PC Case AIRFLOW; A Visual Guide for Optimal Cooling.
Vložit
- čas přidán 14. 05. 2024
- #gamingpc #pcbuild #howto - Airflow, one of the most discussed topics in the PC DIY space. What's the ideal cooling setup for my PC? Should I use an air cooler or liquid AIO? What's the difference between cases? Let's start from the basics and work our way through!
Timecodes, though I don't recommend skipping for visual narrative reasons!
00:00 - Introduction
01:10 - Fan Types Explained
03:08 - PC Case Style Overview
05:04 - Coolers Explained
07:58 - Dual Chamber Airflow
09:00 - Mid Tower & Micro ATX Airflow
09:52 - Small Form Factor Airflow
10:50 - Full Tower Airflow
11:38 - To Summarise
In this video I take a look back through almost two years of Airflow Visualizations from previous builds and take a look at how the air interacts with different configurations.
When it comes to cooling a Gaming PC, there are many ways to do this efficiently, but I wanted to give you guys the basics to understand the fundamentals of moving air inside multiple different cases and the associated fans that come with them.
Of course, there are more we could've covered here such as pull/push radiator layouts, full custom loops and not forgetting open chassis cases. All of which may come in a future video for a more 'advanced' airflow instructible.
For my final thoughts on this video, check out the paragraph below the following links:
(USA Amazon)
My Top 5's for Airflow (as of March 2024)
CASES
NZXT H7 Flow - amzn.to/3IWrDFW
Lian Li Lancool 216 - amzn.to/3TQZ8A3
Fractal North - amzn.to/4ajWjNq
Deepcool CH560 - amzn.to/4crwL2z
ASUS ProArt - amzn.to/4cn6LFs
FANS
Noctua NF-A12x25 - amzn.to/4apI49J
Lian Li AL120 V2 - amzn.to/3VvjIac
Phanteks T30 - amzn.to/4coBWQV
Arctic P12 Max - amzn.to/49bE9fI
TUF Gaming TF120 - amzn.to/3xbQ2oE
COOLERS
NZXT Kraken Elite - amzn.to/499laSQ
Arctic Liquid Freezer - amzn.to/3VzV48q
Deepcool AK620 - amzn.to/4cuD1Xi
Noctua NH-U12A - amzn.to/49XV6LL
ROG Ryujin III - amzn.to/3vn34PB
(UK Amazon)
My Top 5's for Airflow (as of March 2024)
CASES
NZXT H7 Flow - amzn.to/3TqRjQ2
Lian Li Lancool 216 - amzn.to/3TyGIlZ
Fractal North - amzn.to/3INxdL0
Deepcool CH560 - amzn.to/3VslsBa
ASUS ProArt - amzn.to/3VspGsz
FANS
Noctua NF-A12x25 - amzn.to/3TNXRK2
Lian Li AL120 V2 - amzn.to/498MPU2
Phanteks T30 - amzn.to/4ctUFKQ
Arctic P12 Max - amzn.to/4anbEwq
TUF Gaming TF120 - amzn.to/4armIZt
COOLERS
NZXT Kraken Elite - amzn.to/4atHis8
Arctic Liquid Freezer - amzn.to/43u4kgp
Deepcool AK620 - amzn.to/4a7drWO
Noctua NH-U12A - amzn.to/43zjAZj
ROG Ryujin III - amzn.to/3TyHz6b
As an Amazon Associate, I may earn from qualifying purchases.
To wrap this up, airflow doesn't have to be complicated. Always keep in mind that, the more efficiently you can get air in and back out of the case, the cooler your system will be. Always make sure your fans are oriented in the correct direction and take some time to find a balance for performance vs aesthetic :)
What's your thoughts on the points made in this video? Anything you'd do different? Let's chat in the comments!
---------------------------------------------------------------
Subscribe to my 2nd Channel for more! @MrMattLeeV2
---------------------------------------------------------------
☕☕ BUY ME A COFFEE! ☕☕
Show you support for the channel. Bonus - get a shout out in the next video! No subscription or sign-up required!
www.buymeacoffee.com/MrMattLee
----------------------------------------------------------------
Find me on socials:
/ mr_matt_lee
/ mr_matt_lee
/ mrmatthewlee
/ mr_matt_lee
/ mrmatthewlee
-------------------------- - Zábava
Liquid or Air Cooling? Aesthetic or open front? What's your current build looking like?
