Side case fans: intake or exhaust?

[Jax Omen]

Ok, first of all, I have an AF7Pro, so it's not exhausting my CPU, the rear fan handles that.

My case has FOUR side case fans, currently blowing air from the room into the system, over the GPU, CPU, RAM, basically everything. It has a top exhaust and a pair of rear exhaust fans. The four side fans basically take up what would be a window in a windowed case.

Would those fans give me more cooling if they were exhaust fans? should I leave them as intake? Should I have a mix of exhaust and intake (and if so, how should it be set up)?

My curiosity compels me!

 

[jaqie]

Well, there are plusses and minuses to both, I'll get into them. As for myself: I got a case with an extremely large surface area of vents in the front, and plugged up the side holes, allowing the rear exhaust fans to pull the air through the case, works very well as nothing ever gets over 60c even in the summer with a very quiet system, and I don't hardly ever have to dust it.

As for putting fans on the side (or using ones already there), basically either way you are removing air circulation from another area of the case where it could do good - in my case, that is the hard drives. If you have it blowing air in, realize that will cake much more dust everywhere because of the high turbulence of the air being pushed into the case and onto the items. If you put them in a outward air motion direction, that drastically changes the airflow of the case as opposed to a solid side, as well. IMO and IME this is not good either, as to cool everything to the same level will require more, faster fans in the case then without.

 

[Jax Omen]

Oh, almost forgot, I'm getting a front intake fan when I upgrade stuff.

Is the only downside to intake dust? I dust my computer every couple months as it is. I figured it'd be better with intake because it's blowing ambient air onto my GPU >_>

 

[jaqie]

noise, too, and added electric usage... that's about it.

 

[Jax Omen]

noise doesn't matter to me. I leave my CPU/GPU fans at 100% because I'd rather have them run cooler than run quieter 😛

Our electric bill has been ~$45 a month for the last 3, so I don't think it's making any significant impact there.

I guess I'll leave them as intake.

 

[jaqie]

Don't forget the alteration of airflow inside the case. the more complicated the airflow pattern (more fans is more complex airflow) the more chance for deadspots and eddies. It could be doing more harm then good.

 

[Zepper]

I'd say to block off any fan openings except the main two (F/R), and see how they do alone. Then add more to do what is needed and one at a time. A fan blowing down across the normal airflow of the AF7 can have a deleterious effect if the velocity is high enough - can cause it to starve on the intake side or block the outflow siden or both. So think about what is going on in your case and use your fans judiciously.

.bh.

 

[BlueAcolyte]

If you need to add a side fan, I'd rather have exhaust than intake.

 

[panfist]

I just did testing with an 80mm fan as exhaust or intake, and a 140mm fan as exhaust or intake.

The 80mm fan was WORSE than ambient at low speed, exhaust or intake.

The 80mm fan on high only worked as an intake. As an exhaust my temps were the same with or without the fan on.

The 140mm cooled my CPU by 1C and my north and south bridge by 4C when it was an intake. When it was an exhaust, it cooled my NB and SB by 1C.

All temps were taken after 1 hour of full system load (orthos to load the two cores, ATI tool to crank the GPU).