Airflow...

[Faux_carnival]

my case has no fans mounted in it right now, but I have

2 x 120mm
4 x 80mm fans waiting to be mounted...

How should I place them for a nice airflow?

 

[72montecarlo]

What kinda case do you have that has room for two 120mm fans is what i wanna know. lol. If you can, have the incoming air directed toward the cpu, mobo, and possible hard drives. try to have the exhaust air being sucked out near the cpu heatsink for effectiveness to keep the ambient temperature inside the case down. also try to have the same amount of cfm's being pulled in as being sucked out. so dont have 5 fans sucking air in and one out. hope this helps.

 

[Blind_Arrow]

thats too much, seems u r like noise lover, 6 fans, and two of them 120MM, cool man.

now, fans is a necessity, agreed. I spent a good time thinking about my case air flow design and fans to be mounted.

1 thing is for sure that you have to balance the air flow in casing (unless you have other holes at sides, back of the casing.

now writing cos and pros of both scnerios which are high air flow and low air flow:

High Air Flow: good thing = keeps internal temperature lower, means saving silicon on motherboard/components cooler, hence longer life, as this is achieved with a good number of fans and/or high speed fans, eventually makes ur casing working like a billdozer. your neighbours cannot sleep, because u have to turn up volume high enough to listen to songs/videos.

Low Internal flow: keeps temperature a little higher than case above, but low noice (depends on fans as well).

in both cases, you have to make air flow good enough, that it is balanced, as the PSU has as well own fan, so make it like, assuming your PSU's CFM is 30, and your 120MM fan has 50, totalling to 80CFM exhaust, so install some fan like pushing in 80CFM, to balance the effect, if you have installed higher speed fans or more fans to pul air out, what it'll effect in other way is that it'll try getting air from all sides of casing, and if you dont have holes on side ways (like in my case, using ChenBro casing) after some time, you'll fine dirt getting into your CD/DVD drives, Floppy, and in every minute hole you can find.

I had done this mistake before. as I specially bought Fortran PSU (has 120MM fan beneath rather than at back) and pulls air out of CPU fairly fast, other than that, I as well installed a 120MM fan that came with my casing, of course it wasnt a bad/noisy fan, but very high air flow. and after sometime, i started finding dirt trying entring my optical drives, and a day came (as I didnt used my CD-RW too much, it died (was brand new) . though it was replaced at the very moment with DVD-RW, but it brought bad effect to the face my of beautiful black PC (DVD-RW is white), now as I have installed a 80MM fan at back, balancing the air flow, else thatn that, I as well have opened one of the front slots for the best optimum air flow across the casing. no dirt in optical drives, low noise, and cooler casing.

I want performance out of my system, not the beauty.

 

[Praetor]

What kinda case do you have that has room for two 120mm fans is what I wanna know.

Most cases can accomodate two 120mm cases

High Air Flow: good thing = keeps internal temperature lower

Minor condition related to that: this only is effective if the internal temperature of the case is not so close to the ambient room temp ... otherwise you'll be circulating hot air

seems u r like noise lover

Hell yeah *Yay Tornado*

assuming your PSU's CFM is 30, and your 120MM fan has 50, totalling to 80CFM exhaust

PSUs will prolly be closer to 15-20, as for the 120s usually they have the CFM rating written on them

 

[Nephilim]

also try to have the same amount of cfm's being pulled in as being sucked out. so dont have 5 fans sucking air in and one out.

Absolutely!

 

[Praetor]

Bah symmetry --- overated!

 

[4W4K3]

i actually have 3 in and 3 out...but 1 of the outgoing is REALLY slow...like 500RPM lol...so CFM's are low. my case has an window in the front ,holes along the topside, and an area in back where air gets in...so alot of air is just blowing through. if you have a case like mine with small holes eveywhere then symmetry isn't really important. also if you have grills infront of your fans you really need to cut them out. they can restrict airflow/CFM's by 80% or more. i cut mine out recently and my fan RPM is higher, there actually quieter due to less air resistance on ball bearings and metal, and an added small bonus of more light...just little tips so a case with more CFM's and less noise.