quick Q about rad/fan in top of case

[Jamesrt2004]

right so i have the tagan black pearl as a few of you will know now i only need tubing and rad (woot) but was wondering this... there is space already to put a 240 without modding and well if i really wanted to a 480.. if i cut it up a bit but i dont want to :p:.. basically im asking can I have a say a 360 rad up top and only have 2 fans blowing through it?

i.e


------------------|case
|--------------|
| Rad |
|--------------|
|---------|
Fans


I know it wont be ideal as having it cut up and makign airflow so i can use the last space of the 120.. but surley it'll still be better then a 240 on its own right?

[eth0s]

right so i have the tagan black pearl as a few of you will know now i only need tubing and rad (woot) but was wondering this... there is space already to put a 240 without modding and well if i really wanted to a 480.. if i cut it up a bit but i dont want to :p:.. basically im asking can I have a say a 360 rad up top and only have 2 fans blowing through it?

i.e


------------------|case
|--------------|
| Rad |
|--------------|
|---------|
Fans


I know it wont be ideal as having it cut up and makign airflow so i can use the last space of the 120.. but surley it'll still be better then a 240 on its own right?

So you want to mount a 360 rad, but have air flowing over only 2/3 of it? So what you are doing is converting a 360 into a 240, and hoping it will perform better than a 240? Hmmm, well that extra 120mm of rad will do nothing if there is no air flowing over it. If you can get another fan to blow on it, even from a distance, you probably can justify your idea, and it needs room to exhaust hot air, which I am not sure will happen from your diagram. On the other hand, if that unused 120mm of rad is just sitting there, and you are hoping that some passive cooling will take place, I would say it will be extremely negligible, and is probably a waste of a 360mm rad, and you should just invest more money in a better quality 240, or come up with a better plan for the 360.

[jinsean]

It depends on what you're trying to cool. If you don't mind speeding up the fans during loads then maybe that's a tradeoff you can take for using only 2 fans. Or if you're really pushing the limit of the rad, then no matter how fast those 2 fans are, maybe you'll need a 3rd fan.

I use 2x 360 rads and found that I don't necessarily need all 6 fans running to achieve the results I need. Although I have no testing to back it up, I respectfully disagree with the above poster that the extra surface area of the 360 rad would have negligible benefit to cooling.

[JoeBar]

For me it's not worth it...

[Jamesrt2004]

oki i guess ill have to mod the case then, lol :)

[iggy2k]

the extra 1/3 will still cool by convection. i use a 360 in that config, with a bigng controlling the fans, and it does do better than a 240.