Noctua Was Right: Top Exhaust Fans Can *HARM* Thermals

Video Description

** If you enjoyed this video, please consider checking out my smaller second channel too: https://youtube.com/@ShorterTechOverwrite Since hot air rises, it's always been recommended to set your top case fans to EXHAUST - y'know, to remove all the warm air from your CPU and GPU. But I recently tested this, and this case fan configuration can actually *harm* your computer's thermals. Which sounds counter-intuitive, but as I show off in this video, it actually sort of makes sense when you see the airflow analysis results (I used smoke matches - which are really fun to mess around with, by the way!). I also done some stress tests with Prime95 and Furmark to record the exact thermal differences for four different fan configurations: Fan Config #1 - both top fans are set to exhaust Fan Config #2 - one top fan is intake, the other is exhaust Fan Config #3 - both top fans are set to intake (not a good idea) Fan Config #4 - zero top fans (I taped up the top fan grill) For reference, you can find Noctua's airflow guide here - https://faqs.noctua.at/en/support/solutions/articles/101000530852-airflow-guide-next-steps ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The individual timestamps for this video are: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 00:00 Wait, Top Exhaust Fans Are BAD?! 00:44 How/What I Tested 01:48 Test Fan Config #1 - 2x Exhaust 03:36 Config #2 - 1x Exhaust, 1x Intake 05:25 Config #3 - 2x Intakes 06:02 Wait, What? 07:28 Config #4 - Zero Top Fans 08:43 What I Think Happened ~~~~~~ Credits ~~~~~~ Thanks to the following resources (sounds, images etc): "Pop-up Sound" by BeezleFM (https://freesound.org/s/512135/ -- License: Attribution 4.0) --- 'Road To The Top by Adam Drake et al', License ID: z8gyYaaRgBq Whiskey And Rye by Adam Drake, License ID: 9R3g56mVvX4 https://t.lickd.co/ypDWwk7RvDa ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ #PCSetup #PCCase #PCBuild