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Hi everyone,

I have just received all the parts for my latest build!

My case is a Lian Li PC-B25 FWB which has two 140mm fans on top of the case. They are placed on top of the normal square of the case and covered by a shroud.

My dilemma is this.

Do I mount the H110 inside the case and pull air through it up and out of the case.

or

Do I make two little cuts in the case so I can put the water cooling cables through the fan cable pass through. Thus allowing me to mount the radiator outside the case and have the fans pull in to the case.

I'll try and get some pictures. This will be a slow build since I have a broken collar bone to deal with!

Thanks!

Oh the rest of the specs:

4770K, 32GB DDR3 1600, Maximus Formula z87, Zotac gtx 780 AMP (I might need to get out the grinder to fit the gpu in anyway), 840 Pro 256GB

rogthewookiee wrote:

mount the radiator outside the case and have the fans pull in to the case.

Fans pulling air from radiator into the case? You're crazy

OK when you put it like that!

I was just thinking that cool air getting to the radiator first would be good. Then the exhaust would take care of the rest of the heat dissipation.


At least it looks like it will be really easy to mount in the case!

I recall very vividly that Corsair's instructions for the H100i instructed the purchaser to install the radiator in manner that pulled air INTO the case.

Now that's not to say that the H110 is similar, or any different, for that matter.

I'll reference their installation manual shortly, if I can find a copy of it online.

For BEST performance for the CPU alone, using the IWC as an intake makes perfect sense- but it ignores the rest of the system. If you have positive pressure generated by fans elsewhere in the system, you can easily get away with the IWC oriented as an exhaust, because it will effectively be the same- or better, really- as having it as an intake.

I think Corsair's instructions, like Nvidia's of having 600W per GPU, are 'default to worst case'-style. If you have an average case and added no additional fans, you might have one intake and one exhaust- so making the H110i an intake makes sense. But if you have significant amounts of intake, like you should, then setting it to exhaust actually makes more sense and will net higher performance.

Pulling cold outside air into the radiator provides maximum cooling for the CPU for the fringe overclockers (or for Intel's Prescott-inspired BTX case specification). It also heats up every other component inside your case.

So maybe the question that I should have asked is:

Will there be a difference in cooling performance that is relevant to a normal user.

As the case is configured now, there are 2x120 in on the front, 2x140 in on top and one 120 exhaust.

The only pace to put the H110 is at the top of the case. Changing the top of the case to exhaust might help cooling overall anyway. The cowl over the fans isn't a mesh, but rather a plate with lots of tiny holes in it.

Simple solution would be to add a cheap filter to the rear 120mm, and change it to an intake, so that you'd have more intake than exhaust, and positive pressure. I'll likely be doing the same if I upgrade within my current enclosure (Define R3), by putting a 2x140mm cooler up top for the CPU and turning the rear fan around. My current H60 is fine for my [email protected], but I'm looking closely at the new Ivy-E platform, and I'd like to get as close to 5.0GHz as my cooling setup will allow.

rogthewookiee wrote:

The only pace to put the H110 is at the top of the case. Changing the top of the case to exhaust

You got it!

Airmantharp wrote:

Simple solution would be to add a cheap filter to the rear 120mm, and change it to an intake, so that you'd have more intake than exhaust, and positive pressure.

That also gives you the benefit of the rear 120mm cooling the CPU socket area. That same fresh intake air from the rear 120mm is also closer to the radiator than the front fans, so it could increase performance slightly. Overall, you're suggesting a bottom-up airflow in the case. That checks out with the laws of thermodynamics.
Only caveat I see is if the case is under a desk with not much room above. That may cause the hot air to get caught by the rear fan and pump it back into the case....trial and error.

OK I got it all in the case! It is quite literally no space to spare.

I am getting an 8 pin cpu power extender so I can cut the tab off to get it in to the port!

The radiator intrudes on the 5.25 bays, lucky i'm not using any. Except for the fan controller which is not full length!

Maybe I ought to have gotten a new case, but I turned the savings in to the gtx 780...