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How much exhaust airflow needed to keep this cool/safe?

W

WAZ

Golden Member
I was putting together a build for my wife which will be an FX-55 in an older Enermax tower. The front of the case is solid plastic (no intake -- though I've heard mixed reports about the effectiveness of intake fans anyway)... and in the back, rather than a 120mm exhaust, there are slots for two 80mm fans (one on top of the other).

The side has a small metal "grating" but no fan. CPU fan blows out toward the grating. There's also an exhaust grating in the top, but no fan there either. I figured that would conflict with moving air out the back...?

So, with this case, how much air do you think I need to move with the two 80mm exhaust fans? Are those enough, with no other fans in the case (besides the CPU and PSU fans)?

I was looking at anything from a Coolermaster (23 CFM @ 22 dbA) to some higher AC's and Masscools (28 to 32 CFM).

Will using 2 fans just double the CFM and dbA? And if so, how much is "enough" without being too loud? Thanks!
 
bump... Really the question is whether to grab a couple cheap $2 fans that move 23 CFM of air... or whether to jump up to like $10 per fan for a "nice" one that moves 30 and runs quieter.

Am I going to notice a difference if these are the only 2 fans in the whole case?
 
If it's not overclocked two 80mm exhaust fans are fine. Two of those cheap fans sound good to me. Two fans will double the CFM but not the dba.

Don't trust specs on the fans. If it moves more air it is louder.
 
Those old Enermax cases, like my daughter's, were known for having very air restrictive rear fan grills. Her case also had the 2 -80 mm rear fan slots. Here's an old thread on how to cut them out.
Link
 
Thanks for the replies.

A new case, no matter how cheap, is probably out of the question, since I was barely able to convince my wife to upgrade her PC, period. I had this Enermax case lying around, along with a handful of other parts, and was just able to convince her that "all I needed" was a couple more parts and wouldn't need a bunch of new stuff to put together a decent new build.

I have 3" and 3 1/8" hole saws, so looks like I'll use one of those to help open up the back of the Enermax. I see what you mean by restrictive grills -- they're basically a handful of small holes. 😱

Tyler -- why are those fans recommended over, for example, the Arctic Cooling 28CFM/20dbA I linked to? Are they quieter and/or move more air than the specs (in raw numbers) appear to indicate?
 
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