All of the clips in this video are extracts taken from full feature length builds on my channel. Go give them a watch to learn more about each 🍿
Air cooling, open front. Gorgeous
Noctua NH D15 in a fractal torrent case.5900x and a 4090. What’s your opinion on this case ?
I use it mainly for 3D works
This is what I am thinking to cool my next pc@@rahulkamath6984
@@rahulkamath6984the Fractal Torrent is a seriously strong airflow case, especially when combined with the NH-D15. I haven’t built with that exact combination, but any air cooler setup I’ve built within a Torrent has been a solid performer. You won’t go wrong with that ✌️
@@Mr_Matt_Lee thank u so much for your reply. Love you content and style of delivery keep them coming
This might be the prettiest PC fan video I’ve ever seen. Excellent cinematography. Good job!
At the first time I ever watch your vids, I thought you inhale a big whip from Vape and blow it out into the case and thinking “how this man doing this every single day”. That’s how dumb I was 😂😂
I’d be suffering with the worst case of popcorn lung by now if that was the case 😹 The airflow visual has been refined a lot over the last couple of years. A delicate part of the videos for sure! Haha
Tbh I still think he does it. 😂😂
@@Moonlight-zp5rj if you watch the ‘who is mr matt lee anyway’ video, there’s a small section in there which shows the smoke coming from a device that’s not my lungs 😅
That's a full Volcano 🎈.
Joint #3
More ‘PC building explained’ videos like this please. Loved how simple and informative you made it.
This is the most aesthetically pleasing video I’ve ever seen about PC cooling
7:32 yes! Finally someone points it out. I seal off the first two fan mounts in the top of the case with 2mm pvc sheeting and case fan screws. That way no air escapes prior to hitting the cpu tower cooler.
Another thing that helps enormously is a few mm spacing between fans and any grills. A number of companies offer foam spacers for fans. They also help seal the fan to the case.
For Small Form Factor PCs, ducts and seals make all the difference. The gpu fans and cpu heatsink fans can *become* the case fans if you seal them to the case grill with ducts and rubber seals. Massive jump in positive pressure.
I can attest to this. The day before watching this video I had my hand on top of my PC and noticed my front panel fan was blowing some cool air right out the top front of the case. I cut a piece of plastic to cover that vent space in order to ensure the cool air made it to my CPU cooler and immediately noticed much lower fan rpms and cooler temps. A simple fix for a simple but easily overlooked problem.
Yes! I have been recommending ducting the GPU intake in ITX builds: the typical goto is to fit 2x fans at the bottom of the case to feed the GPU and sure, it does work to an extent, but also creates more noise and unhelpful turbulence!... A foam duct made from the foam the motherboard came in can look great, cost nothing, and significantly reduce temperatures and noise!
This is true. BUT, it does look weird though, having only one fan at the top. Also only a problem if you're using a air cooler.
Yep. That's one of the reasons the Fractal Torrent is so efficient : zero top opening. Two massive front fans push air that has only one way to go : thought the case towards the rear (there's a little bit of loss at the bottom if you don't add fans there but I found it rather insignificant)
The Lian Li Lancool 216, also a strong performer, comes with a solid plastic plate you can add if using a smaller radiator or only exhaust fans up top... And as seen in the video : do not use 3x120mm top exhaust as you'll just pull cold air straight from the front top intake fan with zero component cooling.
In a conventional air cooling setup, air should simply be moving from front to rear (optionally top rear) as fast and obstruction-free as possible, with leakage around the front area minimized. Exhaust fans make close to zero difference unless the case is poorly designed/drilled.
Water cooling is a bit more flexible since the heat is relocated from your watercooled components to radiators. As long as air intake isn't obstructed... I'd focus more heavily on bottom intake if the GPU remains air-cooled since that cold air goes right into its fans. Rear exhaust might show more benefit there are it will churn some air around the VRMs that have now lost the CPU air cooling benefit.
thanks i saw your comment and i removed a top fan exhaust on top and only leaving 1 at the top rear to exhaust together with my rear exhaust.! i even use some cardboard to cover the empty slot and duct tape it to so call seal the gap.
