18CFM case fans enough???

[jvang125]

currently i have five case fans running in my case excluding the hs/f for the cpu (volcano 7). there's 1 120mm intaking air from the front and drawing it over my hd's. then there's 2 80mm intaking with a duct to the hs/f. 1 - 80mm on top exhausting and another 80mm on the side panel exhausting. with this set up im getting low to mid 30's case temps. during the day, it's pretty quiet but i almost always leave my comp on at night as i do a lot of downloading and to me and my roommate as well, it's a bit too loud at night. i'm looking to changing 4 of the 80mm fans and the 120mm one with quiter ones but i'm worried about not enough air flow. the new 80mm fans i'm looking at are running at 18CFM @ 18dba each. would having 4 of these provide enough air flow as my system is overclocked (1700+ @1900mhz)?

i know the 120mm is making the most noise and that one is going to be replaced as well.

 

[pelikan]

Since you are using a duct I bet you could use quiet fans. I'm using Panaflo L1A's in my case and on my ducted cpu hsf.
Maybe you could try 7-volting all your fans first and see if your temps are still good.

 

[BG4533]

Your case temps seem a bit higher than they should be with your fans now. It shouldn't hurt if they go higher. You may want to make sure you have clear paths for air to flow and play with the directions of your fans to see if you get better results. If your case has stamped grills you may want to consider replacing them with wire ones. This will help to increase air flow and quiet your computer. In a well set up cooling system 4 of those 18cfm fans would be enough.

Brian

 

[chocoruacal]

7 volt the 120mm fan and it will be as quiet as the NMBs (I assume) you are looking at. Trust me...I've got two of them...just as quiet as my NMBs but they push A LOT more air. The NMBs are great for non-overclocked systems though.