How many fans are blowing air into your case?

R

Rob94hawk

2[H]4U
Joined
Jul 20, 2002
Messages
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I have the C3 acrylic case which has a 120mm front hole, 92mm rear, and 80mm blowhole. They all have panaflo fans which flow 86.5 cfm/48 cfm/ 38 cfm respectively. The psu fans I have no clue how much they flow.

I'm not sure if the 120mm fan flowing inward is enough to cool the case. I was thinking the rear fan should be blowing inward as well as the front and the rest, which are on top, outward.

Any thoughts? Thanx, Rob
 
I've always heard that it's a good idea to have more fan blowing air out than sucking it in. If that's true the setup you have sounds like it should work okay.

Currently i have 2 fans in the front blowing in, one in the side blowing on the cpu, and 2 out the back sucking air out.....so as you can see, i dont follow my own advice.
 
I've got two 80mm fans blowing in, two 80's blowing out, and my Fortrons 120mm blowing out at full bore. My ambient temp is 26*C. I'm happy with it :D
 
2 80mm up front. 1 150mm on the side of the case, 2 80mm blowing out, power supply fan. All 80mm fans are Stealths, the 150mm is an EBM industrial fan made by papst (retails for over $60!) Very quiet system.
 
I have one fan blowing air in the front of my case, one blowing in from the side, two on my hard drive, one on my northbridge, one on my CPU, one on my 6800 GT, two right below it blowing extra air on (vantec spectrum), one blowing air out the back, two on my power supply.

Makes 12 total, I believe.
 
i have 4 80s pulling in, and 2 60s and a 120 sucking out, my case is at 26 right now, and ambient room temperature is 24
 
Lol, my case is ugly as sin as they say. I've modded the heck out of it with the help of drill bits and even a metal cutting tool for a saw (which didn't work too well.) Anyway, I have one fan at the front bottom, one at the top pulling air through something I made where I glued two of those blank slot covers together and made rather large holes in, then I have one normal fan in the back in the usual spot near the CPU as well as one of those turbine fans that take up a PCI slot in the bottom. On the side I have one of those huge ugly 4" radioshack fans sticking out with a peice of plastic with holes cut in for a "grill" to hopefully prevent loss of digits due to the fact that the blades are made of metal and at 12V (which I don't really run it at) it spins very fast.

Oh well, the setup may be ugly, but, in my parents' super-hot house where most pcs say the chasis is 30+ idling, my system was 27C under absolute maximum load.

EDIT: Oh, and about out versus in, yes, it is better to have more blowing out than in. This is because if you blow more out, then it will pull the air in across where you need it to go, but if you have too much blowing in, then it will build up pressure and not let as much out as it really should to have proper air-flow. I think the main reason my setup works is my case has more holes than swiss cheese. ^_^

EDIT2: I forgot my PSU. It's using a fan on the bottom to help pull air into it (and away from the motherboard) then another on the back of the case blowing the air out. So, technically I have the correct number of fans, just only one of them is 4" big...
 
ep!c said:
I've always heard that it's a good idea to have more fan blowing air out than sucking it in. If that's true the setup you have sounds like it should work okay.

Currently i have 2 fans in the front blowing in, one in the side blowing on the cpu, and 2 out the back sucking air out.....so as you can see, i dont follow my own advice.
Click to expand...

agreed. i only have 1 fan pushing air in my case and 2 pulling out (3 if you include the psu fan). i removed the fan that was on the front of the case and just let air be pulled in through there.... works great, i noticed a good difference.
 
No front or side panel fans at all. I have a powersupply thats using its own fan to push out air, but its slowed down using a Zalman fanmate spliced on the wires of the fan. I have the Zalman 7000AlCu HSF turned down to 60% speed. VGA Silencer on low speed setting. Northbridge fan is gone (piece of shit fan broke, and you don't need it anyways).

Quiet as hell! No overclocking since my second stick of 512MB of RAM. It fucked it all up :(
 
I have two. Standard 80mm, and volt-modded so they run silent. One is on the front bottom, and the other is in the case window and it blows on the video card.

Then I have the PSU fan and an additional 80mm at the top to suck out.
 
ive just got the classic chenming/chieftec/everyone else and their mom clone case (seen here)

3 coolermater 80mm rifle bearing fans blowing in, 2 of the same exhausting out the back + an antec true430 going at it(for whatever its worth)

Case temps hover around 22C max ive seen in this case even in a hot LAN room was 27C

thats with a 9800Pro OC'd to 435/395
Mobile Barton @ 12.5x200 1.93 Vcore
3x 7200RPM WD's (differing capacity, they all put out about the same heat alone anyway.)

