140mm vs 200mm intake fan

[Bondarev]

Hey guys,

After reading a couple of topics I found out that 140mm fans are better for case air flow than 200mm fans.
I bought a couple of Phantek F140-SP's and put them in my case.
Now I am doubting if putting two F140's will be better than a single NZXT 200mm fan.
As you can see in the pictures, the first 140 fan does not cover the entire area available.
The second fan is just behind a HDD cage and is rather pointless for air intake.
What would be more benifitial for intake airflow, the two 140mm F140SP's or one 200mm NZXT?
Thanks in advance!

 

[jimmysmitty]

It depends on the speed, RPM, and CFM of the fans. If two 140mm fans produce more total CFM than a single 200mm then the 140mms will be better.

The main benefit behind bigger fans is that they can run slower and quieter while producing equal CFM or the same speed and produce more CFM.

Another thing you want to keep in mind is that you also want to be able to pull the air from the front to the back. A higher CFM will help do this.

The case itself though is normally designed with the fans in the placement they are put in. Of course sometimes the design is for a quiet operation instead of a cool operation and swapping fans is a better idea.

I personally prefer a bigger fan on the side panel so it can be quiet and pull lots of air onto the major components (GPU, CPU etc).

 

[smorizio]

it a trade off...the 200 and larger fan can spin slower and move more air per turn. the two 140mm fans how there set up one is pulling air into the case the other is cooling your drives. if your room or where you life is hot then this set up is better. if a hard drive gets to hot it can fail too soon. used to work for a storage vendor and when we environment tested drives when they got hot a lot of them would die. having air flowing over the drives is not a wasted fan placement.

 

[geofelt]

In theory, two 140mm fans will provide the same airflow as a single 200mm fan if running at the same rpm.
Usually, though a 200mm fan will operate more slowly.

I would not change out the fans.
It looks like you can relocate the Hard drive cage lower in the case. If you can do that, you will have cleared a more direct path to the motherboard and graphics cards which need the air.