Case fan help

[BunnyKraken]

Hi,

Im building my pc, and I have the Fractal design define S2 case, and it has preinstalled 2x 140mm front and 1x140mm back. I plan to use my Noctua NH-D15s the fan in the same direction as the front and rear fans so it blows in the same direction.

My question is that I have 3 extra 140mm fans that I could install. How should I install the extra fans, i've read that its not a good idea to put the top fans on top of the cpu cooler for exhaust air outake, because it could blow air from the GPU more into the CPU.

So should I just install 1 more front fan and maybe 2 bottom intake fans ? Or just the 1 front 1 bottom and 1 top exhaust ?

Also do you think this case is enough for a standard gaming case, I've read that its not so much hotter than the Fractal meshify, I don't plan to overclock or anything like that. Also would a full E-ATX tower be more cooler and future proofed ?

[light-v]

Cooling issues caused by extra fans are way overblown. The biggest factor with cooling is mostly noise rather than performance. Most modern cases handle cooling reasonably well even "hot" cases like the H510 as long as you don't run an overclocked RTX 3090 

 

You won't notice the difference even in the worst case scenario with the S2 unless you are physically covering all the vents. 

 

The biggest downside of adding more fans is extra noise unless your run them at low RPM but then again this may neglect the benefits of adding more fans to begin with.

 

12 minutes ago, BunnyKraken said:

Also would a full E-ATX tower be more cooler and future proofed ?

Not really unless you like physically big cases and you plan on adding custom watercooling. 

[BunnyKraken]

16 minutes ago, light-v said:

Cooling issues caused by extra fans are way overblown. The biggest factor with cooling is mostly noise rather than performance. Most modern cases handle cooling reasonably well even "hot" cases like the H510 as long as you don't run an overclocked RTX 3090 

 

You won't notice the difference even in the worst case scenario with the S2 unless you are physically covering all the vents. 

 

The biggest downside of adding more fans is extra noise unless your run them at low RPM but then again this may neglect the benefits of adding more fans to begin with.

 

Not really unless you like physically big cases and you plan on adding custom watercooling. 

Thanks a lot for your time and answer. I will continue with this case, was afraid it wasn't as ventilated as the meshify version.

 

Would you add the extra 3 fans to the case, and what setup would you use with them. If I add the top exhaust fan I will have to use the mesh top so more noise is of course also included.

 

Would you add the third front fan/and or 2 top exhaust fans. What is your thought about bottom fan ?

[light-v]

For the S2 I'd add them to the top. The front and bottom are too restricted and probably won't add much. For example. the thermals in my S340 elite don't improve at all when adding 2 fans at the front because of the solid front panel. Try experimenting to see what works best for noise/thermals you might not need the extra fans after all. Is your CPU/GPU temps hitting the 80/90s ? if they're cruising at 70 you're perfectly fine 

[BunnyKraken]

24 minutes ago, light-v said:

For the S2 I'd add them to the top. The front and bottom are too restricted and probably won't add much. For example. the thermals in my S340 elite don't improve at all when adding 2 fans at the front because of the solid front panel. Try experimenting to see what works best for noise/thermals you might not need the extra fans after all. Is your CPU/GPU temps hitting the 80/90s ? if they're cruising at 70 you're perfectly fine 

Thank you

 

Forgot to ask that if I use 2 front fans, will the back HDD get enough cooling especially the one at the bottom. I will go with 2 top outtake like you said, and use either 2 front fans and 1 bottom or just 3 front fans.

 

BTW if I use the bottom fan, is it better to be in the middle more underneath the GPU, or at the front close to the front fans ?

[freeagent]

If using top fans, I like to use the one in front of the CPU cooler to feed the cooler itself, especially in a big case like that. The top rear as well as rear would be used for exhaust.  Not only will the top front feed your CPU and help cool your ram, it will also keep the air from the front face fans in your case, rather than going out before it can cool anything. 

 

Those stock Fractal fans don't move much air. But they are quiet.. that's the trade off.

[light-v]

4 hours ago, BunnyKraken said:

Forgot to ask that if I use 2 front fans, will the back HDD get enough cooling especially the one at the bottom. I will go with 2 top outtake like you said, and use either 2 front fans and 1 bottom or just 3 front fans.

You'll be fine! Hard drive cooling is a non issue in an ATX case even if you constantly read/write on them. 

4 hours ago, BunnyKraken said:

BTW if I use the bottom fan, is it better to be in the middle more underneath the GPU, or at the front close to the front fans ?

If I'm not mistaken the PSU shroud is in the way of the bottom fan in the S2, I'm not sure if you can take it out, if you keep the shroud, the bottom fan won't do anything either. 

 

The top slots are still your best bet