Antec PerfPlus 1080 Case fans orientation question please help

[donfm]

I currently have 3-80mm antec fans that came with the Antec Performance Plus 1080AMG case. I have room for 2 more case fans. One for the side door and one for the front panel bottom. The 2 rear fans blow outward from the case and the one front fan sucks air in the case through the front filter. I would like to add some more cooling fans. I know the extra space on the front should suck air inward through the front case filter. But which way should I face the side panel fan? I am assuming if I point it inward it will suck dust and junk in the case since there is no filter on the side panel but I really don't know for sure.

Can you suggest a couple 80mm fans for me to buy. My current fans have no speed control so I was thinking something that would plug in the mobo that were speed controllable.

I really have no clue when it comes to fans and cooling what I need here. When I bought this case years ago cooling was not as big an issue as it is now since the processors and video cards ran a lot cooler then. Now when I over clock to 3.6gig. my system temp rises to 42C and my CPU to about 39C. And all this was not under a heavy load. These were pretty much idling temps. I have a stock cooler on the CPU but I figure I need to remove hot air from the case faster now.

 

[somethingsketchy]

I have some suggestions for managing the thermals inside your case

1) Upgrade the CPU heatsink (this will be your saving grace as the stock heatsink do very little with managing a lot of heat from overclocked CPUs, especially if you running Folding@Home or a similar program, anything around $30-$60 will get you a very nice heatsink and fan to manage the heat better).

2) I recommend using the side case fan as a direct air source for your graphics card. In other words have the fan PULL in cool air instead of PUSH out the hot air. Here is a quick search for a fan filter that I found on the 'egg.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16811999206
I haven't use this (I use all 120mm fans in my case) so I do not know if they are simply to install or will require longer screws to install. Having the side fan pulling in cool air will benefit your graphics card more than removing the air.

3) http://www.newegg.com/Product/...se%20fan&name=Variable
This will bring you to the variable RPM case fans. I personally ceramic bearing fans because ceramic (when polished) will have very little wear and tear, so the fans last longer. My second recommendation for these 80mm fans is get the highest CFM you can get while being cautious with "loudness" as the 'egg has a category for. If you don't mind the noise level then throw caution to the wind and get the highest CFM you can get. It'll help with moving heated air in your case.

That's my two cents. Hope that helps.

 

[donfm]

Thank you very much for the helpful suggestions. I will take them under serious consideration. I have seen some fans as well that mount inside the case and you can aim wherever you want them to. You are right the side fan would blow directly on my video card which would serve me well. My case is a few years old before the 120mm fans became all the rage so I have to deal with what I have now. I was thinking about getting that new coolermaster case everyone is raving about and then I could use the larger fans. I think the case runs around $79 at the Egg. I purchased all my stuff from them by the way.

I just looked at all the fans on that link you provided at Newegg and the sheer number of styles and speeds is a little overwhelming. I haven't a clue which one would be good for my application. I do want one I can plug into the motherboard however. I have 2 spots for fan controls on my mobo. I cannot however find one that says anything about ceramic bearings.

 

[somethingsketchy]

Oops I have made a mistake regarding the ceramic bearing fans. Apparently you can find them if you google'd them, but when I looked it up on the 'egg I realized that the fan I was referring to was the fan to a Arctic Cooler Pro 7 heatsink. Oopsies.

To answer on another comment you made, most case fans should come with the motherboard connector as its main connection as well as come with a molex connector for the power supply. You'll have to look carefully at the product images and the specifications page and see if the fans come with the mobo connectors or molex connectors.

 

[donfm]

All I need is a simple case fan with speed control to the mobo. I do not need any leds or that stuff. Can anyone suggest who makes a decent case fan that is not too noisy? I looked at all the 80mm fans at newegg and there were like 100 of them and they all looked pretty much alike to me. I need some advice here on a decent fan. When it comes to cfm and rpm I need I am clueless. My case is not super hot so I don't believe I need a super cfm fan either.

