Finally a pc related question: I happened to be looking at aio cpu coolers on pc...

[Amin Nausin]

Finally a pc related question: I happened to be looking at aio cpu coolers on pc partpicker today and couldnt help but notice that pretty much all builds on there have the rad on the front of their case?? I have an h100i gtx (the v2 with old name) and its a top exhaust for me. My case is an nzxt h440 and it's front and top fan areas are 360mm so I have 3 front intakes and only 2 as my cpu exhaust. the top has a big hole for air to go through since I cant use all the space. Is this a bad thing? I thought top mounted was a typical thing but loads of builds only use front rads. Also is the empty space beside my cooler a problem?

 

[Niels van der Waa]

Front and top are both fine, it's mainly easier to front mount though it most pc cases

But no it does not affect performance at all

 

[Joseph DiMarco]

Ive experienced. Lower cpu temps with a front mounted rad. Bitwit did a video on it I think the only downside is youre blowing hot air on your gpu. But I havent noticed a change in gpu temps

 

[Justin Pelnar]

I feel like the front mounted will pull in less dust, i like to keep the top and back for exhaust

 

[Justin Pelnar]

Though my case doesn't allow for the front mounting, i still exhaust through the radiator at the top and it keeps cool enough

 

[Swapnil Banerjee]

Here you go, I have mounted my rad on top and i'm in general getting better temps on my gpu(gtx 1060 extreme gaming). The good part about a front mounted rad is that you wont have much dust entering your system unlike mine..

 

[Si Michael]

Top mounted Corsair h115 on a 5820k with a 1080ti hybrid

 

[Riccardo Durdeno]

BitWit made a video about it

 

[Si Michael]

It really doesn’t matter. Liquid cooling from the front might save you a few degrees in temp.

 

[Brett Metivier]

I prefer top because it takes the hot air comi g from the rad and moves it out. Where as front mounted are blowing hot air in the case

 

[Isaac Thomas]

It makes sense to mount the rad on the front so the fresh cool air is what's cooling your cpu/gpu but it depends. If your gpu is air cooled then probably better idea to have the rad on the exhaust but if you're cooling both with liquid then try and get both rads on intake (front and bottom) if your case can take it... otherwise whichever component runs hotter have that rad on the intake and the cooler component rad on the exhaust

 

[Justin Klingel]

I'm running a custom loop with a top mount rad, I couldn't put it up front because my res mounts there.

 

[Dru Joseph Joestar]

Radiator on top, intake from the front cooling the HDD's and pulling air for the gpu, bottom intake optional (if it's supported), and rear exhaust. That's how I generally build my PC's. Honestly though a front radiator is fine

 

[Allen J Russell]

Front or top are both fine. And the air gap your describing is quite normal with using 240mm coolers. I also use a h440 case and mine is mounted front. I also have a 280mm radiator.

 

[Blaine Fuhrmann]

Pretty sure the temp differences are pretty minimal. Do what you think looks the best would be my recommendation in this situation.