Optimal Fan Placement?

[monty2510]

I have 2 12mm fans and currently posed like this (not my pc it's a e.g)

So I have one from the back in and 1 from the side in is there a better way?

 

[Rugger]

A great little article on fan placement and impact on cooling: http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2012/02/10/the-big-cooling-investigation/1
ct1615 is absolutely right that rear/top fans are usually better as exhaust (outtake) fans and fans on the side/front are intake fans. Corsair recommends that the H80 CPU coolers fans be setup as intake fans, but that is one of the few exceptions to the above general rule.

 

[Rugger]

I have an H80 in an Antec P183 and that's how I've got mine setup...rear intake with the H80 and top exhaust.

 

[monty2510]

your side fan should be an intake while your back fan should be an out take

But my Case has loads of holes for fans witch are open (they have filters) so do I need a out take?

 

[bp88]

He's got his fan setup all wrong. You need to have intakes in the front and exhausts (or out takes as you call them) on the top/rear.

 

[Rugger]

At least one outtake fans is typical but not necessary. Air will find a wy out thru one of the openings in the case. Some people argue that creating positive pressure in the case by having more intake than outtake fans has the impact of preventing or decreasing the buildup of ust inside the case. You can test that theor out with your case if you want to do some experimentation. The key issue is not overheating your components. You should monitor temps to make sure that whatever setup you decide to use provides good cooling to you components at a noie level that is acceptable to you.

 

[Rugger]

He's got his fan setup all wrong. You need to have intakes in the front and exhausts (or out takes as you call them) on the top/rear.

Read the article that I linked from bit-tech. They did a pretty in-depth review on fan placement and the impact on cooling. The theory that intake up front and outtake top/rear isn't necessarily always true. A single side case fan has more positive impact in lowering temps than a single front case fan, especially for the GPU.

 

[bp88]

So a side intake and rear intake at the same level are considered okay? I'm not an expert but I've never seen a system with a fan setup like that.

edit - That article was a good read. Thanks for that!

 

[Rugger]

My bottom line is that the best setup is provides quiet cooling to the hottest components. Before I got my top-mounted exhaust fan, my fan setup was front intake, rear intake (two fans in a push/pull on a Corsair H80); temps haven't significantly changed since I placed the top outtake in the case. Glad you liked the article!

 

[bp88]

Okay, I've always ran a front or side intake with exhausts on the rear and top. My builds typically don't require a lot of cooling/power, though.

It just seems like he should have that rear fan exhausting rather than pulling air in. Unless he's just referring that the fan is there and the arrow doesn't denote the direction of airflow for the fan.

 

[monty2510]

My bottom line is that the best setup is provides quiet cooling to the hottest components. Before I got my top-mounted exhaust fan, my fan setup was front intake, rear intake (two fans in a push/pull on a Corsair H80); temps haven't significantly changed since I placed the top outtake in the case. Glad you liked the article!

Thanks so I should change my rear intake to out take? I only have 2 fans what would be best?

 

[bp88]

According to the article get a 3 fan setup (unless you want more fans) with the side fan being intake blowing on your video card and the top and rear as exhaust fans. Your current side fan is too high to be cooling your video card. It's currently set up for cooling the processor.

Everyone has their own little cooling methods but most people run intake fans on the front and/or side, and exhaust fans on the top and/or rear in order to keep the airflow smooth and consistent.