A Question about mounting a cooling fan

[Brawly44]

Hello, I hope I'm in the right forum group.

Recently, I removed the Evercool watercooling kit that I had been using to cool my cpu. With the Evercool in use - at idle my temp read 28C, under load around 34-36C. I liked the Evercool because it kept great temps on an Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 overclocked processor. I had been very pleased with the Evercool accept for one problem, I had to replace the pump 3 times in less than 2 years, and I guess I'm just tired of having to replace the pump. Before long I will have spent as much in replacement pumps to equal what I spent for the watercooling kit as a whole! Not to mention when it fails, my entire system is shutdown until I find time to repair the kit.

So I've made the jump to air cooling my cpu. I purchased a Tuniq Tower 120 and finished the installation today. I have a Thermaltake Tai Chi full tower, and I am hoping one of TH's resident experts can give me some advice. I have a 120mm intake fan mounted in the front of the chassis, and a 120mm exhaust fan in the rear (typical case setup) - however I also have a cooler master 120mm fan that can be mounted on the side door.

This may be a stupid question, but I want to make sure I'm maximizing the air flow. Do I mount the 3rd fan for the door as an intake or exhaust air flow? Or does it really matter? Any advice given would be much appreciated.

 

[Evilonigiri]

I would do an intake, because that fan isn't very powerful, right? With your PSU, back fan, and perhaps your video card expelling air out of the case, it makes sense to do an intake.

 

[Brawly44]

Thanks Evilonigiri! It appears we were thinking along the same line. Because of the size of the Tuniq Tower 120, I have to mount the fan near the bottom of the door.

If I mount it as an intake fan it would blow air directly onto my graphics card and tv tuner/capture card. I would assume this could only help.

 

[Dunkel]

Having more CFM coming out of you case, then going into your case, will create a negative pressure system. In theory, there won't be dead spots of heat in your case and extra clean cool air will be pulled in from any cracks holes and vents.

I had a 80mm fan blowing in on my 8800gt with an ambient case temp of 24C. I turned that 80mm around and dropped the ambient temp to 22C.

Not much but it helped. If your case is air tight except for the fans then positive pressure might do more good.

Don't quote me on this, I'm a noob.