Push, Pull and Push / Pull setups for Radiators | How to setup your fans
Push, Pull and Push / Pull setups for Radiators | How to setup your fans
2015-07-27
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Nik we need help it be what we need back
up with me like right now dude what we
need back up at me right now there's
nothing wrong on my knee I'm not asking
about your knees I just need help it be
I don't need any tea I need help and pee
oh that's what you're saying my bad
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hey what's up guys Jase $0.02 here and
just having a little fun with my friends
over at tech syndicate because they sent
me some swag as you can see I've always
loved this shirt I just never bought one
because I was drinking too fast and
anything I was buying wasn't fitting
anyway so here we are wearing my brand
new text into kit shirt which is very
very comfortable I might add I might
actually have to get some shirts made
myself one of these days the music that
you have hearing was called Valley Honda
and it's available here then the link in
the description anyway no they did not
ask me to do that guys do not go and
start flaming Logan I'm doing this all
on my own because I like the music
I bought the album so anyway let's go
and move on today's topic so I told you
guys I felt like we were lacking at a
lot of how to's and educational stuff
when it comes to water cooling and as
you can see I've made no progress on the
build behind me but I did say I was
going to talk about some more how to's
and some educational stuff using this
build as kind of a guideline and a
reference on some of the I guess the
theories and the practical applications
when it comes to water cooling now today
we are going to specifically be talking
about push pull push pull and push pull
configurations where they apply where
you should put them in which one you
should actually consider using now push
pull is sometimes people get very
confused on where to use push pull now
let's go ahead and talk about the
radiator here
this is a radiator if you didn't know
that then you're already well behind the
curve and you might want to start back
at the beginning anyway this is 120
millimeter radiator here from hardware
labs it's a perfect example for what
we're going to be doing here now in
order for this to do anything you have
to move air through the radiator if air
is not moving through the radiator it
will just heat soak and get hotter and
hotter and the fins can't do anything
because air has to move across these
fins to actually dissipate the heat now
when it comes to moving the air
obviously you're going to be attaching
fan so we've got two Vardar fans here
from ek water blocks yes
these are black ones and these are
available now in black and white in
varying rpms
hooray for that because the black and
the gray just didn't suit a lot of
people's builds aesthetics now typically
what people will do kind of like I've
done back here on on the system behind
me at least what I prefer to do
personally is use a push configuration
now push is where you have the radiator
here and then you have the fan that is
actually pushing air through the fins so
the direction of travel is going to be
from fan through the fan through the
radiator that's a push you are pushing
the air through the radiator it's
amazing how many people don't get that
concept but that's what it's doing now a
pull configuration if you're astute you
might have already realized is just the
opposite you have got the fan on the
outside of the radiator pulling air
through where it is going to be drawing
air through the side that has nothing on
it through the fins and then exhaust it
out the other side now push-pull I don't
know if you guys know to follow along
you might not get this one this one's
actually kind of hard push pull is when
you have a fan on either side of the
radiator one side pushing the other side
pulling now that we've got all three of
those different types of applications
out of the way let's go ahead and talk
about where these apply inside of your
case because believe it or not where the
radiator is inside of your case matters
just as much than the type of fans and
fan configuration that you use now I'll
go ahead and slide this guy closer to me
here and actually you guys can get a
really good sense of just how small this
case really is I am using a pole
configurations
on the front and a push configuration on
the top how can you tell well because
the fans are inside of the radiator
pulling air in from the front rather
than pushing on the top here I've got a
push configuration pushing air out of
the top now when it comes to the
efficiency and the airflow of these two
types of configurations there's a lot of
debate out there on which is better and
believe it or not push versus pull makes
negligible difference when it comes to
the amount of cooling and or air
pressure because the fan itself is still
having to overcome the same amount of
resistance that is inside the radiator
so it doesn't matter if the fan is on
this side and it doesn't matter if the
fan is on this side pulling air or
pushing air the amount of resistance
allow the radiator is the same now when
this is going to become a little bit
more complicated is when you have more
resistance now what makes more
resistance well more fins in this case
we have a high fin density radiator
because we're running a thinner radiator
or having a thicker radiator with the
same fin density but typically as
radiators get thicker the fin density
gets less so airflow is actually
improved otherwise if you had a a 60 or
even an 80 millimeter radiator having
one fan in push or pool on either side
of it is going to have a lot of pressure
to overcome in terms of resistance and
static pressure that's going to be
needed with high rpms or high static
pressure fans now I know that that might
have just gone really quickly and
confused a lot of people so let me just
go ahead and kind of give you my
recommendations now let's go ahead and
start with 30 millimeter thick radiators
which is what I've got in here right now
now one might be asking themselves Jay
why are you pulling air in and pushing
air out this has nothing to do with
anything more than aesthetics I wanted
the fans to be visible but remember what
I said earlier when it comes to
push-pull the amount of pressure needed
and the amount of resistance isn't
changing between either of these two
configurations so the difference in
cooling is negligible in fact a lot of
people have done tons and tons and tons
of benchmarking on this type of data and
have found that it's only one or two
degrees Celsius difference between E
there in any situation which is usually
accounted for by margin of error or
difference of ambient temperatures when
the tests were performed so it really
doesn't matter so in this case if I had
done push on the top and push on the
front you would have had the radiator
showing here and the fans showing here
which would have looked incredibly
imbalanced so if you're going with a
single set of fans like this it's okay
to switch around push in this case the
air at the top or pull air in the front
with the fans on either side if I had
wanted the radiators to show and not the
fans I would have done just the opposite
I would have taken these fans that are
under the radiator mounted them between
the radiator in the case the radiator
would be sitting right here without the
