help with some basic case fan placement!

[firemoth12]

Alright, linked you see 2 (self made) images. One is the inside of the case, with the left panel off. The other is the left panel on the outside.

Where there is a red circle is where I can put a fan. Either in the common place in the front underneath all the drives, or on the middle-back part of the left side panel.

Right now, I have a fan on the side panel exhausting. I cant put a fan in the back of the case because it only takes a 60mm.

If I put a fan in the front to blow into the case, it is VERY noisy. There is barely any ventilation in the front, and it goes through a pretty dense grille.

On the side panel is a little better. I need to know should I keep it how it is (exhausting) or should I reverse it. The fan, when the side panel is on, is pretty much directly over the chipset HSF on the mobo and is right below the CPU HSF.

I have 1 fan.

Lets hear it!

CASE
LEFT SIDE PANEL

 

[CoBRaXT]

side panel fan should be used as intake to blow cool air over the cpu

 

[JesDer]

Originally posted by: firemoth12
If I put a fan in the front to blow into the case, it is VERY noisy. There is barely any ventilation in the front, and it goes through a pretty dense grille.

So ... mod it

Dremel out the grill on the case and maybe open up the front vents a little. You could also run the fan at 7v which will help with the noise.

Change the side fan to an intake and put an exhaust on the back.

 

[firemoth12]

Any other input?

I heard having 2 exhausts (for example) is more effective than having 1 intake and 1 exhaust. The Side panel fan, when the computer is under load, does spit out warm air. Also, If I make it an intake, the whole front of my case will have no ventilation whatsoever. Remember, I have a PSU fan exhausting, and the side fan exhausting, so it has to get the air from somewhere. I'm assuming it pulls air in from the front?

 

[ukiro]

Warm air is lighter than cool air, so exhausts should be at the top of your case and intakes in the lower regions. Not having room for a proper 80mm (or larger) rear exhaust fan could be a problem. What kind of PSU do you have? Does it have one or two fans? A two-fan PSU (intake at bottom, exhaust at the rear) could be combined with an intake fan on the side panel, but a "standard" one-fan PSU won't help as much.

And yeah, you case is pulling air in from the front or any other hole(s) it might have. To make fans as efficient as possible you need to configure and place them so that the pressure inside and outside of the case is pretty much the same. If you have four intake fans and no exhaust, you'll end up with much higher pressure inside the case than outside and as a result the cooling gets less efficient. The same is true for the opposite scenario.

If I were you, and on a very tight budget, I'd still try to scrape together enough money for a quiet fan to use as front intake. I recommend the Papst fans; I use their 12dB models and they are so quiet you just won't believe it. I'm in sweden though so I can't really recommend a good place to get them from. One of those at the front and keeping your side fan as exhaust could work, although not ideal since a lot of warm air will rise to the top of your case, where the only exhaust is from the PSU.

this reply got a little unstructured, but I hope it makes sense


edit: spelling