one of additional benefits to using this configuration is that it significantly lowers temperatures of the motherboard, chipset and ram.

This is the exact testing I looking for. This video is so underestimated. Thank you for your experiment.

I really like your explanations and diagrams. Makes thing incredibly clear from the getgo. Keep it up!

Your video just helped me 2 years later^^ Thank you

This explanation is very clear and logic, i am waiting my noctua nh-d15s 🤤

Just subbed you for your incredible work. I flipped my top fans for intake as you did and my cpu temps went from 62 to 60 degree at full load. Thanks man!

I was thinking that having intake on the top and front would be effective because of the positive pressure and the cool air being present over the ram, cpu, and vrm. Looking online, you see tons of articles about how top should be exhaust but the only reasoning is that "hot air rises". Thanks for doing the experiment. I will be doing the same fan setup and testing it myself.

It would've been nice to see a comparison with a 240mm CPU AIO on top to expell the heat out directly while still not interfering with front-->back airflow.

with my first PC in 2017. While 3 front intakes and one back exhaust were enough but due to overlooking GPU and Cpu are reaching 70-80 deg C and getting downclocked I was using ryzen wraith stealth stock cooler for cpu after so many experiments, putting one intake fan right above cpu and another intake fan right below gpu with just one exhaust gave me the desired OC results within 70-80 temp limits

The added benefit of x2 intakes at the top also blow cool air over the VRM's and RAM and maybe the m.2 slot ...

the best airflow video on youtube

God, I have been trying all over for info like this and i trust some one who actually made a video about it and not just talks about their experience on Reddit. I appreciate it. Intakes on top then. Thanks!

Great video i have bought the case but the 3080 that'd gonna take a while, but i will use your settup when i finaly can build my new pc

I find your video so helpful, I have the same case and wasnt noticing improvement over 2 top exahust fans. You got a new subscriber

you earned a sub good quality content good editing nice scripting, graphs that is easy to read and understand and that cinematic shots GOOD GOD

Same case, use an AIO (360mm) on CPU top mounted. The first 2 fans (from the front) are intake, the 3rd is exhaust (along with an actual exhaust fan). I've done this to help push the air coming from the front 200mm fans down towards the GPU. My temps rarely hit 70° with load. I love it. Thinking about upgrading to noctua 200mm fans... Because why not

i got 2 fans intake from top 3 fans front intake 1 exhaust fan AND MY PC NEVER OVERHOATS

just made the top a intake also. temps went down a few. thanks for the research.

Make more videos! This was very well constructed compared to other vids covering the same topic, very concise!

I actually just noticed this myself on my Fractal Design Node 804, and stumbled upon this video to look deeper. I was certain that for the top fans, rear would be exhaust and front would be intake but I'm surprised with your findings. Considering I have an Nvidia RTX 3080 TI, I feel the gpu cooler design would benefit from your setup especially. Mad respect for your work here. Thanks.

It’s also because cold air is touching the components. Putting exhaust fans on top never allow the cold front air to touch the components

wow just what I was expecting regarding the top front fan sucking too much air out before it hits the cpu cooler!! Great vid :D

Late on this but thanks for the information since we have two of these for our builds. Great info. Keep up the good work!

that case looks so nice, for a smaller form factor at least. I built my first pc and was going for the absolute budget mindset while maxing out the cpu and motherboard potential. I was stuck buying a $50 thermaltake that is very similar to this one, but looks 4 years older, lol One of the many videos I watched so far that had a good amount of info for me to utilize since it used a lot of the factors I am also dealing with, including the cpu cooler setup in the same fashion.

Bruh why do you not have hundreds of thousands of subs

best video for the questions I had, respect!

that makes sense as CPU has more access to "fresh air" if you add 2 intakes on top instead of exhaust and my guess is VRM will also benefit as there should be colder air passing through

First of all, you just earned a new sub. Second, damn, this was a really good video, straight to the point, simple but complete explanation, no useless talking. I'm about to build my first ever PC and my choice of case was the H500M, a little bit expensive compared to the standard H500 but I went a bit for looks haha. Difference is that I will mount a CM MasterLiquid Mirage AIO, should I go for 2 top intakes too?

Amazing detail and great video! Did not expect such a thorough video. Keep it up!

Imo the best config would be without both top fans.. 2 reasons: 1. yes hot air does rise and your 2 intake fans on top are kinda fighting that 2. Yes u have positive pressure but the dust always falls from the top, and you use the top as intake.. I mean with that logic just install all the intake fans and voila so much positive pressure everything cool.

