3 exhaust fans, 2 intake? Is it okay?

[Manuel_KLG]

Hello guys. So im about to build my first ever gaming pc in the Meshify C Dark TG case. Its an amazing case for airflow as Ive seen from reviews but Im a bit confused on the way airflow works. The case comes with 1 fan installed in the front as intake and one in the far back as exhaust. Both 120mm. I will be removing the exhaust fan and will place it in the front to have 2 intakes. Also, I will put in the build 3x corsair ll120 rgb fans. One in the back as exhaust and two at the top, as exhaust again. So:

3 exhaust fans (2 top, 1 back)

2 intake fans (2 front).

 

Is this okay? Am I supposed to have more intake fans than exhaust ones? Will it be better if one at the top is exhaust and one is intake? Please let me know. Im a noob to all this haha.

I will be using the Ryzen 5 3600X as cpu and the RX 6800 gaming oc as gpu. Im not 100% sure if this will require a different setup of airflow

Thank you!

[RegulatorRWF]

There is a case to be made that having negative pressure will draw dust into the system from un-filtered areas. I would suggest 3 intake and 2 exhaust to avoid this. There are several youtube videos about this, I recommend JayzTwoCents video on case pressure.

[Haraikomono]

and be sure to place filters before the intakes fans on the case, like the magentic ones

[Manuel_KLG]

The case comes with filters both in the front and at the top

[Stahlmann]

Having more exhaust than intake will result in negative air pressure in your case and thus air will be pulled in through unfiltered areas. This way dust will build up quicker and you might need to clean it more often. But performance wise, it should be good regardless.

 

The "optimal" airflow setup in this case would be either 3x120mm or 2x140mm fans in the front as intake, 1x120mm at the top back as exhaust and 1x120mm at the back as exhaust.

[Manuel_KLG]

2 minutes ago, Stahlmann said:

Having more exhaust than intake will result in negative air pressure in your case and thus air will be pulled in through unfiltered areas. This way dust will build up quicker and you might need to clean it more often. But performance wise, it should be good regardless.

 

The "optimal" airflow setup in this case would be either 3x120mm or 2x140mm fans in the front as intake, 1x120mm at the top back as exhaust and 1x120mm at the back as exhaust.

Hmm I see. That will be easy to fix, considering I have all fans needed for that. It will just mess up the ''look'' a bit but I dont really mind that, to have an overall better system. Thank you  

[Manuel_KLG]

7 minutes ago, RegulatorRWF said:

There is a case to be made that having negative pressure will draw dust into the system from un-filtered areas. I would suggest 3 intake and 2 exhaust to avoid this. There are several youtube videos about this, I recommend JayTwoCentz's video on case pressure.

Thank you! I will do that. Also I will watch JayTwoCentz's video. Somehow missed that

[Manuel_KLG]

I got one more question though. I realized I have a Be Quiet SilentWings 3 fan. What if I place 3in the front as intake and 3 at the back/top as exhaust? Will this still be an issue? 

[aisle9]

It really doesn't matter. You won't notice a difference in performance one way or the other unless you plan on running them full blast all the time or doing some crazy 2 in, 6 out nonsense. If you want to get really creative, just set your front intake fans to a higher idle speed than your RGB exhausts. That way you'll be drawing in more intake air despite having fewer fans.

 

But really the difference will be so minor as to almost not matter. You get into dust trouble with negative pressure setups if you're constantly running the fans at a high RPM. If you're not, it's not going to make you clean your system any more than you should be cleaning it anyway.

[Manuel_KLG]

2 minutes ago, aisle9 said:

It really doesn't matter. You won't notice a difference in performance one way or the other unless you plan on running them full blast all the time. If you want to get really creative, just set your front intake fans to a higher idle speed than your RGB exhausts. That way you'll be drawing in more intake air despite having fewer fans.

 

But really the difference will be so minor as to almost not matter. You get into dust trouble with negative pressure setups if you're constantly running the fans at a high RPM. If you're not, it's not going to make you clean your system any more than you should be cleaning it anyway.

Noted! I didnt think about increasing the speed of the intake fans. That will work. Thank you

[aisle9]

1 minute ago, Manuel_KLG said:

Noted! I didnt think about increasing the speed of the intake fans. That will work. Thank you

Yeah, slight positive vs slight negative won't make a difference. It's when you do something like buy 8 RGB fans and decide you want all that light pointing inward that you start to get into dust problems with negative pressure setups.