CPU temps are ~40C idle and in above mentoned LAN room max ive seen it do was 51C load

quite happy with my setup kthx :D :D

EDIT: forgot to mention Vcore on the barton.
 
ep!c said:
I've always heard that it's a good idea to have more fan blowing air out than sucking it in. If that's true the setup you have sounds like it should work okay.

Currently i have 2 fans in the front blowing in, one in the side blowing on the cpu, and 2 out the back sucking air out.....so as you can see, i dont follow my own advice.
Click to expand...

You want to have more blowing in than out. If you have negative air pressure in your case you may cause a "dead" air spot in your PSU unit causing it to run warm. Of course this will only happen in extreme cases such as someone haveing all the fans blowing you with no way to let fresh air in. Also, if you put dust filters on the intake fans and have all your air entering through them, you can lower the amount of dust entering your system.
 
I've got one, yes that's right, ONE 120mm fan that blows air out the back of my Antec P160 case. Air flows into the case through the front air filter, cooling the hard drives as well. My case temp is 29C (room temp is 23C). Not bad for just one fan IMO.

HB
 
The statement about positive/negative airpressure inside a case is a myth. Unless you were to use industrial fans, those puny little case fans are nowhere near being strong enough to create anything resembling under-/overpressure. Besides, what you really want is airflow. Stalled air results in airpockets, which trap heat inside the case, causing components to overheat and fail. You don't want the water inside a watercooling loop to stall or even move slower than normal either, do you?


As for my cooling solution, I've got no intake fans whatsoever. Just the PSU (80 mm) and two 80 mm exhaust fans. Intake fans are simply not necessary if you've got duct tape. Just seal all gaps you don't want air to come in through, so that air flows quickly through the case, only briefly coming into contact with the components inside before leaving the case again.
 
Main comp has 2x80mm blowing in and then 1x92mm & 2x80mm blowing out, as well as the psu but that is a given. The case is an Antec SX1200 which is a huge case.

Storage/Backup box has 3x80mm blowing in and 2x80mm blowing out, and the temps inside are very very good, 5-8F above ambient temp. The case is the classic Antec SX1030 which we all know and love.
 
Only fan i have is from my psu. Don't even bother asking about my temps. They're enough to make most [H] folk run in terror.
 
No intake fans. 1 exhaust fan (80mm Vantec Stealth) and of course the PSU fans. That's it. Nice and quiet.
 
Met-AL said:
Also, if you put dust filters on the intake fans and have all your air entering through them, you can lower the amount of dust entering your system.
Click to expand...
No really? :rolleyes:

Anyways yes its still best to have more sucking out than blowing in, my friend is an idiot and put them in anyway that it fits, and just screws it on without even checking which direction the air is moving. The fan on the side panel is blowing out hot air LOL
 
On the computer im in the middle of building I've got a total of 8 fans. 1 92mm tornado for the CPU, 2 exhaust fans, 1 92mm intake fan, 1 80mm fan for my RAID setup HDD's, 1 80mm fan for my SATA drive, and 2 80mm fans for my antec 550 true power PSU.
 
Configuration:
- Lian Li PC65 Case
- Abit NF7-S Motherboard
- AMD XP 3000 OCed to 2400Mhz with Vcore @ 1.85 and FSB @ 200Mhz
- Swiftech MCW 6000A Water Block
- Swiftech MCP 600 Pump
- 3 1/2" Dual Bay Reservoir
- 1/2" ID Tubing; no elbows in system
- Black Ice Extreme II Dual Radiator; internally top-mounted
- (2) 120mm Evercool Fan @ 79CFM pulling air thru radiator and exhausting out of case
- (2) Rear-mounted 80mm Panaflo Fan @ 40CFM pulling air into case
- (2) Front-mounted 80mm Panaflo Fan @ 40CFM pulling air into case

Idle Temperatures:
Ambient = 21°C
Case = 23°C
CPU = 35°C
CPU Power Dissipation = 100W
C/W = 0.12

Load Temperatures: after (10) loops of Sandra Burn-In
Ambient = 21°C
Case = 24°C
CPU = 38°C
CPU Power Dissipation = 97W
C/W = 0.14

Excluding ambient temperature, all other readings were reported by Sandra.
 
I think you would want negative air pressure in the case. I worked at a restaurant where they were having air problems and some guy came in with a machine and measured the air ducts, etc and said there was not enough negative air pressure inside the building and that was causing problems with the heating and cooling systems there so the owners got the problem fixed a week later. So what I am saying is, I think that negative air pressure inside the case is a good idea. I got one fan pulling air in, and 2 blowing out the back.
 
