What do you think of this fan orientations?

zijin_cheng · 27 Jun 2012 at 03:21

Hi, I have a thermaltake MS-I case with the picture of the fan locations shown below.
I only have the fan in (4), and plan to add more fans in the future, but need opinions of best fan orientations and locations

So my graphics card and CPU are oriented as shown, with the GPU fans pointing downwards.

So I was thinking, what if I reversed the fan direction on (4) and placed a fan on (1) in order to create airflow to cool the CPU.

And Intakes on the bottom of the case (3) and exhaust on (2) to create airflow for the GPU?

Would those create 2 effective airflows to cool the CPU and GPU separately?

doyll · 27 Jun 2012 at 05:11

1 in & 4 out.
2 & 3 in. remove unused PCI covers from back.

sadbuttrue · 27 Jun 2012 at 14:06

Agree with above.

It's always better to push more air into the case. "Positive pressure" as some call it (wrongly tbh, since the case is not airtight). The air will find its own way out of the case through various cracks and crevices. You want the exhaust fan/s to be closest to the heat source, which is 4 in your diagram.

tamzzy · 27 Jun 2012 at 14:44

side fans are a big no no, if you are going to use 4 or more fans in the case

doyll · 27 Jun 2012 at 16:08

sadbuttrue said:
Agree with above.
"Positive pressure" as some call it (wrongly tbh, since the case is not airtight).\

It really is positive pressure... just very little... only enough so intake fans are only airflow into case... and because inside of case is little more then outside, inside air moves out of case trying to equalize the pressure. Whole buildings use same principle to keep them dust free... well, almost dust free.

mayebaza · 27 Jun 2012 at 23:00

I agree about the positive pressure. I have found that it works better if you have the side window fan blowing outwards

j.col · 28 Jun 2012 at 10:19

doyll said:
1 in & 4 out.
2 & 3 in. remove unused PCI covers from back.

this, but what cpu cooler are you using? as some coolers will wotk better with 1 and/or 4 reversed
if stock cooler, your pic is fine.

mp260767 · 28 Jun 2012 at 14:18

general idea is to use as few fans as possible because as you add them, no matter how quiet they are they will all start to add noise to the system.

depending on how much you want to play about with things:

i'd just start with adding 1 fan into (2) as intake and have (4) as exhaust.

then monitor temps as you do what you normally do.

then swap (4) to (1) and see if that helps the temps.

then maybe swap (2) to exhaust and (4)/(1) to intake and see how it affects temps.

doyll · 28 Jun 2012 at 14:32

Fan speed is part of the equation. 2 fans at low speed are quieter and will move as much air as 1 fan having to run faster to move same amount of air.

I would keep 2 & 3 as intakes... and make sure case has enough clearance for 3 to get air.. at least 50mm. They may well move enough air into case to allow top and back to be off / removed.

Blackjack Davy · 28 Jun 2012 at 14:53

I agree I have 6 case fans in my case including a 200mm side fan blowing air in the direction of the GPU's but all are low noise GT's and Noctua's running at low RPM's and my PC is pretty damn quiet, just a low whooshing sound. In contrast a 2nd PC I know just has a single standard Intel heatsink and fan with shroud as the only fan in the case and it's far noisier than mine! It makes a constant high pitched whine which is intensely irritating. I keep wanting to pull it apart and replace it with an aftermarket!