Front Fan Doesn't Matter

[jimmyj68]

I've been experimenting with my new P-160 and found out some interesting things (at least with my setup). Because my case was delivered with a broken Antec 120 fan rattling around inside the case I installed a SilenX 120 that I had in the rear exhaust space. I removed the SilenX from the rear fan position in my "old" Sonata and installed it in the front fan mocule of the P-160.

I have two resistive add-on units that go between the fan connector of the Silenx and its power connection on the motherboard, this drops the voltage to the fan (I don't know how much) and it runs almost dead silent but doesn't move a heck of a lot of air. I'm running a 3.2 Prescott and an MSI 5900XT video card. Two Hitachi HD's (80 gig) in RAID 0 and an 80 gig WD as backup. One gig of memory is on board. I was running a Zalman 7000 at lowest speed on the Prescott.

This setup gave unexceptable case temperatures using the temp probes from the P-160. One at the top of the case and the second on the hard drives. The two fans just weren't moving enough air fast enough.

I removed the power reduction interface on the rear fan and saw an immediate case temperature drop approaching 10 degrees. Looking for more, I removed the power reducer from the front fan also so it too ran at full power. My temperatures changed about a degree. Surprised, I disconnected the power to the front fan and temperatures remained substantially the same. So out came the front fan, It doesn't seem to make a difference.

CPU temps were still a little high (according to Intels Desktop Control Center) so I turned the Zalman fan control almost all the way up and the CPU temp at idle is said to be 49 degrees according to Intel. Case temps are 34C at the top of the case (probe hanging in free air space about an inch below the top of the case) and 31C at about 1/4 the way up from the center of the bottom of the case in free space, just below the level of the Video Card.

I'm happy with those temps and a really quiet system as well. Within the month I plan to get MSI 6600GT vid card AGP, the Zalman GPU cooling system ( I think it may be the best bet, maybe that other one that blows the heat from the GPU directly out the back of the case. Which is best?). And the Zalman 7700 cooler for the prescott. That will take care of my upgrades for this year.

FWIW (I'm learning the lingo) I'm using an extremely quiet XClio 450 watt PSU. It barely breaks a sweat. Cool air blows out of the back of the PSU and that at a very low volume as the 120 mm fan on the bottom of the PSU seems to be just turning over - quite slow.

 

[albumleaf]

yep, i made a huge thread about this earlier... no difference. I do see a noticable diff in hard drive temps at low fan speeds because the fan is right next to them, but it's not that big of a deal. I'll stick with lower noise Oh, and if the arctic vga silencer is compatible with your 6600gt, I suggest you check that out.. it vents the hot air straight out the back and it's ridiculously quiet. Strongly recommended

 

[MDE]

The front fan made a difference in hard drive and GPU temps for me. I'd recommend the Zalman VF700 for your 6600GT, I have the all copper unit on my 6800GT and it's quieter than the Silencer I had on it and cools better.

 

[jimmyj68]

You're right, I may forsake Zalman for the VGA GPU, and go Arctic Cooler (if they have one for the 6600GT VGA.

 

[jimmyj68]

And MDE your right with your experience too. Zalman is hard to beat . But the Zalman is stirring around the warm air in the case. But if I keep a case temperature of 31-32C that will be a great help.

 

[0roo0roo]

double fan doesn't double air movement. only lets the fans better reach the potential of one fans airmovement if the case is restricted.

 

[The Sly Syl]

My front fan is mainly there to cool down my harddrdives. The raptor heats up after extended use, and my secondary harddrive is always spinning (I have music going constantly)

Oh, and my front fan looks cool.

 

[Operandi]

Intake fans control the air flow within the case; air enters the where it is supposed to rather then through the nearest opening it can find. Intakes don't have a direct affect on system temps but they do help cool the hard drives.

As for the 6600GT I recommend the VF700. It cools better, quieter, and is just higher quality in my opinion.

 

[charlietee]

To me the front fan is extremely important...You rig has three hard drives that I assume are mounted in the drive cage.

A 120m/m fan blowing across the hard drives keeping them cool should help extent the life of all three drives.

Even if the front fan only drops inside case air temps 1 degree the cooling effect on the hard drives is what makes the front fan a "must have" in my humble opinion.

 

[Promethply]

Yeah, currently front fan's important since the HD cage is usually located just behind it in most enclosures.

 

[jimmyj68]

I didn't give much thought to the effect on the hard drives. I assumed (uh oh) that the temps of the hard drives would be reflected in the base case temperature and that the air being drawn in by the rear fan is passing directly over the drives and so cools them somewhat. All my music is on the stand alone WD 80gig ( if raid goes south I won't lose a whole bunch of 99 cent recordings) but I'll start some music going and see if there is any rise in case temoerature.-----------music-----------now!

 

[rickn]

you need to have front intake or side intake fans, otherwise your exhaust fans will suck in air thru every crevis in the case, and you will have gobs of dust and dust bunnies clogging up your cdrom, drive bays, case cracks, etc

 

[jimmyj68]

I've been flying up and down the east coast with Flight Simulator all afternoon and evening. This usually really heats up my old Sonata case, I'm running the CPU and GPU hard. My mid case temperature rose 2 degrees and the top of the case temperature didn't change. I know from experience that with my Zalman 7000 on the 3.2 prescott after a half hour or so of f;ight simulator at max resolution and max settings my CPU breaks 60 degrees. This P-160 has really good air flow.

I'm gonna put the front fan back in. It's really easy with the removable fan bracket. Thanks all for your input.

 

[pelikan]

I use a front fan so that all the air entering my case goes through my filter. This works if you have positive case pressure.

 

[Aries64]

Originally posted by: Operandi
Intake fans control the air flow within the case; air enters the where it is supposed to rather then through the nearest opening it can find. Intakes don't have a direct affect on system temps but they do help cool the hard drives.

As for the 6600GT I recommend the VF700. It cools better, quieter, and is just higher quality in my opinion.

I completely agree there. Although my Lian Li V1000's many perforations allow air to be drawn in from all around, the front-mounted (120mm) fan really directs where the air is drawn in.

For me the front fan is crucial - four 15,000 RPM Cheetahs' create a lot of heat and without the front fan cooling them my drives will overheat and my system will crash. Not good.

 

[0roo0roo]

well its not that hard to direct the air. look at the sonata with its front air slits ..rather small but still, thats where all the dust is caught.

 

[CrispyFried]

I use the 2 front intake fans to make sure air is entering is entering where it should.. through the filter (Antec 1080 AMG). Plus it cools the 2 HDs. Do a defrag and see how your HD temps are with and without the fans.

 

[albumleaf]

hmm, my case is sealed pretty well but I may take the time to caulk it up just to keep the case pressurized