Case cooling sugestions

[ecclesk]

i have an antec case which has the option for three fans,

Fan1 = back of case, 120 x 120mm

Fan2 = side panel, 80 x 80mm

Fan3 = front, 80 x 80mm

At present a have Fan1 extracting, Fan2 not installed, Fan3 intake. However it's very noisy and i want to look at changing the fans, also the cpu is a P4 3Ghz 478 with stock heatsink & fans i would like to overclock it so i think i will change these as well.

Any suggestions on what to go for? and what set up, for example should i have Fan2 & Fan3 for intake and Fan1 for extraction and should i match the 2 of 80 x 80mm fans so the provide the same air flow as the 120 x 120 the even things out?

i dont know where to start so any advice would be a great help.
Thanks in advance

 

[Arthalen]

Its simple math really.

120mm Fans > 80mms Fans

More airflow (bigger blades), slower spin speeds (less noise). Better all round. Just hope your case has mountings for them.

I have 120mm fans and their whisper quiet, apart from my SilverStone FM 121 which is a bit of a Thundergod at full whack. Still, cant beat the 111CFM it moves!

 

[gr1mey]

If possible you could use the 80-120mm fan adapters sold here at OcUK, in order to utilise the better performance of the 120mm fans - they are quieter and push more CFM.

ideally you would want the side case fan (over the CPU?) to be directly taking warm air from the CPU heatsink, and the rear fan also extracting too. Think about getting the Scythe Ninja and having its 120mm fan pushing air directly onto the rear exhaust.

In a standard air setup the front should always be intake.

Akasa Amber seem to be the fave round these parts, they are quiet and have a fairly respectable CFM rating (personally I dont like the clear and orange plastic, yuk!). Other options would be Panaflow, Vantech Stealth or Sharkoon Silent Eagle.

Hope this sheds some light (no not air) onto the situation

 

[Mikebert4]

I was faced with a similar dilemma when i first built my rig. It was noisy and hot.

I decided in the end on 2x120mm Akasa blue LED fans (sold here), they look good, are reasonably quiet and shift a very respectable CFM.

I also took some serious time considering what I wanted to achieve in terms of airflow, I reasoned that three things were possible:

Intake > Exhaust
Exhaust < Intake
Intake = Exhaust

Assuming a low-mounted intake on the front and a high-mounted Exhaust on the back.

The first, you jam a lot of air into the system, which proceeds to heat up (cooling the components) and then waits to be shifted out of the case, this isn't a great idea, as you have hot air bumbling around in your case making it hotter.

The second, you jam some cold air in through one fan, and then exhaust it giving it a minimal time in the case, this means that there'll alway be cold air being drawn into your case, and hence a cooler PC.

The Third is Ideal, but impossible to achieve .


I had a Freezer 64 Pro mounted so it blew air directly out through the rear exhaust fan. This was excellent, and temperatures reflected this. If you want to mount the scythe so it does this i can Guranatee good results

eventually, i mounted a fan on the window, which goes against what i've been saying, as i was blowing more air into my PC than it could exhaust... but as it was blowing cool air directly onto the graphics card and was desperately needed (temps around the 80's are NOT good) i'm going to pretend that it was a perfectly justified installment

Hope all this waffle helps!