Do you use a front intake cooling fan?

[Intelman07]

Curious if you guys use a front intake fan. I do personally, but I wonder how much it really helps. I could move it to the back of my case and have two outlet fans. Reason I ask is I've been reading....

http://www.endpcnoise.com/cgi-bin/e/silentpc_cooling.html

Look at # 7 and read that AMD PDF http://www.amd.com/us-en/assets/content...papers_and_tech_docs/cooling_guide.pdf

 

[zagood]

From the article:

some tests have shown that front cooling fans are actually more likely to re-circulate warm air rather than introduce cool air.

From the PDF:

in some extreme situations, testing showed these fans to be recirculating hot air rather than introducing cool air.

This is true if installed on a case where the front bezel doesn't allow airflow from the outside to the fan. Otherwise, total hooey. Whoever wrote that article should be careful.

Also, not having any intake fans increases dust in your system dramatically.

-z

EDIT: Man the more I think about this article, the more pissed I get. Never have, but am sure now that I never will, buy anything from these baseheads.

 

[Intelman07]

Yeah, I thought the article sounded strange. If you had no intakes, how would cool air get in. I am sure some could seep in but not as well as having a fan. Was just curious.

 

[RallyMaster]

I do use a front intake and it dropped my temperature on my CPU (stock heatsink) at full load 3 degrees.

Take this analogy for example: Your diaphragm is opening your lungs as hard as it can but you have your nose clogged. It will take you a lot more time to provide sufficient oxygen to the rest of your body. Now go back to the computer case. The rear 120 mm exhaust is sucking air out of the case. You don't have adequate air being supplied to the case. Slowly and surely, the amount of hot air will build while cool air doesn't enter at a good rate. If a person can suffocate, then a computer can overheat.

 

[JasonE4]

The suffocation analogy is not a good one because cases that have room for front fans, have vents in the front to allow the air to get in. A rear fan will pull air from the outside, through the vents, and into the case.

I had an Antec P160 and it gave me lower temps when I didn't have a 120mm fan in the front.

 

[RallyMaster]

In some cases, front intakes do actually work such as on my Raidmax X-1. I don't know, maybe Antecs are just special.

 

[Intelman07]

Curious, if you have a side case fan, do you make that blow out, or in?

 

[imported_Seer]

I think side fans are supposed to blow out hot cpu air.

 

[JasonE4]

Almost always you will want to make it blow in, as it blows cool air right on your CPU/GPU.

 

[Intelman07]

Mine was default set to blow out, I'll switch that around eventually.

 

[RallyMaster]

Eh, side fans depend on location. If it's right on top of CPU, have it blow in. If you're in my circumstances, I have my CPU blowing from front to back so a side fan over CPU is useless. So I flipped my case window and I have it blowing on my North Bridge cooler and video card area right now. I might end up having to make it an exhaust like many other fans in my case because it should be sucking air out of my North Bridge. That has yet to be seen though.

 

[PacDwell]

You should set the window (side) fan direction according to it's location and what it is cooling.

If it's over the CPU it should be intake as it'll help the HSF perform better.
If it's over the chipset it should be intake as it'll help the chipset HSF perform better.
If it's over a GPU with a cooler which exhausts air out the back, then it should be intake to provide cool air for the cooler, which then exhausts the hot air.
If it's over a GPU with a cooler which doesn't exhaust air out of the case (many stock and the Zalman VF700 for instance), then the window fan should be set to extract air, it helps get rid of that hot GPU air quickly.

 

[Tu13erhead]

Shens.

My front fan(s) have always lowered temps in my CPU, GPU, and HDDs.