Poll: how many case fans do you have?

[beer]

<< First, turn the fan on your CPU around. Regardless of what kind of heatsink you have, you'll end up with a hot-air-rotor around your heatsink and CPU if it blows air into the fins. Turn the fan around, and it'll pull the air in across the fins, and blow the hot air AWAY from the cpu. >>



Back your claims up with benchmarks! Proof is everything - and that is why you are incorrect. Alphas, because they have hte fan shroud, are the only popular HSFs with the fan blowing away (sucking) from the fins. Every other HSF (taht is popular and current at least) should blow onto the HSF. See http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=28&amp;threadid=245491 for some more details.

Also -


<< Thirdly, take a holesaw, jigsaw or whatever, and cut as many holes in the sides of your case as you can. Most fans don't move as much air as they can because the airflow is restricted coming in. Make lots of holes, and there will be no problem. What about pulling in all the dust bunnies? Simple. Take a Scotchbrite pad(like the kind you can use to wash dishes) and glue/tape/fasten them over the holes. They are simple, cheap, and trap an amazing amount of dust and lint for you. >>



I can't believe you recommend doing this. You can't just knock holes in your case at will. I have two big fans doing most of my flow control - the two 120mms. The rest are native fan mounts, or assist with air moving once it is in the case. That would look hideous - well I hope you get laughed out of the next LAN party, if you go to them.

 

[lotust]

Almighty1, thanks for that answer

 

[Almighty1]

Hey Odin:

I noticed you have the Addtronics 7896 which should be the same as the SuperMicro SC760A case I have. You know the fan on left side of the case, does positioning really matter for that fan since it seems like it's not a intake as all it does is recycle interior case air. I'm wondering for people with Golden Orb heatsinks on a Slot 1 motherboard, will this fan fight with the exhaust of the Golden Orb and would it be better to just aim it between the ATX I/O and the CPU instead.

 

[Almighty1]

Jumpem,

The SuperMicro SC760A case comes with one 92mm exhaust above the power supply and one 92mm blowing at the top of the motherboard. There are 7 more 80mm mounts and all you need is the fan =)

 

[Almighty1]

Elemental:

Good point indeed. I have a Thermal Take Golden Orb FC-CPGA version and you can't really flip the fan around on this one. The only thing I did was had the dealer since I know him swap out the Chrome ORb's fan and swapped it with my Golden Orb since the fans are the same size. The Golden Orb's original fan is 20cfm or 19cfm and 4500rpm. The Chrome Orb's is 25cfm and 5500rpm =)

 

[Stallion]

Almighty1, thanks from me too. You know how long it's been since I was any where near a text book? A long time..

I was wondering about the fan that mounts inside also. I have a 6890A and they sell a fan mount that goes where I have my HDDs but it looks like all it would do is blow air all over. What do you think?

 

[RagingGuardian]

Lite-On FS020 with 3 120mm Panaflos. Enermax 350 with 2 80mm fans and and video card and cpu with 1 60mm Panaflo each for a grand total of 7 fans. All this and it's the most quiet system I've had to date.

 

[ANTONIOLUC]

Almighty1, I've got also a 760A and i can speak on the cooling of this case.

First a brief description of my system:
Tyan 100 dual MB
2xPIII700@933 MHz at 175-1,8 volts
ABIT III sloketts with Golden Orbs
Tekram 390u2w
2xAtlas V 9,1 Gb mounted in the lower case half above the frontal fans
Plextor SCSI CDROM
PHILIP SCSI CDRW
GEFORCE (QUADRO)
SB Live!

They all generate not little heat so i'm concerned about the cooling of this case.

Right now the cooling configuration is as follows:
2x80mm in the frontal (entering air)
1x60mm in the rear (just besides the ports connector) (exhausting air)
GOlden Gorbs and PS fan of course

I have both 92mm fans off. The one above the PS because CDRX do not generate so much heat (HD are below). The one with which can be put in front of CPUs because my experience is that it does not help much in most of cases.