 

[0roo0roo]

flow..depends on things.
http://www.dansdata.com/hx45fan.htm
fans101 on the side still relevant
stacking fans all over the place doesn't help if its not thought out. just makes noise.

next time buy a case with bigger fans..quieter. i used to have that kind of dragon case. loud arse b*tch with no noise dampening.
teh hell

side intake might have very little effect. theres turbulence. case flow on that is front to back. if its not that obstructed the front intake and rear exhausts are enough. airs moving through right? the set of 2 fans each are working in series with one another. you might not even need the front one. the 2 front and the 2 back work together to approach the output of 2 fans alone in free air. not 4 fans. but having them like that helps force through obstructions. best to zip tie wires and make it clean.

get a fan speed controller. hook up the case fans and lower until the noise is bearable. motherboard controllers aren't all that great at controlling case fans. if it gets ridiculously hot in the summer you can always crank it. but normally its really enough to have them barely audible. cpu depends on heatsink efficiency.

side fan...most of the time not necessary unless you got some ridiculous hot video cards. mostly mess with your front to back air flow. oerhaps even tape over the side opening.

filter is restrictive. its optional. i didni't use it. the case is hardly air tight anywhere else so if its negative pressure dust gets in anyways, the drive bays plates have holes all around them with fanbus controlling front two fans and rears separately you can control whether its positive or negative pressure case.

i never really bothered though, i just left them at levels where it was barely audible...well relatively for this case. theres only so much u can do for a noise monster case. if the air coming out the back isnt all that warm, then raising fan speeds not going to do much. i so snipped the rear fan grills off, because they restrict air even if those aren't all that bad..and looks dont matter back there

 

[donfm]

As far as my case.... in its day it was more than adequate but the new CPU's and GPU's throw off a lot more heat than the P3 and P4's of old. Times change. I thought this case would last for a few more builds but maybe not as far as cooling is concerned.

Thanks for that info. The one thing I find confusing is all the different types of fans. There are some that just run wide open all the time. There are some controlled by the motherboard and some with an external controller. Some are multi speed. I am not sure which type I should get. I thought I wanted one controlled by the mobo since I don't want to have to manually adjust it all the time. My present 3 old Antec fans that came with the case just connect directly to the psu and run wide open all the time . Heck perhaps I need to replace them as well I really don't know.

My case has only 3 fans presently so from what I just read above it would seem the air flow is not balanced. I need at least one more fan on the front of my case to complete the 2 in and 2 out scenario. With the drastic difference in the price of fans and all the sound and speed considerations its hard for a fan noob to know what to buy. I don't want a fan that sounds like a jet engine but yet it must move an adequate amount of air. What are good ambient case temps for a Intel E8400 processor?

 

[0roo0roo]

not really true. p4's were heat monsters.
todays cpus are relatively cool by that standard. the exhaust fans of the dragon cases were right beside the cpu.
the psu was right above it. it couldn't really be getting more air past the cooler newer cases wouldn't magically be cooler by any stretch. the only thing limiting cpu cooling in that case is the cpu cooler itself.

and its not 2 in 2 out. the psu is also an out. and it doesn't have to be balanced, although it doesn't hurt. its just a negative pressure situation.

get regular fans. decently quiet ones if possible. use a fan controller. it gives the most control. literally dial it in. multispeed fans tend to have a knob or a switch, kinda crude control. or have a thermal sensor which u slap somewhere and hope it ramps speed based on some logic that fits your situation*probably not. neither is worth the premium. thermal control tends to only work well if the entire computer is designs by one company otherwise it is too arbitrary. some fans are louder than others. silentpcreview.com has more but generally if it isn't a total sh*t fan it follows basic rules, u dont get something for nothin, air moved is always related to fan speed. smaller fans like 80mm require higher rpms to push more air. higher rpms=higher pitch noise which is far more noticable than a low pitch hum of a 120mm type fan which moves far more air at a slower rpm to begin with.

if your system isn't crashing or getting really hot theres nothing to worry about. you don't gain performance by dropping a few degrees and by the time your system dies if ever it'll be beyond obsolete. unless the air coming out the back feels like a heater, theres no issue.