PC Case AIRFLOW; A Visual Guide for Optimal Cooling.

#gamingpc #pcbuild #howto - Airflow, one of the most discussed topics in the PC DIY space. What's the ideal cooling setup for my PC? Should I use an air cooler or liquid AIO? What's the difference between cases? Let's start from the basics and work our way through!

Timecodes, though I don't recommend skipping for visual narrative reasons!

00:00 - Introduction
01:10 - Fan Types Explained
03:08 - PC Case Style Overview
05:04 - Coolers Explained
07:58 - Dual Chamber Airflow
09:00 - Mid Tower & Micro ATX Airflow
09:52 - Small Form Factor Airflow
10:50 - Full Tower Airflow
11:38 - To Summarise

In this video I take a look back through almost two years of Airflow Visualizations from previous builds and take a look at how the air interacts with different configurations.

When it comes to cooling a Gaming PC, there are many ways to do this efficiently, but I wanted to give you guys the basics to understand the fundamentals of moving air inside multiple different cases and the associated fans that come with them.

Of course, there are more we could've covered here such as pull/push radiator layouts, full custom loops and not forgetting open chassis cases. All of which may come in a future video for a more 'advanced' airflow instructible.

For my final thoughts on this video, check out the paragraph below the following links:

(USA Amazon)
My Top 5's for Airflow (as of March 2024)

CASES

FANS

COOLERS

(UK Amazon)
My Top 5's for Airflow (as of March 2024)

CASES

FANS

COOLERS

As an Amazon Associate, I may earn from qualifying purchases.

To wrap this up, airflow doesn't have to be complicated. Always keep in mind that, the more efficiently you can get air in and back out of the case, the cooler your system will be. Always make sure your fans are oriented in the correct direction and take some time to find a balance for performance vs aesthetic :)

What's your thoughts on the points made in this video? Anything you'd do different? Let's chat in the comments!

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[Mr_Matt_Lee]

Liquid or Air Cooling? Aesthetic or open front? What's your current build looking like?

All of the clips in this video are extracts taken from full feature length builds on my channel. Go give them a watch to learn more about each 🍿

[SzymonAdamus]

This might be the prettiest PC fan video I’ve ever seen. Excellent cinematography. Good job!

[Hassanw]

This is the most aesthetically pleasing video I’ve ever seen about PC cooling

[GhostMalone]

More ‘PC building explained’ videos like this please. Loved how simple and informative you made it.

[Sintrania]

An experience PC builder here, also I live in a very hot climate so ambient is around 30degrees Celsius most of the time. This will be a bit long but I just wanna share.

I always do a full system load for every build I do, it will give you an idea of what is the worst case scenario and you can check what you can do to improve from there. Other than cooling performance I tend to config the system to also have positive pressure, this help keep the Pc cleaner and cooling performance won’t be hampered by the layer of dust.

For cooling rather than having a lot of airflow you want to have fresh cool air cooling your components. Like in case of mounting radiators at the top while it help cooling the gpu rapidly, it generally bad for cooling cpu due to the usage of hot air from gpu to cool your cpu.

If you pull the air in from the top and using the back exhaust fan to pull both hot air from gpu and cpu out it does give a few degrees advantage, the catch is it need to pull the air out fast enough so I generally use a 140mm for the exhaust. This configuration also makes the intake spin at lower speed due to having both intake on the front and top.

Now you just need to match fan speed to maintain a positive pressure at any cooling temperature, you can do this by observing the hole on your case and see if it pull air in or out and you can adjust the fan speed from there. This method maintains maximum cooling and positive pressure at any speed.

I generally aim for 70~80 degrees celsius when ambient is over 30 for high end components(there are some exception like 14900k), My 3080 and 13400f with 240AIO run at 68degrees and 65degree respectively at full system load at ambient 30.

[JustCarnivorousCupcake]

Beside the obvious cinematic genius this video is, with all the builds and visuals put together like this, I must commend you for the concise naration as well; highly informative and very enjoyable to watch. Hats off to you sir!

