Fan placement suggestions for best airflow/dust prevention

UnderYourMind

Honorable
Jan 25, 2013
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10,510
I have a Corsair 500r and am almost finished with my first build but have heard a lot of different theories on fan placements for best airflow and dust prevention. So I am at a standstill now with the installation. For now, until maybe a few weeks down the road, I will be using the two front 120 mm fans as intake. I removed the top internal HD bay cage and have my SSD below my HDD both in the remaining bottom cage. I have a psu drawing in air from the bottom of the case and expelling it out the back of the psu (there is a filter). As for CPU heatsink/cooler, I am using the Corsair H80 hydro series and I have it in a push/pull config. drawing fresh air from the rear and expelling the product into the case. This seemed like a stupid idea to me but Corsair and a lot of people recommended this to ensure fresh air for the CPU. Either way it is a tight fit for the H80 and there isn't a whole lot of room between it and the motherboard heatsinks. Anyway, the fan that initially comes mounted in the rear as exhaust I moved to the top as exhaust. So there is only 1 exhaust fan as of now. (until I can get more...probably some scythes or noctuas) I also read though that negative pressure is actually pretty beneficial and that it prevents dust gathering. So I got the idea to use the big ass 200 mm side fan as exhaust? What do you guys think? I couldn't find any info on the side fan being used as exhaust...and people can hardly agree on anything when it comes to this subject.

Also should I switch my H80 fans around so that they are exhaust? Should I make top also intake?

And to clarify this, I am not a gamer so I don't use graphics card-just onboard graphics for music production software.

 

Xttony

Distinguished
Fans should be
Intake - front, side, bottom
Exhaust - top, back
Make sure that the h80 pushes air to the back of the case. That is you place it the other way around.
Side fans as exhaust is not a good idea as the psu, CPU and graphics card need fresh air in that region.
 
If you have enough fans exhausting out the top and close to rad/cpu socket, then having the H80 as an intake fan is a good idea, as the hot air from rad will be sucked straight up and out, even more so in push/pull. Also hot air from GPU which is not vented out the rear will be sucked straight up with a clear path. For the front fans, try and get them blowing through hdd's to bottom of GPU, so the cooler is is drawn over the GPU.
 

chugot9218

Honorable
Actually it is positive airflow that reduces dust buildup, i.e. more intake than exhaust, because it blows air out of any small cracks in the case as opposed to sucking air in through them like when using negative pressure. Of course, you have to filter all the intakes or you will just be sucking in massive amounts of dust anyways lol.
 

UnderYourMind

Honorable
Jan 25, 2013
7
0
10,510



I only have one fan exhasuting at the top and it is pretty close to the H80. Also I DO NOT have a GPU so I onl have to worry about mainboard temps.