fans showing and then I would have
swapped the front just like that it was
had the radiator here where the fans are
fans in front and all you have had was
white white radiator showing and it
would have made no difference whatsoever
to the cooling now push pool since
you're going to have a fan on either
side of it like this it's really not
going to matter how you install it
because it's going to look the same so
let's say I was putting this radiator in
the bottom right down here and I was
going for a push-pull configuration it
would end up looking something like that
but as you can see that adds a ton of
thickness to even just a 30 millimeter
radiator because on average fans are
only 25 millimeters thick so that's 50
millimeters of fan thickness before you
even account for a radiator so if you're
going to be using a thick radiator like
a 60 mil or even an 80 millimeter
radiator then you're going to find that
you're going to have to have a lot of
clearance to be able to clear that
amount of height that's one of the
reasons why I don't do push-pull I think
it's very difficult to make something
like this look clean all around the case
even if it's a big case but there are
benefits to doing push-pull versus push
or pull I've already told you I
recommend and personally like one fan
that's high static pressure at a
moderate rpm on thinner radiators were
capable in fact on skunkworks if you
guys recall I went from 45 millimeter
thick radiators down to 30 millimeter
thick radiators and saw absolutely no
difference in cooling dissipation it
didn't gain any additional temperature
and I'm actually cooling hotter graphics
cards
thinner ads yeah of course I added the
280 in there but that was pretty much
because I wanted some extra insurance in
terms of cooling it's really hot where I
live
push pull can overcome thick radiators
and you can slow down the fans so that
they run really really quiet and we'll
talk about the cons to that in a second
now if you want to make it as quiet as
possible having a fan like this running
at say fifty percent or something like
800 rpm on one side is going to
dramatically reduce its performance
because remember when it comes to the
fan specifications the amount of static
pressure and airflow that you're seeing
is pretty much always measured at
maximum rpms so in this case if this is
a 2200 rpm fan and I'm running at 800
rpm or a thousand rpms I'm not going to
be getting anywhere near the static
pressure that's being advertised on the
box so if I want to slow this down for
the sake of silence and put it on either
side push or pull I am dramatically
reducing the amount of air that I'm
moving through this radiator and not
only that the amount of air I'm helping
flow through the case in this instance
here I've got most of the airflow in the
case being handled by fans with
radiators on them - the one right here
in the rear which is why I'm considering
putting this radiator in the bottom so
that I could actually get more airflow
inside of this case more intake to match
the exhaust so what you're able to do is
you can put two very slow speed fans on
either side maintain good static
pressure and good air flow evenly across
the radiator and run them much lower
rpms for much much less acoustics but
the downside to that is you've got twice
as many fans going in your system so on
a small case like this with only two 240
millimeter radiators if I was to do a
push pool I would end up with four eight
ten eleven fans in this tiny little case
the would have made it very crowded it
would have also made controlling those
fans very very difficult there's no way
I could have done it without some sort
of fan controller now I like to run my
fans off the motherboard and use
software where possible and splitters on
motherboards that have headers that can
handle at least one amp of power draw
that's not the case on this guy right
here we
we don't have enough fan headers pill to
control 11 fans so that's why I'm going
with two four five maybe six depending
on which configuration that I go with
I'm pretty sure I'm going to end up with
this this radiator down here in the
bottom I just haven't decided where I'm
going to put my reservoir and stuff
because I kind of only have a space
right here but as you can see the
fittings are right there unless I turn
you know this guy around and I have a
lot of crazy bands I don't know we'll
figure it out but anyway when it comes
to push-pull the most important things
to take away from this video is one push
or pull it's the same thing it people
are going to argue this I don't really
care what people argue the bottom line
is it's negligible difference between
the two push-pull is really good for
high density and thick radiators that
need to have static pressure maintained
across a lot of resistance or smaller
radiators or thinner radiators or even
thick radiators that you want to keep
the acoustics low and spin the fans
really really slow so that's really it
when it comes to push-pull there seems
to be a lot of confusion in the
community about which is better where to
use it and why really the bottom line is
it's more important to maintain balanced
airflow across your case than it is to
balance the airflow across your radiator
last example of that and we'll talk
about case balancing here and again in
the future I've done one of these videos
already about case pressure but I talked
about that more in an open air flow
environment and not something with
radiators and this is something to also
keep in mind on skunk works I have three
120 millimeter air flow fans on the
front but I've got one two three four
five fans exhausting air so a lot of
people ask me well Jay why do you have
three intake fans and five exhaust fans
isn't that going to be negative air flow
or air pressure in the case which means
one you're reducing cooling to the
radiator and two you're pulling in dust
through all the cracks well remember
what I said about resistance just
because this fan could flow let's say 60
CFM at high rpm the moment you put
resistance in front of or behind that
fan you have cut down the amount of
airflow so air balancing is where you
have the same amount of airflow coming
in as you do going out or greater air
flow coming in than you do going out for
positive pressure you've got to account
for the amount
resistance in front of those fans that
are exhausting which is why in skunk
works I still have positive pressure
with three wide-open fans on the front
and four radiator fans in one case ven
exhausting well if you guys want to see
more about that let me know maybe we'll
do some demonstrations with like smoke
and incense and stuff so you guys can
see how three intake fans can create
positive pressure over more exhaust fans
that are either spinning slower or have
more resistance when it comes to the
radiators let me know guys - if you
thought I threw too much information at
you on this one I know it might have
gone really quickly I hope you guys
understand what I said I really don't
know of any other way to explain it it's
it's just the way it works so guys
thanks for watching today's video hope
you guys have enjoyed it hope you guys
have learned something that's most
important and again thanks to the guys
over at tech syndicate for sending me
the swag I think I I think I rep text in
the kit pretty well all right guys time
to get on out of here as always we will
see you in the next one
you
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