Hi all, I'm considering adding a front fan to my fractal design R3. If i add another 120mm fan to the front, do i need to add any other fans?? Will there be any adverse effects with the air pressure if i dont add another fan? And is it event worth doing.... Im only considering it cause Im picking up a fan for my old PC to change out the noisy one as my my GF's dad is buying it off me. Going to be sad to see the old girl go.......q6600, with my old 8600GT, was very good for a very long time :'( Upgraded to a gtx 460 but moved that to my new pc.
Definitely worth doing. It will improve your airflow a bit and thus improve your temps. Adding a front intake fan does not necessitate adding another fan anywhere else. No adverse effect, your pressure overall will become less negative. You might notice a slight increase in noise however, which might be of concern if you bought your R3 for absolute silence. I would say it is worth it for the cooling, I added an additional intake to my mini P180 and the system is still quiet but is slightly noisier, but cooling is noticeably improved.
Imjust thinknig bout the sound situation.......ok SO both fans have 11db rating.....now if I think back to sound wave properties......that means the end sound will be like 16db right??? Or am I missing something???
14. However, there has been testing done that shows that if you use two fans instead of one and slow them down so that the noise level remains the same, your airflow will be higher. So the more the better! Also - assuming you already have 2 exhaust and one in, adding another in will make pressure equal rather than negative and therefore help with dust.
I have only 1 exhaust...still everything is stock on the case. Thats what my concern was....pulling in more than exhausting
I wouldn't really bother thinking about it. I have two intakes at front and one at the bottom of the case (for technical reasons) and there is minimal dust in the case. The only thing you will need to do is to clean the fan filters at front once in a while. And yes, of course you can run the fans slower - i run my Air Penetrators at ~650RPM in idle, you can't notice them at all, yet everything (including GTX570) is around 40-45C.
Pulling in more than you're sucking out is the idea. That means that wherever there is a gap in the casing, there extra air pressure will be flowing outwards. Therefore everything coming in to the case will be through a dust filter.
OMFG...I cant beleive I didnt think about it like that. Rep for you sir......for helping me get over this moment of complete and utter stupidity.
TBH unless you have specific concerns about your current temperatures I wouldn't bother with adding any fans for now. My system copes absolutely fine in my R3 despite running it in the stock configuration with all sound proofing parts in place. My new HD6950 (unlocked and running at HD6970 clocks -with +20% in powertune) runs a little hotter than my old GTX460OC (well it idles higher but both reach around 80 degrees under load) but I have no concerns. I value silence though so your opinion of reasonable temperatures may be different to mine.
I've tried lots of different fan configurations on the Fractal R3 and found the best combination is a Scythe Gentle Typhoon rated at 1850RPM in the rear exhaust, Be Quiet! USC Silentwings in the bottom intake and a couple of Silverstone Air Penetrators as front intakes or Akasa Apache, although the later will likely need fan header extension cable. You can control fan profiles via the BIOS anyway to manage the noise.
