Question about airflow in my Antec Sx1030b?

[mikef208]

Okay I just got this case a few days ago and it is a really nice case. I don't have the money to get a good cooling setup in it yet, so all I have now is the fan in the ps, the 2 antec fans in the rear, and a sunon i had in the hard drive cage to cool my raided Maxtors. It seems to me that the Antec fans as well as the PS fan don't move much air. Would I be better off usingt eh PS fan and the sunon as rear exhaust and then putting the two antec fans in the front as intakes?

 

[cnhoff]

I would put at least one fan in the front, maybe not the most powerful ones though. Be sure to have equal input and output or have a slight preference towards the exhaust.

 

[Swanny]

If I were you I'd put one Antec and the Sunon in back and the other Antec in front by your HDs. But if you had good airflow already I'd actually want to have more air coming in than going out. That way you don't get as much dust.

 

[Lithium381]

i think more intake would be preferable, since any excess would be "forced" out because of pressure, as opposed to having a slight vacuum, and not being able to adjust as easily, at leat it would seem that way to me. take one, stick it in the back, have one on the drive, one below, that way, yu've got two in and two out....evn though the airflow won't match correctly, mix and match the fans so it's almost even, but if there's any pressure, have it be positive

 

[mikef208]

It was my understanding that you wanted less intake and more exhaust or make them equal.

 

[dadx2mj]

Having a posative presure in the case does reduce dust, but can cause dead or hot spots. I have an SX830 I took the two Antec fans and put them in front intakes with aluminum filters on them to cut down the dust and put two Sunon high output fans in the back for exhuast. I also have a hard drive cooler that has a small 40mm fan acting as an intake and blowing on the hard drive. With this set up my case temp is staying the same as ambeint room temp.

 

[Salvador]

Ok.. What will produce more positive pressure? More exhaust or more intake?

Sal

 

[dadx2mj]

It should produce a negative case presure the two Sunons suck more out than the Antecs pump in and the Power supply fan moves more than the hard drive cooler fan does

 

[kgraeme]

<< Ok.. What will produce more positive pressure? More exhaust or more intake?
>>



More intake. The idea is that you are forcing air into the box, raising the air pressure. The positive pressure inside the case forces air out. Dust can still be sucked in through the intake fans, but not as quickly, and it won't come in through every other crack and cranny as well. With no exhaust fans, the hot air would have to be forced out with only the air pressure pushing it, which isn't as efficient as actively drawing it out.

Negative pressure would happen if you have more exhaust. Sucking the air out creates a low pressure environment inside the case. The low pressure will draw air into the case, bringing dust in with it. The advantage of a low-pressure environment is that cooler air from outside will more quickly be drawn in than if it were a positive pressure situation (since positive pressure keeps air out.)

I haven't tested the temperature differences in positive vs. negative pressure setups, but my guess is that they would be so slight as to be negligible. And most of us have some fans on both intake and exhaust, getting the benefits of both. I tend to keep a negative pressure case, but that's just because the fans on my case work better that way, and I do have filters on the intake vents to prevent dust. If dust were my main concern, I would try to keep a positive pressure case.

 

[Fizz]

My sx1030b



this is how I did mine.... I have 161cfm intake and 158 venting, but that is not including the enermax PSU which is also venting, it does have some dust problems but not that bad

 

[mikef208]

Okay I went with the 1 Sunon in the back exhausting, along with the power supply, although that fan moves almost no air. Then i put the two antecs in the front mounts and it finally brought me down around room temp.

 

[mikef208]

Here is an update, I just found another fan lying around that is less powerful then the sunon, but more powerfull then the antecs. So now I have the 2 wimpy antecs, the PSU fan, the sunon, and the other fan. What would be a good setup for these.