Side Case Fan - In or Out?

[sammy5gs]

Alright yall. I am building a rig for a friend, and he has this old ass Powermax case that has two intake case in the front of the case, blowing cool air to the mobo, and one exhaust fan in the back of the case. Now, the PSU I am putting in will have an exhaust fan as well, but he also has a side panel with which to put a fan in. What should this fan be doing (exhaust or intake)? I was thinking intake, but that would be make three case fans blowing in, with one case fan and one PSU fan blowing out?

What you guys think on this side panel fan?

 

[toenexx]

intake

 

[t5brick]

it depends on the fan on the CPU HSF. if it's blowing on the HSF, make the side fan an intake. if it's sucking away from the HSF, make the side fan an exaust.

or, try both and see which gives the best temps.

 

[advanced101101]

Dont CPU fans usually blow on the processor? Ive never seen one that blew away, what are the temp differences?

 

[Ice Czar]

most blow but a few suck (in the past at least) and it depends on the heatsink design


a short direct duct from a side fan to the heatsink fan (that blows) is generally good for a 5C decrease
depends on the temperature gradient already in the case vs the external ambient

 

[Carnival Forces]

read the airflowtweak at www.tweak3d.net if you want a link (i don't have it handy) it's on the Sticky Unofficial Official Tweak Guide at the top of the G[H] forum.

gl

 

[Giturar]

i have a raidmax case and it has 2 fans on teh side bottem, i turned them around to pull in so the 120 on top sucks the cold air across the board and out the top

 

[Keith130]

I have my top (120mm) and side (80mm) as intakes and two fans (80mm) at the back on exhaust. My PSU also has two fans (80mm) and the one on the bottom sucks air up away from the proc to it keeps more air moving over the HS.