Case fan question

[Anubis]

Im gonna cut my holes tomarro and i was wounderin somethin. if im gonn have to much air commin in and not enuff goin out. i plan on addin 3 120mm fans 2 panflos and 1 Y.S tech i was plannin on havin the 2 panaflos blowin in from the side of the case and teh Y.S tech as a top blowhole. in adation to thoes i have a 92 mm intake in teh front of my case and a 80 mm exaust at the rear. have a SK-6 with the delta on my CPU. wounderin if i should have another fan blowin out or should i be ok?

 

[MajinWade]

I am going get some fans and start cutting holes tomorrow as well. So does a person want to to have the same amount of fan surface area going in to equal the amount of fan surface area going out, or do you do something different to calculate ratio? I'm just assuming a person wants a 1 to 1 here? Maybe it would be good to have more going in than out or oppisite?

Bump for you/us.

 

[WaTaGuMp]

There is always talk about more intake or more exhaust and its tough to say for sure which is better. Look at it this way if you push air in but dont get it out then hot air stays inside the case. The best is a good balance of airflow IMHO. I have 2 intake and 2 exhaust on my case so it sucks cool air in and then takes the warm air out. If you have more coming in then going out then you can get more inside air pressure which wont kill anything. So if you think you can have too many intake then look at the link below LOL.





Lian Li Pc76 1708 cfm

 

[RandomCoil]

I seriously doubt you're going to get any sort of "high air pressure" inside your case regardless of how many intake fans you add. One of two things will happen:

1) Air will leak out from places you don't want it to, say coming out vents around the bottom of the case where there is likely to be warm air.
2) Assuming the "leaks" above are somewhat restricted, the intake fans will simply not work at optimimum efficiency since they really aren't made to pump against a pressure gradient

I would think you could actually get away without having any exhaust fans if you sealed all the holes in your case except the PS fan and left a, say, 120mm hole at the top of the case and placed two or three intake fans near the bottom of the case. The air sucked in would be forced to go up over the hotter components and then go out through the blowhole.

Alternatively, use a single blowhole fan, but only let air enter case from somewhere near the bottom.

Interestingly, in either design it might be helpful to have a fan simply sitting inside the case to keep the air-flow turbulent

Take a look at how rack mount cases and Dell/Apple cases are designed. They usually only try and move air in or out; physics will take of the rest.

Yeah, that's a pretty different take on the subject than the "more fans == better" concept most modders/overclockers take and it won't give you a simple intake:exhaust ratio, but I think it's something worth considering. If you don't think critically about these things at some point, you're liable to start claiming something silly. Like you know your fans can cool your case below room temperature because the metal sides feel cold <groan>