A fascinating video, throughly enjoyed a totally different concept from the standard build guides. Thank you for being brave to step away from what you do to an exceptional level to produce something different yet still at the same exceptional level.
My wife asked me what I would watch on You Tube once I had built my PC and I said I would still watch your videos, and here I am. Keep up the outstanding work.
This is perhaps the most wholesome comment ever. Thanks so much Steve ✌️ I always get nervous posting content that’s ‘different’, but it’s hard to retain lots of useful info without sharing it all of the time.
Hey, it’s always great to chat anyway! Haha 😊 Hope you and yours are doing well!
Beside the obvious cinematic genius this video is, with all the builds and visuals put together like this, I must commend you for the concise naration as well; highly informative and very enjoyable to watch. Hats off to you sir!
This channel randomly showed up on my feed and I am so glad it did. The visual quality and cinematography are top notch. Great demonstration and descriptions of all the airflow configurations. You have a new subscriber!
the most detailed video i've ever seen. it is very important to cool our rig here in the philippines because our weather here is quite hot. and because of your video i understood better about airflow inside the computer in different types of pc cases. thank you very much for this 👍🏻👍🏻
8:32 that ProArt build is so damn beautiful.
This was one of the most comprehensive representation how airflows inside a case video i have ever seen.
Good job creating this.
This video is perfection. Amazing shots, great builds, concise, and super helpful. Didn’t expect to see anything about my favorite form factor, ITX, but was very excited and pleased to see it.
I'm not even currently looking to build a PC but I loved and saved this video, wish I found it when I was building cause it has such useful information. Such a put together from the lighting, camera angles, to music. Phenomenal work man, instant sub.
production quality brother ..... great work , as a pc gaming shop owner , i calculated the amount and type of cooling based on the amount of consumption , for a hot country best thing to do if it's okey with you " more dust , kids , aesthetic ect " , just open the case window and be done with it , nothing get close to an open case in term of cooling performance vs any mesh case with a full fans installed , basically ur average 40 to 42 °room temperature can't be cooled by ur fans they just blow hot air in the case :d , for expensive builds just go with a full custom loop push pull setup 2*240 OR 2*360 OR 3*360 rads , for cheap low consumption 300w build like the " i5 10400/13400/ r5 7600 + rtx 2060 / rtx 3060 /4060 rx 6600xt and below just get a nice cheap 40 dollars airflow case with a 3x 120 front +1x120 back fan setup and a 20 /30 dollar cpu cooler , it's pointless to change or add any special cooling bcs you will never have any throttling + add some undervolting and lose 20 30% less consumption for a 2 to 3% less performance .
Love this style of video! I'm currently getting together the components for my first ever PC build, and admittedly, case selection was one of those bits bringing on paralysis by analysis. Now, it's safe to say I've got a lot more confidence in my planned build, and I can't wait to get underway.
I was looking for an explaination for dual chamber airflow and this video pops up in my page. The most simple and aesthetic video i've ever watch. Damn good.
This has to be one of the greatest most relaxing videos I have ever watched. Great work! ☕️
Excellent Video, Timing was perfect as I'm currently building with a Lian Li Vision case. Your channel is always one of my Go Too for anything PC. Thanks for sharing your craft, Mr. Lee!
I was not expecting this video to be that relaxing! Wow, amazing job man, thx!
legendary vid, pretty much went over every important part of how to airflow, massive props!
The only fans/airflow video you will ever need! This dude put a lot of work for this video with all these setups and filling his room with smoke so many times. It must have been very time consuming! Cudos Mr Matt Lee, you've done a great job!
Beautiful, informative, non partisan information. And doing this visually is so effective. This video should be pinned on every big PC website/forum as the definitive intro to PC cooling. Going to go post some links on forums now.
Thats the most aesthetically pleasant video i ever seen about PC cooling, nice and beautiful work!
The best guide about PC cooling! Straight to the point! 🤘❤
Man those builds are clean and are a beauty. Every part really compliments each other.
