Best fan setup?

[Auraomega]

I've just built my rig, getting some pretty wild temps at load and I think it's to do with my fan setup. I basically have 4 fans and my HSF. 1 fan at the top, 1 at the back, 1 in the side and 1 in the front for the HDDs. They are all 120mm except the top which is 140mm, there is also space to put another 140mm or 120mm fan in the top and the ability to put another 120mm on the HSF for push-pull.

Right, with that over, hopefully someone can explain which of these will be best for me (using code as otherwise it doesn't space correctly):

//My current setup, 2 fans blowing air at each other
//1
     ^
     |

->  <-


//this one will require me to take my fan off and re-apply TIM, so a big boost needs to be available as my fan is a PITA
//2
     ^
     |

->   ^
     |


//3
     ^
     |

<-  <-

Sort of related, I want to remove my top fan (140mm) and fit 2 (140mm or 120mm) fans that have UV LEDs in, can anyone recommend a good brand that do this efficiently? Also, would I see a relatively big decrease in temps if I did add another fan to my HS for push-pull?

Finally, how can I tell which way a fan is installed?

Cheers guys

 

[koooowweeee]

think you need to be a bit more clearer about what your asking

 

[PistolPete]

My current setup, 2 fans blowing air at each

That's bad news for starters.


Ideally you want air being drawn into the system from the front and blown out from the back. Try and balance the fans, so have similar sizes / numbers of intakes / exhausts to allieviate any positive/negative pressure problems.

 

[Auraomega]

That's what I was thinking.

I have my side panel fan blowing cold air onto my graphics (it's passive so it gets hot quickly). My front fan into the case (specifically the hard drives) and the back fan apparently pushing air into the case again (opposing the HSF), with 1 fan at the top acting as an exhaust.

I was hoping my diagrams, as poor as they are, would give a decent idea of what I meant, the arrow is the direction of airflow. With the exception of the top fan every other fan is pushing cold air in. I guess my question is, should I flip my back fan so it's an exhaust, and/or should I turn my HSF 90 degrees so it points up to my exhaust at the top (also thinking this may be good due to heat rising, just blocks off 1 set of RAM slots).

 

[Uriel]

That's bad news for starters.


Ideally you want air being drawn into the system from the front and blown out from the back. Try and balance the fans, so have similar sizes / numbers of intakes / exhausts to allieviate any positive/negative pressure problems.

Not necesarily. Drawn in at the bottom and blown out the top can be fine.

Bear in mind you overall air pressure. I find negative is better for cooling but positive with intake filters is better for controlling dust build up.

I recently managed to drop my idle and load CPU temps by 10°C by having negative pressure (I was previously on positive) with a passive duct from the side to the CPU cooler fan.

 

[subzero]

The only things i world change are the rear fan as an exhaust,check the arrows on the fan for flow direction, generally speaking if the sticker on the centre of the fan is facing you then the fan is blowing away from you.

You could add an extra fan to your heatsink although from experience this only drops temps by a few degrees at most.

Adding an extra 140mm at the top will also help with the extraction of heat,both top fans would need to be set to extract heat and ideally you would be looking at a fan that has ball bearings as opposed to sleeve bearings as sleeves need to be vertical to properly lubricate the bearings.

 

[Auraomega]

Ok, so later I'll turn my PC off and check the fans make sure the back one is in the right direction.

As for the top fans, I'm really ideally looking for UV fans, so any brands that do UV and ball bearings?

I also have an absolute epic mess of cables in my case, waiting for my cable braids to arrive then I'll sort that out, so hopefully that'll help a bit too.