Case fan options and locations with this case

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Ricky685

New member
Guys

I currently have this case for my first build

https://www.quietpc.com/cooltek-jonsbo-umx4

It comes with 2 x 120mm top intake fans and 1 x 120mm rear exhaust fan.
The psu is located in the top right with the fan facing inwards, so would pull air in from the case and exhaust out of the top.
Still open to air cooled cpu cooler or aio liquid cpu coolers

I need some advice if I could change these to:
Reverse top 2 fans to exhaust
Add 2 fans to the bottom for cool air intake
So cool air in at the bottom, hot air exhaust at the top.
PSU acts as an exhaust fan
Including the rear exhaust fan, (2 x in and 4x out), this would be negative pressure? Good or bad?
Would it be better to have the cpu cooler turned 90 degree to exhaust out of the top and not use the rear exhaust, and a completely top to bottom air flow?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated
Thanks
 
Ok, starting with the obvious here, but i wouldn't be counting the psu as an exhaust. Sure, it depends on what model you get, but the better ones don't even have their fan spinning until they get hot, so it won't be on all the time.

There is a LOT of argument over whether negative air pressure is good or bad. My own view is that the difference is mostly in what it means for maintenance. There IS a small (tiny) cooling performance gain with negative pressure, but it's not going to change much really. Negative pressure usually means that dust is being sucked into the machine (essentially, you are creating a vacuum, which the surrounding air tries to equalise). Positive case pressure means that air is blowing out of the case (i.e. less dust).
The real goal is neutral pressure: which is really hard to get due to restrictions from radiators, heatsinks etc.

Why neutral and not positive? Noise. You're looking in the quiet series off cases, so acoustics matter. Quite simply the more Positive pressure in your case, the harder air will blow out. This will create noise as the air it's going through areas it Was not really meant to.

As for your proposed air flow (bottom to top) i like it, and it will work fine, but you will definitely want to keep the pc on a desk. Otherwise dust will become a problem for you. As it utilises convection, it will alao allow you to set exhausts at the top to lower speeds making neutral/positive pressure easier to obtain.

Would i go for an aio in this case? Well, yeah, if i didn't custom loop it. But I'm a water cooling and silence nut, and love not having bulky thermal solutions flexing my motherboard.

Finally, Jayz2cents did a video on air pressure and pc cases, so if you are interested, you could look at that for tips on managing pressure. I'll see if i can find it in a few hours time.
 
Excellent advice and video links gents, thanks very much. I did some more reaserch and found some explanations on Toms Hardware, I missed These two from Jay so thanks again.
So I am looking for the most silent system I can get in this case, I was looking at an air cooled cpu cooler but really don't like the bulkyness of those, so I'm now looking at an AIO solution.
The psu I have is the supernova 650w g2 - I believe this is a quiet model and does have an eco switch, so I take your point about not counting it an an exhaust.

The solution I have come up with is:
2 x 120mm bottom fan's - cool air intake
2 x 120mm top fan's - hot air exhaust
Neutral pressure so far.....
1 x 120mm single AIO mounted on the rear set to push pull something like these:
https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/products/compare/wxcMnQ,rbKhP6,p3fp99/
That takes care of the cpu cooling - not sure on the performance of these so I still need to reaserch them - any suggestions welcome!
I will sacrifice some silence due to the additional pump noise.
So now I have positive pressure, but if I have all fans on pwm, coupled with a slight exhaust from the PSU... I should have slightly positive pressure and control the fans to bring it closer to neural?
Any thoughts on this?
 
To be completely honest with you here mate, I'm starting to sense that you're like how I have been... In theory, I completely understand you. But in reality, no matter how much "research" you do, you can't really get it all down to be honest. It's just too many variables when it comes to this.

As those 2 fans in push/pull on the radiator will then be exhausts as well, but they won't be as much of an "exhaust" as the top ones. As these have a radiator, which is and have restriction, which will heavily slow down their "performance" as exhaust. IF we compared them to the top exhausts.

And also, keep in mind that the more fans you put in a case, the more noise you're automatically adding to it.

I haven't quite understood your position with the PSU, are you facing the fan up or down?... As I wouldn't really consider an PSU as exhaust, as Surfie also mentioned above.

In all honesty, I get where you're coming from here bud, but I personally think you're over thinking it all... That is what I did at first, all the time. But then I got a bit fed up with it all, so I just went "back"/to the basics with it and it works just as fine as when I was heavily into it as you are.

I really wanted 3 intake fans in the front, 2 exhaust in the top and 1 exhaust in the back.
But in reality, 2 intake fans is just as good. And the top 2 exhaust is on an H100i, so it's all still relatively balanced in my case :)
 
Chrazey said:
To be completely honest with you here mate, I'm starting to sense that you're like how I have been... In theory, I completely understand you. But in reality, no matter how much "research" you do, you can't really get it all down to be honest. It's just too many variables when it comes to this.

As those 2 fans in push/pull on the radiator will then be exhausts as well, but they won't be as much of an "exhaust" as the top ones. As these have a radiator, which is and have restriction, which will heavily slow down their "performance" as exhaust. IF we compared them to the top exhausts.

