Fan Positioning

pjnix

n00b
Joined
Apr 27, 2008
Messages
27
This may seem like a rather basic question, but I'll ask anyway. For my side case fan (the one that's basically level with my video cards), should I have the fan blowing inward onto the cards, our outward? It's currently facing outwards, and honestly I couldn't tell you if it was doing a good job of sucking out hot air out, so I figured I'd try and see if having it blow inwards would help. What do you guys suggest? Thanks!
 
Measure the temps when idle and under load when its sucking and then when its blowing.

I'll have a guess and say its the sucking that will win.
 
Which do you prefer, having lower case temperature or having better video card temperatures?
 
It's usually best to have the air flow going in the direction of the nearest exhaust fan moving air out of the case.
 
I actually prefer having lower video card temperatures in this case...

Edit: Am I to assume that if the fan faces inward, the video card temps will go down and the case temps will go up?
 
Suck or blow, the eternal qeustion :p Do you have any exhaust fans in the rear of the case? If so, it might be better to have the side panel fan blowing air on to the videocard and other components, which will then be exhausted out the rear of the case. If you have no other exhaust fans, it's probably better to use the side panel fan for that. But, the best way to find out, is to try both and log the temperatures (CPU, system, GPU) with a good system monitoring program. Furmark is good for stressing the videocard, Orthos is good for CPU stress testing. Run both at the same time to max out both CPU and GPU at the same time.. Turns my system into a small oven ;)
 
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