Case Fan Arrangement

[crip11]

I have a windowed case with a spot for case fan on the side as well as 4 slots up front and 2 in the back. I Have 2 2400 rpm fans. What would be the best place to put these 2 fans as I see my CPU temp reaching near 55 w/ a AMD 2000+ palamino and a dragon orb 3 HSF. What should be intake and exhaust and etc.. BTW if anyone has any excess 80 mm fans lying around they want to get rid of I will take them. Noise isnt a concern means i have a Dragon Orb aka F-16

Drew

 

[DannyBoy]

You should put the MORE powerful fan as the Intake, and the less powerful fan as the exhaust.

You should not use 2 fans of the same rating

 

[crip11]

Well this is all i have right now..where should they be placed. Front, Side, Or Back

 

[oldfart]

One in the lower front intake, one in the rear towards the top exhaust.

 

[isaacmacdonald]

one thing to look out for is WHERE the front intake is. I know mine is on the bottom of the bezel. If it's placed on medium shag carpet 0 air can get through. So basically you want to put an low speed 80mm up at the front (use panflos) and one at the back. The other thing you might look into is directly porting air to your cpu fan. This is very effective. Simply dremel a 3" or 4" circle in the side of your case and grab some pvc @ home depot (<$1.00). Make sure your fan is blowing down on the HS and put cut the pipe so that it surrounds your cpu fan, but not the actual HS. presto- lower cpu temps + lower case temps. The final thing you'll want to look out for is to reduce the turbulence in your case. Make sure air is traveling in a relatively linear path instead of getting sucked into weird stagnant patterns withing your box. If you're using a secondary exhaust (in addition to the psu fan), try sealing the bottom vents (near the cpu) of the PSU so that it will intake air completely from the end (near your cd drives).

 

[crip11]

I bet thats my problem as I have the side fan exhaust and rear fan intake. It's not a direct flow

 

[DannyBoy]

Originally posted by: crip11
I bet thats my problem as I have the side fan exhaust and rear fan intake. It's not a direct flow

You should swap them right around mate, always put your exhausts at the back, the main area that needs cooling is the CPU and PCI area.

If you have an intake at the back, you have to remember the PSU's heat is being kicked out the back, and chances are your gunna be sucking that straight back in

Put your exhausts on the back and intakes on the side / front.

Ideally you want a more powerful fan for the intake. That doesnt mean have a slow intake and even slower exhuast, becuase you still want a reasonable exhuast fan, but you should try and create more negative pressure in the case for better cooling

 

[crip11]

I did have it that way and my temps were around 45-48 which is slightly better..Anyone got some extra 80 mm fans laying around

 

[JKing76]

Negative pressure means the exhaust is more powerful than the intake.

 

[0roo0roo]

best to cut off the case fan grills,unless your case really rocks they generally really suck. impeeds airflow big time. cutting 120mm or 92mm fan holes where 80mm are probably good too. just have lsightly more airflow in then out. fans are very weak, any backpressure or air resistence pretty much kills their output.

 

[Joker81]

This is why I hate programs like Motherboard monitor. You get worried about how hot your CPU is. 55 degrees is not the killer zone or close I think that they can run up to 90 degrees. Anyways. I have four Stealth Intake in the front 2 back stealth out. P/S out and one side out. I think I run anywhere between 48-50 I can't remember. Also if your CPU is getting hot after awhile check to see if there is dust buildup on your fans they can start to slow down and stuff. Just use some compressed air.