[ericwright]

7:32 yes! Finally someone points it out. I seal off the first two fan mounts in the top of the case with 2mm pvc sheeting and case fan screws. That way no air escapes prior to hitting the cpu tower cooler.

Another thing that helps enormously is a few mm spacing between fans and any grills. A number of companies offer foam spacers for fans. They also help seal the fan to the case.

For Small Form Factor PCs, ducts and seals make all the difference. The gpu fans and cpu heatsink fans can *become* the case fans if you seal them to the case grill with ducts and rubber seals. Massive jump in positive pressure.

[steve_frampton]

A fascinating video, throughly enjoyed a totally different concept from the standard build guides. Thank you for being brave to step away from what you do to an exceptional level to produce something different yet still at the same exceptional level.

My wife asked me what I would watch on You Tube once I had built my PC and I said I would still watch your videos, and here I am. Keep up the outstanding work.

[Tech-Tempest]

This channel randomly showed up on my feed and I am so glad it did. The visual quality and cinematography are top notch. Great demonstration and descriptions of all the airflow configurations. You have a new subscriber!

[macparise]

This…. This saved my pc. Idle temps at 37°-40°. After this video, 23°-30°. Absolutely insane how much airflow affects pcs. I just built my own pc and the case came with the fans installed backwards, and it being my first build- I was none the wiser. This video popped up on my feed last night, this morning I went out and got 2 more fans, quick install, and bam. Nearly 10-20° cooler just by proper fan placement and orientation. To top it all off, it was only $25 for this upgrade. Thank you for posting this video because my pc could have over heated and I would have had no idea why. Truly, for ANYONE building their pc for the first time, this video is a MUST

[ChasePoulton]

This has to be one of the greatest most relaxing videos I have ever watched. Great work! ☕️

[QuadrotesOpowiesciGrozy]

I was not expecting this video to be that relaxing! Wow, amazing job man, thx!

[Intruder]

This was one of the most comprehensive representation how airflows inside a case video i have ever seen.
Good job creating this.

[HUICAN]

Me over here with 7 240mm fans.

Also, I am mesmerized by your professional tone of voice, music choice, and your video presentation. This is an incredible and well put together video.

[nicolaskim]

The best guide about PC cooling! Straight to the point! 🤘❤

[Neramie]

Watched this video while zapping through pc cooling videos, thinking I would watch this on 2x and skipping here and there. Nope. I watched the whole video and have been mesmerized by your editing, your voice, your shots and your knowledge. This video is great. Hope it get to the million views, you deserve it.

[fwixgamer]

production quality brother great work, as a pc gaming shop owner, i calculated the amount and type of cooling based on the amount of consumption , for a hot country best thing to do if it's okey with you " more dust, kids , aesthetic ect " , just open the case window and be done with it, nothing get close to an open case in term of cooling performance vs any mesh case with a full fans installed , basically ur average 40 to 42 °room temperature can't be cooled by ur fans they just blow hot air in the case :d, for expensive builds just go with a full custom loop push pull setup 2*240 OR 2*360 OR 3*360 rads, for cheap low consumption 300w build like the " i5 10400/13400/ r5 7600 + rtx 2060 / rtx 3060 /4060 rx 6600xt and below just get a nice cheap 40 dollars airflow case with a 3x 120 front +1x120 back fan setup and a 20 /30 dollar cpu cooler, it's pointless to change or add any special cooling bcs you will never have any throttling + add some undervolting and lose 20 30% less consumption for a 2 to 3% less performance .

[randomviwer]

2019 I built my first gaming pc, and fan configuration was an annoying issue for lack of simple and short explanations on the web.
This video, it’s like a dream wish come true. Thank you for the visuals. Wish me luck on my PC upgrades this Christmas

[MG]

At the first time I ever watch your vids, I thought you inhale a big whip from Vape and blow it out into the case and thinking “how this man doing this every single day”. That’s how dumb I was 😂😂

[og_shonax]

have built my pc on last weekends, your guides helped me a lot. thanks for content!