How many fans is to many fans?

marc512

marc512

marc512

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How many fans do you think is overkill in a case? theres a few cases iv looked at what have 10+ fans...to me if find that a waste. All the air will be forced out every hole in the case. i think just having 5 fans would be perfect for all type of systems.
 
Running 5 here at the minute, 2 x front intake, 1 rear exhaust and 2 on the cpu cooler, all are relatively low speed which keeps noise to a minimum.
 
marc512 said:
How many fans do you think is overkill in a case? theres a few cases iv looked at what have 10+ fans...to me if find that a waste. All the air will be forced out every hole in the case. i think just having 5 fans would be perfect for all type of systems.
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Depends on the airflow tbh! 10 ultra slow fans could push more air quieter than 5 medium ones.

I prefer negative pressure in a case for the airflow. PErsonally I have 2 intakes and 2 outtakes (+ 1 more for the gfx card and +1 for the CPU).

The rear fan takes the hot air from the CPU directly out. The PSU vents the air, and a top and front fan intakes. You could have more, but I don't need to!
 
Mine is a bit off a strange setup, my 2 front intakes are 2000 rpm fans run off a controller, the 2 cooler and rear case exaust are all pwm models ran via the cpu header with power from the psu via an akasa pwm splitter. Only dial the intakes up when benching/stress testing.
 
I'm using :

3 intake fans. A 200mm fan and a 120mm at the front with a 120mm at the bottom of the case blowing cool air up into the graphics card.

2 outake fans. A 200mm fan at the top of the case and a 120mm venting behind the CPU.

I also have 2 120mm fans on the CPU cooler.

So that's 7! 8 if you include the graphics card cooler, all running nice and slowly though :).

I did have another 200mm fan on the case side panel pulling air in, but I have a window there now. Removing it didn't really effect temperatures at all.
 
Too many is when you add more fans and the running temps don't drop!!

I've got an Antec P180 and I have 1 fan in the centre of the lower chamber cooling the HDDs, I have 1 lower intake in the main section which feeds air towards my 5850 which exhausts via the rear and I have the upper intake feeding towards the push/pull CPU cooler which then feeds air toward the rear exhaust.

So, 6x Noctua 120mm fans all at low speed, virtually inaudible.
 
I can remember reading a review where they tested the cooling of the same case with different fan setup.

The best cooling solution found was.

Having a rear exhaust fan, and a top of the case mesh hole for rising heat to escape.

Second best, just the sole exhaust fan.

This actually in the test performed better than having an intake fan and an exhaust fan (don't ask me why just reporting what I read).
 
Once I've got my system built up again, there's going to be 11 fans in my case.

9 x 120mm and 2 x 92mm.

Though 6 of these will be for my rads, and the majority of the fans will be hooked up to my fan controller...
 
Also going to be doing an overhaul on my fan collection, changing to a lian li full tower case, gotta source a pair of decent 140mm fans to replace the led ones it comes with as standard.
 
As I already stated, I need 6 x 120mm fans for my quad and double radiators, the rest of the fans are stock case fans...

It might be overkill to you, but I personally don't think it is...
 
With my current setup im only using one motherboard fan header, (cpu). All others on the board are free, my sharkoon fans have very short cables and im loathed to use extenders as theyre a bit messy.
 
I only use 1 extra for intake on the top which blows air down to the CPU and gfx card and then have on the cpu cooler, psu and gfx card. It runs real nice and cool.
 
Depends on the setup, but any more than 4 unless youve got rads to cool etc.

I've unplugged the top fan in my fortress today and fitted a much quieter + slower rear fan. Ironicly i've shaved off 4c on load temps somehow. Silence is golden too :cool:
 
12 x 120mms here

6 push/pull on a triple rad - Intake
2 pull on a double rad - Intake
1 pull on a single rad - Intake
1 Rear exhaust
2 Roof exhausts

MM U2 UFO case.

:D
 
In my second akasa eclipse rig im only running 2 fans, 1 intake and 1 exhaust, though the 2 raptor hdd's are stored in vantec vortex cooling bay units, the fans on theese are louder than any case fan if set to high.
 
PistolPete said:
Too many is when you add more fans and the running temps don't drop!!
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Or increase when fans are just messing airflow and fighting against each others. (like side fan can do easily)

Anth said:
I can remember reading a review where they tested the cooling of the same case with different fan setup.
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Here's one such test:
http://tech.icrontic.com/articles/pc_airflow_heat_cooling_guide


My case has two intakes and two behind HDD cage for push-pull config.
Two rear exhaust fans, third exhaust in Lian Li PCI cooling kit and of course CPU heatsink fan.
 
setter said:
Running 5 here at the minute, 2 x front intake, 1 rear exhaust and 2 on the cpu cooler, all are relatively low speed which keeps noise to a minimum.
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marc512 said:
Im running 5 aswell. 2 on top, 1 rear exhaust 1 cpu and 1 intake.
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What about the ones in your PSU and graphics card?

shadowscotland said:
I'm using one fan in my system - (extract case fan) every thing else is passively cooled
but i've used less fans ;)
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Aha! When I saw the thread title I knew you'd pipe up!! :D

I'm on 4 in total, 1 in the PSU, 2 92mm and 1 120mm, and that feels like too much at times. :p
 
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