Best fan placement for my Zalman Z9 Plus case?

Monkeyspaz5000 · 1 Jan 2012 at 17:24

I currently have the above case and wondering what the best layout for the fans would be?

I currently have the following-

Front of case - intake
Side panel - intake
Rear panel - exhaust
Top - exhaust

I do also have 3 spaces for fans. Another top, a bottom and another side panel space.

Is there a better way to config the current fans from stock or worthwhile adding more?

I'm running the Hyper 212+ cooler with a push/pull setup.

Thanks!

pgi947 · 1 Jan 2012 at 17:34

Current fans are spot on, if you decide to add another 3 then set it out like this:

Bottom - Intake
Side - Intake
Top - Exhaust

Monkeyspaz5000 · 1 Jan 2012 at 17:43

Cheers.

Best to alter the locations? Ie put side fan on bottom, or leave as is until/if I get additional fans.

pgi947 · 1 Jan 2012 at 17:45

What fans are installed at the moment, might be an idea to set the higher cfm fans as intake.

andy_mk3 · 1 Jan 2012 at 17:48

I fitted an Akasa Apache Black to the front of mine and also cut out the mesh, the airflowon that fan is pretty damn good.

So I have 140mm fan intake at the front, 120mm intake at the bottom, 120mm exhaust at the top, and 2x 120mm exhaust at the back (push-pull on rad). I don't use a sidefan as I find it makes a hideous noise!

Monkeyspaz5000 · 1 Jan 2012 at 18:02

pgi947 said:
What fans are installed at the moment, might be an idea to set the higher cfm fans as intake.

I'll have a proper look in a bit. I know the rear fan seems to be pushing a lot more air than the others.

Could I get away with simply using the push pull config of the hyper 212 to push air out the back. Put the rear fan on the bottom intake and the side fan on the top as an exhaust.

So I would have high cfm on the bottom as intake, front intake and two top exhaust fans with the push/pull config of the hyper 212+ pushing air out the empty space at the rear of he case?

Don know if it would be better than stock setup, but in my head it makes sense??

Side fan not essential for gpu cooling??

Monkeyspaz5000 · 1 Jan 2012 at 18:03

andy_mk3 said:

where's your HD bay area?? Does it simply remove from the case??

andy_mk3 · 1 Jan 2012 at 18:05

I had to drill out the rivets to remove it. I had no choice as the GPU is too long

I've messed about with the fans quite a lot up to now, I've found a side fan actually makes it worse, I was told this is because it distorts the airflow. The GPU gets loads of cool air from the front and bottom fans. The way I have it now is the best temps I can get

Monkeyspaz5000 · 1 Jan 2012 at 18:42

Think I'll defo jiggle things about then. Best to have high cfm fan on base or front? Think I'll have two top exhaust fans, a bottom intake and front intake.

Monkeyspaz5000 · 1 Jan 2012 at 18:43

andy_mk3 said:
I had to drill out the rivets to remove it. I had no choice as the GPU is too long

I've messed about with the fans quite a lot up to now, I've found a side fan actually makes it worse, I was told this is because it distorts the airflow. The GPU gets loads of cool air from the front and bottom fans. The way I have it now is the best temps I can get

How lonG I your gpu?? What is it?

andy_mk3 · 1 Jan 2012 at 20:23

It's an Asus 6950 with an Arctic Accelero cooler, no idea now long it is though!

Edit: Heres an old pic I found showing how long it is, just wouldn't quite fit in

SouthEastBlue · 1 Jan 2012 at 20:34

I found running my fans exactly as above gives me the best temperatures too with 1 at the front, 1 bottom, 1 at the rear, and 1 at the top.

Side fans always seems to make weird vibrating noises and although slightly reduce GPU temps sometimes, they seem to have a negative affect on the CPU cooling.

andy_mk3 · 1 Jan 2012 at 21:54

Yeah the side fans make a horrible amount of noise sadly

For a £40 case I think it's bloody fantastic though

Monkeyspaz5000 · 1 Jan 2012 at 22:27

In the process of being incredibly anal. Went to move fans about, and now have all components out to tidy things up!!

The only thing is my cooler is mounted slightly squint which is annoying me!! (not that it affects anything, apart from aesthetics).

Bomster · 11 Jun 2012 at 15:13

Interesting read.

I also own the Zalman Z9 Plus. Absolutely love the case.

Have you guys decided on a best fan config yet? I'm thinking of removing the side fan as it makes an awful racket.

Also, if you remove the HDD cage, can you put HDD's in the top cage (the one used to put disk drivers etc) instead?

Cheers

arnie2013 · 14 Apr 2013 at 18:38

i have the zalman z9 plus, but want to add fans

Hi all, I have the zalman z9 plus case.

it came with 4 fans im guessing they are all 120mm but I don't know.

but I want to add more to my case I believe I can get upto 7 I total so I want to add 3 more

1 more to the side ( so have two on the side)

1 more on the top ( so have two in total on top)

and 1 on the bottom.

but I cannot seem to find online any of the fans what are already installed, as I do not want to just buy any brand or make, id prefer to get the same fans that's already installed so they are all the same.

or if anybody thinks their are any other fans out their that are actually better then the ones preinstalled in my case please let me know.

also will these preinstalled fans already be set for best cooling or will I need to adjust them ( intake n outtake etc)