Can the side fan on Antec 300 be exhaust?

[futurefields]

Hey guys, here's my situation -

I share a small apartment with a beautiful long haired cat who sheds year round, so in order to minimize the amount of cat hair that gets into the case I want to set up all the fans in the Antec 300 to be exhaust so that air ONLY comes in through the front where the dust filter is.

I have seen most people set the side fan up to be intake but I want it to be exhaust only. I dont want it to be intake with a filter either, I basically dont want any air being pulled into the case except for from the front.

What do you guys think about that?

 

[pandemonium]

Depends. Can you maintain low enough temperatures with your setup with it being an exhaust? I'd think you probably could unless you're overclocking more than mildly.

Turn the fan around and don't look back IMHO. Not having to clean cat hair out of a case would be worth it.

 

[DSF]

What do you have inside and what other fans do you have?

Keep in mind that if you have your case set up with more airflow out than in you'll be in a negative pressure situation and you could be sucking dust in through all the holes and cracks in the case, defeating the purpose.

 

[MichaelD]

In order for air to be exhausted/pushed out of a case, it first must enter the case. Though many tower style cases in the past few years have fans all over the place, most of that is marketing vs. science. You want fresh, room-temp air washing over as many heat-generating components as possible and then exiting the case as efficiently as possible. And that airflow should be as smooth and direct as possible. I.E. from Point A to Point B, not bouncing all over the place or being pulled in too many directions due to many fans generating pull that negate each other. Case in point, look at any enterprise-level server from HP, Dell, etc. They have a bunch of high-speed fans up front, all in a row, right behind the hard drives pulling air in from the front of the case and pushing it towards the back of the case, which is very ventilated so the pressurized air can escape. Since we dont' want our home PC's sounding like a jet engine, we swap out the 10, small high speed fans that push air through the case with 3 or 4 low speed fans that do a push-pull configuration. Look at any of the modern heatpipe CPU coolers. They all have a fan facing the rear of the case. Pulls air from the front of the case, through the heatsink and pushes the hot air out the rear of the case.

The overall best way to ventilate a normal (non-watercooled) PC is to draw in fresh air from the front and exhaust it out the rear of the case. You can also have exhausts on the top of the case but it should augment the rear exhaust vs. replace it.

There's tons of discussion out there about negative vs. postive pressure inside a case. I'd advise reading up on it.

 

[futurefields]

Hey guys, thanks for the replies


currently there is actually no fan in the slot. I only have the 2 fans the come in the unit - the top and rear exhaust fans. My temps are above average for a z77 2500k setup, and my 6850 runs really cool as well.

I wonder if instead of adding another fan, if I could just put some kind of filter over the opening. Does anybody manufacture something like that?

 

[dma0991]

Does anybody manufacture something like that?

Try Silverstone. I have a couple of their filters and they are magnetic for easy removal.

 

[rickon66]

Here kitty, kitty, do you want to take a ride to the country?

 

[GeezerMan]

http://www.silverstonetek.com/techtalk_cont.php?tid=wh_airflow&area=en

http://www.silverstonetek.com/techtalk_cont.php?tid=wh_positive&area=usa

great articles on fans and cases. My HAF XM is set up from the factory with the top fan as exhaust, I have added another top fan.

So, I have two 200mm exhaust top fans, one 140mm rear exhaust, one 200mm intake. I think the better way to have it is to make the two top fans as intake.

 

[fffblackmage]

Here's an idea. Move the rear 120mm fan to the front and get another 120mm fan for the front. That might be enough for you to have positive air pressure inside the case, so air doesn't get sucked in from the side vent. If that doesn't work, maybe disable the top 140mm fan. You might be losing a bit of cooling performance, but if your rig stays cool enough, at least you won't have cat hair inside the case?

Or, this is what my brother does for his 300. Just tape a mesh over the side vent.

 

[futurefields]

Try Silverstone. I have a couple of their filters and they are magnetic for easy removal.

Hey thanks, are you talking about these type?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811999234

looks like they are magnetic so you can put them anywhere??

 

[dma0991]

Hey thanks, are you talking about these type?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811999234

looks like they are magnetic so you can put them anywhere??

Yeah, that looks about right. If you're installing a 120mm fan to go with the filter, use a 140mm filters instead. I'm using two 140mm filters with 120mm fans at the side panel of my case, the slightly oversized filters fits well over the screw holes which protrudes a little.

 

[birthdaymonkey]

I used to own an Antec 300 and still own a long-haired, ultra-fluffy cat. I had an OCed i5 750 system in there and cooled everything quite adequately with two front intake and a rear and top exhaust. I expect I could have got by with just one of those exhausts. I used a silverstone filter to cover the side vent, as several people here have suggested.

EDIT: most importantly, cat hair inside the case was minimal.