Best way to set the fans up in my case?

AlexTrickle

AlexTrickle

AlexTrickle

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I bought a Xigmatek Utgard case this summer which sadly OCuK don't stock but in my opinion was my star buy of the year (see various reviews online).

See LINK

In layout its very similar to an Antec 900 and has the following fans spaces:

2x 120mm at the front (bottom and middle of case)
1x 120mm at rear (top of case)
2x 120 OR 140mm at top of case (vertically facing)
2x 120mm on side panel (middle and top of case)
1x 120mm on bottom (vertically facing)


I intend to get fans for all these slots (would this have a negative effect thoguh?) but am unsure what the best design would be and by this which to make intakes and outakes.

Any advice would be appreciated :)

Thanks :)
 
Follow the golden rule of front intake and rear/top exhaust and you won't go far wrong. Side fan placements disrupt front to back airflow and as such should only really be filled if you have a very hot graphics card combination, otherwise block those vents.

Filling all slots may be overkill. Consider what you are trying to cool and how much noise you'd like to make. You may find that a couple of front fans and a single rear exhaust may be sufficient to cool pretty much anything. Adding more fans may drop your temperatures a tiny fraction further but unless you are running the system at it's bleeding edge then I argue is it really worth it.

If you are using that i3 and 5770 then it's completely pointless using loads of fans, unless you like lots of noise. I cool an overclocked i7 9xx with just one intake and one exhaust, but my PSU and HDD are in a different chamber.

Just try out a few combinations with 2 or 3 fans and see how it works out for you.
 
Tealc said:
Side fan placements disrupt front to back airflow and as such should only really be filled if you have a very hot graphics card combination, otherwise block those vents.
Click to expand...

Ah I never thought of that. As my case has replaceable side panels to order I might order the window panel and that will serve both blocking the vents and allowing me to see the internals :)
 
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I've been wondering about this, have bought an extra case fan and am trying to figure out where to place it. Got one already in the case. So should I have two fans pulling air out of the case, to try and make it lower pressured, or should there be a constant flow of air. One pulling in and one pulling air out?
 
I've always understood it to be better to have a flow providing its well executed.

Think I'm going to set my case up as follows:

INTAKE:
2x 120mm (on HDD cages) at front of case.
1x 120mm on bottom of case blowing directly up

EXTRACTION:
2x 140mm on top of case
2x 120mm (push/pull on H50) on rear of case

No side fans, just ordered the window side panel for my case :)
 
Calabi said:
I've been wondering about this, have bought an extra case fan and am trying to figure out where to place it. Got one already in the case. So should I have two fans pulling air out of the case, to try and make it lower pressured, or should there be a constant flow of air. One pulling in and one pulling air out?
Click to expand...

Depends on where you have the existing fan really. Most will come with the stock fan at the rear so the next logical place to install would be lower front as an intake, although top exhaust could be an option, the case will then draw cool air from any holes but not as efficiently as if it is forced in by a fan.

Yes Alex it can be better to have just 1 or 2 fans producing a steady stream of cool air through the case and out the back than having 12 Deltas blasting cool air at each other nullifying their effect. You might not need that bottom fan and one of those top fans unless you are running SLI graphics cards that vent into the case.
 
Firstly we do stock the Utgard case. Don't know why you think we don't? http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-006-XG&groupid=701&catid=7&subcat=1572

Secondly - fans are purely down to a personal opinion. Acceptable noise is subjective to everyone; as is temperature of your components. I would suggst you add and add until you are happy. Having a bigger air-flow out as apposed to air-flow in is my preference as it reduces dust build up. However there can still be hot spot/dead zones where they can still grab dust.
 
I agree with Tealc and Ace Modder regarding case fans, my son's both have the same case simular to the Antec 300 with just 3 fans 120mm 1 front, 1 rear + 1 on the side helping to cool the GPU, both the CPU and GPU are overclocked and both have good temps. Where as my case a FT01 has x1 180mm front, x1 180mm rear top, blowing into the case[providing positive air presure] x1 12mm fan rear blowing out of the case. Which does a great job cooling my PC see sig, just thought l'd give you two examples of case cooling, don't forget to use air filters if you want which will help to reduce dust in your case.
 
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