Adjusting case cooling setup

[Joseph Parks]

Greetings forum folks,

these hot summer days recently forced me to make some changes to my case fans setup and now I'm looking for the best possible layout with what I got available, hope you guys can share your thoughts and advice

my current setup:
-two 80mm rear exhausts (typical placement below PSU)
-80mm top exhaust
-120mm side exhaust - bottom rear area of the panel, facing gpu

and then there's /a hole/ in the center of the side panel, previously there was an 80mm intake which I took out when I was making modifications to the panel and didn't put it back yet - mainly because I wanted to find out whether it might be a good idea to use it as exhaust fan instead or maybe even seal the hole altogether

I am using no other intake fans, I've always bet on natural intake flow via bottom of the front panel (I cleared the path for it so there's a lot of space for airflow)

as far as component coolers are concerned, I'm using classic coolers on both cpu and gpu, exhausting air towards side and bottom of the case respectively

so what layout do you think I should go with? should I use the center side fan as exhaust or intake or even remove it? is no intake fan strategy a good one? are there any other adjustments you think I should perform?
I'll be grateful for any insight and thoughts


best regards,
Joseph

 

[needsumhelplol]

As a rule of thumb, front, side and bottom panel fans are best for intake, whilst back and top panel fans are better for exhaust. This is due to the way MOST cases are designed, and also because heat will naturally rise upwards.

For best airflow fans should blow from FRONT to BACK or DOWN to UP.

Where possible avoid placing fans where they might interfere with each others airflow

Remember, ambient temps are important as you will never get lower than room temp..

Also ensure there is plenty of space around your PC so that it has access to air at the front and enough room to get rid of the exhausted warm air at the back

Never place a high RPM fan blowing directly at another fan (eg, cpu/gpu/case fan).
This is a common mistake, and more often than not actually causes the fan to cool LESS EFFICIENTLY than if it did not have a fan pointing at it.

While these advices apply in most situations, ymmv, and i would suggest testing different possible fan configurations until you find the best one for your system