Right now at idle its 26C in my room, and my MB temp is at 30C, and my temp probe, inside my case says 27.5C cant be right, the probe is towards the bottom. I have 1 Tt Smart fan 2 for intake at the bottom running at 4k rpm, and 2 80mm antec exhaust fans, that came with my fans, Im getting bout equal at intake and exhaust CFM. R these temps good?
 
Yes, negative air pressure works best. If you have more blowing out than in, it will tend to pull the air through everywhere it can and this way it's more likely to cover areas that it normally wouldn't (eg prevent air pockets better.) At least, to a certain extent. Control the air correctly though and it's hard to have any real problems whether it's positive or negative. Especially I think more people should have a fan in the top of the front to compensate for the PSU (though the two fan PSUs are probably ok.)

EDIT: Oh, and those temps are probably ok. Get into the upper 30s and you are in a more dangerous range for HD heat and all though. Worst I ever saw was 27C at my parents' super-hot house where all theirs run at 32 or so, so it's possible to get things better off I guess but, provided you avoid the trouble area, you are probably ok. Probably the worst thing about a hot chasis is the CPU will be hotter too if you have air cooling. Right now my mb temperature is 1 degree above my room temperature which is a nice comfortable 18C. Lol, I love my air conditioner. ^_^
 
Nazo said:
. Get into the upper 30s and you are in a more dangerous range for HD heat and all though. Worst I ever saw was 27C at my parents' super-hot house where all theirs run at 32 or so, so it's possible to get things better off I guess but, provided you avoid the trouble area, you are probably ok. Probably the worst thing about a hot chasis is the CPU will be hotter too if you have air cooling. Right now my mb temperature is 1 degree above my room temperature which is a nice comfortable 18C. Lol, I love my air conditioner. ^_^
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Im gonna call BS on a 18C case temp, u realize since u r in alabama that 18C is 64F. BS, unless u got some air conditioner inside the case. 17C is 62F, so im definitely calling BS, especially in the summer in alabama. Worst i ever saw was 27C at my parents' super-hot house where all theirs run at 32 or so, so it's possible to get things better off I guess but, provided you avoid the trouble area, you are probably ok. Well what was the worst? 27C or 32C? 27C is only bout 80F, hot in a house is bout 28-29+C.
 
i got your common cheftec case it has a sunon fan in the hd cage a sunon fan in the modular harddrive cage i put in it is holding a ibm deathstar 46 gig

i got a 80 mm tonado running on 5 volts
2 80 mm case fans that came with it a 80 mm thirnal take smartfan 2 pumping 75 cfm through a sk-7 on top a 2400+ and 2 fans in a antec true power 430 watt ps


total
7 80mm fans
2 40mm 1 fan in a harddrive rack the other on my GF4 ti-4200-128 meg

the mobo side of my case if not currently on the case and there is ducting forcing the air from my cpu out of the case where the side pannel would be

and checking my cpu with a ir thirmometer it is usialy 90 F

ever since i flashed my boards bios the monitor i have for temps and such was off before the flash my temps read 87f idle and 127f full load now they read 111 idle and 136F Full load
 
92mm Front Intake
2x 80mm Rear Exhaust
80mm Side Intake
80mm PSU fan exhaust

25deg C idle
 
wilson502 said:
Im gonna call BS on a 18C case temp, u realize since u r in alabama that 18C is 64F. BS, unless u got some air conditioner inside the case. 17C is 62F, so im definitely calling BS, especially in the summer in alabama. Worst i ever saw was 27C at my parents' super-hot house where all theirs run at 32 or so, so it's possible to get things better off I guess but, provided you avoid the trouble area, you are probably ok. Well what was the worst? 27C or 32C? 27C is only bout 80F, hot in a house is bout 28-29+C.
Click to expand...

I think I win this one...my comp is set up at a friends house for the summer in an old house with sucky ac, so the room temp is usually about 30C, with idle case temps around 33-35C and cpu at 46C...can't wait to move into my apt with real ac!!!

Oh yea, and try playing cs in a room that fucking hot...
 
30C, ouch thats 86F. Thats really warm. Anything above 80F to me is uncomfortable.
 
one generic 80mm blowing in, front bottom of case...
one generic 80mm blowing out, just behind processor below powersupply on rear of case.

im using an exos so i dont need to cool that much in my case anymore.
 
wilson502 said:
Im gonna call BS on a 18C case temp, u realize since u r in alabama that 18C is 64F. BS, unless u got some air conditioner inside the case. 17C is 62F, so im definitely calling BS, especially in the summer in alabama.
Click to expand...

