Which is The Best Configuration for 120 mm Liquid Cooling Fans?

Conclusions

Looking at the graphs, our first conclusion is that the position of the radiator does not matter. The temperatures with the radiator at the rear panel of the case were basically the same as what we saw when the radiator was installed on the top panel.

The second conclusion is that, in terms of temperature, two fans are better than only one. With two fans installed in push-pull configuration, it doesn’t matter if you install them blowing air to the inside or to the outside of the case. However, two fans make much more noise than only one.

A curious result was obtained on the test with one fan, with the radiator at the rear panel of the case. With the fan blowing air to the outside of the case in both positions, and blowing air to the inside of the case with the fan installed between the case panel and the radiator, the cooling performance degraded. The noise level was too high when the fan was installed as intake and installed between the case panel and the radiator.

Installing one fan at the case’s rear panel, as intake (i.e., blowing air from the outside to the inside of the case), and with it installed on the inner side of the radiator seems to be the best option, reaching an optimal combination of cooling performance and low noise level.

Keep in mind that the results we obtained are valid only for the hardware configuration we used. Other configurations of CPU, case, cooler, or fan models can behave differently.