very much air moving through the radiator. After about a year of that, my temps were 5-10° C higher from dust buildup, and the AIO fans were working harder than necessary. Finally cleaned the radiator and reconfigured everything, so now the radiator is on the front, and sandwiched between 4x push/pull fans. So it's like a big filtered intake on the front, 2 more intakes on top, and one rear exhaust. Temps are much better now (I actually get to see numbers in the 30's instead of always hovering near 50) and the fans don't spool up nearly as much.
Like so many others, this popped up for me after watching GamersNexus on how to mount your rad. I had my rad in front but the tubes were on top, so I took the rad out and reinstalled at the top of my tower....bad idea, my thermals rose 10 from 40s to 50s at idle and from 60s to near 80s on load. So I switched the rad back to the front with my tubes down.....as best as I could and right now my CPU is sitting at 39 idle and around high 50s to low 60s under load. And I am running a Aorus GeForce RTX 2070 Extreme and AMD 2700X. Both CPU and GPU are overclocked. So I like these temps. But you should really redo the front mount test with the tubes on the bottom, it actually can make a difference. Not much but a difference none the less. Good video. Keep em coming!
Finally someone who tells me what I need to know without taking 5 hours to do so
After watching many videos I finally found one that answered my question... Awsome video Thank you
Well I'll be swapping the layout now then. Makes a lot of sense but it didn't occur to me to do it until now. Thanks.
Great video, that was exactly what I was looking for. Thank you!
I’m pretty shocked, I tried front mounting the radiator and got the exact same results. I’m very happy I watched this video!
Would be interesting to see how the front mounted radiator compares with the tubes at the bottom. In theory; the air inside the radiator would be sitting at the top with your current setup and obstructing the inlet/outlet tubes. Pretty sure you’d see a further thermal improvement with the tubes at the bottom :)
According to Gamers Nexus, bottom tubes would keep the AIO from FAILING.
With the setup he demonstrated, it would cause the pump to fail early since it's the highest point of the loop. When doing a front mount, you have to be sure that the pump isn't positioned above the rad.
Great vid here. I watched a few others, but it's as if they avoided the question the whole video haha. Thanks for the help
im getting a new case my pc, i didnt even know about blower vs open shroud, this video really helped
5:50 i see my long awaited Banu Merchantman in the background :D
Would have liked to see the top radiator configuration as an intake, instead of only an exhaust, with the open GPU card, combined with that heavy RPM rear exhaust fan. Wonder if a high volume case fan on the upper rear would be able to over power the natural effect of heat wanting to rise straight up, combined with the radiator fans pushing it's used air straight down.
I was wondering similar, top / back as intakes and adding a bottom case fan for exhaust along with the front radiator being an exhaust.
I know this is 7 months late, but you want your top as exhaust, not intake. Hot air rises. So if you put top fans as intake, all you're doing is pushing the hot air back down into the case. With the rear fan being closer to the GPU, you want it as exhaust so that any heat being expelled from the GPU is immediately ejected from the case. Bring cold air in from the front and bottom of the case, eject hot air from the top and rear. This gives you cooler temps and excellent, natural air flow.
There are so many configurations to try. Front + top, front + bottom, bottom + top, bottom only, changing the number of fans, altering the speeds at which each set operates such as 100% on intakes and 50% on exhausts. Etc
I used this video for reference not too long ago when I switched my pc case and upgraded to a 360mm radiator. I have a blower style card and when mounting the radiator on top, my temps showed similar correlation to the one in this video, cpu 75C and gpu 82C. But when I mounted my blower card vertically, my cpu temps jumped to 85-86C. So for anyone reading this, if you mount your blower style card vertically, you may see the same issue!
Thanks for the test! It would be great to see what the room temperature were at each test, since I'm assuming that might have gotten hotter after each subsequent test.