Temperatures with the box closed (included the front panel) are right nows with RC5 craking:

Room; 23°C
CPU1 (the one on the left): 41°C
CPU2 : 32°C
Chassis: 31°C

CPU1 is so high because Orb is nearly blocked by sloket of 2nd CPU and it can not take much air. Here, the 92 mm fan could help but it does not a lot now (better in summer with romm temp of 30°C)

CPU2 and chassis profit greatly of frontal fans.

Frontal fans are not so effective as they could be because case frontal cover is so thick, air filter is so thick and venting holes so small that hardly a little bunch of air can be brought inside the case.I've removed the dust filter but i donot like it because of the following.

I have been most of the time with the front cover removed. I this case CPU1 goes down up to 38 or 37 degrees and the other down to 28/29 degrees. The problem, DUST. Yesterday i started to experiment random lockups without any change in configuration, after messing around i decided to have a look on the fans and they all were full of dust. I cleaned them and now, with the box closed, no lockup.

So, i'm thinking in making some modifications to the box:
1-to make a hole in the side of the box, just in front of CPU1 and to put a 60mm fan that helps the Orb to dowm temperature. I will try to make some kind of &quot;conducting structure&quot; that helps that most of the air arrives directly to the input of the Orb.
2- to improve someway the frontal intake air. Howecver, I have still no clear idea of how
3- To use some of the empty 51/4 empty bays to install a fan that introduces air in the box.

Any idea will be welcome,

I think it is enough for this post.

Regards everybody

 

[pen^2]

better title would have been:
how many combined CFMs your fans have?

 

[nlr_2000]

6fans here

 

[Almighty1]

Antonio,

Thanks for your insight on the 760A.

I'm pretty much using the 2 stock 92mm fans as well as using a spare 80mm NMB 44cfm fan I had on the lower frontal for now. I have the left cover and front panel open. I'm not using the stock power supply but rather the 1998 version of the PC Power and Cooling Turbo 400 ATX Power supply which has a 80mm NMB 39cfm fan.

Here is a brief description of my system:
Abit BE6II v2.0 UltraDMA100/RAID MB
Celeron II 566@944Mhz at 1.95volts
Abit !!! Slotket with Thermal Take Golden Orb (I changed the stock 4500rpm 20cfm fan with the ChromeOrb's 5500rom 25cfm fan)
3 - 128MB PC133 CAS2 Crucial Technology DIMMs
Matrox G400 DualHead Max 32MB AGP Video Card
Intel Pro100+ Management NIC Adaptec
AHA2940UW UltraSCSI2 Controller

Drives viewable from outside:
3.5&quot; Teac 1.44MB Floppy
5.25&quot; Teac 1.2MB Floppy
Plextor 12Plex Caddy SCSI CDROM
Terratec AudioSystem EWS64XL Audio I/O panel
3 IBM 75GXP 75GIG UltraATA100 7200RPM HDD's

In the HDD cage mounted at default location:
2 Seagate Cheetah 18 GIG 10,000RPM SCSI HDD's

In another HDD cage mounted on the top and also the 5.25&quot; hidden bay way on the top:
3 Seagate Cheetah 18 GIG 10,000RPM SCSI HDD's

Externally:
HP DeskJet 855C Printer connected to LPT1
Sony CPD1304HG 14&quot; Monitor
Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer
Microsoft Natural Keyboard Pro
Microsoft Sidewinder Gamepad
Microsoft Sidewinder 3D Joystick
Philips OmniWriter26 2x write/1x rewrite/6x read External SCSI CDRW
Iomega Zip100+ External SCSI Zip
HP ScanJet IIC SCSI Color Scanner
HP ProCurve 4000M 10/100/Gigabit Switch
Tektronix Phaser 840GP Designer Edition Solid Ink Printer connected via 10/100 Ethernet

I live in San Francisco and there isn't any air conditioning in these old apartment buildings so I probably have to rely on air circulation. I have ordered 12 ADDA High Performance fans from Pham Computers two days ago and hopefully the fans will be here soon. I plan to replace the 92mm 44cfm fans with the ADDA 92mm 60cfm fans as well as add another bracket fan so now there will be two fans blowing at the top of the motherboard. I plan to put the other 7 ADDA 80mm 50cfm fans on the 3 frontal mounts and 2 on each side of the drive mounts. Although I don't know if the air will flow since the drives do block the air from flowing. The only problem here is that there will be 350+ cfm for just intake alone and only 138cfm of exhaust. This isn't counting the 120cfm from the two 92mm fans mounted on metal brackets.

