question on case fan configuration

[paendragon]

on my raidmax case I have 8 fans

- two in back
- two in front
- one up top
- one on the side panel away from mobo
- one on interior side of power supply
- one on exterior side of power supply

What would you guys recommend the optimal configuration to be for maximizing air flow?

back fans blowing out...? front blowing in...?

I'm very curious about the top and side fans (first case with those slots onboard).

I'm assuming PS fans should be interior fan blowing into PS (of course) and exterior fan exhausting (blowing out or pulling air out of the case).

enlighten me please - thanks in advance!
pd

 

[chuwawa]

Front and side fans should be intake, back and top should exhaust the air.

 

[Jojo7]

Here's how you should arrange the fans....THAT'S OVERKILL!

In all seriousness, it's an A64 3000+, not a 7.6ghz prescott on the surface of the sun.

Do your ears a favor and only use MAX of 2 front/rear fans and maybe one on the side panel blowing air onto the cpu.

As far as the arrangement goes, front 2 need to be blowing into the case and rear 2 exhausting air outside of the case.

 

[Pauli]

Most systems can do pretty well with a single rear-exhaust setup. Maybe a 2nd one running at very low speed blowing on the hard drives. I can't imagine NEEDING 8 fans -- geez, your rig must sound like Cape Canaveral on launch day!

 

[oupei]

Originally posted by: chuwawa
Front and side fans should be intake, back and top should exhaust the air.

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: oupei

Originally posted by: chuwawa
Front and side fans should be intake, back and top should exhaust the air.

I agree with this, but it's basically a more specific version of a general concept: you want to have the amount of intake and exhaust airflow. If you have more of one than the other, the fans just fight against each other and create noise and turbulence without increasing airflow.

Most mid-tower cases these days have slots for 2 front fans, and 1 rear fan (plus the fan(s) in the PSU, which basically count as "one" fan for these purposes even if there are two in there). Since the PSU fan is already an exhaust, it make the most sense to make the rear fan also exhaust, and the front fans intake (also, the rear fans are usually at the top of the case, where the warmest air is, so it makes sense to have the exhaust there). This gives you two intake fans and two exhaust fans.

If you add a side and top fan, you probably want one of them as intake and one as exhaust. Again, since hot air naturally rises, you probably want the top fan to be an exhaust -- and thus the side fan should be an intake (it also tends to blow cooler air directly on your hot CPU and video card, helping to cool them).

With even a fairly small number of fans, though, you can get a significant noise savings by using lower-noise fans, lowering their voltage, or both. You don't need a *ton* of airflow unless you have a very hot system.

 

[JonathanYoung]

I'd get rid of the side fan altogether. Cover it up or something. In my experience, the side fan messes up the airflow of the case, which should normally be from front to back. Here's the order of temperature, from high to low:

Side panel fan as intake
Side panel fan as exhaust
No side panel fan

I can't explain the science behind this but this is what happened in my situation. If I were you I'd mess around with different configurations until I found a good one. Also, as someone else mentioned, you might want to save your ears by going with less fans. Have fun!