How much airflow do you need in a mid-tower case?

[Vince604]

I have a coolermaster ATC-110 which is a midtower case. It consists of two intake fans and one exhaust and a blowhole.

I'm thinking of maybe changing the fans that came with the case to even quieter fans and am wondering what's the recommended amount of air (CFM) should the fans be blowing in and out?

 

[AndrewT]

no clue in cfm, but it doesn't have to be major. I run my fans (2x80, 2x120, 80+90mm in silent Enermax 550W PSU) on 5-7 volts and the case got so silent that the hard drive's whining getting on my nerves while the system running silent and cool. Using a 40 Gig 5400Rpm drive right now so there is no whine, 7200 sitting unplugged but silent.

<font color=red>Got a silent setup, now I can hear myself thinking.... great silence</font color=red>

 

[Vince604]

Hmm okay then I see. Your system has never overheated?

 

[AndrewT]

no never, it shouldn't do that the first place, or there is a problem.

now running it oc to 2.3GHz and still running just above 40C while playing. when I manage to flash the bios I'll how it does at higher speed, using stock heatsink/fan.

<font color=red>Got a silent setup, now I can hear myself thinking.... great silence</font color=red>

 

[Vince604]

Really?

Well if I'm not using any fans except one exhaust, cpu, and psu fan my computer can overheat.

Using the stock fan/heatsink and oc 1.6 to 1.8 GHz and after awhile playing a game it will crash.. when I check the cpu temp it's at 45C-48C and I'm assuming when it hit 50C it crashed...

 

[AndrewT]

strange, but maybe the location of my fans make a diff
I don't use the 2 front fans places, cut the side of the case instead since there was not much space in the front for air to come in the first place.

I got some pictures <A HREF="http://andrewt1.tripod.ca" target="_new">here</A> if you want to see, it's the black nikao noblesse case

<font color=red>Got a silent setup, now I can hear myself thinking.... great silence</font color=red>

 

[Vince604]

maybe..
not sure.. But I'm trying to figure how much airflow from intake and exhaust fans you need as a minimum..

yeah I don't have any side fans unlike your case and don't realy want to put holes on the case I have..

 

[btvillarin]

Well, IMO, any airflow is better than none. I don't even have room for an intake anymore, especially since the cheap cage broke off.

I have one exhaust and an Enermax Whisper 431W PSU. That exhaust is a 80mm Panaflow, rated at 21dba and 24cfm, and it was cheap, too! Also, I got another and retrofitted it to my heatsink. So, my system is very quiet.

It's pretty hot in here, yet I haven't had any stability issues. My uptime: 9 days and counting. I even play CS for hours at a time, without a hitch.

Bryan
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[cakecake]

Once you're done installing whatever new CPU cooler you get, use a temperature monitoring program and start reducing fan speed while checking the temperature increases. You can do this while the computer is running.

Tweak it and test it and you will discover the lowest possible noise while still keeping the minimum amount of cooling. Your case is rather large, however, so I would imagine you wouldn't want to turn down your fans that much as they are indebted to move a lot of air to move around.

This little cathode light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine!