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Air Flow in Sonata Case

J

jimmyj68

Senior member
I thought I read somewhere that if you have equal size fans as intake and exhaust on a computer case, they should run at different speeds. Something to do with pressure differentials. Is there any truth in this? I have a Sonata case with two matching Silenex 120 mm fans running on the motherboard connections of an Intel 865PERL. I'm running an MSI 5900XT video card overclocked slightly using the MSI software program, a 3.2 gig Prescott with a Zalman 7000 CU fan running at its top speed, two Hitachi 80 gig harddrives in Raid 0 and an 80 gig Western digital on IDE as backup for files I don't want to loose if one of the Hitachis goes down.

Now, the system gets hot enough for the built-in fan control on the motherboard to run both 120 mm fans at top speed whenever I'm playing a game (Flight Simulator) that really exercises the video card. Otherwise I have the near silence I strive for. Could changing the speeds of the two (or one of) the 120 mm fans improve circulation in the case so heat will not build up?
EDIT EDIT EDIT
May 1, Thanks all for your input. After the weekend, I think I'll experiment with having both fans blowing out of the case. The drilled Sonata names at the tio of both sides should really draw in a lot of cool ouside air (it sets up a pretty good pulling in of air as it is). I experimented with taping over the two drilled out Sonatas last year - bad idea - case heated up in a heartbeat.. I'll let ya'll know what happens. My Sonata case is about to be replaced with an Antec P-160 - they arepretty similar inside anyway - and I want to change things -it's a new year so updated motherboard, chipset (915 or 925) socket 775 etc.
 
To improve airflow in your case, you can do the following:

1) run the fans at topspeed as suggested.

2) Dremel out the stamped fan grills. (This alone should give you a huge improvement).

3) Change your PSU. The stock Sonata PSU with its dinky 80mm fan does not move much air. You want a PSU with one single 120mm or 140mm fan.

4) Try an Arctic Silencer vid card fansink (if one is available for your vid card model). It has mixed reviews (some people who tried it say it doesn't move enough air), but I've seen an improvement in my system (maybe I'm just lucky).

5) Mod the case and put in even more fans.

OR...

You can eliminate the heat source known as the Intel PresHott by upgrading to an AMD64. :laugh: (semi-joking).
 
Other than the pressure differential, the amount of hot air evacuated by the exhaust fan is more critical than the relatively colder air brought in by the intake fan,

and then there's tne noise issue -- that's why the exhaust fan sould rotate at faster speed than the intake fan.
 
Originally posted by: wisdomtooth
3) Change your PSU. The stock Sonata PSU with its dinky 80mm fan does not move much air. You want a PSU with one single 120mm or 140mm fan.
Click to expand...

140mm? WTF? Link?

 
Coolmax makes one..

So does TTGI/Superflower but Newegg doesn't carry that brand.

I have no experience with either so I can't attest to their quality. That 140mm fan does look tempting though.
 
I've heard alot that the intake fan needs to bring in more air than what's being exhausted to keep the case dust-free. What that has to do with temps, I dunno, maybe nothing, and it's definitely not something that can be achieved while still having a quiet computer, but somethin to think about.
 
It's normal for the fans to ramp up under load. What's the problem? Silent computer when surfing and full speed fans when gaming, when extra fan noise is no big deal.

For the life of me I can't figure out why so many people are trying to turn their cases into a wind tunnel??

Ed
 
Originally posted by: Inappropriate4AT
I've heard alot that the intake fan needs to bring in more air than what's being exhausted to keep the case dust-free. What that has to do with temps, I dunno, maybe nothing, and it's definitely not something that can be achieved while still having a quiet computer, but somethin to think about.
Click to expand...

You've got it. By increasing air pressure in the case, there should be less dust. The rule of thumb I've heard is a 2:1 intake:exhaust ratio (i.e. two intakes for every exhaust, or maybe twice the airflow on the intake). Remember, this is meant for keeping dust out, not improving temperatures.

I THINK that higher air pressure could mean cooler air, but... having both fans at max speed would keep things cooler than the difference air pressure would make.

edit : To more directly answer your question, turning up the exhaust would do the best for temps. That goes against the dust rule, but I guess you don't get it both ways =p.
 
Originally posted by: Inappropriate4AT
I've heard alot that the intake fan needs to bring in more air than what's being exhausted to keep the case dust-free. What that has to do with temps, I dunno, maybe nothing, and it's definitely not something that can be achieved while still having a quiet computer, but somethin to think about.
Click to expand...

The only problem is for this to work, a negative air pressure, you need to tape up all the cracks on your case, including the floppy and optical drive trays, so that the only place air comes in is through the front intake fan. Overclockers.com had an article a while ago about this.
 
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