case air flow cooling

Mal X

Mal X

Mal X

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been reading tonight about the best airflow characteristics, it should be lower front to upper/middle rear, with no fans in the side panels.... this disrupts the air flow, it causes Swirling and Whirlpool effects inside the case, according to the experts :eek:

front to rear as above..plus another fan in the roof is also ok..... but the fan in the roof shouldn't be as powerful as the rear fan............the Antec 300 (without side panel fan) is the correct air flow..

uum interesting, i did this research because i was worried about the lack of ventilation in the Liam case... one fan in the front and rear for such a huge case looks not enough........... but no it's correct :D

it could do with a little fan in the roof but that's all, the CPU fan should be blasting towards the exhaust fan.... if possible

the worst set up, is to have a very powerful fan in the side... blasting towards the CPU.

it seems to make sense to me.....just :D
 
Sounds about right from what I know.
Keeping all cables out of the way will help plenty too as the air wants a smooth passage through. I don't know your case so don't know if a top fan will help at all, but try to keep more air coming in that being blown out - this will create positive pressure, meaning the extra air will be pushed out of any little holes in the case, or in the optical drive etc, thus keeping dust out - with negative pressure dust may be pulled in via the holes. This is of couse if you are using dust filters - if not, either get some of get used to cleaning !
 
i've got an airbrush compressor upstairs..........so no i dont use dust filters, not for 3 years :D

dusting out my pc takes about 4 mins....once every 3 months, i love it.... runs cooler afterwards too.
 
Mal X said:
front to rear as above..plus another fan in the roof is also ok..... but the fan in the roof shouldn't be as powerful as the rear fan...
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Fan being weaker doesn't help if it's simply in place were it just diverts airflow from components needing it instead of drawing heated air out: Unless there's would be good positive pressure only place for top exhaust would be above CPU heatsink and no forward from it.
Also use of top fan as intake has serious consequences to airflow of other areas of case unless that's been taken into account in design, just read result analysis of this review. Similarly use of intake fans in side can cause such airflow shortcircuits leaving other areas of case without airflow.


Straight through (from one end to another) airflow is used in lot of things and common in any industrially designed stuff because it makes it easiest to keep air moving everywhere inside device without adding fans everywhere.
 
diverse180 said:
Hmmm, but why would companies such as Antec etc design/build cases with side fan placements if it has an adverse effect on airflow?
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Their job is not to make sense but sell as much as possible...
And when has fashion had something in common with reason?
If it works better in certain situations that's all what's needed regardless what it does to acoustics.
 
The theory is not identical to what happens in real practice.

In theory the side fan will cause airflow disruption, but in practice it reduces temperatures in some cases.

Cold air blowing onto something will make it cooler compared to it sitting in a slight draft.
 
Here's good example how side intakes aren't automatic "way to happiness":
http://plaza.fi/muropaketti/artikke...oler-master-haf-932-ja-thermaltake-armor-mx,4
HAF's side intake doesn't help it in any way compared to Antec 1200.
And Thermaltake's GPU load temps are worst, especially lower card suffers because that area doesn't have any case airflow and chipset is running much hotter than in others. (fan doesn't help much if it just jams air into place from where it can't get away)

As other example of importance of overall airflow control one user had 10C CPU load temp decrease in CM Cosmos after making airflow guide forcing top exhaust fans to draw their air from rear end above CPU. .. even with slow speed fan in heatsink that would be explainable by case airflow being concentrated to right area instead of most of airflow going to wrong places.
 
it is a very complicated topic :cool:..... the side fan might cool the CPU, but causes the graphics card below to heat up...in about 80% of cases.... but there are the odd few that it doesn't.....it depends upon your wiring and the internal layout of the drive bays etc.

the side fan cuts off and isolates the air below.... causing it to whirlpool in circles and to heat up......the best is in the front and out the back...no other fans, the fan in the roof must either be right over the top of the PSU.... or nowhere near it......do not put it overhead and right in front of its intake, that's a disaster.

i would take care of this ..... because i've read it on quite a few websites now.

it looks ``blingy`` to have side fans/ roof fans with LED's etc..... and that's what the problem is...

Antec 300 is ok.... it cools well, but i'd still be careful of its side fan.......... ventilation holes but with no fan are a waste of time too....probably makes the case heat up.

it's like at home... the quickest way to cool my house in this heatwave, is to have the front and back windows open....opening the back windows only does nothing........you have to have a draft/ free flow of air.....
 
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EsaT said:
Here's good example how side intakes aren't automatic "way to happiness":
http://plaza.fi/muropaketti/artikke...oler-master-haf-932-ja-thermaltake-armor-mx,4
HAF's side intake doesn't help it in any way compared to Antec 1200.
And Thermaltake's GPU load temps are worst, especially lower card suffers because that area doesn't have any case airflow and chipset is running much hotter than in others. (fan doesn't help much if it just jams air into place from where it can't get away)

As other example of importance of overall airflow control one user had 10C CPU load temp decrease in CM Cosmos after making airflow guide forcing top exhaust fans to draw their air from rear end above CPU. .. even with slow speed fan in heatsink that would be explainable by case airflow being concentrated to right area instead of most of airflow going to wrong places.
Click to expand...

But I would have thought that the Antec 1200 would win anyway due to it having 6 high powered fans compared to HAF's 4 so cant really blame it on the HAF having the side fan, Or did they test the HAF without the Side fan aswell and got better results ?? (review not in english so cant read :( )

Maybe the Antec would have had even better temps if it had a side fan ? hehe :p...Although I can understand how airflow could be disrupted by the side fan.
 
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DanKurt said:
But I would have thought that the Antec 1200 would win anyway due to it having 6 high powered fans compared to HAF's 4
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And most of them normal 12cm fans vs. HAF's three huge 23cm ones...
Antec was tested with fans both low (red) and high (green temperature bar) which correspond to 1200 and 2000rpm speeds... With associated huge noise difference which doesn't translate to similar difference in temperatures of hottest components. (neither did HAFs big very low speed fans give noise advantage)

Wasn't that still bigger fan size another holy goal?

Maybe the Antec would have had even better temps if it had a side fan ?
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Graphics cards with exhausting cooler would help to that side fan pushing air into trap problem but even then possible temperature advantage would depend on how much higher ambient temperature is inside case than room temperature... which difference is from about none to few degrees in that type of cases.


Mal X said:
it's like at home... the quickest way to cool my house in this heatwave, is to have the front and back windows open....opening the back windows only does nothing........you have to have a draft/ free flow of air.....
Click to expand...
For that best "non-forced" method is that used in traditional houses of some Arabian Peninsula/Middle East cities:
Warm air rises in chimney like towers on top of buildings drawing cooler air into house from shadowy alleys between buildings.
(I think those big termite nests of tropical areas use similar method for ventilation)
 
Utilising convection can help a great deal with house cooling :) I normally open the top window, place a 20" box fan there and turn it on to max and then open the windows on the front or back of the house which has not got the sun on it, works well.

The same applies to cases :)
 
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