Temperatures for mines is as follows with the front panel and left panel removed. If the panels were all added back, it would be 2C's higher for each category.

How do you measure the room temperature?
CPU: 44C
Chassis: 25C
Thermal Take Golden Orb Heatsink: 35C

You are probably right that the frontal fans do have airflow restricted somewhat because of the filter and venting holes. Can the dust filter be removed and then be put back in place later?

Speaking about dust, my case has had the left panel opened and only the front panel closed for the past year and a few days ago, I was cleaning all the fans and even the power supply and manually removed all the dust from the fans and other areas. I never knew that dust can cause a computer to hang.

Which fans are you using exactly and what's the cfm?

As for your modications, #1 would be good but probably the 92mm fan on the bracket would be more effective as long as it has a hole to take air from the outside. #2 is a mystery. #3, wouldn't the slot cooler on 3dcool.com be better since it exhausts 43cfm.

 

[ANTONIOLUC]

Almighty1,

What a storage capability!!! What are you running?

My fans are:
1x80mm Sunon + 1x80mm YsTECH in the front
1x60mm Sunon in the back
Orbs are with their stocks fans.

92mm fans are too loud for me. Even now there is too much noise for my taste. I like listening music without having to increase volume to much.

I measured room temperature with one of those termometres that have two sensors, one of them at the end of a cable to measure temp there where you want. I think values are relatively accurate.

Yes, the dust filter can be put in aand off without problem.

I was thinking to purchase that case cooler with the two 120mm fans to put it in the side of the box, i can't remember the name now, but i can not find it here in Spain and i'm not sure it fits in the 760 A.

I think the point is to ease the air flow, so if i'd get enough air in from the front as well as enough air out in the back. As simple to say as difficult to achieve.

About the dust, i did not thought either it can have such an effect but as my system is slightly overclocked () maybe the impact in the cooling is bigger. I have also to say that there was really much dust because there were several heavy building modifications in the neighbourhood.

I think i'm going to drill that hole in the side ...

 

[ANTONIOLUC]

Almighty1,

BTW, what about those cheetah, i was evaluating them because i think they have a very good cost-quality ratio but so far my storage needs are not so high. Noise ang heat??. Atlas V are fairly silent and cool.

Jus to complete the picture of my system, the remaining units are:

1xLS120 internal unit
1x100MB zip parallel external unit
1xSCSII-2 Epson GT700 scanner
1xHP 1220 A3 printer
1xDT2500 speakers.

 

[Almighty1]

Antonio,

Hehe, my machine is actually a server and also I do have a highend networking setup.

As for your fans, the 80mm and 60mm sunon's, are those the quiet, extra output or the high output?

The 92mm fans are fine for me since I have a $600 broadcast studio quality soundcard (See http://www.terratec-us.com/products/ews_xl/nav_ews_xl.htm)and Accoustic Research Power Partners 570 Audio/Video Speakers with 30 watt Amp on each channel. These were made for Music for hi-fi way and costed $350. If I really wanted to listen to music, then I'll just use my Proceed AMP5 and Proceed AVP and the other high-end gear in the living room for quality music. See www.madrigal.com and look under Proceed.

I figured you had to have some kinda of thermometer to measure the room temperature. I wish I had one.

How do you take the dust filter on and off since I thought it was permanent on the front cover. I know the Addtronics cases allows it to be removed.

Hmmm, I never knew a case cooler with two 120mm fans exist. Heh.

The problem with the SC760A is there seems to be more intakes than there is exhaust. They should really have made a extra hole on the top or just used a 120mm fan in the back.

