Side Fan

nuzik

nuzik

nuzik

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should it intake or exhaust, or could I get two and do them both?
Whats the advice guys?
Bigger fans or smaller?
 
As big as possible. The intake/exhaust question depends on the sidefan location and your other airflow.

Start by giving us your case and fan placement.
 
ubersonic said:
Blower style GPU = side intake
Non-blower style GPU = side extract
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However if your GPU is high in the case and the sidefan is low, you cannot put it as exhaust or otherwise it exhausts air that has not yet reached the GPU and starves it of air = worse cooling.
 
Make said:
However if your GPU is high in the case and the sidefan is low, you cannot put it as exhaust or otherwise it exhausts air that has not yet reached the GPU and starves it of air = worse cooling.
Click to expand...
The only way you can starve something of air is by creating a vacuum which isn't going to happen. Arguably a side exhaust below a graphics card may well draw cool air towards it especially if there is an intake near the bottom of the case.

That said I'm not keen on side fans myself, I prefer a linear flow of air with intakes from the front and bottom of the case and exhausts at the top and rear. A side intake will interrupt this flow causing turbulence, hindering the air cycling through the case, and a side exhaust is going to have a lesser effect but will vent cool air out before it has got a chance to reach the CPU cooler (hot air rises so air in the middle of the case is cooler than at the top). Personally I think side fans are a legacy from when CPU's used to be nearer the centre of the motherboard and the majority of coolers were top down, a side intake would blow cool air directly over the CPU cooler which would be beneficial.

That's my take anyhow.
 
currently i have two front fans sucking air in, one on the top getting rid of hot air and one on the back doing the same.
I have two 7950's both the same, i was thinking of putting that the fan near the bottom by the GPU's they get to around 70-75 under full load.

I wasnt sure whether it was worth it and if so what it should do.
I have a bit finex shinobi case currently. Im modding the side into a mesh window and figured this would just add better air flow.
 
so what did we decide ive just ordered 3 spectre fans for the side, do i go exhaust or blow air in. I will be doing it right on the GPU's
 
Your Twin Frozrs will benefit from side exhausts in a Shinobi, especially if you're cutting a dedicated vent at the correct height.

That case has pretty horrible airflow even when using a single case venting card in my experience.
I had a dual x 7950 that when OC'd to only 1150mhz would run over 10C higher on the core (don't even ask about the VRMs) with the side panel on compared to the side panel off - and that's with front and bottom intakes + top and rear exhausts with all the case grills removed.

When I put an aftermarket cooler on there, using side exhausts were very beneficial in lowering temps by getting that hot air away from the card. Using them as intake fans actually raised temps.

The pics below show a 230mm square demciflex magnetic frame as it's what I had and made it look neat, but I'd recommend you just cut a 240mm hole about 1cm above the top card and use two 120mm fans. Three is unnecessary IMO.


 
Yeah airflow isnt good, ive got the side off and ur right the temps are much better off, i initially tried to drill some holes in the case to bring temps down and that worked to be honest but by 2 degrees .I got a pack of three fans thats why i was going to use them, im putting them behind some mesh. I'll try on exhaust when im done and its through and report back.
 
Honestly Side fans are such a waste, they completely interfere with your internal airflow. I went on a crazy mission to cool my 600t case, while I could have used the mesh instead of the window side panel and brought my GPU temp down my CPU temp would have gone up.

Instead I opted for a PCI Dual Fan bracket to go under my GPU http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-031-AL

Replaced the stock fans with much better ones, changed the orientation of my cooler (now blows out of the case instead of bringing air into the case which warmed my GPU up by 7c more!) and generally just improved the airflow, a side fan gives you an effect called AIRBLOW , your literally just blowing cool/extracting warm air from one spot a lot but you will end up with a trade off IE: CPU gets hotter. See my thread here http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18547523


Edit: should have checked what case you where using, still side fans hurt airflow. Can you not just get better front intakes? and the PCI bracket with 2x 120mm fans on, looks the shizz and flows cold air through your system
 
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Your mileage may vary, however, in my experience and that of many others, side fans are certainly not a waste of time when set up correctly.

ED: So directly removing the hot air that's being vented from the gpu's out of the side of the case hurts airflow and can make cpu temps rise?
That's strange, you would have thought that allowing that hot air to rise inside the case and be fed to the cpu cooler would have that effect instead.

As for getting better intake fans, there's sod all you can do to improve the front airflow in a Shinobi apart from cutting out the grills which doesn't do a hell of a lot except lower noise. Other than that, dremelling a big hole in the front panel or removing it completely is all you can do, and that's not really on the cards.

LtMatt has the same case as you, Murah. He also found that using side exhausts lowered gpu temps when he was using an Accelero, and side intakes lowered gpu temps when using IceQ xfire rear venting cards.
 
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Uncle Petey said:
Your mileage may vary, however, in my experience and that of many others, side fans are certainly not a waste of time when set up correctly.

ED: So directly removing the hot air that's being vented from the gpu's out of the side of the case hurts airflow and can make cpu temps rise?
That's strange, you would have thought that allowing that hot air to rise inside the case and be fed to the cpu cooler would have that effect instead.

As for getting better intake fans, there's sod all you can do to improve the front airflow in a Shinobi apart from cutting out the grills which doesn't do a hell of a lot except lower noise. Other than that, dremelling a big hole in the front panel or removing it completely is all you can do, and that's not really on the cards.

LtMatt has the same case as you, Murah. He also found that using side exhausts lowered gpu temps when he was using an Accelero, and side intakes lowered gpu temps when using IceQ xfire rear venting cards.
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Hi Petey, i agree i cant see taking warm air out will raise the temp of my CPU. I already use a decent Noctua CPU cooler and that keeps that damn thing cold. I'm going to go with exhaust its got to take the air out of the case at the most powerful heat source, can only be a good thing. I'll report back once ive got it all set up.
And as you say its impossible to improve front airflow unless i take the front plastic thing off.
Oh and can someone point me in the direction of the thigs that clip on the sides and top of the case to look pretty couldn't find them on the site
 
Sidefan definitely helps. You just gotta place it the right way, and the only real way to know that is to try it yourself in your case.

I'd say, remember dust filters.
 
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