fan Open space in front of case fan air intake?

[iSarge]

I need to know how much free, unobstructed space do I need, at a minimum, in front of a case fan intake.  I'm running out of room with my Fractal Design Define Mini (mATX) case.  Will 20mm suffice for the following fan?

 

Cryorig XT140 140mm x 140mm x 15mm

[Crunchy Dragon]

By in front, I'm assuming you mean between the case fan and the rest of the components inside the case, not the front of the case.

 

I don't think it really matters too much, I've seen builds with hard drives all the way up the front of the case right behind the fans

[wONKEyeYEs]

If you have 20mm in front of your fan clear that might just do.

But if you have 20mm to stick a 15mm fan in leaving 5mm that's not enough.

 

[Froody129]

As long as they're not in the fans and you aren't obstructing all the air flow (because then you might as well have no fan...) you'll be fine. There's no rule for this.

 

[wONKEyeYEs]

2 minutes ago, Froody129 said:

As long as they're not in the fans and you aren't obstructing all the air flow (because then you might as well have no fan...) you'll be fine. There's no rule for this.

 

But you just stated some "rules" before saying "There's no rule for this.".

[SpaceGhostC2C]

25 minutes ago, RiDDiCK51PB said:

I need to know how much free, unobstructed space do I need, at a minimum, in front of a case fan intake.  I'm running out of room with my Fractal Design Define Mini (mATX) case.  Will 20mm suffice for the following fan?

 

Cryorig XT140 140mm x 140mm x 15mm

Bear in mind that's a 140mm fan that uses 120mm mounting holes. Depending on spacing between fan mounts, it could conflict with another installed fan (example: if the spacing is correct for a 240mm radiator, then you can not mount two of these 140mm fans, even if the case accepts 280mm radiators as well. You could also have troubles fitting a standard 140mm and this 140mm next to each other for the same reason).

[Froody129]

1 minute ago, SpaceGhostC2C said:

Bear in mind that's a 140mm fan that uses 120mm mounting holes. Depending on spacing between fan mounts, it could conflict with another installed fan (example: if the spacing is correct for a 240mm radiator, then you can not mount two of these 140mm fans, even if the case accepts 280mm radiators as well. You could also have troubles fitting a standard 140mm and this 140mm next to each other for the same reason).

Hmm, from what I could tell OP was asking if they have to have a minimum open amount of space in front of the fan. You're right, but AFAIK that's not what OP is asking. It wasn't phrased incredibly well.

[Froody129]

5 minutes ago, wONKEyeYEs said:

But you just stated some "rules" before saying "There's no rule for this.".

It's the one rule that should apply to everything - common sense  

[wONKEyeYEs]

Just now, Froody129 said:

It's the one rule that should apply to everything - common sense  

But common sense is uncommon, you can't count on it.

[SpaceGhostC2C]

2 minutes ago, Froody129 said:

Hmm, from what I could tell OP was asking if they have to have a minimum open amount of space in front of the fan. You're right, but AFAIK that's not what OP is asking. It wasn't phrased incredibly well.

I know it's not what he's asking. I'm just warning him, since his case has 2 front fan mounts and he could end up with a fan that doesn't fit regardless of thickness.

[wONKEyeYEs]

I have an S340 which has a restrictive panel like the Fractal mini.

I heavily modded the front panel by removing it completely.

Looks good and great airflow.

 

[iSarge]

it is for a cryorig H5 Ultimate cpu cooler.  what i'm doing is turning the H5 ultimate, so that its orientation is drawing air from the low side of the case and expelling air directly to the top of the case.  to clarify, the first gpu slot in the mobo is occupied by a video card.  so, we have the back of the video card facing the air intake of the H5U bottom side fan.  so the basic question of post#1 holds true and by the looks of things, the question has already been addressed.  feel free to comment further if you feel motivated.

[iSarge]

nice job there wonk, looks good and i'm certain functions very well.

[LogicalDrm]

1 hour ago, RiDDiCK51PB said:

it is for a cryorig H5 Ultimate cpu cooler.  what i'm doing is turning the H5 ultimate, so that its orientation is drawing air from the low side of the case and expelling air directly to the top of the case.  to clarify, the first gpu slot in the mobo is occupied by a video card.  so, we have the back of the video card facing the air intake of the H5U bottom side fan.  so the basic question of post#1 holds true and by the looks of things, the question has already been addressed.  feel free to comment further if you feel motivated.

Doesn't matter at all in temps. I used to run that config in previous case. You can hear people claiming that GPU somehow radiates heat from backplate/PCB to CPU cooler. But in 4 years I run that, I didn't notice anything.

[iSarge]

Thank you all for your comments, much appreciated!