"new" Pc - Where To Place The Case Fans

[WeaponX 0]

I have built a new computer over a month ago and have been using it already. I just want to know the best place to put the fans and which direction they should be blowing (in or out). Right now, I have a case where I can mount a fan on the front and back (both 120mm ones) and one on the side (80mm fan) pointing right towards another HUGE CPU fan (Dual Core ).I'm not sure how much ventilation I will get from mounting a 120mm fan on the front because I don't see any holes in the front of the case for it to have air in-take. So I didn't mount one there yet The back fan is taking the air out from the insides and the side fan is taking air in. I have a hard drive cooler mounted to the hard drive (two 60mm fans) and also a video card with a fan. Both of these have air blowing towards the bottom area, while my side fan is blowing near the middle/top area. My concern is with the bottom area "overheating". Is this something I should worry about? The back fan is sucking the air from where the side and CPU fans are from. There are no fans near the bottom (except maybe for the front side one).I also see that the power supply fan is sucking the hot air out as well, but not as quickly. Is it sufficient enough just for the power supply to take the hot air out so I can take out the 120mm fan? The noise level is getting pretty high over here, but I don't want to risk overheating any of the parts inside :)Thanks.

[faulty.lee 0]

There's actually a place to mount the fan in front, at the bottom of the face plate usually. The air intake there isn't that obvious.

You can always monitor the temperature before deciding to add more fan or not. That way, at least you'll know if the added fan does help to cool down the components in your casing. If the fan's placement is not done properly, it might not help at all.

Try speedfan http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php, it can monitor the temperature of your harddisk, cpu, motherboard and fan speed as well. You can turn the chart, so to see the temperature trend. To achieve a consistent result, you can try to stress your cpu to 100% for a longer period, that way, you're sure that when you do so, your fan can really take care of the temperature. Try running 3DMark, Burn-in-test, prime95 or what ever software that can keep the cpu busy.

Good luck

[wutske 0]

front fan: inputrear fan: outputtop fan: output (hot air rises and blowing it down again would be stupid).Then you can choose, more input than output (high pressure, pushes air outside the case throug every hole), more output than input (low pressure, puls air in the case through every hole) or equal pressure (just rely on fans). I can't tell you wich is best, it realy depends on your case .

[xboxrulz1405241485 0]

It would be hilarious if you plugged ur fan backwards. In seriousness, the back fan must blow outward.xboxrulz

[HellFire121 0]

Yep, simplest example i can think of at the moment is with 3 fans, you have one at the front, bottom blowing in. Another at the front but at the top blowing in and one at the rear top blowing out.Here is a high preasure system that works on cooling the whole length of the case. Cool air flows in from the low level and at the top, cool air falls so it would fall down past components, gain heat and rises to be blown out at the top fan.There are other ways to do this but this is the setup i've seen people use and it has been used effectively.-HellFire

[Grafitti 0]

It is actually a problem with some cheaper cases, that they don't have any airflow intake in the front. Then no matter what the size, a front fan is useless. I had one of those cases that came with my computer, and i had to go out and pick up another case that had proper ventilation, as there was no airflow in the computer.

[WeaponX 0]

Yep, that's the problem I think I will be facing with the front fan. It looks kind of cramped in the front area even though there is a slot available to fit it in.I don't have any top ventilation for the case. The closes one on top is the power supply fan sucking the hot air out. Then it's the rear fan taking the air out.I'll give Speedfan a try and see if there are any changes after I put in the new fan.Thanks.

[JonnyAlpha 0]

Yep, that's the problem I think I will be facing with the front fan. It looks kind of cramped in the front area even though there is a slot available to fit it in.
I don't have any top ventilation for the case. The closes one on top is the power supply fan sucking the hot air out. Then it's the rear fan taking the air out.

I'll give Speedfan a try and see if there are any changes after I put in the new fan.

Thanks.

People seem to get really hung up on the whole Fan & Cooling saga (Me included) firstly you need to look at all the factors:

1. How cramped or untidy is my case? an overcrowded case will require additional cooling, ensure all cables are tidied away to prevent restricting the internal airflow.
2. Am I overclocking? an overcloked system will require additional cooling.
3. Am I using a stock CPU cooling fan. Most stock coolers are more than adequate but you can increase the efficiency by using say a Zalman cooler.
4. Do I need additional cooling? - As suggested above download and install speedfan to see how hot your system is running at, do a search on google for recommended temps for your own system components.

