X-Qpack Fan In or Out?

J

Jelic

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jul 29, 2005
Messages
161
Hey, I've been thinking lately. Stock, the fan with the Aspire X-Qpack blows out, but I've replaced that fan with a really loud 96cfm 120mm fan... anyway, with the fan blowing out it creates a negative pressure inside the case and dust collects pretty quickly, also I have a Zalman 7000ALCU, which blows air down onto the chipset, would it be better to reverse the 120mm fan and have it blow air into the case instead of sucking air out? I think that the Zalman and the fan may be fighting for airflow right now, but I've also removed two PCI cover plates from the back so that it sucks air in that way and that has helped temps a bit. Anyway, has anyone tried reverseing the fan and observing temps before? If the fan blows air in, it'll create a high pressure zone inside the case and the hot air will (hopefully) be forced out thanks to the pressure difference, also this would prevent dust from collecting very quickly inside the case as well. Any ideas on this or am I crazy?

UPDATE: See bottom of thread for my conclusions - In short, having the fan blow OUT is best for temperatures...
 
I swapped my fan from exhaust to intake and saw a temp. decrease of about 10c on my harddrive, and ~3c on my CPU. It might be alittle more dusty, but I think its worth it for better temps.
 
wouldnt sticking a filter or some sort over the back fan which is now intake help w/ dust?
 
I think positive pressure cooling is the way to go, using the 120 as an intake and your psu and graphics (if you have a two slot cooling solution) as the exhaust
 
Do you think I would get the same results if I were to switch my radiator's exhaust to intake? (air from outside cooling cpu x gpu VS higher ambient temperatures)
 
see what happens, I would expect that since the cool air is now being drawn in over the warm radiator temps might drop a bit, but not much. Remember you still have the PSU sucking air out of the case, unless thats fanless too. But I could be wrong, I don't think you could fry your system though turing your fan around to test out your hypothesis.
 
Nice idea with reversing the rear fan. That was something I considered when thinking about design changes (easy quick way to get cool air in). Certainly, if I was to build a Qpack tomorrow I'd reverse the fan and stick a filter on the back.

Just to mention, the pressure might not be as positive as might seem because you'll have the PSU exhausting and possiblly your GPU depending on which one it is or if you're using aftermarket cooling like Artic Cooling.
 
I was thinking about modding the PSU to make it blow air on the gfx card. Having the PSU blowing hot air out right next to the 120mm is practically recycling hot air.
 
I was thinking about doing this as well (reversing the 120mm fan that is). With the 120mm fan, the PSU, and an Artic Cooling unit on my 9800 all exhausting air, it seems to me that the CPU cooler can't possibly be getting enough. I was thinking that just undervolting the 120m fan might take care of it, but i wonder if the AC and PSU might be exhausting enough by themselves. Hmm.

What this thing really needs is a side panel (or top panel) intake, with a duct to the CPU fan. That'll have to wait until i feel like messing up the nice clean windows though. =P
 
diasper said:
Nice idea with reversing the rear fan. That was something I considered when thinking about design changes (easy quick way to get cool air in). Certainly, if I was to build a Qpack tomorrow I'd reverse the fan and stick a filter on the back.

Just to mention, the pressure might not be as positive as might seem because you'll have the PSU exhausting and possiblly your GPU depending on which one it is or if you're using aftermarket cooling like Artic Cooling.
Click to expand...

lol thats why I didn't think the front intake vents were such a necessary design cange. I'm exploring the possibility of buying a windowless case and then adding 2 screened blow holes on both sides of the case. No fans on these holes, its just to allow air to move about the case, although I don't know what it'll do to noise leakage...
 
I reversed my fan, now it blows directly over the fan for my xp-120. Solved some of my overheating problems. Before I got the case, I had my computer running on my desk and managed to overclock to 2.7ghz prime stable for 24 hours. After I put everything in the case prime would fail after 5 to 10 minutes with temps approaching 60c. After reversing the case fan everything is stable again and tempatures are in the low 50's c.
 
archevilangel said:
I reversed my fan, now it blows directly over the fan for my xp-120. Solved some of my overheating problems. Before I got the case, I had my computer running on my desk and managed to overclock to 2.7ghz prime stable for 24 hours. After I put everything in the case prime would fail after 5 to 10 minutes with temps approaching 60c. After reversing the case fan everything is stable again and tempatures are in the low 50's c.
Click to expand...

Try running without the i/o plate,that should give the pressure somewhere to escape+
help cool the voltage regulator section of the mobo.

On mine I have the rear fan blowing out(less noise) and the cpu fan drawing air up
thru the xp 90 with no I/o plate(fresh air is drawn in right at the base of the xp90)
 
Wow, I just did this and I noticed that my case is A LOT quieter. I have a 90cfm 120mm fan on it right now, and when it was blowing air out it sounded like a mini tornado, after reversing it it sounds atleast 5x quieter. It's audible, but barely, which I find to be absolutely amazing. The temps in all honesty aren't anything particularly special. I'm not positive if they've gone up or down very much, but I must admit this noise reduction really has been great...
 
i went ahead and tried to reverse my fan but ended up blowing up a capacitor on my fan controller. Pop. Fizz. Smell of burnt solder. Don't know what happened or why but ended up removing both the controller and the fan to replace it with the stock chenming one. I'll try flipping the fan again after i replace my controller and fan.
 
how the hell does flipping ur fan burn ur fan controller?! dont you just unscrew it, turn it around, and screw it back in, or were you reversing the power?
 
i think my fan controller was going bad even if it was only 3 months old. The ccl has been flickering when it was at full on. I think it all went to hell when i tugged on it a little bit.
 
vantec nexus 3.5" that comes with the cathodes connected to a thermaltake smartfan. It qas totally weird too. As soon as I flipped the fan it ran for about a minute and would then stop. Tried it on the 2nd channel and after a minute it stopped. Then i tried it on the third channel... after about 30 seconds i heard the pop and smelled the funk. Not a capacitor or a resistor but a small rectangle thing with 3 leads.
 
Jelic said:
Holy shit, what kind of cheap fan controller did you have?
Click to expand...

In my experience, and from what i've read, fan controllers are nasty little defect-ridden products. Even name brand ones. I now try to stay away from them, but i would try one from a merchant that offers haggle-free returns.

I'm guessing most are built with cheap parts, and shoddily assembled.
 
Mmmm after watching my temperatures for a while I have found that the temps are HIGHER when the fan is used as an intake. As much as 3-5 degrees C sometimes... sighz =/ I'm leaving it as outtake for now and buying a fan controller for it... I think that's the best option. So for all future concerns having the fan blowing OUT is best...
 
did you make sure theres something blocking in between the psu and the fan outside of ur case? cuz otherwise the fan is probably sucking warm air right back into the case when its expelled by the psu.
 
Yep, and room temperatures were pretty cool as well... =/ It's a dissapointment sighz
 
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