Case Cooling Questoins...??

[Ratsneve]

I've got two EVGA 570s that each have two fans in them and a side panel I'm planning to mount a fan in that will be almost right over these 570s (oops--to the side of them). I haven't read or looked to find whether the four 570 fans will be drawing air in across the heatsinks or blowing air out--for case fans I'm not sure it matters--that is the question... Should this side panel fan be blowing outside air in or drawing warm case air out??

And related perhaps... For best cooling effects should I strive to set up positive, neutral, or negative pressure inside the case?

I do not plan at this point in time to overclock. As it stands I will have four case fans with the plan to draw air in from the front panel fan; exhuast air out from the rear panel fan; draw air in from a top fan to assist cooling across the DIMMs and CPU fan/heat sink; and then which way to go with the side panel fan?

With two other fan locations open and unused--one on the case bottom and the other being a second fan on top plus other vent locations in the case I don't see how I will end up with too much pressure diferential between inside and outside.

Thank you for your theories/advice.

 

[beenthere]

Too many fans can just cause turbulence and disrupt good case airflow. The only thing that cools the hardware is airflow thru the case. This negative, positive or neutral pressure nonsense misses the whole point that you need AIR FLOW thru the case to cool the components. You can have negative or positive pressure and zero airflow so just skip that foolishness and worry about airflow. Just use good front and rear fans and start checking CPU and GPU temps with "Core Temp" to get a baseline.

I don't think you want the top fan blowing air in as hot air rises, but you can test to see what direction works best. In addition a side fan can hurt cooling if it disrupts the evacuation of the hot air around the CPU/GPU and case. You must test to see what works for you but many folks have found no side fan to work the best.

 

[Ratsneve]

Makes sense--thanks. A couple things about my case... It's a Cougar Evolution. Comes with 2 x 120 mm fans and I'm adding 2 more 120 mm Antec fans. Also the Evolution has a fancy fan speed control for two fan groups. So I could control all the input fans and all the output fans or I could set it up to control the front and rear fans and the top and bottom or side fans. I'm hoping running all at low speed will be quiet and adequate for me with no overclocking.

If balance is a good rule...same number and size of fans blowing air into the case as blowing air out of the case and airflow is the name of the game would it be a good idea to close off large openings that don't have fans installed if it would improve airflow?

I'm going to talk to EVGA about the side panel fan next to the cards.

 

[jsc]

Basic rule for fans:
Front and side - intake, and
Top and rear - exhaust.

In the case of side fans, try with and without and use whichever works better. The same with large opennings - see which works better, closed or open.

On my Antec 900 cases, each with a single video card, using no side fan works a little better.

 

[allen21]

Nice info.

Thanks for sharing your great opinions

 

[Ratsneve]

Best answer selected by Ratsneve.