How do I achieve positive air pressure in my HTPC setup?

[EKuan]

I recently received the SilverStone Grandia GD08 in the mail the other day: http://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=331&area=en

It comes equipped with two 120mm intake fans on the bottom of the case and one 120mm intake on the side. There is a spot for another 120mm fan on the bottom and another spot for a 120mm on the side next to the one which has been included. SilverStone advertises these cases as working best with positive air pressure, so how do I achieve this if I have purchased additional fans?

I have one additional 120mm which I believe would work best if I placed it on the side next to the installed fan and have these both as intakes. I have 2 80mm fans for empty slots in the rear of the case and I am assuming I should use these as exhaust fans. The manual states I should set all fan in empty slots as intake, but that doesn't make much sense for the 80mm fans in the rear of the case to be set as intake fans (assuming they should be pushing the hot air out the back of the case).

Final question, do you think it would be better to add my purchased 120mm fan in the bottom slot (so there are 3 intake fans rather than 2), or would it be best to put it on the side with the installed 120mm fan and have them both running as intakes?

I want to keep positive air pressure but I'm not sure the best way to go about this. Thanks.

 

[sheag123]

i have a grandia gd08, i wanted as much positive air pressure as well and im not an expert in aerodynamics but im pretty sure its just having more cfm or static pressure being pushed into your case than being pulled out. resulting in air being pushed out of the vents with no fans on them.

it is a good idea to have exhaust in the right areas so your hot air isnt being swirled around your case. what i did was i put the stock fans that came with the case all on the bottom blowing air into the case, bought 2 more 120mm and 2 80mm fans. on the side i had one fan blowing air into the case where my heatsink was drawing air in, and on the other 120mm fan i had it as exhaust to get some of the air from the exhaust of the heatsink out of the case.

i also had the 2 80mm fans as exhaust

right now i have an h80i which is a bit of a different setup, but im opening up my computer tomorrow and am going to take some pictures for another thread so if you want to see what i have let me know and i can post some pictures on here.

 

[EKuan]

Sheag123,

I believe you were talking with me on the other post you mentioned. I started another thread regarding positive air flow to see if I could get more advice. However, I did check out the pictures you added on the other thread - thanks for that; although I am using all fans (at the moment).

How exactly did you get power to all your fans? I am currently using the 2 stock 120mm fans in the bottom and the one 120mm on the side. I added another 120mm and just plugged it in directly to my PSU and I'm using the fan controller that came with the fan rather than plugging it directly into the MB (simply because I can't find enough spots). So on the side you have the spot closest to the front as an intake fan and then the spot closest to the back as an exhaust? Plus two 80mm in the back as exhaust, correct? All other fans are intake?

I have two 80mm fans for the back that I originally wanted to set up as exhaust fans but I don't know how to get power to these because I don't have that many inputs on the MB. I have an ASROCK Extreme6 and if I remember correctly it has 4 fan inputs (plus 2 CPU fan inputs), but I cannot figure out this part of the build. If I have 6 fans total how can I get power to all the fans and control them?

This has honestly been the most confusing part of the build, which I didn't expect when I started this journey. Thanks for all the help.

 

[sheag123]

ok, ya sorry, i guess i just gave you similar info then.

you might not have control of all of them, but do you need individual control of the two 80mm in the back?

there are fan powercable y splitters, i had a similar issue as you and i am using these and they work well.

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812200855&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleAdwordsCA&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleAdwordsCA-_-pla-_-Internal+Power+Cables-_-N82E16812200855

but you might not have control of all fans with y splitters.

even if you do find 4 pin y splitters (which would give you control, Noctua includes them with some of their fans) one of the lines will have 3 pins so as not to confuse the motherboard.

i dont think there is any negatives to putting 2 fans on a spot where theres supposed to be one other than the loss of control. in my opinion its good to have air moving and whether the fans are spinning at 900 rpm or at 1200 rpm (as long as the fans are case fans) wont make a noticeable difference.

 

[EKuan]

Best answer selected by EKuan.