Better Air Flow?

Chris19

Chris19

Chris19

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Joined
12 Dec 2005
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574
At the momment showen in this photo is how i have my fans set up



i was wondering if i should swap the 2 80mm ones at the bottom to bring air into the case. There is also an fan on the side of the case blowing air on top of the hsf around that area.

My question is should i change the direction of air flow for the 2 fans at the bottom?

Any veiws givein would be super.
 
Chris19 said:
At the momment showen in this photo is how i have my fans set up



i was wondering if i should swap the 2 80mm ones at the bottom to bring air into the case. There is also an fan on the side of the case blowing air on top of the hsf around that area.

My question is should i change the direction of air flow for the 2 fans at the bottom?

Any veiws givein would be super.
Click to expand...

Fan airflow looks o.k.

Cables need a tidy up to promote good airflow through the case.

Have you an intake filter? These filters stop dust entering the case but become blocked very quickly with the large amount of cooling air used by a modern pc.

Matt
 
doesnt look good at all.

one 12cm going in, 2 8cm going out and a 12cm AND the psu.

the most that you are circulating through that box is 12cm worth of air.

need more intakes.

i would 7v those 8cm jobbies and turn them around.

dont forget the psu drags air out too
 
Matt82 said:
doesnt look good at all.

one 12cm going in, 2 8cm going out and a 12cm AND the psu.

the most that you are circulating through that box is 12cm worth of air.

need more intakes.

i would 7v those 8cm jobbies and turn them around.

dont forget the psu drags air out too
Click to expand...

There is also a side fan pushing air in.

The amount of air the psu moves is minor.

You could try de-actrivating the lower 80mm fans and see what happens. Or indeed reverse them so they act as an input. As Matt82 says its best to have more in than more out!

Matt
 
its not best to have more in than out. its all about circulation. if you have 3 in and only 2 out, you are only circulating 2 fans worth of air. needs to be balanced.
 
You are right to a point a little more in than out is best. A possitive pressure in the case is a good thing as it helps the exhaust fans work.

There is never going to be a massive difference in standard (un modded)cases as they are designed to be realitivly effective.

As you say its a question of balancing more out than in is a bad thing as it will reduce the amount of air in the case and temps will rise.

As I said play safe have more in than out if only slightly.

I speak from the theory of aerodynamics and jet turbines and they take some cooling!

Matt
 
it is best to have more out than in, a negative pressure would build up in the case so a strong out flow is produced and more air than just the intake fan alone can pull will be drawn into the case.

the flow looks good mate.
 
From what i know it should ALWAYS be in the front, out the back, so any fans at the back should be exhausts, and any at the front should be intake. This way it creats a proper wind tunnel-like effect and the air flows better.
 
Theres also an 30cm Cross flow fan blowing air over the motherboard you can see it under all those wires. and an 80mm fan blowing air out the top. Seem to be getting fairly decent temps just now will try get more in the front tho.

Thanks you lot for the help
 
Well it looks to me that it is a waste of time with the bottom three fans as the air will be coming in through the 120mm intake and straight out the two 80mm exhausts and will not be cooling anything at all. Lose the 2x80mm exhausts and block the holes up is what i would do. Either that or stick some sort of divider between the intake and those two exhausts so that the intake air will be forced to go up in the case before it is sucked back out.
 
Ive done A LOT of testing on this with the kit below:-

120mm low front
120mm center side panel
120mm top above RAM
2x80 rear (soon to be 1x 92mm) level with CPU

I tried every possible configeration testing both idle and load temps with GPU and CPU loading and the setup below gave by far the best results.

120mm low front-sucking in
120mm center side panel-sucking in
120mm top above RAM-sucking in (strange i know but its fact)
2x80 rear (soon to be 1x 92mm) level with CPU-blowing out.

I posted the results several months ago, i also have a 80mm hole on the MOBO side of the case but with no fan and a few small vents near the top of the side panels.

On my case this setup gives by far the best results.
 
Basic physics gents.

You always need a positive pressure in a case. Why? Because the more air you have the more heat is dissipated. The air is the thing you are using to move the heat away from the components, why would you want less of it?

It is like saying: "your water cooling system works better with less water in it".

Pegasus1 had it right.

In the case of the case (???) at the start of the thread, I'd have:

2x fans in the front pulling air in (bigger the better - and generally quieter)
1x Blow Hole fan pulling in
1x Side fan pulling in
PSU pushing out
1x 120mm Fan continuing airflow from the CPU cooler out the back
 
On my current system I have 4 80 MM fans.
2 on the bottom front pulling in, 1 at the top pulling out, 1 at the back pulling out, yor telling me its better to have 3 of those 80mm fans all pulling in air and just the one 80mm pushing out hot air behind the cpu?
 
Just a thought I've been thinking of making a hole in the top of my case. I have 4 80 mm fans at the mo, 2 intaking at the bottom front, one on the side blowing in at about cpu hight and 1 taking air out at the back. All but one of the front fans are the same, the other front fan is slower.

Now if I cut a hole in the top of my case can I just leave it as a whole or should I put a fan on the top? Sound isn't a major thing as I play with my earphones on most times.

Jim
 
Vegeta said:
On my current system I have 4 80 MM fans.
2 on the bottom front pulling in, 1 at the top pulling out, 1 at the back pulling out, yor telling me its better to have 3 of those 80mm fans all pulling in air and just the one 80mm pushing out hot air behind the cpu?
Click to expand...

Pretty much. You have to remember that your PSU is evacuating air from your case at the same time as your exhaust fans. Having 2 pushing and 2 pulling plus your PSU pushing means you have a negatively biased pressure in your case.

Having a positive pressure has the added advantage of keeping dust out of all the little nooks and maintaining a better airflow. In the case we are talking about, having airflow coming from the bottom of the case (cooler ambient air outside the case) moving the airflow over the Mobo and over the CPU and then out the back is going to be more beneficial than pulling air in the front and then back out the bottom at the back. If the two 80mm exhaust fans remain, the mobo and CPU are essentially sitting in an eddy.

It's also worth noting that hot air rises and as such you want to help the airflow, not fight against it.
 
JimJones said:
Just a thought I've been thinking of making a hole in the top of my case. I have 4 80 mm fans at the mo, 2 intaking at the bottom front, one on the side blowing in at about cpu hight and 1 taking air out at the back. All but one of the front fans are the same, the other front fan is slower.

Now if I cut a hole in the top of my case can I just leave it as a whole or should I put a fan on the top? Sound isn't a major thing as I play with my earphones on most times.

Jim
Click to expand...

Personally I'd close the hole over as again, it is better to have positive pressure (not excessively so but positive none the less). I think that a hole pulling air in the top of the case may be a little counter productive to the airflow (depending on where it is). A slow blowhole fan on the top is great for getting the hot air out (as hot air rises) and could well aid in the cooling quite a bit just as long as it doesn't remove that postive bias.
 
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