Advice on Fans

Tanlaeion

Tanlaeion

Tanlaeion

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11 Feb 2012
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13
I recently finished making my first build but I have not put any case fans in it yet.

I plan to use this computer exclusively for gaming and will of course be running some pretty demanding games on it. So I am wondering how many fans would be suitable for this? And which fans would you recommend I use?

My case - https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-220-CM

My cpu is an i5 2500k and I am wondering whether the stock cpu fan will be enough to keep it sufficiently cool? I should probably note that I don't plan to overclock either the cpu or graphics card.

And finally, how important are dust filters? I have seen them mentioned a few times but I am still unsure whether they are necessary or not. Also, do they need to placed on all the fan bays?

I feel as though I should probably include the rest of my build too.

Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard
Cooler Master Silent Pro Modular 600W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply
Sapphire HD 6970 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE Deus Ex PC Game [11187-00-40R]
Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) [KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX]

Sorry for all the nooby questions.
 
If you do not intend to overclock then the stock cooler will be perfect, they can't ship CPUs with coolers that don't work or do there job.

And dust filters can be rather helpful depending on fan placement and how dusty the room is. They are not at all necessary, they will however slow the build-up of dust in your system and keep cooling optimal for longer. Therefore extending the life of all components.

Bare in mind it will not help massively, just keep your PC clean and give it a quick dust every few days should be fine. I do this with mine even though every fan slot already has dust filters. Once again, you will be fine, nothing other than what you have bought is necessary and the HAF is known to be a good case.

P.S. Check inside your case every month or so and make sure there's no massive build-up of dust which I would doubt.
 
Sorry about the late reply but I have a few follow up questions.

Are there any particular dust filters you would recommend?

What do you find is the best way to clean your PC? I know plenty of people use a can of compressed air, but I have also heard some others use something like a mini usb hoover?

While getting fans may not be completely necessary, and I realise I am being too cautious with this, but are there any fans you would recommend based on my case?

Thanks for all the advice so far.
 
Dust filters, not sure, compressed air is good but how you clean it is up to you, just be careful if you use a duster haha. + Bitfenix Spectre Pros are meant to be very good fans.
 
Thanks for all the advice so far.

I am still somewhat unsure about one thing though, based on my case, where would be the best place for fans?

I really have no idea about airflow and how I should set up the fans.
 
As long as the fans are filtered you should look to have more air going in than going out, that way there will be positive air pressure which will mean air is forced out of small holes in the case (mesh, gaps etc) rather than sucking in air filled with dust.
 
So, just to be completely sure.

If I was to place 2 x 200mm fans, or 4 x 120mm fans in my case, on the top and on the front. That would be able to produce positive air pressure then?

Do you know if my power supply would be able to cope with that then?
 
Antony101 said:
You want fans blowing out at the back/top and intake fans on the front and side.
Click to expand...

this isn't strictly true I did a lot of tests on my fan setup and found a front side and top intake with a rear exhaust performed best for my case, so it differs from case to case although most of time font and top exhausts works best.
 
Well I did that top/back and front/side in my NZXT Phantom and the cooling was outstanding. At the moment in my 600T I have no fans at all, just my two H100 fans as out take.
 
Tanlaeion said:
Sorry about the late reply but I have a few follow up questions.

Are there any particular dust filters you would recommend?

What do you find is the best way to clean your PC? I know plenty of people use a can of compressed air, but I have also heard some others use something like a mini usb hoover?

While getting fans may not be completely necessary, and I realise I am being too cautious with this, but are there any fans you would recommend based on my case?

Thanks for all the advice so far.
Click to expand...
I don't think you will need filters, I'm sure the haf has mesh dust screens front, back, top and bottom. I open up the case when I can see dust starting to collect on the intake mesh.

I think the filters restrict air flow, cheeper to get a pollen filter from motor factors
 
red eye said:
I don't think you will need filters, I'm sure the haf has mesh dust screens front, back, top and bottom. I open up the case when I can see dust starting to collect on the intake mesh.

I think the filters restrict air flow, cheeper to get a pollen filter from motor factors
Click to expand...

The case only came with one mesh dust screen on the front, and that was it.
 
So based on what people have said before.

If I was to place a 1 x 200mm fan, or 2 x 120mm fans on the front and one 140mm fan on the side, that would be sufficient enough to create positive air pressure in my case?

For dust filters, would it be a good idea to place one on the top of my case to stop any dust falling into my case while it is not in use? I do realise though that this could affect air flow.
 
Tanlaeion said:
So based on what people have said before.

If I was to place a 1 x 200mm fan, or 2 x 120mm fans on the front and one 140mm fan on the side, that would be sufficient enough to create positive air pressure in my case?

For dust filters, would it be a good idea to place one on the top of my case to stop any dust falling into my case while it is not in use? I do realise though that this could affect air flow.
Click to expand...

to create positive airflow you need more intake than outtake. I'm not really following your plan for what you intend to do, but all the fans should be rated for a certain cfm. just make sure all the intake fans cfm adds up to more than all the outtake fans cfm.

as for filters, you only need them on the intake fans. i wouldn't worry about "dust falling into my case while it is not in use". dust will get in sooner or later anyway. having positive pressure and using filter on your intake will slow this but i would worry too much about it mate.
 
My personal opinion is that 3-4 120mm fans is more than enough to cool that level of hardware. The GPU exhausts outside of the case, so the only real heat generator which you're cooling is the CPU. A 2500k at stock isn't going to produce much heat... they're fairly efficient CPUs.

I have a heavily overclocked Q6600 and my graphics card, although it's only an 8800GT, exhausts directly into the case. Two fairly slow 120mm fans (top and back) are sufficient to keep the CPU temp below 70c at all times. I don't see the point adding any more fans because all I'd be doing is creating annoying noise.
 
Honestly, just ignore what I said before about my plan, I thought I knew what to do, turns out I didn't.

So for intake, I could use 2 x 120mm and 1 x 140mm on the front and side. And for out take, 1 x 120mm and 1 x 200mm, on the rear and top?

That would work then? Sorry for all the questions, still a bit of a noob with this.
 
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It would certainly work, yeah! I just think that it's a bit more cooling than is strictly necessary for your system. If you're going to use that many fans then I'd make sure they're reasonably quiet ones - BitFenix, or Noctua (expensive).

However many you use, your power supply should be fine - standard fans don't use very much power.
 
Thanks, at least I can be sure now that I understand how fans are meant to be set up.

I was planning on buying BitFenix fans anyway, but just out of curiousity, what fans do you think I can do without?
 
Just chiming in on bitfenix fans - my experience with the 200mm is that the spectre is very quiet at full whack but doesn't move a *lot* of air, the spectre pro is quite audible at full whack and moves a lot more air.

also bare in mind how much space you have for fan thickness at the top for the 200mm, the spectre is a 20mm thick fan, the spectre pro is 25mm thick.

pretty much all 120mm/140mm fans are 25mm thick, but some 200mm fans are 30mm (coolermaster megaflow etc), seems there's no set standard on 200mm.

Might not be an issue with your case, I'm not familiar with it. But for example, in my 600t I can mount a spectre pro in the front (no hard drive racks), but only a 20mm thick 200mm fan like the spectre in the roof (although I personally use 2 x 120mm there..)
 
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