Its a sort of open ended question so I'll try and narrow it down a bit: I've been thinking about getting a Bitfenix Prodigy Mini-ITX case and I see that the fan options for the front are 2 x 120mm or 1 x 140/180/200/230. Now I'm wondering what would be the best compromise on cooling/noise for an air cooled OC ivy bridge 3570/3770K. Any suggestions please? Also should I concentrate on intake or exhaust. Many thanks
Intake is number one priority because it gives the case positive pressure and naturally pushes air out.
Applying some basic maths a 230mm fan has roughly 3.6x the intake area of a 120mm fan. So all other things being equal 230mm has 1.8x times the flow rate of 2 120mm fans. Unfortunately all the other things are generally not equal (flow rate at speed y, noise level etc). So if I had a choice, should I use 2x120 or 1x230 if I wanted the best cooling together with lowest noise?
I was wondering the same thing when I changed to the Prodigy. Eventually went with the 230mm as the intake, with 2x120's as exhausts. I decided I wanted to reinstall my fan controller into the 5.25 bay so that ruled out having 2x120's at the front. Idle temps are 35 degrees at stock on a P8Z77-I, i5-2500K. I whack the fans up to full when the CPU is under some stress (converting mkv's with handbrake) and temps rarely rise above 45 degrees. Cheers
