Cooling New case, Design my Air flow for me Please!

Alright, I have a new very large Thermaltake case, and want your help with desinging my ar flow (fans)

What you need to know:
-2 bottom front fans (set up as intake "Blow" right now)
-2 Left side case fans (towards back/bottom - one right over CPU fan and other right over my PCI cards) - there setup as exaust "suck" right now.
-2 Back case Fans right under my PSU (near CPU) - Both set-up as exhaust right now "suck"
-1 top case fan set up as exhaust right now "suck"

-My CPU fan is a suck (sucks heat outa heat sink into the case)

-My PSU Fan is a suck "exhaust" (takes air outa case - top back).

So that is currently 5 exaust fans and an exaust PSU. A Suck CPU Fan, and two intake fans at bottom front.

I don't know if this is the best configuration out there, or if 2 intake and 6 exhaust is to much exhaust, I really dont know, this is my first case with more than 2 fans in it .

Any and all Ideas welcome!

 

i like to have my fans setup so that,
the frount and anythign else are intakes
and the top and back are exhaust's

im my case though i have a 92mm next to the psu. so i use that as a intake over the hardrives. then it goes into the side of the psu and back out the back

 

First of all... intakes suck air into the case... exhausts blow air out of the case... so "*suck*" = intake... "*blow*" = exhaust... not the other way round as you've suggested 'Please Can I Go'


With that cleared up... I always set mine up with front/side fans as intakes (*suck*), and back/top as exhausts (*blow*) too

I'd therefore suggest changing your two side fans 'Please Can I Go' - and ideally your CPU fan as well... to intakes, rather than exhausts, to get a more balanced airflow.

The CPU fan orientation is open to argument, I know... but if you're using side intakes (which they need to be IMO, to draw cool air into the case)...
it makes sense [IMO] for the CPU fan to be an intake as well... else they'd be working against one another

 

That must be an Xaser. That is the exact fannage mien has.

 

While the airflow within the case is of high priority, don't lose sight of the placement of the case itself. If your case will be backed against a wall, positioned on the floor, or is in a generally cluttered area, those situations will need to be taken into account. If your case is against a wall or another surface, you may encounter blocked (entirely or partially) air vents, which obviously disrupts the airflow. If your case is set down onto a floor, especially carpet, it may be a good idea to install fan filters (typically constructed from foam or wire mesh) or try looking for another surface to set your case onto.

When looking into airflow management, there are three possibilities: negative flow, neutral flow, and positive flow. Each has a set of advantages and disadvantages. With negative flow, meaning less air is drawn into the system than exhausted, ambient temperatures are generally lower than neutral- or positively-flowing setups, however, more dust is able to be sucked into the case as well. With neutral airflow, an equal portion of air is both drawn and blown out of the case. As long as fans are positioned in the traditional arc (intake fans at the bottom-front of the case, exhaust at top and back of case) to aid with natural flow of heat, ambient temperatures and dust accumulation is kept to within fair ground. In positive flows, more air is being pushed into the system then what can be expelled, which results in recirculated hot air. Quite possibly the least desirable setup, this allows for dust to be spread throughout the entire machine while hot air raises ambient and core temperatures. Whenever possible, always look into negative- and neutral-flow formations, since desirable results are usually produced. In the event that positively-flowing air circulation is inescapable, consider purchasing fan filters, PCI slot fans, or even positioning the intake fans near an A/C vent to aid with temperatures.

Hope this helps!

 

Er, no.

There is no such thing as negative, positive or neutral case pressure or flow. We're talking about a for all intents and purposes open metal box. The actual pressure differentials (if any) are pretty much unmeasurably small. And if air can't get through, it doesn't build up pressure; it simply stalls.

If intake fans suck in less air than the exhaust fans expell, all you get is that slightly more air is drawn in through the many gaps and openings in the case. Slightly. In a closed system, the exhaust fans would have to work harder and make more noise, and the intake fans would spin up as well, but in reality nothing will really be affected. You would NOT get a pressure drop anywhere near sufficient for a drop in ambient temperature caused by low air pressure (which would be a bad idea anyway because components have to get rid of their heat and heat transfer to air works better than radiation. A vacuum computer case would be a bad idea). In this "negative pressure" setup some people agonise that dust enters the case through the gaps along with the air that is sucked in, but again, in reality that is negligable.

If the intake fans suck in more air than the exhaust fans expell, air will simply leak out through the many gaps and openings. Again, we are talking about hardly perceptible differences. In a closed system, the exhaust fans would simply spin up as the air escapes through the opening they provide. In reality, you will NOT get overpressure and case temperatures will not be measurably affected. Some people think that a "positive pressure" setup will prevent dust from entering the case, but again, they are mistaken.

A roughly "neutral" or balanced setup is preferable purely because you get a nice airflow and neither intake or exhaust fan needs to work (slightly) harder, generating (slightly) more noise. Hot air rises, so setups generally have cold air entering at the bottom and leaving at the top, to work with convection rather than against it. Dust will be dust; it will get sucked in, rise on the hot air and what doesn't get expelled will whirl about until it settles in relative deadspots everywhere in the PC.

