Silverstone Fortress "positive air pressure" review

[TBSN]

I was reading the Anandtech review of the Silverstone Fortress FT101, which is set up so that the fans create a positive air pressure inside the case (meaning that they're forcing more air into the case), which supposedly makes for better cooling.

They also posted a video using smoke to show how it works:

Anandtech Post (youtube video)

Do you think that this would work?

I have an Antec P182, and I was thinking if I reversed the top rear fan so that it was facing down, like they have it set up, it would improve the cooling. Right now the top fan and the rear fan are pushing air out (as is the video card) and only one fan is pushing air in.

If this actually works, then I would definitely reverse that top fan, and maybe I could turn the fan speeds down a bit!

What do you think?

 

[Zepper]

Positive pressure does not necessarily cool better, but it does keep the insides of your case cleaner (as long as all the incoming air is filtered. AFAIC, clean is the main advantage of Pos. Press. For raw cooling all tha matters is flow rate and that it gets the hot bits, no matter how it's generated.

.bh.

 

[scruffypup]

Yeah I think the video is "neat", but the point of the article was nothing,... it showed the video and seemed to indicate something (like better cooling), but really had not point.

Now, you would see similar "smoke"/airflow movement with properly placed fans for proper negative pressure,... with ensuring no "air leaks" that are manufactured into some cases,...

This video only shows air flow,... it is not proof of better or worse cooling,... I wish they had done a similar video comparing negative airflow patterns,...

So to sum up,... it is a neat video,... nothing more

 

[Zepper]

FWIW, I try to make my cases Pos. Press. but it's hard with all the superfluous venting in the cases these days.

.bh.

 

[TBSN]

I have an Antec P182, which has a similar fan configuration, and I was thinking I might see a benefit from turning the top fan around so that it blows down, towards the CPU heatsink. There is also a fan at the rear, next to the CPU as well, which blows out.

All of the PCI covers have slots in them to let in air, I think to cool the video card, but is that a bad thing? Do you think having that top fan blowing down would improve anything?

 

[Zepper]

You could probably plug/block off any blowhole and see little if any diff.

.bh.

 

[CurseTheSky]

Hmm, I never thought of turning the top fan around in my P182. I'll have to try it to see if it helps.

The air coming out of the back feels a lot warmer than the air coming out of the top as is.

 

[Cogman]

IIRC Negative pressure was better then positive pressure, and neutral pressure was the best for cooling. I could be wrong.

Either way, it is hard to achieve anything but neutral pressure anyways because your case is most likely the furthest thing from air tight out there.

 

[zagood]

In my ghetto experiments, if you have few fans or only low-CFM fans, negative pressure is generally cooler. If you have a high rate of flow, they're about the same, with positive pressure keeping dust accumulation restricted to the intakes (so in theory keeping your case cleaner).

-z

 

[scruffypup]

A lot of this is "generalizations", you can have as dust free an environment with negative pressure as positive pressure if setup right.

For instance, a case that is airtight,... one "negative pressure" causing fan at back, one vent in front with filter,.... would be same as one "positive pressure" causing fan in front with filter in same airtight case,...

The thing where positive pressure reduces dust is with the newer cases which have holes every cm or less for cooling,....

Either for positive or negative built systems,... I prefer not to have 100+holes so that I can direct and route airflow with more certainty without having to jack up the cfms measurably to account for "lost" or misdirected airflow,....