ITX Airflow Project

[Espina]

Hello, I have made this same inquiry in several forums, I hope this does not pose any problem, let's see if someone can contribute something to my idea.

I have a project for a case for an ITX board to which I would like to have a Slim configuration or as narrow as possible.

At the moment the minimum internal space that the case should have to accommodate all the components is 30cmX45cmX10cm (widthXlengthXheight).

Given a minimum space like that, I am not sure how it could affect the airflow of the case. I am clear that I can increase a couple of cm each measure to add some fans blowing air in or out, but what would be the most beneficial configuration in terms of airflow?

A. At the back in a corner (90mm) breathing from the exterior directly, below the motherboard stand (40mm high with heatsink taking air from the exterior), vga stand with a riser to tilt it and take air directly from the exterior, and hdd on one side of the board.

.

[Sylver]

Hello and welcome

The concept is understood and looks good mentally, but with some photos, even if it's just a schematic, we could get a clearer idea and find the optimal spaces for the fans.

In any case, the optimal configuration that I assume you already know consists of:

-One or more fans in the front, in the lower area.
-One or more fans in the back of the case, in the highest possible area (since hot air rises)

-One or more optional fans on the top of the case to help evacuate that rising hot air.
-One or more optional fans on the side bringing in or taking out air depending on the components that are near that area, such as the graphics card, which, if it's a heat hog, would call for a fan bringing in air.

Regards

[Fassou]

Without at least a sketch of what you want, it is very difficult for us to get an idea <:(

Salu2!

[Espina]

Well, I've been working for a while on the layout of the parts distribution, the intention is that all the heatsinks and the hottest elements take air directly from the outside of the case.

Now that I have the interior and the distribution defined, I will start shaping the exterior.

Comments are appreciated

[Sylver]

Good plans, we look forward to the exterior ones to propose options

Best regards

[Obione]

If you haven't bought it yet, you could mount a GPU with turbine cooling (a reference model that blows air out) and an RL kit next to the power supply upside down, maybe you can fit a double radiator on top of the magnetic one. Under the graphics card you could put one or 2 fans sucking in air with filters on the outside, bought or home made. With a double radiator blowing out and 2 lower ones you could mount a GPU with a design that isn't the reference one. Do you have one with 2 fans? I mention it because of the design.

[Espina]

Well as I was saying

The front and the air vents:

The bottom:

In a few minutes I'll look at making the top cover with the component inputs/outputs.

Thanks

[Espina]

The top cover with direct ventilation openings to the components (the circles):

[Espina]

@Obione:

If you haven't bought it yet, you could assemble a GPU with turbine cooling (a reference model that blows air out) and an RL kit next to the power supply upside down, maybe you could fit a double radiator on top of the magnetic one. Under the graphics card you could put one or 2 fans blowing air in with filters on the outside, bought or homemade. With a double radiator blowing out and 2 lower ones you could assemble a GPU with a design that isn't the reference one. Do you have one with 2 fans? I say this because of the design.

Let's see, the gpu with turbine-type cooler I took it apart I'll investigate a poco.La gpu that I had seen a gtx660 is double fan, lately that design is very common.
Putting filters is something I had thought about.
An RL kit seems to me to be noisier, you require more maintenance than a good Noctua.

My intention is to see if it's viable to take advantage of the ventilation of the components themselves to eliminate as much as possible of the air inlets and outlets of the case so that you can reduce them to 1vs1.

If it weren't for the darn dust and possible accidents I would mount the components open to the air without a case.

[Sylver]

Having ruled out the RL, I would insist on the convenience of mounting front fans, at least some.

Best regards

[Clipper]

hello
without a doubt a very interesting design.
where does the air come out?
the F.A does expel the air it "consumes" but …. what about the rest?
regards

[Obione]

@Espina:

Let's see, the GPU with a turbine-style heatsink I disassembled. I'll investigate a poco.La GPU that I saw. A GTX660 is dual-fan, lately that design is very common.
Putting filters is something I was thinking about.
An RL kit seems noisier to me, you require more maintenance than a good Noctua.

My intention is to see if it's viable to take advantage of the ventilation of the components to eliminate as much as possible of the air inlets and outlets of the case to be able to reduce them to 1vs1.

If it weren't for the damn dust and possible accidents, I would mount the components open to the air without a case.

The NH-D14 doesn't fit you even without the top fan, the C12P is the same and you can't put a fan underneath, with the L12 you would have to remove the top 12 so you would be left with the 9 underneath, which is not exactly the quietest and with the L9 you don't think you have it easy either. If you put SSDs under the motherboard, it doesn't fit. You have to increase the height if that's the case, but really, with an RL kit you can forget about it for a few years, if anything, refill if it's out of warranty and you see a loss of performance.

