200mm side fan, suck or blow?

[WiseUp216]

Setup:
Corsair 400r
2 front intake Corsair case fans
1 rear case fan + Thermaltake Water 2.0 Performer radiator
2 top Cougar Vortex 120mm exhausting @ 800 RPM each
Bitfenix Recon fan controller (up to 5 fans, just controlling the Cougars currently)

I have ordered:
Corsair 500r Side Panel with 200mm fan mounts
Bitfenix Spectre Pro 200mm fan
Another 670 for SLI (both blower models)

My question:
I'm really happy with cooling performance as it is. With the addition of a 2nd GPU, I wanted to beef it up a little with the 200mm side fan. Is there a consensus on whether this fan should intake or exhaust?

I'm leaning toward intake because of my preference towards positive pressure.

 

[dma0991]

The Corsair 400R would've done better. Having two 120mm fans is far better than having as single 200mm fan due to more choices(higher RPM, etc) and higher static pressure. Anyway, intake is better for a side panel fan.

 

[WiseUp216]

The Corsair 400R would've done better. Having two 120mm fans is far better than having as single 200mm fan due to more choices(higher RPM, etc) and higher static pressure. Anyway, intake is better for a side panel fan.

Yea, I should have mentioned, that was an aesthetic choice with the added benefit of being a little quieter than 2 x 120mm.

200mm also allows me to run one less cable.

 

[Ketchup]

I have tried side fans in the past and I am always disappointed. No real temperature improvement (presumably because the air coming off the front fan is enough, and keeping a consistent direction going) and they are noisy (coming more from being mounted to the side panel than just the fan noise itself). And the noise from using them as exhaust is even worse.

My 2 cents.

 

[blastingcap]

Setup:
Corsair 400r
2 front intake Corsair case fans
1 rear case fan + Thermaltake Water 2.0 Performer radiator
2 top Cougar Vortex 120mm exhausting @ 800 RPM each
Bitfenix Recon fan controller (up to 5 fans, just controlling the Cougars currently)

I have ordered:
Corsair 500r Side Panel with 200mm fan mounts
Bitfenix Spectre Pro 200mm fan
Another 670 for SLI (both blower models)

My question:
I'm really happy with cooling performance as it is. With the addition of a 2nd GPU, I wanted to beef it up a little with the 200mm side fan. Is there a consensus on whether this fan should intake or exhaust?

I'm leaning toward intake because of my preference towards positive pressure.

Always mount side fans blowing into the case. It's to feed air to video cards.

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2012/02/10/the-big-cooling-investigation/

 

[TY-1]

Generally I use side fans as intake fans in order to maintain positive pressure in the case. Given that you are using a Corsair 400R I would say that you should set your side fan for intake and let it run on a low to medium setting if you set up fan speeds and fan profiles. This is mainly because you are using a 200mm fan which can move a decent amount of air at even low speed and still remain pretty darn quiet.