Intake/Exaust

[Mith]

Hey all. In my case I have 4 fans in all and i was wondering which ones should be intake, and which ones should be exaust. There will be one 120mm in the back 2x80mm in the front and 1 80mm in the side pannel. One of the 80mm in the front is infront of the hard drive, and the other is at the bottom. Thanks for all of yalls help.

Mith

 

[Boozer]

front and side should be intake, and the back should be exhaust

 

[Mith]

so the 2 in the front sucking in, and the 120 in the back and the 80 in the door blowing out?

 

[scott77]

The one in the door was probably designed to cool your GPU or CPU....so it should blow air IN

 

[tsuehpsyde]

General rule of thumb:

Front of case and side of case = intake
Back of case and top of case = exhaust

 

[dripgoss]

I would agree with above except on the side fan.

My A64 System one in my sig actually drops 2°C ambient, 5°C GPU (via RivaTuner) and 3°C CPU (via diode) when I use my side case fan as exhaust instead of intake. As a rule of thumb lately, I've doing from 1:2 to 3:4 ratio on intake:exhaust and that seems to make for better convection for some reason. This system has 1 120mm intake in the fron, 1 80mm exhaust on the side and 2 80mm exhaust in back (and 2 80mm in PSU) as well as a passive vent at the top.

However, system 2 below in sig has a passive CPU duct (which uses the CPU fan to suck air in), 1 120mm intake in back and 1 120mm exhaust in back and I get some pretty great temps even on my OC'ed presscott core Deleron. This is an aluminum case too BTW..

I think convection and experimentation are key and everyone's system will react differently to fan setups.

 

[tsuehpsyde]

Hmm, I might switch my side fan, just for shits and see what I get I'll report back if I do.

 

[kellog]

I've always noticed the biggest improvments in heat when the fans nearest to the cpu/gpu are set to exhaust.