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Case Fan positions

ekyona
By ekyona
in Cooling
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Posted

So I’m sure someone has pointed this out at some time. 
 

but, most cases have 2-3 fans at the front and 2-3 fans at the top right? 
 

So do the front top and the top front fan on case cancel each other out? 
 

basically one is pulling cool air in and the other is just taking that cool air and just pulling it out? Idk if some of it gets thru but I would think most of it gets lost? 
 

so if that’s true why do manufacturers design cases like this? 
 

just seems like most cases are designed to be flawed? 
 

but I’m probably wrong. Never tested or have yet to see a video on it. 
 

just wanted to know what other fellow pc enthusiast think. 

CF75410E-A934-4F36-B3F3-B3758996F81F.png

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Having three fans as intake in the front and three as exhaust in the top isn't ideal, because you lose out on positive air pressure, but you're definitely not 'losing' air. Your GPU and CPU cooler would still have plenty of time to be push some of the air through before it gets exhausted. If you're using an AIO, the difference would be even less. 

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Usually the fans in the front take air in and the ones in the top/back exhaust air.

They don't really cancel each other out, they help each other. One brings cold air to your components, the others pull the now warmed up air out of the case.

 

Usually the setup with two fans in the front, one in the back and one at the top is the most people will need and in theory it would work a little something like this:

image.png.ff86ad5c4dd18a65f20b53cf142c041f.png

 

Air cooler, two fans in the front, one in the back + top, open style graphics card cooler and PSU fan side down. That is what I would say the "average" PC is like.

With this system, you provide fresh air for the graphics card and CPU, which the coolers try to use and blow away, then the back/top fans take that warm air away.

The PSU has its own intake/exhaust system

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18 hours ago, ekyona said:

but, most cases have 2-3 fans at the front and 2-3 fans at the top right?

Fan locations. By default cases usually have 2-3 front fans with 1 rear exhaust or 1 rear and 1 top exhaust.

 

18 hours ago, ekyona said:

So do the front top and the top front fan on case cancel each other out? 
 

basically one is pulling cool air in and the other is just taking that cool air and just pulling it out? Idk if some of it gets thru but I would think most of it gets lost?

In logic of thermal dynamics, yes, this is what would happen. But,

 

18 hours ago, ekyona said:

so if that’s true why do manufacturers design cases like this? 
 

just seems like most cases are designed to be flawed?

As I said before, fan positions, not fans. The logic is still there. User chooses which fan slots and how they use. So if you would happen to use top triple radiator, having one fan blowing air directly to that radiator to be exhausted is actually beneficial. So the case design isn't flawed, its there to give more options. Users with bad decisions are the flawed ones.

 

Another mistake I see time-to-time is having one intake fan on top with 2 exhausts. No point at all. More so since these are usually air cooled systems and question is about hot GPU.

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