I have a H500 case. I haven't built it out yet but before I do, I am going to use a dremmel to cut out the metal that is blocking most of the front two 200mm fans.

Appreciate the video, your explanation re pressure etc. is interesting. I was actually considering installing 1x200mm fan in the top vs 2fans. Thanks to your video I have my answer as to whether it should be exhaust or intake fan. I have just installed a CM MA620M heatsink and had seen other build post which had concerns over intake vs exhaust but they never clearly answered intake was more effective, I don't presently have temperatures to worry much about until I install anticipated 3070 ftw3. I like that you recommend this case it's solid construction. I found it well thought out and practical for my own build though I do have issues with the on/off button with between 3 to 10 attempts to power up.

I am a Master Cooler case owner and the quality is very good. The one ting I would warn you about is customer service and parts. The website shows parts but they are 90% out of stock and never refilled. The tech support is non existant and they never respond to mail or questions. If this doesn't bother you then go ahead with your purchase.

Should include VRM temperature. CPU temperature is already covered by the CPU cooler. Nothing is cooling the VRMs so the temp of the VRMs are more significantly seen

Why is exhaust : intake obviously bad?

Thanks a lot for this! I'm currently cleaning up my friend's build inside a MC500 case which seems relatively similar to the H500 (the fans are 140mm though). I don't have the resources, time or motivation to run such tests and just trust my gut on this one that the case and components will behave similarly enough for your setup to work in it too. I was also going to do a positive pressure configuration anyway since I prefer a cleaner case. I believe the CPU is a Ryzen (don't know the model yet) and the GPU is a 1060. I don't think the build will be used for gaming or anything too heavy (my friend got it kinda by chance) so the cooling probably won't be that critical but I'd like to do things proper anyways... Now, the fan setup is identical to yours except that for some reason there is only a fan on the front side of the CPU heatsink (and the overall smaller fans). If you had to guess, how big of a deal that might be? Should I get another fan for the CPU? The 2 front fans and the rear fans are 140mm Cooler Master (probably came with case), the top fans are 120mm Enermax 500-2300rpm (UCTBP12P-C) and the CPU fan is some 140mm Noctua

I concur with your findings my CPU is water cooled with the rad being at the top with 2 x 120 fans as intake with a magnetic dust filter right on top. I have 2 x 120 fans at the front low down also as intake with dust filters blowing direct onto 3 x 12TB HD's. The only exhaust is 1 x 140 fan high up at the rear with no dust filter. This creates pos pressure in the case which I blow out with an airline every 3 - 4 months and this configuration is by far the best for overall cooling, I have tried them all. The 1200W PSU is at the very bottom and that has a small fan as intake as well. CPU never goes above 45 C my GPU is Geforce RTX 3060 Ti runs about 65 - 70 when stressed.

What are the top fans? Corsair LL 140 RGB?

So I have this exact same case. I have another 200mm fan just like the front fans on top setup as exhaust. This video made me test it as intake. In my setup when I set the top fan up as intake I saw a 2 degree increase during cinebench. So In my case with the 200mm single fan using it as exhaust is the best option. I also have the stock exhaust fan in the rear.

Totally makes sense, kudos on a fab informative video .. very useful!

Thanks man, even we know that potential dusts will tendency go inside the case but the fan airflow does it's purpose to cool the system.Thanks for explaining it well based on facts and experience the way your fan set up..Now Ive got an idea.

You saved my life man thank you so much

Very nice. I'm gonna be getting this case this fall with a i5 12600k upgrade and putting 2 200mm fans on the top and a 140mm in the back. Now that should be plenty of airflow. :D

My setup is 3 front intake, top front intake, top back exaust, and back fan exaust, positive pressure, and top front fan doesnt exaust fresh air from the front fans, i spaced top fans as much as posible

the 200mm front fans have poor pressure because of the really low rpms, change them for 3x 140mm noctuas are waaaaaaay better and low gpu temp some degrees

I use all intake for my setup. Yep, top intake, front intake, back intake, and even bottom intake.

This video has to be the BEST. Why? because of the key word(s): MY SETUP. Each PC needs a different fan setups.

What about if you liquid cool your CPU? Should that make a difference??

the only problem of changing the top fan to intake is eventually the dust will build up inside the PC case

Lets assume we have a stock fan which directly blows air to the cpu, basically from the sides, not front to rear like a noctua one. Whole situation changes right? Now the top-rear exhaust fan makes sense again imo.

