Do More Case Fans Improve CPU Temperature?

[elbarto.2]

Hello!

This is sort of a follow-up to my most recent thread.  I am wondering if more case fans will lower the CPU temperature.

 

Thanks!

[StaffCorporal]

No. Luke did a video testing this. One intake and one exhaust is sufficient.

[WoodenMarker]

9 minutes ago, StaffCorporal said:

No. Luke did a video testing this. One intake and one exhaust is sufficient.

There's no black and white answer for this. 

How much cooling, how many fans are needed, and where diminishing returns starts to show depends on the system specs. 

 

If you would like to know whether or not you should get more fans, list your specs and load temps.

[SlyTroopah]

That's the wrong question. You should be asking if your current rig or a certain rig would be sufficient. A general question like that leaves room for many errors.

[uzi]

No not at all. I would strongly suggest Liquid Cooling.

[frunze]

For mainstream build (anything from a dual core up to quad core processor), I'm pretty sure that LTT already cover this up.
And I agree with  WoodenMarker & SlyTroopah said, every build has it's own characteristics. So it would be better to ask if your rig need x-amount of fans.

 

[rexa21]

I have 2x Front Intake, 1x Bottom Intake, 2x Top Exhaust and at the back, the radiator of Cooler Master Seidon 120V Plus in push-pull. And, adding the extra 1x Bottom Intake and 2x Top Exhaust is really helping to keep the Sapphire R9 290 to remain cool in my setup. And didn't notice any significant change in the CPU temperature. I've a Cooler Master CM 690 III chassis. In my case, more fans helped the GPU most than the CPU.

[LogicalDrm]

Not much in normal ATX case with decent to good cooler. In smaller case with small cooler, sure. But there's limit on how low temps you can get on air cooler.

[Parky]

I've found more intake has improved my overall temp, 3 140mm intake and 1 120mm exhaust.

[LogicalDrm]

8 hours ago, Parky said:

I've found more intake has improved my overall temp, 3 140mm intake and 1 120mm exhaust.

That doesn't tell much. Like how many fans you had before and how much did temps improve. Plus what case and other components you have.

 

My own testing with side intake showed 0 change on CPU windows vs passive vs fan and max of 5C improvement for GPU.

[DragonTamer1]

They help to a point. It largely depends on the size of the case and how close together the components are. Hot running components will run noticeably cooler when there is fresh air being blown directly onto them.

 

I have a Thermaltake H22 which supports 3 fans, two front intakes and one rear exhaust. Even with the front intakes in place blowing right towards the 760, it was still thermal throttling. Cutting a hole in the bottom of the case and having a fan blow right on it from the bottom did bring the temps down. At the same time, adding two fans to the top of the case above the CPU did nothing to help the CPU or GPU temps.

 

More than quantity it's about where the fans are placed inside the case. You ideal want the air to make full circulation around the case in a circular pattern because this will allow the air to pass all the components in the system and allow them to breathe. Having air come in from right below the GPU, either from the back blowing in or from the bottom blowing up, will allow the GPU to breathe fresh air, and it will then cycle around and pass through the CPU cooler before being exhausted out the back of the case by the top mounted exhaust. This will also blow on the chip set and in some cases will blow across drives mounted in the path of the airflow.

 

Pushing air in the front can work but in my case it has to pass the HDD and SSD drive cages. Counter intuitively mounting high airflow fans here rather than high static pressure fans actually worked better for cooling the GPU. The static pressure fans were moving the air at a much lower velocity so once it passed the drive cages it was basically stationary. Using high airflow gave the air more velocity on the other side of the cage and was able to blow some air towards the GPU. This was still less effective than the bottom mounted fan that doesn't have to push air past anything.

 

Top mounted fans can help pull out extra heat that the CPU produces (plus whatever finds its way up there from the GPU) but it doesn't really make a huge difference unless you have all the fans sucking air through the CPU cooler at full speed.