Front fans vs front-side fans?

[katie279]

Hi all, just a quick question.

Designing a case at the moment and just thinking through airflow/fan layouts.

One quick question is that I see most PC cases have intake fans at the front, ie like:

Corsair iCUE 7000X RGB Tempered Glass Full Tower Smart Case - White (CC-9011227-WW)

Order Corsair iCUE 7000X RGB Tempered Glass Full Tower Smart Case - White (CC-9011227-WW) now online and benefit from fast delivery.

www.overclockers.co.uk

And others have them at the side of the front (sorry, don't know the correct way to describe this!), but like this:

Phanteks NV7 D-RGB with Front and Side Glass Panels Full Tower Case - Black

Order Phanteks NV7 D-RGB with Front and Side Glass Panels Full Tower Case - Black now online and benefit from fast delivery.

www.overclockers.co.uk

Is there any pros or cons of these two designs?

Just wondering if airflow or anything else is affected more by one approach?

 

[katie279]

Hey, thanks for this - some really clever points - totally agree on the acoustic point, that makes a lot of sense.

I'll be building out of hardwood, so think it'll be waaaay better than standard metal/glass for acoustics, but still!

Cool, think I'll design for a front-side fan intake then!!

 

[katie279]

Cool - helpful ideas!

Yes, I'm building a similar build (4090 + 7950x + 96GB + 8tb NVME) - have got :

- a 420mm AIO fan for the top
- 3 x 140mm front/side intake
- 1 x 140mm exhaust at back
- PSU self-contained intake>exhaust

Should give plenty of airflow whilst keeping negative pressure (can adjust with PWM setting if need be)

 

[katie279]

Interesting thought - my concern would be whether this would start becoming a carpet muncher for dust?

I've posted a starter thread here for the project!

Whisperwood

Hi all, Starting a PC build - looking to play mainly solitaire and use for a bit of Word letter writing, so thanks to all your advice I've gone with following specs, which apparently should be able to just about run them without too much lag: Specs: GPU: RTX 4090 CPU: AMD 7950x RAM: 96GB HDD...

forums.overclockers.co.uk

 

[katie279]

Yes, was just designing a 3d printed cartridge to re-use my laddered tights!

Apparently nylon seems to outperform all the standard mesh dust filters by a mile, so I figured I'd make something to solve it - so I might take you up on that idea...! You'll see I've already got the PSU intake there, so could easily add some extras!

 

[katie279]

Ah, is that why you stole your wife's tights was it Pastymuncher???

Well I certainly get through enough, so I should have an endless supply! I'll need to do a test video once I've decided on my fan cartridge design and test airflow rates of different deniers, M&S vs the rest etc!

 

[katie279]

Cool - useful expertise!

To your point on GPU and cool air to it, do you think it would be worth building custom ducting to direct air directly to it from one of the front fans? I've seen a few videos that suggest you get good results from this?

 

[katie279]

Yeah cool - have gone with the arctic freezer 420, so that'll be perfect I think.

Just to be clear, I'm not planning on using these cases, was just meaning as a reference - I'm planning to build one, as per:

Whisperwood

Hi all, Starting a PC build - looking to play mainly solitaire and use for a bit of Word letter writing, so thanks to all your advice I've gone with following specs, which apparently should be able to just about run them without too much lag: Specs: GPU: RTX 4090 CPU: AMD 7950x RAM: 96GB HDD...

forums.overclockers.co.uk

Gotta do things the hard way.....

 

[katie279]

Excellent advice - makes perfect sense, ok I'll have a good think about this! I feel some testing coming on....