What if top front fan act as intake and the rear top as exhaust. That would be interesting to know...

Thanks for the info. For me i Get same case, and I just removed the tempred glass cover and my rx 6900 xt gpu temp go down by 7 ° (from 75 to 68) in Horizon zero dawn game.

Very good and informative video, happy that I found it, as many of the bigger tubers don't test these things enough. And most of them do the majority of their builds with less effective cooling layout for better esthetic as that gets views. I have suspected this a long time ago and have been using the same setup for some time. Have personally tried many fan orientations and positions and at least when doing all air system on traditional layout pc case it's always best to have as much intake at the right places as you can get instead of exhaust. That one exhaust fan is enough for most systems exhaust needs, and all the air that's not needed finds its way out of the case anyway don't worry, it's not like pressure inside the case will build up, and it will explode :D. Don't forget, air also needs time to absorb heat first before leaving the PC case for max effectiveness, so too much exhaust or placing it at the wrong spot can hurt things more. That said, if you have AIO, conversation can change and in my personal opinion it's best to have as much intake at front as you can. Then AIO on top as exhaust and back fan also exhaust. Never plan your build with AIO as intake! People don't realize just how much it blocks air flow of the whole system, less so if you have an open front mesh design and more if it's not open mesh. If the case you love can't mount AIO on top just don't use AIO, and if it's absolutely needed then look for another case. If, however, you are already stuck with AIO at the front, then top exhaust is a must as it will help to get rid of some of that hot air coming into the system before it reach the motherboard and other components. But your GPU will never have the best temps it can get and for gamers I think that's most needed, more than a cool CPU.

By now you have tested with the 3090, and what did you conclude for the recommended configuration? By how much did CPU and GPU temperatures increase?

This is a good case, I have the same one. Putting 3 new case fans in thinking 2 up to exhaust, and rear fan. I got Lian Li AL 120's. My cooler is the Noctua NH-D15, monster cooler.

Super clear. Thanks!

I see some people using a 200mm on top same as the front fans, would love to see this tested too.

I just happen to have the same meshalicious case so thanks for the hot tips or cool tips I should say.

I stuck the same cooler master 200mm argb fan on the front on the top as an exhaust fan, seems to not pull TOO much of the fresh air out, but definitely keeps it cool!

Nice review on than fan placement! Thank you

So why is it clearly bad to have the front top be intake and the back top to be exhaust? Is it because they counteract each other? I would imagine this makes the most neutral air flow with one exhaust back top and back of case, and two front intake with one top intake. Please let me know what you think

I have almost the exact same build i'll try this thanks

Cooler Master H500p mesh have acrylic on top, dont have mesh, soo, I didn't understand the box, I was watching a video of the official master coller of this box, they have air coming in the front and in top... air only comes out from the back. Thats why they have filters in top!? Does the box look better in this configuration with watter cooler? more fresher as they have in the oficial video...

I have the same case with the argh version and I notice exactly that, the 1 first one using as exhaust is useless, I gonna put both as intake maybe.

Thanks for the test. This is really interesting.

I run 3 120mm cpu fans in the front. Went from 40c to 15c. And 3090ti runs at 50c no matter what, under load.

Wondering how it would perform if you switch the noctua to move air upwards instead of backwards, then having front and back intake fans and 2 exaust fans above the noctua who is also pushing air up

I’m curious why “Intake/NONE” didn’t see the same improvement as “Intake/Intake”? Did you actually test that scenario off cam? You have results for it in your graphic I believe. Since you showed earlier that the front most top fan when set as intake does nothing, isn’t it reasonable to assume that most the benefit from the two fan intake setup is mostly due to the rear top intake fan? You could potentially just run one intake fan, the one closest above the CPU cooler, and have the same performance as the twin intake setup.

Im going to try this on my CM mb520. Ive a similar setup and temps atm with the stock fans.

Phenominal review here and great video editing.

Worth the wait :)

Nice test, i wondering changing the stock exhaust rear fan, what do u suggest ?

