How many case fans are enough?

[Jackpine]

I am wondering how many case fans I should use. I have a Cooler Master 5 CAC-T05 case that comes with an 80mm intake fan and a 120mm exhaust fan. So, other than the CPU, PSU, and graphics card fans, that is it. Is that enough?

I have two burners installed, as well as an 80GB boot drive and 2x250GB data drives (RAID 0 configured). If I need to install another fan, what size, where is it installed, and where does the power come from?

 

[Pain]

How many fans are enough? As many as it takes to cool the machine.

I would just see how the temps are with what you have now and go from there.

 

[vulefu]

More fans better.

Sometims they come with molex (4 pin) connector(that is white one that you plug in cdrom)

Sometimes they come with 3 pin connector like one you get on CPU fun then you connect it to the board(small one).

If it is a first case then you just connect him to the free molex connector.

In case two you have some connector on board(System fan etc.), but you can connect them on something of those(better option):
http://www.zalman.co.kr/eng/product/view.asp?idx=72&code=

The yellow and balck is 12V, black and red 5V.

 

[doolittle]

I have that case and the two fans are more than enough for the 3700 / bfg6800gt / 2hdds / 2dvd and with the 120mm PS fan and CM hyper48 cooler it is extremely quiet and very cool - well the VGA heatsink is audible and borderline annoying.

If you needed more cooling, it would not be impossible to mod the side panel by adding an 80mm fan in the lower vent, and maybe removing the cpu funnel and putting an 80mm there as well.

Another spot would be the lower 5 1/4" bays, you can probably knock out the metal panels and fit a 120mm there as well to improve front/back airflow.

Depending on what kind of fans you get, you can either connect them directly to the power supply or maybe get the 3-pin with speed sensor and get a fan controller to keep things quiet, like this VANTEC NXP-205-BK would fit in the floppy bay, not a bad for $25.

 

[vulefu]

doolittle wrote:

If you needed more cooling, it would not be impossible to mod the side panel by adding an 80mm fan in the lower vent, and maybe removing the cpu funnel and putting an 80mm there as well.

I did the same thing with mine.

 

[perz]

i WOULD BUY A artic cooling vga silencer , a lot quieter and exspells the hot gpu-air out of the case.
Besides your vgafan will soon fail, they all do, and maybe frie your card.

that should be enough, you might even remove the front fan if the hdd doenest go up in temp.

 

[chuckshissle]

Yep I agree the more the better. Here's my example:

Let's say we used the same exact fan with specs (2000rpm/30dB/40cfm).

Case with 3 fans = 2000rpm each/30dB/120cfm

Case with 6 fans = 1000rpm each/15dB/120cfm

They produce about the same airflow (120cfm) but with 6 fans they don't have to work harder to do so, so with lower rpm means lower noise. I got 7 fans in my case (Thermaltake Kandalf) and they are much better than the 4 fan stock set up. I got more air flow, lower temps and lower noise as well.

It also depends on what kind of fan do you use. Get the ones with low noise and high air flow brands like Silverstone fans for example.

 

[Rugger]

In a Chicken Little frenzy, Perz said:

Besides your vgafan will soon fail, they all do, and maybe frie your
card.

:/ Any fan may fail and cause an overheating situation, but it would not instantaneously fry components. If he wants quiet, efficient cooling, then there are some really good options like the Arctic Cooling Silencer series (ATi and nVidia) or the Zalman 700/900 series VGA coolers. That being said...the sky isn't falling and he shouldn't change his VGA cooler because his fans are in imminent danger of failure.

Pain hit the nail on the head when he said:

How many fans are enough? As many as it takes to cool the machine. I would just see how the temps are with what you have now and go from there.

Jack: Just monitor your temps and if they aren't too high, then don't add fans - and their noise - to your rig.

 

[Jackpine]

Thanks to all for the advice, especially Pain and Rugger:

Just monitor your temps and if they aren't too high, then don't add fans - and their noise - to your rig.

If I do need to add fans in the future, I will have to figure out where to mount one/them. My case does not appear to have an spare threaded holes that could be used to secure a fan.

 

[Rugger]

:twisted: Easily solved with a dremel.

Right now I only have 4 fans in my entire system: PSU fan, CPU HSF, GPU HSF and one 120mm exhaust fan. My system is very quiet and cool even though I'm running a constant 15% OC on the CPU and a decent OC on the GPU.

 

[jaguarskx]

I am wondering how many case fans I should use. I have a Cooler Master 5 CAC-T05 case that comes with an 80mm intake fan and a 120mm exhaust fan. So, other than the CPU, PSU, and graphics card fans, that is it. Is that enough?

Put in as many as you want before it gets too loud for you. I prefer to uses as few quiet fans as possible.