With an H110 you have enough to give it a go to a K and blow air, two birds with one stone. If you don't need that much performance you can put an H60 or H75, these run at 2000RPM, the other at 1500 with 2 fans of 14. These fans won't make you any noisier than a Noctua and would be expelling the heat directly out of the case unless you put a low-profile dissipating fan flush against the case, facing the flow upwards (outwards).

Reference design in 660 and 760:

EVGA GeForce GTX 660 Superclocked 2GB GDDR5 02G-P4-2662-KR Graphics Card

MSI GeForce GTX 760 OC 2GB GDDR5 912-V284-088 Graphics Card

They are noisier than one with 2 fans but they blow the hot air out. As I told you, if you mount a couple of exhaust fans next to the power supply (whether taking advantage of a double radiator or not) and another pair of 12 or 14 fans under the GPU, you have enough refrigeration to quickly evacuate the heat that the GPU leaves. If you go for a reference design with one exhaust fan and one intake, you're already good, and if you don't want to give it to the micro with an L12i, enough but, I'll stick with an RL kit that's cheap or the H90 that I overlooked, this one has a 14 fan like the H110.

With only 10cms. the H110 would go very close with the disk but you can also hook the magnetic and SSDs to side walls vertically if you leave 102 or 103mm. of height inside.

Editing:

Something like this was said...

Pistachio is SSD underneath, green is HDD screwed to the side with rubber in the middle, red would be for radiator (which if you don't want OC with an H90 it's more than enough) and black are the bottom fans blowing in. The motherboard would go on the sheet and would have good cooling from bottom left to top right. If you don't want RL then nothing, with an L9 you can defend yourself and it's low profile no, the next thing. I'm more convinced by other options like this Silverstone or this Scythe but even with the motherboard down they would force you to increase a few centimeters the height of the case:

http://xtremmedia.com/Scythe_Kabuto_II.html

http://xtremmedia.com/Cooler_SilverStone_NT06.html

[Espina]

Thanks for your interest, we are responding.
Sylver and Clipper:
The goal of this post is to see where to place the air inlets and outlets, that includes modifying the case if necessary or seeing if fans smaller than 120mm are viable. In the proposed layout, you can place several fans in the front, bringing in air or extracting it.
I'll give you an example with a fan (120) A and another B. Which one would you put the intake and which one the exhaust?

Obione:
I appreciate the information and the data, I hadn't thought about magnetic filters, I'll take that into account and include them.
The NH-L9i (low profile) from Noctua has a maximum height of 37mm according to the official website.
http://www.noctua.at/main.php?show=productview&products_id=50&lng=es. The total height of the motherboard with the NH-L9i heatsink is around 60mm, so I still have 22mm of margin for the motherboard (counting that the screws take up 10mm, and the SSDs with 8mm of height that I can put one next to the other instead of one on top of the other). You can always redistribute the SSDs next to each other, on top, under, next to the HDD, etc...
The h110, I don't know if it would fit on top of the CPU, we would have to measure and so on. On the other hand, I rule out the RL because of the noisy water pump and maintenance, maybe there has been a lot of progress with the RL and it's no longer necessary to have that darn water pump (5 years ago or more I saw several RL configurations but I ruled it out because of the feeling of having a fish tank in the computer) if I know I'm very sensitive to noise. The kits you indicate move between 30 and 35Db according to the manufacturer's own information.

The graphics indicated are an option (especially the 660 that doesn't go over the budget), that they are noisy at full load is not something that worries me, but if they are idle.

Thanks for your time.

[whoololon]

Having reached this point, which components will confirm it and what purpose will it be intended for?

[Obione]

Yepa, who hadn't refreshed the thread. The zuma cooler a little but from what I've read it's not noisy and can be regulated by voltage aside from fans that go by PWM. You still have the Swiftech kit better but that's already 130 euros, if you don't have the budget get a 4570 or a 3470 boosted via turbo and pull with the L9 but mount at least one fan on each end to create some flow in the case. Get a couple of Gentle Typhoon 1850 and regulate them with SpeedFan via a card with a duplicator.

If you can stretch for the 760 better although, seeing that the budget prefers 660, I would stay with this:

Gigabyte Radeon R9 270X 2GB GDDR5 GV-R927XOC-2GD Graphics Card

As for the distribution of fans I think the one I put in the editing is better: bottom back left put in, top front right take out.

