Side case fan - suck or blow?

[chrisms]

I have a fan on the side of my case right next to my video card. Should I have it blow air out of the case, or suck air in?

The fan is right next to a Radeon 9500 Pro. I made it suck the air out because I noticed a pocket of heated air underneath the card when I overclocked it.

This is the only extra fan in the case.. the rest is your normal cooling setup.

 

[CoBRaXT]

everybody has a different opinion but i think side panels are made for intake

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

My opinion is that side panels should be outtake as long as you have one other intake somewhere. Otherwise intake from the back or front. My reasoning is that it could affect the rate at which the video card's fan spins if they spin in opposite directions.

 

[AndrewNF]

I'd say the fan should be sucking air in from the outside. Cooling of the cards is more effective that way, from what I've read around the net.

Suck or blow? Must...get...mind...out...of...gutter!:Q 😀

 

[psy44]

My comp came with fans blowing air into the case, I left it like that.....

 

[Baileybbk]

Most cases are designed so the side fan will blow onto the CPU/heatsink......

It's all about air flow through the case, the more the better.

Actually, takes some pretty good engineering to make sure there are no dead spots in a loaded case.

Still don't know why there aren't more ducted CPU cases!

 

[Blooz1]

I just built a system with a Panaflo 120MM L1A as a side intake fan. This AM the system temp was 21C , same as ambient, with Prime 95 cranking it's 9th hour.

Needless to say I'm happy with this setup!

 

[SpeedFreak03]

I have 3 case fans (plus 1 PSU fan) in my computer. The one in the front of the case is an intake(blows cold air in to the case), the side fan is an intake, and the rear fan is an exhaust (pulls air out of the case) This setup has given me pretty low temps so far. They are all regular 12V fans (2 are from old PSU's) that run at fairly low RPM and pretty quiet. I like the side fan blowing in so it blows right on my CPU, ram (a little bit), and video card.

Suck or blow? Must...get...mind...out...of...gutter!

LOL I need to do the same!

 

[eklass]

<insert obligatory space balls comment here>

i like to think my vid card likes the cool outside air. but what do i know i don't suck or blow 😛

 

[chrisms]

Thanks for the help. I've switched it back to intake.

My reasoning is the video card and CPU fan are both sucking. So having the side fan suck would not take hot air out of the case, but instead take all air out of the case and hurt the performance of both the GPU and CPU cooling systems.

Seems to work pretty good.. I got my 9500 pro overclocked to 396/330 just barely.

 

[PHiuR]

suck, so it blows the air onto the videocard/cpu 😀

 

[DaCurryman]

Originally posted by: eklass
<insert obligatory space balls comment here>

Only since it's been requested...

"Mighty Maid...she's gone from suck...to blow!"

I had my side fan taking air out of the case, but after hearing all you smart ppl, I think I'm gonna go turn it around. 🙂

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: DaCurryman

Originally posted by: eklass
<insert obligatory space balls comment here>

Only since it's been requested...

"Mighty Maid...she's gone from suck...to blow!"

I had my side fan taking air out of the case, but after hearing all you smart ppl, I think I'm gonna go turn it around. 🙂

Mega Maid. 😉

I think that the side panel fan should be blowing cool air in over the expansion cards; exhaust fans go towards the top of the case, where the heat is.

 

[eklass]

also, don't forget that it is preferred to hav e aslightly negative pressure in the case (slightly more outtake than intake)

for example, i seem to have decent flow. i've got:
1 fan in front, bottom intake
1 side fan intake
2 fans in top rear outtake
2 fans in psu outtake

that nice flow coupled with my volcano 9 and as3 makes my cpu about 43C under full load 🙂