Actually, both our systems are overclocked but on all my components including the heatsink and CPU, I first use Craig ProGold to clean, protect and enhance conductivity between the metal contacts. This has helped a lot since I learned that from doing all the audio/video stuff.

I probably think drilling a hole is a good idea but I just don't know how to do it without killing the case. hehe

 

[Almighty1]

Antonio,

The Cheetah's are okay. I had Barracuda's ever since it came out. I also have a 5 1/4&quot; Full Height Elite Wide SCSI 9 GB and a Micropolis Full Height 3.5&quot; 9GB SCSI. The Micropolis died. I think the IBM drives are good though. Not sure about Quantum since they don't exactly follow the SCSI spec after their Empire Series which I also have the 1GB SCSI version of.

 

[cage]

I have 10 fans total.

1 x cpu (Golden Orb)
1 x chipset (Globalwin FAC08)
1 x slot (AOC Slot Cooler)
3 x hd cooler (Generic 3x20mm fan HD Cooler)
1 x intake (80mm Sunon)
1 x exhaust (80mm Colorful)
1 x powersupply (80mm ?)
1 x video card (Socket 7 CPU Cooler)

/** My System **/
*
* Duron 600@824mhz (1.74v) on an Asus A7V (1.01)(Bios 1002)
* 128MB Generic PC100 Ram @ 133(2-2-2)
* Windows 98se on my Maxtor HD's 15GB@7200rpm, 17GB@5400rpm
* Viewsonic PF790 on a ATI Xpert 2000 @ 105/105mhz
* Cambridge Soundworks FPS2000 Digital Speakers on a Soundblaster Live! Value
* Running off a 250watt PS inside an Aopen HQ45 Case.
* ... Can't forget my vibrating Logitech iFeel Optical Mouse
*
/*******************************************************************************/

 

[bonkers325]

4 case fans

 

[Imported]

5 case fans in mine.

 

[Technonut]

Full tower case

1 Papst 120mm lower front intake
1 Papst 120mm rear top blowhole
2 Ultimate Hard Drive Coolers (hard drive heatsinks with 2 front intake fans each that draw through vented bay covers= 4 fans)

1 Delta 38CFM fan on my Alpha
2 fans in my 450 watter Enermax
1 video card fan

Total: 10 fans

EDIT: Almost forgot my 2CoolPC duct cooler= 11 fans

Results: Interior case temperature stays around whatever the room temperature is

 

[Jeff H]

8 total:

3 - 40mm in a hard drive cooler
2 - Enermax 330w power supply (one 80mm exhaust, one 92mm blowing on mobo)
1 - Thermaltake Golden Orb on Abit Slotket!!!
1 - Sunon Quiet Fan 80mm lower front case intake
1 - Super Slot fan exhausting out backplane slot

Case is AOpen HX45 midtower ATX.

 

[AMB]

I did have 6 Sunon 80mm case fans, now it is only down to two due to the noise

 

[xizor]

3 80mm intake in the front bottom
2 60mm intake in bottom 2 5.25 bays cooling harddrives
1 on Geforce GTS
2 60mm on Athlon HS
1 80mm out on PSU
1 92mm out on top of case

I can sleep with it on, so I don't think its too loud. The fan in my window is louder anyways, so you can't hear it.

xizor

 

[garrison]

1x ys tech 8x8 intake
1x 7000rpm intake
1x PSU outtake
1x ys tech 8x8 outtake
1x alpha pep66 cpu fan
1x cla2 gts fan
1x 8x8 generic hardisk fan

tot: 7

 

[4824guy]

1 case fan blowing in from the front
1 case fan blowing out from the rear
1 PS fan blowing out
2 fans on the CPU heatsink
1 on the V3-2000 card
1 in the open 5 1/4&quot; slot between a HD and CDRW unit, just for air circulation

 

[andri]

6:

1) The Loud One(tm) on PAL6035
2) 80mm intake
3) 92mm exhaust
4) bay cooler under GF
5) GF
6) PSU