 

[oldsaw]

That Cooler Master case has a grid of holes on its side that's the perfect size for a 120mm fan and a respectable air filter which are really easy to rig. Here's what you need: 1) a fan, 2) a "Coolmax Fan Filter" (or substitute) which is really more of a fine mesh screen than a filter, 3) some "3M Dual Lock" (a pseudo velcro) from Radio Shack, and 4) a "3M Scotch-Brite" scouring pad from the grocery store. Here's what you do: Screw the aluminum fan filter onto the intake side of the fan and then affix that assembly to the inside of your computer case (to blow in) with two narrow strips (3" x 0.25") of the pseudo velcro, being sure to allow its sticky-back adhesive a full three days to cure. The thickness of the pseudo velcro mounting will allow enough space for you to slide in a trimmed piece of the scouring pad which will serve as a permanent (and certainly washable) air filter. I've got three of those jack-leg filters on my Cooler Master, and they work great. (No, I'm not a 3M fan boy.)

 

[perz]

Well there are a few things to think about, that blabbermouths like Rugger dont think of.
There is EMI, RFI that are the reason you have small openings in a case!

Also, I dont trust ANY of the silly fans on graphics cards anymore....they are buit to fail so you have to buy a new card!
And unlike a CPU the GPU burns easily!

 

[Rugger]

There is EMI, RFI that are the reason you have small openings in a case!

What does that have to do with the amount of fans one should have in a case? I think what you are trying to say is that electrical/electronic components emits levels of RFI/EMI. Mfrs typically encase components in metal in order to minimize these emissions - that is why case opening are typically small. If that is what you were trying to say, then what is your fear of the emissions? Being reported to the FCC because your case fans are interfering with commercial or govenment frequencies? Afraid of the health effect of fan emissions on the individual?

Also, I dont trust ANY of the silly fans on graphics cards anymore....they are buit to fail so you have to buy a new card!

So all video card mfrs are purposely making video cards with fans that they know will fail in XX months...and their reasoning is to make you buy some more of their products after their components fail. That makes perfect sense. I know that if I bought a mfr's product that failed on me and that they wouldn't replace the product under warraty that I would immediately buy more of their products. :roll:

1. You should really keep track of the post in which you are responding. I'm pretty sure that you meant for your EMI/RFI drivel to go into this thread.
2. You need to use sound reasoning and clearly articulate your arguments if you expect to have any logical and meaningful discussions.

 

[Jackpine]

Rugger, you are right. I only asked about the number of case fans that I should install -- not about emf.

 

[perz]

Well you suggested he should use a dremel for getting another fan, I assume thats for making a opening? Do you know the wavelenght that your components are putting out? And yes there are healt issues, the most affected organ is the eyes....

And can you honestly say that video card fans are any good? Little sleave bearing fans spinning at 5000 rpm, how long can they realisticly last? Why do they put the crap on? HAvent you ever heard that economist is emploed just to do lifecykel analysis of products? Duh!

 

[1Tanker]

It's a good idea to balance intake/output. Find out, if you can the CFM of the

120 mm exhaust, and the 80mm intake. Then add a fan to the intake to

closely approximate that total. Lots of people favour positive or negative

pressure in a case, but these can cause problems with dust buildup and/or

improper cooling. If the values are equal, then all the air that comes in and

carries away the heat should be exhausted. 'Tis a good rule of thumb.

 

[1Tanker]

Oops....Add the 120, AND the PSU cfm, as it's also exhaust, then subtract the intakes.

 

[Derek1387]

I have an Antec full tower. I have two intake, two exhaust, and one intake on my case side.. as well as the one over the CPU

so, 6 total...
seems to keep my computer cool, and is pretty quite....for 6 80mm fans...

 

[4Ryan6]

At one time I was running 4 80mm besides the P/S fans, and the case never stayed cool like I wanted, same case I dropped to 3 120mm, took out all the 80mm fans and left the air grids open to pull air into the case, installed 2 120mm blowholes in the top of the case and 1 120mm blowing directly on the video cards in the side.

I'm not suggesting you do that now just saying that blowholes are the best all around solution to exhaust heat from a case, heat rises so a blowhole is almost a no brainer, I don't know why we don't see more of them on the market than we do.

Also got a fan control 3 120s running flat out can get noisy so when gaming I crank them up, and just plain surfing turn them down, but even with them turned low my internal case temps are 10c lower, Big Difference!

Routing your wire neat and out of the way is also necessary to keep air path clear, so the air can flow.

 

[hacky_maximus]

I have 3x80mm (with LEDs) FANs , the PSU fan and 2 aditional FANs on my HDD rack. You should install as many FANs as you need to coold down your PC

 

[moparman390]

I have this same case, it's a wind tunnel inside. I just boought the highest CFM 120mm (96CFM) and 80mm (37CFM) ball bearing fans Newegg had. I also have two optical drives and three hard drives. I also added two 40mm (12CFM) fans in the bottom 5 1/4" drive bay. They are right behind the mesh front, one on each side, secured by that double sided sticky tape/foam stuff you use to hold up poasters, they don't move. My PSU also has a 120mm fan. You can feel a draw of air across the whole front, and it really blows hard out the back. The exhuast air is very cool. Just do something like this.