Personally I would increase the height a bit and put the SilverStone cooler with a plate on the floor, under the graphics card you can put a disk and in the front, side wall the SSD.

[Sylver]

@Espina:

Thanks for your interest, we are responding.
Sylver and Clipper:
The goal of this post is to see where to place the air intakes and exhausts, that includes modifying the case if necessary or seeing if it's viable to have fans smaller than 120mm. In the proposed layout, you can place several fans in the front, bringing in or exhausting air.
I'll give you an example with a Fan (120) A and another B, where would you put the intake and where the exhaust?

Obione:
I appreciate the information and the data, I hadn't thought about magnetic filters, I'll take that into account and include them.
The NH-L9i (low profile) from Noctua has a maximum height of 37mm according to the official page.
http://www.noctua.at/main.php?show=productview&products_id=50&lng=es. The total height of the board with the NH-L9i cooler is around 60mm, so I still have 22mm of margin for the board (counting that the screws take up 10mm, and the SSDs with 8mm height that I can put next to each other instead of one on top of the other). You can always redistribute the SSDs next to, on top of, under, next to the HDD, etc...
The h110, I don't know if it would fit on the CPU, we would have to measure and so on. On the other hand, I rule out the RL because of the noisy water pump and maintenance, maybe RL has advanced a lot and the water pump is no longer necessary (5 years ago or more I saw several RL configurations but I ruled it out because of the feeling of having a fish tank in the computer) if I know I'm very sensitive to noise. The kits you indicate move between 30 and 35Db according to the manufacturer's own information.

The graphics indicated are an option (especially the 660 that doesn't go over the budget), being noisy at full load isn't something that worries me, but at idle.

Thanks for your time.

That distribution is a bit bad, not very efficient for us to understand each other. The airflow should make, or at least try to describe, a line, as straight and/or ascending as possible, but given that the height space is minimal, the main thing there is to align the intake and exhaust fans as opposite each other as possible. That excludes the option of putting them on converging faces (like you put them in this last image).

Best regards

[Obione]

Man, if I stretched the interior height to 12Xmm, the right side could go vertical and the SilverStone disipa could fit, but before that, 12/14 up rather than 9 sideways.

[Espina]

first of all, I apologize for any mistakes and more, since this post is made with a 7" tablet. This is what I plan to put
Asus Maximus VI Impact 90MB0FT0-M0EAY5 Motherboard
Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4Ghz Box BX80646I54670K Processor

Kingston HyperX Beast DDR3 2400 PC3-19200 16GB 2X8GB CL11 KHX24C11T3K2/16X DDR3 Memory
after all the talk about cooling, I'm not sure if I should put the noctuanhl9i or opt for another cooling for the CPU.
using a riser, I can put the pcie at an angle, which would initially be a gtx 660.
the disks are the ones I have in the current equipment.
tacens ventus 700w power supply
the use will be both games and work and possibly server tasks at home.

sylver, the configuration is designed to be put vertically, although the sketches are shown horizontally, my mistake for not specifying it. before.

obione, you're right, the r9 279 is a better option, I'll look into options

[Sylver]

@Espina:

sylver the configuration is designed to put it in vertical although the sketches are shown horizontally, my mistake not specifying it before.

In that case, the assembly of the fans (one front and another upper tail) has a little more functionality, although it would still be more productive with a linear circuit.

Regards

[Obione]

The 4670K heats up quite a bit, a colleague has it with a 212 EVO and it doesn't have bad temperatures when gaming, but if it gets hot and starts rendering or decompressing a large file, it will crap out, with stress tests at 80º in a tower with several fans. I would put together an H90 that performs like a top-notch heatsink and according to reviews, it's not noisy:

Corsair Hydro Series H90 Review » Page 5 - Corsair Hydro Series H90 Conclusion - Overclockers Club

If it's going to be vertical, I would mount it with air coming out on the power supply side, on the right.

The drives and the motherboard screwed to the right, underneath I would put a Gentle Typhoon 1850 also screwed on the right, at the back. With the Silverstone magnetic filter it will cost you just over 20€.

As for the graphics card, seeing the components you spend on, I feel like telling you to save money and get the Gigabyte 280X :ugly:

Underneath the graphics card I would put the mechanical one, in the front corner as the GPU is placed (connectors facing the back), the SSDs that don't heat up as much, higher up in the same way. This way you leave space for air to circulate refreshing the motherboard.

Editing: Well, almost better to put the SSDs under the motherboard, this way you have room for another magnetic one next to the other. What I would try to do is adjust the motherboard bracket to the maximum to the SSDs for the airflow issue, I suppose it shouldn't eat more than 2 cms.