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Corsair 400D with H115i, how to setup fans properly?

terragady
Level 7
Hi,

I have a 400D case and H115i water cooling for my CPU. I have bought few noctua fans to replace the H115i ones, also one for top and one on the back. The original one from H115i is on top as well connected to CPU OPT and set to 20% all the time due to noise reduction.

I have also 2x HDD, 1x SSD, Asus GTX 1080 ti and Z370-f mobo.

The intake fans are only the ones attached to radiator. The problem is with HDD temps and GPU temps when on load. It seems there is not enough cooling inside. I have set the intake fans to not go below 50% any time and it helped a bit(they are still silent at this RPMs). They actually barely go any above that because liquid does not get hot even on higher CPU temps.

I was thinking that I can change the top Noctua fan (the one more on front) to the intake as well so it will blow to GPU and HDDs but will cross with the stream from front fans. Even maybe connect it to GPU output or set it to fixed RPMs. Maybe setting a GPU fans to not stop on idle would also help with air circulation? What do you think?
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15 REPLIES 15

ThrashZone
Level 10
Hi,
I setup all fans as intake rads or not which I do have rad on top and front on 450D case
Only exception is the top rear fan not really needed but exhaust if I use one.

All air will be pushed out the back that is why cases are designed like they are and with filters on top and front.

The hdd space I would add another fan on the front smaller possibly a 120mm will fit to cool them.
If not put the rad on top as intake.

Not very glamorous but it works and yes I added a second floor for the 280mm rad 😉
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]

ThrashZone wrote:
Hi,
I setup all fans as intake rads or not which I do have rad on top and front on 450D case
Only exception is the top rear fan not really needed but exhaust if I use one.

All air will be pushed out the back that is why cases are designed like they are and with filters on top and front.

The hdd space I would add another fan on the front smaller possibly a 120mm will fit to cool them.
If not put the rad on top as intake.

Not very glamorous but it works and yes I added a second floor for the 280mm rad 😉


Your 450D is a bit higher than mine 400C case. It is not possible to fit another fan near HDD, it would need to be extremely small.



mdzcpa wrote:
I always suggest top mounting the radiator of the AIO if possible. Front fans on intake duty supplying cool air directly to the GPU, PCH and drives. The extra couple of degrees you might gain on the CPU by exhausting hot air out the top will not affect much. But the cool air coming from the front onto the GPU and drives will make a noted different.


Let the AIO fans be controlled by the pump unit. Corsair has good control options with iCUE including customer fan curves. Run the front intakes off the motherboard fan headers and set them to GPU/PCH temps. Same for the rear exhaust. This will allows high GPU/low CPU scenarios to allow the rad fans and case fans to run asynchronously. The key is to the have the case fans handle GPU heat needed (PCH is a good substitute for GPU).


There is no space to mount it on top, that was the first thing I tried. I will try to reverse one on top as intake if it makes any difference.

ThrashZone wrote:
Hi,
I setup all fans as intake rads or not which I do have rad on top and front on 450D case
Only exception is the top rear fan not really needed but exhaust if I use one.

All air will be pushed out the back that is why cases are designed like they are and with filters on top and front.

The hdd space I would add another fan on the front smaller possibly a 120mm will fit to cool them.
If not put the rad on top as intake.

Not very glamorous but it works and yes I added a second floor for the 280mm rad 😉


Totally agree.....I have a 480*360 *240 Rads..ALL are set up with intake fans....you always want the coolest freshest air blowing thur your rads.....in fact I have 14 intake fans (11 on my Rads) and 3 strictly front intakes...with a single 140mm top back for exhaust....positive pressure .......

mdzcpa
Level 12
I always suggest top mounting the radiator of the AIO if possible. Front fans on intake duty supplying cool air directly to the GPU, PCH and drives. The extra couple of degrees you might gain on the CPU by exhausting hot air out the top will not affect much. But the cool air coming from the front onto the GPU and drives will make a noted different.


Let the AIO fans be controlled by the pump unit. Corsair has good control options with iCUE including customer fan curves. Run the front intakes off the motherboard fan headers and set them to GPU/PCH temps. Same for the rear exhaust. This will allows high GPU/low CPU scenarios to allow the rad fans and case fans to run asynchronously. The key is to the have the case fans handle GPU heat needed (PCH is a good substitute for GPU).

ThrashZone
Level 10
Hi,
They do make smaller fans about all you can do is add one for the hdd cage

You could mount it on the left side of the hdd cage too it doesn't have to be directly under the radiator
Just might have to adjust wiring little if need be.

If you have too
Raise the rad up a little add new screw holes to mount it
Slide the hdd cage to the right as far as possible
Add a 120mm fan to the left side of the hdd cage it should miss any wiring more.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]

ThrashZone wrote:
Hi,
They do make smaller fans about all you can do is add one for the hdd cage

You could mount it on the left side of the hdd cage too it doesn't have to be directly under the radiator
Just might have to adjust wiring little if need be.

If you have too
Raise the rad up a little add new screw holes to mount it
Slide the hdd cage to the right as far as possible
Add a 120mm fan to the left side of the hdd cage it should miss any wiring more.


Not possible to raise radiator more, it is already pushed into the cables for the I/O of the case on top. Yes I can add some small radiator there, I will try with some random small one and if it will be good I will order some noctua.

What do you think about my top fans? Should I reverse the noctua one for intake? Or maybe switch them and set noctua for little higher RPMs? SO it will be more on the back and the old corsair will go more to front and can stay as low rpm exhaust or i can swithc it to rpm but do not want it to be any higher rpm due to noise it generates.


EDIT: yeah maybe I should consider other case which would be higher, I have some nice NZXT case (NZXT H440 New Edition Silent Ultra, which is bigger) I am going to sell but it is a silent edition windowless and I like the windowed cases so I stayed with that corsair I have 🙂

davemon50
Level 11
So you've tried mounting on top? It doesn't have to fit inside the case, have you tried that? Radiator screwed down on top, fans in the case screwed from under? Or reversing it, in pull. It's not pretty, but then doesn't require any extra head height inside the case.
Davemon50

davemon50 wrote:
So you've tried mounting on top? It doesn't have to fit inside the case, have you tried that? Radiator screwed down on top, fans in the case screwed from under? Or reversing it, in pull. It's not pretty, but then doesn't require any extra head height inside the case.


I have tried mounting on top but does not fit, mobo is on the way, just a fans barely fit. I didn't try mounting fans outside the case but I guess if I remove the mesh on top it would fit if the screws will me long enought to grab radiator through the fans. That is some kind of idea, but then it would be as exhaust right?

davemon50
Level 11
Depends on how you fit it. Could go either way. But yes, you would have something mounted outside the case and something mounted within. If it's PUSH exhaust, mount the fans insidea and under the top and screw through to the radiator mounted on top the case. If it's PULL exhaust, mount the rad inside and under the top and screw through to the fans mounted on top the case. It can also be intake if you wanted, you just reverse the flow of the fans.

In my case I use the smaller version of what you have so the radiator fits in the back of my case, and I set up the two fans for push-pull in exhaust mode and sandwiched the radiator between them.
Davemon50