Cooling: case front grill/fan and hard drive placement question

je1983

Distinguished
Jul 17, 2016
135
0
18,680
I'm choosing between two cases. One, a silverstone ps12 has a large front grill while the other, Coolermaster 344 has small vents around the front sides and bottom. Both have 120mm fans at the front that suck in air, I'm not sure if one front grill/vent design is more efficient than the other. Many new pc's these days seem to have smaller front vents rather than larger ones.


Both these cases have a hard drive cage that holds 4hdd's. The Silverstone drives are all bunched up against each other while the Cooler Master hdd cage allows some separation, maybe half a cm between each hdd. I don't know if this makes much of a difference, it would seem to me the space between the hard drives that generate heat would be better for general airflow and breathability for each individial drive.



Here are some sample images of the silverstone, one of the pictures shows the hard drives practically bunched up next to each other:
http://www.eteknix.com/silverstone-announces-precision-series-ps12-micro-atx-chassis/

And the Cooler Master:
http://www.boards.ie/b/thread/2055334204/132
You can see the hard drives have some space between them.


 
Solution
I very much like the Silverstone M-ATX cases.
IN particular, the TJ-08E and PS-07 cases.
The front intakes are filtered so your parts will stay cleaner.

Two 120mm intake fans or better will be sufficient for any cpu and a hot single graphics card.

Today, I do not worry much about hard drives.
Any new build should have a ssd for windows.
Then, if you need bulk storage you can install a Hard drive of very large capacity.
In general, a hard drive does not need much cooling. It is not an issue I would worry about.
I very much like the Silverstone M-ATX cases.
IN particular, the TJ-08E and PS-07 cases.
The front intakes are filtered so your parts will stay cleaner.

Two 120mm intake fans or better will be sufficient for any cpu and a hot single graphics card.

Today, I do not worry much about hard drives.
Any new build should have a ssd for windows.
Then, if you need bulk storage you can install a Hard drive of very large capacity.
In general, a hard drive does not need much cooling. It is not an issue I would worry about.
 
Solution