Wow! That video is a real operator's masterpiece. Respect, dude!
Unreal production quality. Very nice.
I'm glad I found this video. I've been battling with my choice of AIO location. I chose to side mount my radiator pulling fresh air from the outside giving CPU cooling priority. My use case is more CPU intensive, with light gaming from time to time. My airflow setup. 3 front intake fans, AIO mounted on the side pulling fresh air in, 3 top mounted exhaust fans, 1 rear mounted exhaust fan. I've balanced the fans to maintain positive pressure from idle to full load, my temps are great.
I enjoy your videos so much. They are well made visually, and the music is wonderful. I also get to learn something from them.
Apart of the useful info in the video presented in a simple manner, the production, "cinematography" and narration is so soothing! Sometimes youtube will suggest good content!
KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK ....WE ALL WANT TO SAY THANK YOU FOR THE GREAT VIDEOS YOU BRING US EACH WEEK HERE IN YOUR YOU TUBE CHANNEL . im sure many here in you tube will agree matt , youve been a great help to building pcs . THANK YOU MATT ☺
Your videos are so well made, I'm glad youtube recommended me this gem of a channel. Keep it up!
found this video randomly, but enjoy every second of it, super nice
7:24 makes so much sense but never clicked before. Thank you for the visualization! Definitely will keep this in mind for my next build 💪
my build right now has a top INTAKE fan to the right of the tower cooler. Almost the same set up as his but that fan hes talking about is near the front, and is intake. i was wondering if it would be better to use it like his setup or if it doesnt even matter much... maybe its redundant to have that considering that the front fans are taking in air anyway right next to it. Perhaps helping out my one exhaust in the back would balance my airflow better
great cinematography, awesome idea with the smoke machine. super cool visualization! you're a really cool guy!
That Vision Chrome case is 🔥. Thanks, Matt!
A feast for the eyes and the brain. Terrific video, Mr. Lee! Looking forward to more videos like this!
Fantastic Video, beautiful, easy to understand, super-informative, pace not rushed, top marks for speaking voice. I bet I'll watch again for the therapeutic value. I subscribed! I'm going for Air cooled gaming with Noctua NH-U12A in Nzxt H7 Flow case.
What a great video! The t mysteriousness in the beginning and the tempo changing is just so good. Thank you for this.
If you see this, what do you think of the NZXT H6 Flow?
My personal gaming PC is built in the H6 Flow… I hope that answers your question 🤓
As an engineer I'd say you did a pretty good job explaining things. Fans have a given characteristic in terms of flow and delta pressure they can provide. If you obstruct the inlet of air of the case that means that portion of that dP is lost to overcoming that resistance and also could impact the fan performance if the air is entering the fan at an angle... depending on the specific fan design. Otherwise inside the case you were right about the turbulence of some cases. Generally speaking if you want high air flow you want it to not be turbulent and have as few changes in direction as possible (anytime you accelerate the air in a different direction you loose some of the kinetic energy the fan put into it). Though turbulent flow is somewhat beneficial to increase heat transfer, but your not looking to cool the walls of your case, so it's a waste.
Yeah that's why I always stick to an airflow focused case rather than an aesthetic all glass one. At the end of the day, the core component is much more important than the looks!
In the North case, you don't even need exhaust fans, it performs pretty well, especially because the two front 140mm fans basically act like a column of air pushing down the entire case in a steady flow, with air free to escape wherever is the least path of resistance, whether it be the side or top mesh, or ultimately the back. You don't even need an exhaust fan, the CPU fan will easily push all the warm air out, acting like an exhaust, while the rest will just go out of the top or sides from convection. In mine, only everything from the rear of the heatsink warms up the case itself, only the exhaust area of the heatsink is where any warmth is felt, and very little at that. So you simply don't need that many fans, especially with Ryzen 7/9 chips, because these extra fans will never cool things enough to make a difference, because while they run cool, they also run hot at the same time due to the thickness of the IHS on the CPU, so even a case full of several fans won't make a meaningful difference in its max temps. All adding more fans will do is create turbulence, starve other fans of air, take in more dust, and cool air that was already on its way out anyways. With just the two stock fans in the front, it's a completely positive pressure case, with air able to move freely like a wind tunnel.
