Case fan orientation

[Guest]

I know there's more to this than just the number of case fans, but I'm curious as to how many case fans and what orientation, e.g 2 front intake and 1 back exhaust, is ideal

[MadAnt250]

It depends. What case do you have?

 

I just have 1 intake fan and one exhaust fan plus the PSU and my temps are fine.

[Guest]

5 minutes ago, MadAnt250 said:

It depends. What case do you have?

 

I just have 1 intake fan and one exhaust fan plus the PSU and my temps are fine.

I have a Phanteks P500A

[DailyProcrastinator]

I prefer a positive to balanced airflow. Positive meaning more intake fans than exhaust, but that does not directly correlate to more intake fans.

 

For example in my main system I have 2x 140mm intake fans at the front of my Fractal design Meshify C case, and 2x 120mm top exhaust fans, and 1x 120mm rear exhaust fan. Traditionally this equals a negative airflow setup as I have more exhaust fans. However, using custom fan curves to control my PWM fans, I am able to maintain a more balanced to positive airflow as my front intake fans spin at higher RPM then any of my exhasut fans. And in particular I keep my top exhaust fans at very low RPM almost at all times as I have a large air cooler for my CPU and I focus on directing the air through my case from right to left, not so much out the top.

 

Going through the time and process of setting up custom fan curves is not always straight forward for certain users. If using default/preset profiles I always recommend making sure PWM is on if you have 4-pin PWM fans. But if you use preset fan profiles I generally recommend more intake fans than exhaust, or at least an equal amount.

 

Keep in mind with most default profiles the CPU fan(s) often have higher RPM targets at a given temp vs other fans, depending on your setup this can mean a negative airflow setup. With negative pressure this means in order to maintain airflow you will suck in air form any open areas in your case, often unfiltered areas of the case.

 

So, for most setups at a minimum I recommend 2x intake and 1x exhaust fan, or 2-3x intake with 2-3x exhaust. This varies from case to case of course, and filling every fan slot is not a necessity depending on the hardware inside the given case. 

[Guest]

4 minutes ago, TheDailyProcrastinator said:

I prefer a positive to balanced airflow. Positive meaning more intake fans than exhaust, but that does not directly correlate to more intake fans.

 

For example in my main system I have 2x 140mm intake fans at the front of my Fractal design Meshify C case, and 2x 120mm top exhaust fans, and 1x 120mm rear exhaust fan. Traditionally this equals a negative airflow setup as I have more exhaust fans. However, using custom fan curves to control my PWM fans, I am able to maintain a more balanced to positive airflow as my front intake fans spin at higher RPM then any of my exhasut fans. And in particular I keep my top exhaust fans at very low RPM almost at all times as I have a large air cooler for my CPU and I focus on directing the air through my case from right to left, not so much out the top.

 

Going through the time and process of setting up custom fan curves is not always straight forward for certain users. If using default/preset profiles I always recommend making sure PWM is on if you have 4-pin PWM fans. But if you use preset fan profiles I generally recommend more intake fans than exhaust, or at least an equal amount.

 

Keep in mind with most default profiles the CPU fan(s) often have higher RPM targets at a given temp vs other fans, depending on your setup this can mean a negative airflow setup. With negative pressure this means in order to maintain airflow you will suck in air form any open areas in your case, often unfiltered areas of the case.

 

So, for most setups at a minimum I recommend 2x intake and 1x exhaust fan, or 2-3x intake with 2-3x exhaust. This varies from case to case of course, and filling every fan slot is not a necessity depending on the hardware inside the given case. 

Do you think a top exhaust or rear exhaust?

[MadAnt250]

36 minutes ago, prostrike33 said:

I have a Phanteks P500A

It looks like you should get plenty of air flow in that case. What hardware are you running in it?

 

 

[DailyProcrastinator]

2 hours ago, prostrike33 said:

Do you think a top exhaust or rear exhaust?

If you have the P500A with the 3x included intake fans I would recommend an additional 1 rear exhaust and 1 top exhaust. 

[leleoveiga]

given this video from linus, 2 front in 1 back out (and an optional 1 top out, not that much difference) seems to be the more efficient way

 

[Guest]

15 hours ago, MadAnt250 said:

It looks like you should get plenty of air flow in that case. What hardware are you running in it?

 

Ryzen 7 3800X with Noctua NH-U12A, Asus strix GTX 1080. I moved one of the front fans to the back (the case comes with 3 140mm intake and no exhaust by default) and was wandering what fan configuration would be best

[Guest]

13 hours ago, TheDailyProcrastinator said:

If you have the P500A with the 3x included intake fans I would recommend an additional 1 rear exhaust and 1 top exhaust. 

I moved 1 of the fans to exhaust, but I can get extra fans this black friday

[DailyProcrastinator]

10 minutes ago, prostrike33 said:

I moved 1 of the fans to exhaust, but I can get extra fans this black friday

So currently 2x front intake, 1x back exhaust? 

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, TheDailyProcrastinator said:

So currently 2x front intake, 1x back exhaust? 

Yup

[DailyProcrastinator]

Just now, prostrike33 said:

Yup

That's good enough! 

 

If you are looking to ad more fans get 2x more, then you can have 3x front intake, 1x back exhaust, and 1x top exhaust. 

[leonardmartin29]

16 hours ago, prostrike33 said:

I know there's more to this than just the number of case fans, but I'm curious as to how many case fans and what orientation, e.g 2 front intake and 1 back exhaust, is ideal

i tend to lean towards a neutral pressure. i have a phanteks p600s and i have 3 front 140mm fans 2 top 140 fans and 1 rear 140 mm fans 3 front are exhaust rear and top are exhaust i also have a noctua nh-d15 in chromax black and all my 140 mm fans are noctua nh-a14 chromax black fans. while i dont need that many fans and cooling will still be good it allows for a completely quiet system. i dont go above 400 rpm on any fan meaning temps dont go above 30 degrees while idle and even when temps get high for things like gaming i still am only at like 65 degrees and 1000 rpm still lots of room. 

[leonardmartin29]

Just now, leonardmartin29 said:

i tend to lean towards a neutral pressure. i have a phanteks p600s and i have 3 front 140mm fans 2 top 140 fans and 1 rear 140 mm fans 3 front are exhaust rear and top are exhaust i also have a noctua nh-d15 in chromax black and all my 140 mm fans are noctua nh-a14 chromax black fans. while i dont need that many fans and cooling will still be good it allows for a completely quiet system. i dont go above 400 rpm on any fan meaning temps dont go above 30 degrees while idle and even when temps get high for things like gaming i still am only at like 65 degrees and 1000 rpm still lots of room. 

if you prefer a more positive pressure still get 6 fans and adjust 3 intake and 3 exhaust but get a fan controller and adjust fan curve so intake is faster then the exhaust. that will also cause positive pressure.