I was considering buying some fans for my computer until I took a peak inside the bezel/front panel and noticed that there were no intake fan mounts! In the back, there are 2 80mm fan mounts, which I currently have unoccupied. Can somebody answer these for me?
1.) How do I increase air intake, if possible?
2.) Having 2 80mm fans in the back but no intake fans, would that help reduce temps?
3.) Would something like this help cool my graphics card IF I still had the stock cooler on, or would it only be effective if I had an exposed core?
If you have a spare 5.25 " external bay, you can buy several types of fans that will fit in that space and provide an intake.
I used to use one that had three small fans. They ran at about 2,500 rpm, so they weren't too loud. The three together were supposed to be about equal to a single 80mm fan.
The device was marketed primarily as a hard drive cooler. It was designed with a slim fit so that you could mount the hard drive in the 5 1/4-inch bay, behind the fan mount, so that the hard drive benefited from being in a positive air flow zone.
I no longer use it because I bought a better case, with a 120mm intake fan and a 120 mm exhaust. I now have my hard drives mounted behind that intake fan and filter.
I bought mine at CompUSA but you can order something similar online:
Also I respectfully disagree about the slot fan he had the link to.
The Antec Vcool Expansion Slot VGA Card Cooler works the opposite of most of these type of fans.
Most are designed as outtake fans, pulling the air out of the case from the area around the video card.
This particular unit is an INTAKE fan, sucking air from the outside at the bottom rear of the case and BLOWING it onto the video card graphics processor.
So, yeah, that would help cool the card, potentially.
That's the problem, I don't know what kind of case I have. It was a cheap $30 case from Fry's. It's black and silver two-tone, made mostly of steel, front is made out of plastic. I'll post a pic up tomorrow.
Also, for the 5.25 drive coolers like that Spire one, how come most of those kind say it's for Hard Drives/CD Drives? Waht if I just mount it on a spare 5.25 drive bay and having nothing behind it? Is that it's intended use or what?
I've never seen any intake fans that would fit in the 3.25" drive bays, and I don't think you'd want them if they made them -- that would be some really small fans!
The smartass answer to your original question would be to say "buy a better case." But if you're like me, you're not in a position to haphazardly spend $80 to $150 if you don't absolutely have to.
Another solution would be to add a "blowhole" to your case. This is a case mod in which you add a large fan to the front panel of a case that was not designed with an intake fan on the front.
You might have an AOpen H600 case like i have. (Look at the PSU)
Thing is that intake fans does not help airflow really, unless they blow directly at the HD, they doesent really matter.
Best is just to have 2 80 mm fans in the rear just as the case was designed. That works great for me. Cools the HD too because the airflow goes from front to rear.
Nope, it's not it. When I got my computer it had a MaxPower 350W PSU in it. I don't know if it came with the case or not since I didn't build it. But anyways, I 've replaced the PSU now.
Crashman, you are pretty much dead on target. However, optimum cooling is achieved by having both intake and exhaust fans. As one poster mentioned earlier, negative case pressure is very important. Basically, if you install both intake and exhaust fans in your computer, you need to make sure that the amount of air being pushed in does not exceed the amount being pulled out. Otherwise you create a nifty vortex effect directly over the processor area which simply swirls ever warming air. Obviously a bad thing. The easiest way to determine this is when you buy the fans for the case, look at their CFM (Cubic Feet per Minute) rating. Simply add the ratings together for exhaust and compare it against the rating for intake. The intake should be equal ideally to less, but never more. Usually this is easy to achieve by simply buying identical fans and installing them in equal numbers. The airflow of your PSU fan will tip the scale in favour of exhaust anyway. Keep in mind that the effect you are trying to achieve is a constant and SMOOTH flow of air through your case to move the warmed air coming off your HSF for your CPU and from your video card, the two major heat producers, as you are already well aware. Maximizing your airflow in the afformentioned manner will keep ambient case temperatures down which will allow your CPU HSF and video cooling solution to operate to their fullest potential. Good way to check how you are doing with this is not just CPU temp readings but also case temp, or what is also known as motherboard temp, readings. There are various programs available to give you this information or you can simply go into your BIOS. Most will list a CPU temp and a Case/Motherboard temp. While not foolproof due to placement of the sensor in relative position to other componants, it can give you an idea of how your general case cooling is doing. Ideally you want your ambiant case temperature to be as close to the room temperature of the room you computer is in as that will ensure that if any CPU and video overheating occurs, the problem is then with the cooling solutions for those items and not your case air flow. This is provided your room temperature isn't remmanescent of the Sahara. One last thing to consider is cable management. Try to keep your cables in your case kept as much out of the path of the flow of air as possible by either rerouting them or tying them up and out of the way. If you are using IDE drives, such as opticals or the pre-SATA HDs, you might consider investing in round cables that can in turn be move to the sides of the case. I thought THG had an extensive article on this topic and the benifits of various fan configs but I've not been able to find it. Perhaps someone else will have better luck. I hope that at least some of this was helpful.
You are about to answer a thread that has been inactive for more than 6 months. If you still wish to proceed, please ensure that your posting is original and does not duplicate or overlap any prior responses to this thread.