Great video man. I'm getting a new case tomorrow. Can't wait to apply what I learned from your video.
Perfect video. Nice aesthetic; really useful advices. Good job mate.
Cool video, glad you explained (and visualized) this, will help a lot of us!
Thanks Alfred 😊 Stoked you enjoyed the video and as you said, hopefully this will be really beneficial for others building their setups too. Have a good one buddy!
I love your Lian Li O11 Vision (white) video, inspired me for my first build, yeah the airflaw test with smoke is very interesting in all your video but what i love, more then all other things, is the audio/video editing (the audio song in the lian li vision white video is amazing). Thank you Matt!
Man the footage is so smooth it looks like a 3D rendering, impressive!
That Noctua x Fractal Design build is really something else. I'm gunning for a similar build soon. Great video!
have built my pc on last weekends, your guides helped me a lot. thanks for content!
That’s awesome to hear! Which video inspired your build? You’re welcome for the content 🤝
Your video about NZXT H6 Flow and Lian Li O11 Vision showed me positive sides of see-through cases. It is really exciting to build such PCs@@Mr_Matt_Lee
Always nice to hear you talk and some really good advice.
The most beautiful and easy to understand air flow video I have ever watched..
Spectacular as always Matt! I’ve learnt a lot Thankyou
That's beautiful to watch!
Great job.
So long without see that quality of edition and effort in something. Here you can see someone that really loves to do something..
The cinematography here is insane!!!!!
So satisfying to see this video.. brilliantly done
Video is so well made and peacefully. Beautiful computers high quality visual and audio
Very informative and relaxing to watch, with no unnecessary/unrelated chatter. Great cinematography too.
Only thing this didn't seem to delve into is the Positive/Neutral/Negative Pressure concepts. Typically best to either have more intake fans than exhaust fans, or greater CFM intakes than exhausts. Either way, the warm air is forced out of the case with less dust accumulation.
Nice video, production quality and presentation is really on another level.
I wish i could like this video a million times. Your presentation and information were phenomenal.
Very nicely done! This one video sets you up as a reference for PC builders and enthusiasts.
Love this comment, thanks my friend. It's always good to share unopinionated knowledge from time to time ^^
It was like a therapy. Thank you for this informative and relaxing video. Aprreciate.
Wonderful! Loved this format! ❤
Really love the video! It can be great to see also how much air can pull the AIO on push-pull configuration
Extremely good video. Only thing I'd add is a brief discussion of positive vs negative pressure in air-cooled cases. Thanks for the great watch.
Amazing video, I hope you do more of this kind of content. I'd love a deep dive into ARGB lighting.
Such great production quality keep it up dude ! :)
Didn't know 16k video quality on youtube are up, awesome content and quality 👍
Awesome unique style, all the best on your success!
That Noctua build is amazing man!
great info, awesome quality, instant subscribed.
This is the smoothest video I had ever seen !
I asked for a compilation of airflow visualization a couple months ago. Thank you mate
Hopefully this video fulfilled that request to a certain degree 😊✌️
i like this video how to understand each casing model with detailed explanation
so far this is only video i found explaining about casing architecture
That's a Clean Video man, Great job!
What a Presentation, Keep doing man
Very well shot and edited!
Awesome Video! Very informative. Your Montech Air 903 No RGB build inspired me to create my own Antec Performance 1 Silent No RGB build.
Clean ASF Info!! Keep Up Bro! Classy! 👌🏻💪🏻☕️
Absolutely beautiful and elegant video on airflow. I’ve always wondered whether a blanking panel covering most of the top mesh could ensure airflow is directed to the heat sink.
Amazing video, amazing explanation... Congratulations!
Currently putting bits together for my new rig, this really helps as I don't want my new one to sound like my screamy h100i fans pressed up against the mesh. A bit more free flowing air with whatever cooling I use next
You’re bloody brilliant, thanks Matt
I leaned something new about my pc case today. It's actually a airflow optimised one with a plastic panel on front, with the "tried and tested" look. It's just missing a hell of a lot of fans,as in it has one on the back and one for the cpu that's facing towards it, and it looks like it can take some big ones too. Now I just need to figure out how to install them, little lone which to buy. It can get an additional 2-3 in the front, and it's build for only one in the top.
