Case Fans - How many and where?

[nheather]

I have an AMD64 3700+ which is overclocked in quite an old case.

The case is quite nice but has limited cooling options (because of its age) so I am going to replace it.

Cases that I have been looking at have 3 positions for fans - front, rear and side.

My first question is whether a side fan is useful or do they just apply to Intel CPUs?

My second question is airlow direction. I assume that the front takes air into the computer and the rear takes air out of it. But what about the side fan - in or out?

Thanks for the help.

Cheers,

Nigel

 

[decto]

Side fans are often good as they direct cool air into the GPU area though if you have a case with good airflow this is less of an issue.

I always set fans as:

front - in
side - in
top - out
rear - out

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[warren_1979]

I've got my side fan taking air out of my case. Seems to do the job.

 

[mp260767]

side fans can be down to the setup some work betting blowing in some sucking out so try both and see how it affects you're temps.