I've never seen a comprehensive article on case ventilation.
Silentpcreview is excellent for ideas on silencing case noise-makers (fans and drives) by vibration-isolation techniques, slowing fan speeds, reducing noise-leak paths, ducting air paths, use of most-efficient coolers and reducing air-flow restrictions for most efficient ventilation with low-flow fans.
I'll offer a few thoughts.
Traditionally, cases were designed for front-to-back air flow path. Hard drives are placed forward in the case so that cool room ambient temperatur air flows over the drives to keep them cool. Many current cases have side-vents/fans that produce an air-flow path from the side intake to the rear vent fan. This can result in very poor front-intake air flow over your hard drives - resulting in warm drive operating temps. Tape off those vents for cooler drive temps (and lower case noise).
Since PC power supply fans draw air from the case, avoid negative-pressure ventilation, such as using only a single rear-vent fan. Negative-pressure cases can result in low air flow through your power supply, elevating power supply temps. If only a single case fan is used, it's better (for power supply health) to place it in front - with side vents taped off.
Reducing air-flow restriction helps increase air flow through the case. Some tactics:
- Remove restrictive case grills.
- Remove restrictive front-bezel grills.
- Use low-restriction filter media, such as accordion-fold furnace filter media.
- Avoid 80mm case vents/fans.
If front intake and rear-vent fans are used in combination, use fans with matched flow rates. For example, using a single Panaflo M1A rear vent fan with a low-flow front intake fan will result in lower air flow than with just the Panaflo rear-vent fan - the low-flow front intake will restrict air flow.
Generally, I favor optimized front-to-back case air-flow path.
Hope this helps!
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