Thank you for the information, no wonder why my computer is running hot and loud
artistically technical.. liked this analysis a lot!! thank you
Love your videos brother. So well done. Hard to believe you don't have a couple million subscribers. Keep it up!
Thanks so much 😊✌️ Work hard, play harder! We got this.
The production quality of this video is insane
An experience PC builder here, also I live in a very hot climate so ambient is around 30degrees Celsius most of the time. This will be a bit long but I just wanna share.
I always do a full system load for every build I do, it will give you an idea of what is the worst case scenario and you can check what you can do to improve from there. Other than cooling performance I tend to config the system to also have positive pressure, this help keep the Pc cleaner and cooling performance won’t be hampered by the layer of dust.
For cooling rather than having a lot of airflow you want to have fresh cool air cooling your components. Like in case of mounting radiators at the top while it help cooling the gpu rapidly, it generally bad for cooling cpu due to the usage of hot air from gpu to cool your cpu.
If you pull the air in from the top and using the back exhaust fan to pull both hot air from gpu and cpu out it does give a few degrees advantage, the catch is it need to pull the air out fast enough so I generally use a 140mm for the exhaust. This configuration also makes the intake spin at lower speed due to having both intake on the front and top.
Now you just need to match fan speed to maintain a positive pressure at any cooling temperature, you can do this by observing the hole on your case and see if it pull air in or out and you can adjust the fan speed from there. This method maintains maximum cooling and positive pressure at any speed.
I generally aim for 70~80 degrees celsius when ambient is over 30 for high end components(there are some exception like 14900k), My 3080 and 13400f with 240AIO run at 68degrees and 65degree respectively at full system load at ambient 30.
as a new builder, its nice to see the theory behind each component instead of just parts being shown off
Awsome video man!!! love ur cinamatics!!!
Very nice surprise video! Liked it, thanks
This is really nicely done.
Incredibly helpful and fascinating video, Sir. Thank You 😊
Matt is the absolute best - like Matt Bro - I could listen to your excellent narrative voice all damn day - this video is my favorite of all time from you
This is a timely and informative video.
I'm about to perform a surprise case and fan upgrade for a close buddy of mine while he is out the country - he thinks I'm just gonna dust out his top end gaming PC.
I think he will like his new Vetroo Mesh ATX Case with Thermalright RGB ring fans.
Классно. Вдохновляюсь Твоими сборками. Сам собрал несколько десятков компов и пересобрал еще больше старых, сделав их тише и производительней. Спасибо за вдохновение....
Subbed! Masterful work.
Really interesting vid. The one thing I would add, is the direction of your GPU fans when running a high end build, and having fixed rate fans when utilising pressure. I have found the Corsair 5000D to be one of the few cases where more fans = Better. With a STRIX 4090 and an i9 (and Motherboard trained properly over a week so it doesn't blow up), i have 13 fans, the GPU rarely if ever goes over 50 celsius, during max Cyberpunk, and the i9 rarely over 60 (both heavily OC'd). The case has some sort of magic to it. Since the STRIX's fans are so effective, I built the case around the card.
3 front 120's, 2 side 140's (Panel left on to push the air over the MB) h150i Elite XT at the top, with 6 x 120's push/pull - inner and outer, one PSU shroud pointing up below the STRIX (to help pull up since it sits below the CPU) and one exhaust.
I also use fixed rate % instead of curves, and fix the strix fans at 50-60%, otherwise the ai won't use them at 45 celsius (avg Cyberpunk temp)
The artistry that is present in your builds that are showcased are amazing. I absolutely love the color choices, camera angles, text, graphics. Everything is so clean and well presented. First time viewer I'm coming back for more.
Such a good vid, keep it up my guy! Watching these videos feels relaxing, chilling like in the movies💯💯
Thank you ✌️ Pleased you enjoyed the video bud.
@@Mr_Matt_Lee yessir, I hope you're doing well! Have a g'day!
I subscribed from the first second. Keep it up 👏