Fan positioning in Antec 300

[Syrocc]

Hey guys. Just a quick question, I'm assembling a PC right now, and need to make sure I position the coolers right:

The case I'm using is an Antec 300, with 2 included fans (1 rear and 1 top). How are these fans working. Is the top one blowing heat out of the case or cold air into the case? Same question for the rear fan.

Also, I'm mounting a Cooler Master Tx3 CPU cooler, and the installation manual is horrible. I can assemble it, but I can't figure out which side of the fan goes onto the heatsink, since it can be mounted both ways, on both sides. Also, the fan should point toward the rear of the case or the front?

Thanks for any advice, quick answers would be highly appreciated

 

[davcon]

Both those fans are exhaust fans.Top/rear
Add one or two 120mm fans as a front intake for optimal performance.
Put the HS fan on the ram side and have the airflow directed to the back of the case.
If you have an AMD socket you can mount the cooler differently and push the air out the top.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMb99T2g0ME

 

[Syrocc]

Thanks for the tips. Also thought of doing it that way, so now it's looking like this:

Top fan blowing air out of the case
Rear fan blowing air out of the case
Heat sink fan on the ram side, also blowing air towards the rear fan and out of the case.

Will be mounting 2 more 120mm fans to blow air INTO the case on the front panel later, that should help airflow

*PS: Overclocked my i3-540 in this configuration, running at 4400mhz now with a 1.35 voltage setting, 100% stable after 8 hours of full load testing with OCCT. Temps are between 28 in Idle and 69 in full load*

Thanks for the help

 

[geekapproved]

You don't need a bunch of intake fans, the exhaust fans passively pull all the air they need through the front. Adding a whole bunch of fans is just more fans to clean dust out of.

Think of it like a laptop, they don't have intake and exhaust fans, they only have exhaust fans. Why? Because the exhaust fan pulls all the air it needs into the laptop passively.

I don't use any intake fans on my 300 and all my components are heavily overclocked and all my temps are below normal. I don't even have the included fans on high, I keep them on medium.

I would only recommend a side intake if your running a very hot graphics card (GTX470 and up) or 2 graphics cards.

My Q6600 runs 59c under full load and my HD5850 runs 55c under full load.

 

[DXRick]

I would recommend that you take one of the intake 120mm fans and rig it to blow on the memory. I did this using nylon wire ties in my last (p4) and latest (i7-950) builds, because the software I was/am using to check temps reported that the temps were higher than the CPU in that area. The temps in that area dropped from 60C-68C to 45C at peak gaming load.

 

[nukemaster]

I agree with Geek on this, I have no intake fans on my 300 or 900 cases since the case has to get air from those vents anyway. It will also get some from the side vent if you do not cover it.

On my laptop the fans are actually intake and the push through the heatsink on the way out, but that is another story.

A memory cooling fan is sometimes a good idea if you are push very high clocks/voltage on the memory, but with the memory multiplier set right, the memory does not have to be pushed hard.

Nice overclock btw.

 

[Syrocc]

Thanks for the advice, I'll think about venting the memory modules then, the HDD I'm using seems cool enough, im not worried there, although the RAM frequency went up along with the CPU, and I prefer to be safer than sorry.

The CPU overclocked really well, I could probably push it more, but the performance increase vs voltage and temps won't be worth it anymore, I prefer to have a stable and safe OC over an extreme OC. The MB I'm using is an Asus P7P55D-E, which is really stable after a BIOS update.

The only trouble I'm having with OC seems to be with my Asus 6850 DirectCU, it seems particularly troublesome. Stock frequencies are 790/1000, tried raising it up to 925/1150 but the catalyst driver keeps crashing during 3D Mark Vantage tests. I'd rather avoid upping the voltage on it, but perhaps I'll have to. Was hoping to reach 950/1175 without voltage tweaking, but it's just not stable, even though it runs cool.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

Installation video

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103064&Tpk=Cooler%20Master%20Tx3

 

[geekapproved]

Yeah Nuke, on the laptop, I just mean that there wasn't both, only one, you got what I meant.

If your not overclocking your memory and it has it's own heatsinks which most do, I see no reason to have to specifically vent the memory. But that's just my opinion.

You'll get plenty of memory venting from the fan hole in the side of the case passively pullin in air.