My friend's air duct comment made me rethink case airflow

I spent last weekend building a new rig in a mid-tower, front mesh panel, three intake fans, the whole standard setup. I was pretty proud of the temps until my buddy who does HVAC work took one look and asked why I was pulling air from the floor when my case sits on carpet. He said in his world, you never suck from a dirty source, and that hit different. I moved the intake to pull from the side grill and raised the case on a wooden block, dropped my GPU temp by 5 degrees under load. Now I check intake placement before I even mount fans, but I'm wondering if anyone else has tried top-down airflow or if that's just overthinking it.

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tessa_roberts11mo ago

Ha, my buddy did that with his PC and a furball ate his PSU. Floor dust is no joke!

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west.alice1mo ago

...and that reminds me of the time I moved my old tower into a basement workshop. I had it up on a cinder block and still kept finding little bits of sawdust stuck to the front fan grille. Then my cat decided that spot was her new napping ledge, so the whole intake became a fur filter. I finally just flipped the whole case upside down and flipped the PSU. Looked ridiculous, but the temps actually got better because the vents were higher off the floor. Probably not the most practical solution, but it made me think about how much dust we just accept in exchange for decent airflow.

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