Advice Velka five rev three, PSU orientation and fan intake or exhaust setup, thermal reasoning check

[Crackerdust]

Hi everyone! I am new here and hoping to get some feedback about this build I am planning:

I am building an AM5 system in a Velka five rev three, Ryzen seven 8700G, RTX 3070 Founders Edition, ASUS ROG Strix B850-I, with two Noctua NF-A4x10 40 millimeter fans mounted on the rear panel, near the PSU end, not sure which orientation I will settle on. I am trying to decide between Velkase's officially recommended PSU-top, GPU IO down orientation, versus PSU-bottom, which several other builders seem to prefer.


The Velkase manual lists high GPU temperatures with IO facing up as a documented issue, fixed by flipping to IO down, which is the PSU-top orientation. But I've also seen one Velka three builder report roughly five degrees Celsius cooler temperatures after switching to PSU-bottom. My GPU has flow-through cooling, exhausting from both the top and bottom edges of the card.

My current plan has both 40 millimeter fans set as exhaust to the rear right next to the psu. Would I be better off reorienting one as intake and one as exhaust for directional airflow, or would adding a third fan dedicated to intake, likely on a side panel, be the better move given this case's mesh side venting? Has anyone tested multiple fan configurations on a rev three Velka five and found a meaningful difference?

*(I am also considering using baffles but not sure it will make a difference in the velkase since there are holes cut into nearly every panel. Any thoughts on using baffles on a case like this?)

 

[HWI]

But I've also seen one Velka three builder report roughly five degrees Celsius cooler temperatures after switching to PSU-bottom.

Velka 3 doesn't have top/bottom IO, it has rear IO. You can flip the case over to have the PSU on the top or bottom, but it has no impact on GPU IO orientation.

Regarding GPU IO up vs down, generally GPU IO down is thermally superior due to heat pipe physics. Though, the difference is not always substantial enough to matter. Run it in both configurations and see what the difference is for your particular set up. Or you could just set it up in the orientation you prefer and if the temps are acceptable to you then don't worry about it.