Help with case fan placement

[chumly]

I have an In-Win Track case for quite some time, I had to remove the 220mm fan on the side panel window because it interfered with my cooler on my CPU. I have crossfire 6850's that tend to get hot during the summer (I took off the overclocks because I saw they were getting to 92 degrees during games).

There is, however, another option, the window panel also has grommets for a top and and bottom 120mm fan, the bottom one would avoid the CPU cooler and position the fan directly adjacent to my GPUs.

Should I have it blowing out or blowing in?

 

[JKatwyopc]

General rule of thumb for fans is to have the front, side and bottom fans blowing into the case and the top and back fans blowing out of the case.

 

[geofelt]

I would vote for the side fan to be blowing in.

 

[chumly]

It's a screen and not a window on the side panel by the way.

 

[beanoslim]

A screen??

Plasma or LCD?

 

[skaz]

Side fans are weird in my opinion. In some cases I've noticed it helps with temperatures on certain components but will screw up airflow and result in higher temperatures for other components.

As someone else already said the general rule is that side fans are used as intake. This really depends on how the rest of your fans are set up with some other factors like fan types, rpms, etc.

I typically recommend to start with a front to back fan set up. Then if needed either a bottom intake, or a top exhaust. Then lastly I would recommend a side intake fan.

 

[chumly]

Best answer selected by chumly.