Newbie question about air flow...

[Hork]

Just purchased a few panaflows to try to keep my system cool and keep the noise down a bit too.

I've seen various posts about positive and negative case pressure, but haven't really paid attention. Assuming that I have a case that has room for one fan in the front and one in the back, which way should the air flow?

Into the case from the front and out through the back?

Sorry for the newbieness of this question, but I want to make sure the cooling is effective.

Hork

 

[minendo]

Intake air in the front of the case and use the rear fan as exhaust.

 

[fast_eddie]

More intake than exhaust will give you postive pressure. More exhaust than intake will give you a vacuum (negative pressure).
IMHO positive pressure is better. With a vacuum you will be pulling air into the case thru evry crack and crevice - including ALL external drives. That means dirty, unfiltered air being sucked into DVD drives, CD drives, ZIP drives, etc.

 

[OMGthatsCraZY]

how do u calculate the air flow? i have different kinds of fans, so i dunno how to tell...i have 1 side fan, 1 top fan, 2 back fans, 1 front fan (big) and 3 pci slot fans. any ideas? the pci ones can only be exhaust.

 

[minendo]

Originally posted by: OMGthatsCraZY
how do u calculate the air flow? i have different kinds of fans, so i dunno how to tell...i have 1 side fan, 1 top fan, 2 back fans, 1 front fan (big) and 3 pci slot fans. any ideas? the pci ones can only be exhaust.

Each fan comes with its own rating as to how much air it moves. IMHO the pci slot coolers are pointless, but that's just because they never make a difference for me.