A while ago I found a very good article on the AMD web site re cooling requirements, basically the nor is to suck air into the case from the lower part of the front case and blow it out at the rear either with an additional rear fan or simply relying on the PSU but only if you have a dual fan PSU the type that suck in from underneath above the CPU as well.
I have also seen some articles on reversing the CPU fan??

So in summary the best solution without changing your case would be:

If you can`t fit a fan at the front you will have to rely on the side fan to suck air into the case (Make sure it is the correct way around). If not definately get the fan in at the front positioned to suck air into the case.
The Air flow will go in the case at the side or the front bottom (Or both) over the CPU into the bottom of the PSU and out at the rear of the PSU.
Ensure a smooth air flow in the case by tidying up cables that are in the way.
Run Speedfan to check the temps and determine if there is a cooling problem.

The above setup shoul be fine however if you are still running hot you may have to consider a new CPU cooler or a new case but unless you are seriously creating some heat by overclocking and maxing out your CPU and Graphics Card I don`t think this will be an issue.

Hope my two penneth worth helped out.

[develCuy 0]

Some years ago, I nude my case yes!! but looks terrible, many cables like spaghetti and new cleaning demands. The solution was to get another case and install new fans for hard disc, video card, front, processor, one pci fan (given by a friend)... Sometimes is hard to find to the perfect combination....After read this topic, I have installed and tested xmbmon and xsensors (I prefer lightweight software). As normal user, xmbmon finish with this error: seteuid: Operation not permitted.xsensors displays absolutely nothing: a thin window 5x40px (incredible!)Does it means that I haven't temperature sensors in my Motherboard?I will be trying a little more....Blessings!

[jtmcpherson 0]

don't put two fans facing eathother. i would put one on"-the top of the case.-the back of the case-on the gpu-on the cpu-on the side with the window.so overall maybe # of fans:-2 on the top-1 on the side-1 on the cpu-1 on the gpu

[xboxrulz1405241485 0]

You don't have to have a fan on the side. I don't even have one myself.The ones on CPU/GPU are provided by your manufacturer.xboxrulz

[WeaponX 0]

Should I just remove the side fan and put the funnel back in then? LOL. The CPU fan is huge itself but I want to make sure it takes in sufficient cool air.

As of now, I have just two case fans really. One on the side (that blows directly on the CPU fan) and one on the back (sucking the air out). The graphic card has it's own fan and the power supply is also sucking hot air out (however little it helps out ). I will try putting one on the bottom front then to see if it helps out. As of now, it's whirling and twirling....too many fans LOL.

I have a quick question on fan filters. I couldn't believe how complicated it was to install these (first time I'm doing this). I bought one of those fan filters where they have two plastic pieces that snap into the filter (see this image on what it looks like). There's one side that's bigger to "lock" the smaller piece (with four holes for the screws). The foam/filter is in the center. My question is how the heck do I mount this to my current fan? It's already collecting dust inside my new computer and I want to get this installed as soon as I can.

[xboxrulz1405241485 0]

What's your hardware specifications? In it will tell us more about the power consumption, heat dissipation and etc. about your machine.Maybe you don't really need all this cooling. Especially in New York where you are.xboxrulz

[jtmcpherson 0]

you want to plan it out and i say yes to the side fan because it looks really cool seeing it in the window....

[ethergeek 0]

front fan: inputrear fan: output

top fan: output (hot air rises and blowing it down again would be stupid).

Then you can choose, more input than output (high pressure, pushes air outside the case throug every hole), more output than input (low pressure, puls air in the case through every hole) or equal pressure (just rely on fans). I can't tell you wich is best, it realy depends on your case .

Careful with this...the top fan should NOT be a high CFM fan if it's right behind the power supply, otherwise you create a vacuum at the power supply's intake and it doesn't cool properly. This only applies to power supplies where there is a fan in the back and the front of it; for flow-through cooling. If you *must* use a high-cfm fan there, add a baffle (a tube will suffice) to drop the intake of the top fan below the intake of the power supply.