And also, keep in mind that the more fans you put in a case, the more noise you're automatically adding to it.

I haven't quite understood your position with the PSU, are you facing the fan up or down?... As I wouldn't really consider an PSU as exhaust, as Surfie also mentioned above.

In all honesty, I get where you're coming from here bud, but I personally think you're over thinking it all... That is what I did at first, all the time. But then I got a bit fed up with it all, so I just went "back"/to the basics with it and it works just as fine as when I was heavily into it as you are.

I really wanted 3 intake fans in the front, 2 exhaust in the top and 1 exhaust in the back.
But in reality, 2 intake fans is just as good. And the top 2 exhaust is on an H100i, so it's all still relatively balanced in my case :)
Click to expand...

This. Also, another variable: are you going to use a fan controller to modify/monitor your fans?

Basically, just get the intakes to be slightly more than the outtakes, and you'll be fine.
 
The Jonsbo UMX4 is a sublime case. I was considering it for my next build, but I think I'll go with the Jonsbo W2 instead. If you're looking for a silent system that's both unique and visually stunning, the Jonsbo cases are excellent as they have many solid, thick panels.

However, I would not recommend an AIO for a silent system. Some of them are quiet, but generally they are louder than air coolers whilst performing the same. Big air coolers like the Noctua NHD-15S will be quieter than a 120mm AIO whilst performing around the same—usually above. It'll also be more reliable, cheaper, and often easier to install—at least in the case of the Noctua. As far as aesthetics, I personally think bulky tower heatsinks look awesome. I'll be going with the NH-D15S or the Thermalright Le Grand Macho RT with my next build. I can't stand the pump noise on most AIO's. AIO's are good for compact systems (ITX), extreme overclocking, and if you prefer their aesthetics enough to put up with their issues. Otherwise big air is always my recommendation.

My recommendation for air throw is this:

2x120mm intakes at bottom
1x120mm intake at rear (turn tower heatsink around)
2x120mm exhaust on top (with PSU also exhausting)

That's the way the case was designed and makes the most sense. I've also seen this method done effectively by average guys like you and I. You could replace the tower heatsink with a 120mm AIO at the rear and intake air there—which will then be exhausted out the top—but you will not be saving very much space.

A 240mm radiator is hard to fit at the top as the motherboard heatsinks can get in the way. Some have been able to fit very thin 240mm radiators, but others with larger motherboard heatsinks and RAM can't fit a 240 radiator.
 
Thanks for the advice gents.... just to answer a few questions:
Chrazey - yeh your probably right......too much time on my hands waiting for ryzen....but I do like to explore all options. In regards to the PSU, there is only one viable mounting option because it is in the top of the case it exhausts at the top so the fan must face inwards, PSU would be vertical.

Surfie - in regards to fan control, I was thinking of fitting all pwm, then using software to control all of them, ideally very little fan speed on idle, increasing the speed as the load and temps increase.

Angrygoldfish - I was always going air cooling for the cpu based on price v performance and silence, but when I actually seen one in the flesh, I was like Jesus these things are massive...so started looking at AIO. I think they are more asthetically pleasing and show more to the system off, but yeh I take your point on noise, also realise 240 rads would be a squeeze in this case. I have seenone build in this case with 2 x 240mm rads but he modded the hell out case, drilling holes here the and everywhere!

So all in all based on price, silence and performance I think I'll go with your suggestion, just see if I can find a nice looking smallish tower cooler... I did have the scythe fuma on my list? Or has any one ever used fanless cpu coolers?

Cheers
 
Cryorig H7 is an excellent single tower heatsink. It's not tiny, but it's one of the few ITX-supporting coolers with such high cooling efficiency. The H5 is bigger but does offer noticeably superior cooling.

The Scythe Fuma is excellent, but it's not exactly compact.

If you don't mind either replacing the fan or accepting Noctua's colour scheme, the NH-U12S is one of the best single tower heatsinks available. BeQuiet!'s Dark Rock 3 is the cat's pajamas for aesthetics, but their mounting system is not as well engineered and the performance isn't quite the best. Superb acoustics, though. Their fans are excellent.

Have a look at TTL's breakdown here of a selection of CPU heatsinks. It's an excellent article.
 
Ha.. I have seen that article and his water cooler article... which made me side on the AIO for asthetics

The noctua is one fugly colour... lol

I was really surprised how big these can get, seeing them in the flesh, and on some video's

tbh I'm probably not going for any extreme overclocking for some time so there could be some compromise to be had on cooling performance, due to how cheap these are I could start off with a small low performance and upgrade if and when required.
silence is defiantly one of the top priorities.
I've got my eye on Asus z270 Strix e, or maybe Msi z270 gaming m7, silver and black theme and it seems a shame to cover these with a massive cooler.

I'll give them another look, I take it the blow down ones are out of the question?
 
The thin CPU coolers are perfectly fine if you're not that fussed about overclocking. They're designed for HTPC's and very small chassis, but they perform decently. I've never heard one in real life so I can't comment on noise. But theoretically they should be as noise efficient as their tower counterparts.

They're actually quite good at not affecting your GPU temperature as well as improving your motherboard temperatures as they blow directly over your VRM and around your RAM.
 
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