Pretty sure 83 is temp limit for GPU so you should include temps and frequency as well.

not sure if this will help too much as I'm using a Prism Wraith on my Ryzen 3500.I believe it changes the dynamics since it spreads the air around the case rather than what your cooler is doing. I'll just have to do my own testing I suppose

missed out on doing one intake and one exhaust on the top

I have a question if you can answer. My CPU Cooler CM Hyper 212 is installed with fans facing up, ie pushing air through top exhaust. I bought the the cooler when I had an Intel system, I didn't want to throw it away in AMD build. Is it bad? & what cpu cooler would you recommend. 3700x + RTX 3050.

Excelent explantion!. I'm thinking getting that Case, how is your temps with the 3090. i had the same one. But sadly the way it blow air, is not optimal for my current CASE (Kolink Sentinel 3, awesome case and cheap). The things is, my EVGA RTX 3090 FTW3 is to close to the bottom. and i had to put a fan on the front of the card to had a better flow. and now thinking to get this case. Thank for your advice and you awesome video!

Hey man this a good video. One question my setup is similar to yours however I am also using an front mounted AIO and after some research found that front mounted is the best positioning. Would this change things right now I have both out but was considering doing Out/In config for lower vram temps.

Top exhaust should have the noctua pointing up exhausting. I'm looking for a modern case with 200mm fans, top exhaust, and actual hard drive bays; that's how I found this video. Such a case does not seem to exist, and I'm really thinking about keeping my ugly old case just because it has 10 hard drive bays and top cooling which is good for where my PC is located.

Great video! Thanks!

i remember an old pc i had back in 2000s, the cpu cooler had a exhaust directly out of the case why do they not have that anymore, because that would rly improve the flow, how u have 2 huge fans on ur cpu cooler and 1 small cooler sucking away that air in the back of the case

Sad you tested without the 3090 as the size difference is significant and makes a huge difference

Any advice for the default Meshify 2 C? I’m not sure if adding intake fans underneath the RTX would be better or adding 2 intakes at top. The front airflow is 2x140 so it’s definitely less than the H500.

Do you recommend putting in a replacement rear exhaust on this case? Got any recommendations i could care less about RGB? I just got an aio but im thinking this might be the most efficient airflow for this case!

Very Good video. If i can Tell my opinion, in addition to all your considerations, Is that in the system there are other important components that Will suffer of all this positive pressure (4 fans intake vs One only exsaust) and they are chipset, vrm and SSD nvme. They Will probably be soo hot in this way.

I like the idea but what about the dust and debris that falls at the top of the case? I fee like you would have to clean your pc case more often if you have two intake fans at the top of the machine.

(comment on the original video) Hi! Which would you recommend for overall best performance, Lancool 215 or this? I have the budget to go for this case since this is more expensive. I just cannot decide which is better. The downside I see in 215 is that there is no dust filter so dust might become more of a problem (I am also looking into perspective for that dust buildup factor)

Hello there very helpful video but I have a question. I have a case with no room for a top fan since it’s fully covered up. My question is should I do front 280 Radiator x2 fans 1 side and x3 other side of rad as Exhaust out of the case and have 1 rear fan as intake or the opposite? My main primary goal is to cool the cpu if that helps. Thanks in advance.

There is a mistake. At 3:26 mins, the 2 top fans (orange arrows point upwards) stated as exhaust but the 2 top fans are actually orientated as intake fans. Mistake?

Please make a test with corsair 5000D (airflow version) with 9 intake + 1 exhaust with air cooling. I think, for airflow case, 5000D airflow is the best since so many fresh air is being intaken

Im curious if the last fan placement will give same result with mid tower case

Please try to do tests with pc cases that are closed off att the front. Is it even getting air if thats the case ?

I have the same fan config with my CORSAIR 4000D AIRFLOW

Lol we apparently came up with the same idea of top fan directions

TLDR; use top intake, everyone else is wrong

so, is this the best orientation? i put 3 fan front intake 1 rear exhaust 1 top exhausted above cooler push pull type. what do you think sir?

Hi, I realized that you still reply to comments even almost a year later, but I just wanted to ask what are your 3900x OC settings (Vattage, etc) ? Also what power plan are you on in windows ?

Hey guys some help here! i have a big fat frond fan 200mm and no space to add any there and then there is 3 slots on top and a rear exhaust fan i have a 1800 RPM fan in hand so should i add it on top as intake next to Big intake fan or put it as exhaust fan on top next to my rear exhaust fan ? it be like in120mm ⬇️ out⬅️ 120mm ⬅️}Fat 200mm single ⬅️}Fan 200mm intake

Hopefully you have the side glass on.

Im sure i can use this setup on my corsair 4000d airflow