hello good people I'm Dimitri and today
I want to experiment with something and
this something has been on my mind for a
very long time ever since the closing
off of the front panel four cases has
become the trend because there you
compromise on the airflow so then what
happens if you reverse the case airflow
that is in taking with the rear fan and
exhausting through the front and I'm
talking about cases like this that have
a completely closed front panel but
potentially might have some sort of
ventilation on one of the sides or both
sides like with the aged 700 NZXT case
so we'll see if having this sort of
unrestricted intake from the rear and
then maybe perhaps like a slower exhaust
from the front panel so it doesn't just
bounce back it will actually give us
anything better instead of for the front
fans having to fight for air because of
this tiny gap here and on this enclosure
so we shall see and I'm curious to see
the results hope your - let's check it
out right after this hi I'm looking for
a case well look no further I got this
beauty the H 700 I by NZXT with all
steel premium frame with a side of
tempered glass - beautifully showcase
any cooling adventure you might pursue
and came a management system that you
wish you had earlier all this lit up
with integrated RGB lighting and
built-in fan control the H 700 I this
one's for you
I'll take it alright so for my cases
I'll be using these guys the H 700 I
from NZXT and there's a super cheap case
for around $40 from cooling which is a
mix between like the s 340 elite and the
P 300 from fan tax and that the front
panel on both cases is closed for that
visual elegance that relies on side
ventilation to deliver air and this
approach to front panel ventilation is
quite common so let's see if reversing
the airflow direction will improve our
temperatures now since I am air cooling
my most recent case of choice was the H
580 mesh because of that open front
panel allowing that strong column of air
to replace the entire interior volume
every second without the common
restriction on airflow and to add some
extra case heat we've got galaxy gtx
1070 TI that spits hot air in
so I'm using my risin 1700 X system for
the baseline temperature comparison
inside the H 500 P mesh by Cooler Master
I've removed the front panel so you can
see what fans I'm using and these are my
favorite case fans by far the silent
wings 3 by be quiet so I have two of
them 120 mils in the front I have a 140
for the CPU cooler and the 120 at the
rear back so I'm using the exact same
fan configuration and system across all
three cases to see what the temperature
difference will be and I am running
these fans at full speed about 1450 rpm
because they move a lot of air and
they're extremely quiet I cannot hear
anything while the system is at load
that is the power of air cooling also
the reason why I'm not reversing the
airflow inside the hi-5 EP mesh is
because the front panel is already
non-restrictive so there's no reason to
try to combat the poor air that you
might expect from a completely closed
front panel so I am starting with the
cheaper case because the front panel is
basically completely closed aside from
the tiny ventilation and if my
hypothesis is correct we'll get more
fresh intake from the rear so that the
CPU will be cooler and then we'll see
what happens when we are exhausting
through the front so the first system is
assembled I absolutely love the way this
looks like the whole matte black I mean
ignore the GPU but this definitely shows
this is a cheap case I mean look at
these non-reusable PCI slots have to use
pliers in order to get them out because
that entire section for the PCI slots
non-reusable so the first temperature
test is complete and it got really
toasty inside but I did make a mistake
so initially I had mounted these fans
outside of the frame so they're
basically just touching the front panel
which is a bit unfair so I have
remounted them to be on the interior of
the frame giving us a little bit extra
space for that intake to actually do its
thing and that way we can actually see
what the difference would be when I had
to when I've reversed the fans to so
there is space for the air to exit
all right it's time to reverse the fence
and the reason why I chose the silent
wings three is because they have the
clips mount instead of using the screws
so it's simply thinking of popping the
fan out rotating it and I don't have to
even catch a screwdriver nice the same
thing for the bottom fan boom
and I've also rotated the CPU fan and
I'm keeping it in this position because
I feel like mounting and here would be
way too close the rear intake and
therefore this allows for this like nice
airflow channel instead of a two fans
being so close together let's see what
happens now my main concern with this
setup is not GPU temperature because I
feel like it's spitting out hot air so
regardless of the air direction it's all
present in the interior but the front
exhaust fans I'm worried there's nowhere
for the air to go because this thing is
completely closed and only the side
ventilation is available and I'm worried
that hot air will bounce back into the
encase creating a lot of turbulence but
I am interested to see how that
additional intake in the rear will
provide additional that cool air for our
CPU all right so the first reversed
airflow test is complete I can feel a
lot of heat coming right from the side
here because that's the only way the
heat can escape at the front panel but
the CPU and GPU temperatures are
surprising so I'm gonna see if we can
recreate that behavior inside the larger
aged 700 I all right so the system is
now assembled inside the NZXT case I can
definitely feel more air being exhausted
from the sides because of this dual side
ventilation so now let's do our stress
test and see how the CPU and GPU behaves
in the reverse airflow order now I
realize with my previous configuration
with the CPU fan being in its default
orientation but just pulling air instead
of pushing might introduce some static
pressure differences so instead I've
routed the CPU fan to push air through
the CPU heatsink and I'm thinking that
there's a fair way to compare the static
differences between the two orientations
all right people so the data is in let's
take a look at the mother
chip graph so starting off with the aged
500 pms as our baseline we have
respectable low temperatures moving on
with the cpu load as priority as I
expected the additional unrestrictive
cool intake from the rear benefits the
cpu in this reverse scenario but GPU
temperatures suffer quite a bit
especially when compared to the normal
intake and exhaust orientation inside
the aged 700 I but with a slightly
hotter CPU next up is the cooling kin
the reverse orientation again having
that cooler intake from the rear lowers
our CPU temperature a little bit but
there is no way for all that hot air to
properly exit through the front
resulting in a throttled graphics card
whereas the default orientation balances
out the GPU temperatures but with a
hotter CPU and also keep in mind if you
rotate the rear fan for intake dust
accumulation is a concern and no case
ever comes with a dust filter for the
rear and so it is pretty clear that
front panel design is crucial for
temperatures so if you find yourself in
a situation where your case has really
restrictive front intake potentially
rotating that exhaust vent at the back
for intake will help your CPU
temperatures as long as you don't mind
the higher GPU temperatures and
potentially ramping up the fan on the
GPU to combat the hot attempts and I
think the GPU is hotter because the
exhaust fan originally helps to remove a
lot of that heat for the GPU especially
if it's circulating inside the case but
also perhaps there's some recirculation
of the exhaust that's happening that
goes back into the case
vier that rear intake fan alright so I
hope you found this video helpful and
let me know what type of fan orientation
that you have going on for your system
and what you found to be the optimal
situation in your scenario I'm a Dmitry
thanks so much for watching make sure to
check out our ninth fans inside the case
video that's pretty helpful for
individuals who want to play around with
intake exhaust for nine fans so that's
pretty cool and we'll see you in the
next video
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.