Lets talk about air flow

[eyetrip]

Well, too tired to be much good at coding today, so my mind is wandering and I got to thinking about airflow in my case, probably after a thread the other day asking about side fan as intake/exhaust.

Read the following:
More recent study: bit-tech study

Much older study from 2003 :
http://icrontic.com/article/pc_airflow_heat_cooling_guide


Now, my case has the option for many fans, and I imagine for the most part it's in line with most cases available now.

2x120mm front, 1x140mm bottom, 1x140mm side, 2x140mm top, 1x120mm rear. Now I am sure there will be variations on this from large 20cm intakes etc, to 4 x side fan mounts, but I think the general air flow principles will remain the same.

Now would I be best off just populating as many as I could such as
Front: 2x120mm intake
Bottom: 140mm intake
Side: 1x140mm intake
top: 2x140mm exhaust
Rear: 1x120mm exhaust

I can't help but wonder how all this works together in the larger picture...

Am I actually messing up airflow with all these fans? Probably, and once I got my new cooler installed I might spend a little while trying different things.

I know the side intake definitely helps with keeping the GPU's cooler, and setting as exhaust temps shot up, but I never did look at rest of system - was suggested doing so would lower board temps.

I am not looking for anyone to advise me on which way to go here, but I am keen to hear peoples experience form trying different things, and what worked and what didn't.

 

[eyetrip]

Yes, I was recently using two at top, and from reading that bit-tech article, sound like that might not have been a good idea.

Keep thinking all my recent woes with temps have been down to how I have my fans.

And can using high speed fans sometime be more detrimental than using normal speed fans?

E.g. if I only had a fan in bottom, and not side, to blow over two gpu's in crossfire, if I had the fan speed too high, could the air be blowing too fast for the top card to get a chance to suck in any air? Not sure I explained that well, but hopefully you get the it.

You know like if it's a windy day, you move around a corner, and the wind doesn't reach you because of the wall? Though I suppose a gentle breeze would suffer the same...