[Looks at computer] *_"Well shit; no way i'm changing the placement now with all those hard drives in the way..."_*
rip
Wouldn't be an issue if you had a fractal case because they decided to just shove all that shit in the back and below and call it a day
I had this problem. I had it mounted at the top and had to strip out all my drive mounts from the case and mount the drive onto the backplate etc of the case instead just to fit my radiator at the front... I did this a year ago and never thought to bother to look up whether it was better or not until now as I am overclocking lol
its called m.2 lol
@@BlackCondorXVII if you had reversed the airflow and put the fans on the top of the case as intake, and then mounted your rad to it, and had 2 bottom exhaust and 1 rear and still 3 front intake fans, I cant help but think you'd see better temps, especially considering the cpu will only ever see cooler air, as the way my airflow is laid out it's basically forced over the top of my GPU down to the bottom,
This is an awesome video! Granted it's a bit old, have you considered recreating this test with modern, hotter GPUs?
Interesting test, I've looking for this for hours. Now I know how to place my radiator and airflow.
I've had incredible success with temps with a somewhat different setup. I have a h115i mounted on top, but its towards the front of the case, where one fan is actually pulling from the cool air from the intake fans instead of the motherboard. I have 3 140mm fans as intake on the front and have them clocking a higher rpm than the radiator fans. Also have the rear 140mm case fan clocking high as well. I think 80% or so of the heated air of the pc is being pushed out the rear exhaust vs going through the radiator.
what case are you using
That's where my favourite case- the Lian Li O11 Dynamic comes into play. You can mount the radiator on the side, so that it pushes the air out of the case and you can have fans at the top and bottom to create a strong airflow to also cool your GPU.
Better yet... Lian Li O11 Air. With front intake, bottom intake, side radiator while top exhausts. Also you could just straighout remove the rear panel... those 2 small fan slots for exhaust won't help that much. Dust shouldn't be a problem since it's acting as an exhaust tunnel. Dust is mostly intake issue.
I had the radiator on top and was getting 75-83 degrees while gaming, changing it to the front and having the top fans exhaust the heat helped in dropping 10-12 degrees as mentioned in the video.. Thanks!
Awesome video, straight to the point and very informal... thank you.
I'd like to see this tested with a GPU AIO instead. Though it might be tough to reach the top with a radiator from one.
The only problem with what I see is, with your build of putting the radiator on the front lower portion of your case, is that the CPU cooler (which in a lot of units house the pump), is that it is higher than the radiator and would allow that CPU cooler/pump to collect air, which, from what I am seeing in other videos, can shorten the life span of your pump and/or reduce the efficiency of your cooling unit.
Think he had the option of mounting it higher, and flipped too, since that's what every tutorial recommends. Tho didn't care since it's a short test and used a configuration that was easier to install.
Makes sense to me, the air coming out the back side of your radiator is going to be much cooler than what your GPU is running at. Therefore very much capable of providing cooling to all your components, pair with a well set up exhaust at the top and rear of your case and your golden .
Really interesting result, and I'm glad. Measuring before I buy an arctic liquid freezer and found that with my case and mobo I can't fit the rad in the top of the case, but I can fit it in the front. Guess I'll be ordering that arctic cooler.
Hey im glad that we have the same AIO cooler mine is ARCTIC FREEZER 280 ii but also it didnt fits and i installed in the front with down the tubes for my 11700k and i got 70C with the xtu at 4600mhz can you tell me how you have the tubes and some temps with a program?Thanks so very much!
Would have liked to see a push and pull setup for comparison. Much more air coming in not sure if that would push more hot air at the GPU or not.
From my understanding, Push/Pull doesn't nececarily give higher performance in cooling compared to just push or pull, The difference is how you can gain the SAME amount of cooling power, at a much lower RPM fan speeds. thus making the build alot quiter, as to compared to a single push or pull setup, which needs to work alot harder to cool on its own. aka higher RPM's for the same cooling. What im not sure of however is how much more Watts is required for a push/pull setup, lets say running at 400 to 500 rpm, compared to an singe push or pull setup that runs at 800 or 1000 rpm/ logic would dictate due to lower rpm's less watts is required to run the fanns. but it still More fans.
I had the same problem due to my motherboard and casing issue , I can’t mount radiator on top. Thanks Kyle. Now I know.
Mount the radiator externally, outside the case, on top.