Filters on the intake fans are always a good isea, but they can restrict flow a bit and cause somewhat more noise. They need cleaning regularly.

 

Hmm. I was practically always told that noticable changes in pressure and temperature could occur with an unbalanced airflow, but I suppose I had never actually looked into the reality of the matter. Indeed Please Can I Go?, if it isn't obvious, you should listen to Nexxo on this matter.

 

I love the myth of air preasure in side of cases. (go nexxo go)! For a long time we have all been operating in a land of vodoo but the real world is much simpler then we would think.

With as meny fans are your putting into this system i would just balance the intakes and exausts and buy the quitest fans i could reasonably afford. as long as there is air movement across the important parts of your computer so that convection can take place then you should be fine.

 

Nope, not in pressure. Temperature may be affected by unbalanced airflow, but that depends really on where you start from. If you have intake fan working at 50%, say, and exhaust fan at 100%, you will get less cooling joy than when both fans work at 100%. This is nothing to do with air pressure but simply that in the latter case, overall airflow is stronger than in the former.

If, starting from the same scenario (50% in, 100% out) you switch both fans to 50% you might find a small increase in temps, but although you might then conclude that underpressure is cooler than a balanced airflow, in fact the temperature difference is to do with the fact that the overall airflow has been throttled down a bit.

 

Alright, My computer is on a carpeted floor, *because its so huge... and yes it is an Thermatake Xaser III*. The front lower intake fans do have Filters. As to both my side fans. My other fans (PSU, back two, and top) do not, and shouldn't require any as they are all pretty well off the ground. Alright as for getting dust in my filters or ect is most sertantly not a problem... I play paintball and have several compressed air tanks with a remote line. I just turn in on at 4500PSI and it takes all the dust outa that mofo. Also noise is not an issue at all considering the comptuers in my basement.

Alright.. So heres what I'm thinking... just keep posting any Ideas.

***Front two fans intake*** (I like this because the can intake cool air offa my basement floor, they are filted, and as intakes they cool off my 6 Hard drives really well *not that my HD's actually ever get hot..but they feel nice and cool to the touch*)

***Side two fans intake*** (there the next lowest set of fans, and can intake cool air that will blow right over my always hot graphics card, and the other fan will take in cool air the will blow right over top of my CPU)

***CPU FAN blows air onto the CPU*** (Takes the cool air from the side fan and blows it onto the CPU)

***PSU fans*** (automatically set as exaust)

***Back fans exaust*** (going to set both as exaust to blow out all the hot air that comes from the front after going over HDs, MOBO, and CPU)

***Top Fan exaust*** (Based on the simple mater that hot air rises)

Alright now I also have two other fans.

I have a Northbridge Chip Fan, which im thinking on setting up to blow air onto the chipset, same reasons as CPU fan.

And I have a PCI fan... which I think i will place right under Video Card, to suck out the air that was once cool *comming in from side fans* but is now hot after going over the Video cards heat sink.

I'm also considering getting an actually video card. Now I weird card.. I'm having troubles even finding it on the Internet...

It's a Sapphire ATI 64-bit Radeon 9250 128MB DDR PCI card. It has one like normal monitor output (I cant remember name ... it's blue), one ov the newer monitor outputs (Once again too tired to recall name, it's white), and one s-video output. I'v looked into getting a fan for it, but found no fan that fits this particular model. I'v seen cards that say there Radeon 9250, but must be a different model, and there's also SE versions and etc. I hope someone can recomend and send me a link to a fan that will fit this particular model (The card is black... incase this helps)

Thank-you all.

 

You pwn.

 

HELP ME AS WELL

Okay I have been reading about the many fan locations and such, but I am new to this whole thing. I have a Aspire X-Infinity case with a side fan set to intake and a top fan set to exhaust, my 12cm fan on the back is set to exhaust, as well as my psu, and I have no intake fans on the bottom front, my comp runs about 94 degrees F ambient temperature, with cpu around 38C I have a BFG Geforce 7950 GX2 and it seems to run a bit hot about 61C on rest, I am not sure the best way to cool my Computer, What is a good fan placement, my CPU cooler is the Arctic Freezer 7 Pro, for a P4 630. I am new to this whole building thing, I love to game so an ideas on how to keep this baby cool would be great, thanks.

 

Well by adding a 120 mm or 80mm side fan maybe 2 you can cool cpu and graphics with placement right at the intake to the fans this will allow cooler outside air to enter and target at heatsinks that benefit from cool air. Try to balance fans though turbulence can get noisy but liek Nexxo said the fans allow so little actual pressure that you wouldn't notice the gradient. Now if you have ever been in and ACed house and if a door is closed it may be hard to open to a room. Since its rather well sealed and the only real opening is at the base if the door is closed pressure builds but not much enough though that it may be harder to open the door than you would expect. But be careful wih 4500psi gas it may damage components if released to quickly. Crack something or blow up a fan.




if thats what you have this will cool it. VF700-AlCu made by zalman.