Uhm, remember how I said I have an air conditioner? Well, I didn't mean a heater... It doesn't have to be INSIDE the case if the AMBIENT temperature is 18C... As I'm typing this, my mb temperature is now down to 15C. I'll bet you're going to love that, huh?

As for my parents' house, I think it's about 79F. That's where they usually keep the AC set to (no matter how many times I say "room temperature" is 73F) and that's what that clock that shows inside temperature says it is. It seems to me that 27C is a pretty good mb temperature for such a house, no?

In this same house, my mother's and sister's PCs tended to start in the area of 32C and work their way up. I noticed that things started getting sweaty in the area around 37 or so, but, it was once it hit about 40 that troubles started (my mother lost about a day's work due to her pc crashing after the temperature alarm went off and she ignored it.) The thing is, if it's really the HD that's the weaker point here, then the danger zone varies depending on how the HD is made as well as if it has a heatsink or not.
 
15C? My ass, that reading is probably inaccurate, theres no way ur mobo is at 59F! im sorry an ordinary air conditoner in the summer in alabama aint gonnna cool ur house down that much, sorry its impossible, its probably inaccurate reading. Even with a window unit u would be lucky to get 70F, much less 59F. I think u need a digital thermoeter in ur room to show the actual temperature.
 
wilson502 said:
15C? My ass, that reading is probably inaccurate, theres no way ur mobo is at 59F! im sorry an ordinary air conditoner in the summer in alabama aint gonnna cool ur house down that much, sorry its impossible, its probably inaccurate reading. Even with a window unit u would be lucky to get 70F, much less 59F. I think u need a digital thermoeter in ur room to show the actual temperature.
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odd my central air has dropped the temp of my apartment to 55 before it froze up
 
While it may not be super-accurate, my "atomic clock" (time set by radio) has a reading of the current room temperature (digitized I might add,) and it always says pretty close to one degree less than whatever the temperature reader on my mb says. Plus a little button that switches between Fahrenheit and Celsius, so I don't have to have the inconvenience of doing the math myself. d-:

Really, is it so unreasonable to believe that a very well cooled case could stay only a bit above ambient temperature? I mean, I've worked on this thing for years, and believe me, between all the cut places, black tape, and so on, it sure looks ugly enough for anyone to tell that it has been modded like crazy.

I first started doing that back when I had some cheap crappy ram. If my chasis hit the high 30s, the ram would cause the PC to crash. Of course, I didn't know it was the ram at first, back then I just didn't know what caused it other than that things were too hot. So I started putting fans here and there, trying this and that, and even bought that $20 waste of money 4" radioshack fan, got my dad's jigsaw with a metal cutting peice and cut the heck out of my case to make room for it on the side. More recently, I've moved the fan up to about where the CPU is and my CPU temperature rarely hits the upper 40s. Then again, I still only have it at just under 2.4GHz, and I know it can easily do 2.5, maybe even 2.6 if it's a good make with even air cooling.

Basically, the idea is to simply control the air flow over the most important areas. And, probably especially that turbine fan at the bottom is helping keep the air flow more or less regular across the board and cards. The big fan on the side blows enough air even though I run it at a mere 5V (it's a 12V fan, but it sounds like a tornado at 7V) but it still puts out enough air to cover a large area, then the other fans move that air around appropriately. While not perfect, this setup seems to work pretty darned well.

Basically, if you want to get it more or less exactly right, be prepared for a lot of trial and error. I'm not kidding when I talk about how ugly this case looks. Heck, I didn't even match the colors when I bought my DVD+/-RW drive, so I have black slots on the front. And the front fan I put up there is in two slot covers with a huge hole cut out and a bunch of other holes around. Not to mention I cut a hole out of the front bottom so I could get the air actually flowing into that bottom fan (crappy case expected the air to come in from below. Guess you'd have to have it at the edge of your desk if you expected any real air flow from that.) Of course, with a clear colored case like that, holes probably won't hurt the looks of it. I have a cheap normal case with metal sides and everything.

EDIT: Oh, and I'm in a small room with my own personal AC and doors and windows shut. It takes a while to get there, but, it can go further down than just 15 even.
 
55F? The only way u can get it that cold if its only like 60-70F outside or less. It aint gonna happen if its 90+ and humidity is high. Besides most thermostats only go down to 60F, most of the time if u set it at that temperature u freeze the unit up, if u somehow get that unit to that temp. Nazo, ur gonna freeze the unit up, because it runs so much.
 
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