I’ve always seen that people place their radiators at the top or with the hoses upwards of their placed in the front. I’ve heard that you should orientate it with the hose at the bottom to give it better cooling performance
Other videos has content like this they talk almost or morethan 20mins and i don't even understand any. But this for 13mins i got it. Thanks man!
So the result leads to another question then. What if the CPU radiator is mounted on top blowing into the case? Cuz some of us have mini-itx build that can't mount AIO in the front.
Thanks sir. Gonna slap a 280 rad as front intake on my fractal design meshify c
How did that work out? We are building in the meshify C and are debating 240 mm top exhaust or front 280 intake.
Thank you so much! This really helped to cool my Threadripper 3970x and I am using MSI Mag Coreliquid 360r inside a Be Quiet 601 casing!!
oh man this is gold. God bless you for spreading this news. and exactly on point. switching the rad gave me -10 degrees C on the cpu. oc d it 5Ghz/1280v
Pause at 12:08 for results
THANK YOU!
"Not all capes wear heroes." *~Stoner Stanley*
Thanks. This guy talks a way too much :)
Zerkon94 Thanks you very much!!! 🙏
You the real MVP
I know this is an older video, but one point I would make, if you do put a rad at the front and not the top, make sure your pump is not the highest point in the loop otherwise air will settle in it.
I would like to advise for everyone who sees this comment this is not correct. Like yes but at the same time it's a very overblown myth.
Great as everytime. The video is was looking for. Spot On. Peace from France.
Awesome video. Just mounted my new s36 on the front because of this on my 8700k and it's working great. Really appreciate. Even tho it's 3 years late lol
I initially went with my Corsair 100i in front. My 2080 super with three fans was throttling. Upon moving to the top of the case and putting three fans in front scattering air equally to cpu and GPU. I got the best of both worlds. I found getting as much air moving through the upper and lower portions of the case was my best overall temps so far.
That I would have liked to see more intake volume was my first thought looking at that result. That result seems like insufficient air exchange (and probably negative pressure) to me.
I wish you could do the same test on a Crosair 4000D Airflow to see if its better on the front panel. i dont have aio but i plan to get one if someone did a test with a aio on front with that crosair 4000d airflow case.
What if you took the front panel off of the case to allow for more air flow from the front of the case? With the solid front panel I would imagine the air pull on the intake would be hindered by that and your temps may go even lower with more air being pulled across the radiator from the open front panel.
Old video i know but still golden - great video as always
You should have also tested pulling air through the radiator at the front. I know with high performance cars, the fans are always on the back pulling cool air through, NOT on the front pushing air through. Would be interesting to know if that made any difference.
The difference is that a car is moving and will have natural airflow anyway, so it's not the right comparison.
@@brotherfranciz Not true. The reason for the fan is when you are not moving. When you are moving you don't need the fan as the speed increases so does the air flow through the radiator. When sitting idle, the fan will kick on if electric and will be "pulling" air through the radiator. So yes it is an exact comparison hesnse the reason why they started to use radiators in computers which copied how it works on a car.
Would be nice to see this with a Hybrid GPU
Thanks for the video man. I was going to go with a 120mm Arctic Liquid Freezer ii as intake at the top front of my case, as I was worried about GPU temps. I think I will go 240mm now due to the limited impact on GPU temps.
Great now I've got to go back and see if I did a test recently considering I acquired a fan cable splitter so I could do a push|pull on my 212 EVO air cooler vertically mounted. While I have a single 140 on the lower front of the case in hopes to provide a bit more air flow to the video card, while two 140's are top mounted and a single 140 at the standard top rear of the case. I also removed the drive cage for a better flow for the air flow from the lower front fan in theory. Keep in mind that I, just like other people have more than one interest than gaming. We have a much more slower upgrade path than some, and content like this provides great insight as to what we might consider on acquiring. This particular video is relevant and hopefully can be followed up on over time. Please note that I am getting more hits frequency-wise by keeping my Ryzen 5 2600 as it's kept cooler by the push|pull. Yet I now have to go back and run Heaven 4.0 to compare it to my archived results. I have to blame KZhead for pushing this video as I've never watched this one by Kyle. His name is Kyle right? I do watch Jay, Jim and Steve mostly. Though I watch Lauren when I can, as well as Nicolas.