[SOLVED] case fan advice

[m0j0r1s1ng]

I have a Cooler Master H500 enclosure. I use the default mesh front, not the available acrylic panel.

For cooling, I have:

2 x 200mm (came with case) doing intake at the front
1 x 120mm (replaced the included fan with an RGB) doing exhaust at the back

I also have a DeepCool GammaxGT CPU cooler with a 120mm fan blowing into the heat-sink towards the exhaust.

All pretty standard.

I now have another 2x120mm fans available to me. I was thinking about putting them in the top of the H500 where there is room for 2x120 or 2x140 or 1x200mm.

The main question I have is should these be:

1. 2x120mm intake (so intake above the CPU cooler)
2. 2x120mm exhaust (to take air away from the case above the CPU cooler)
3. 1x120mm intake (front or back?) and 1x120mm exhaust (front or back?)

I was leaning towards 2x intake to create a positive pressure but is it too much intake with only a single exhaust?

Any advice would be appreciated!

Cheers

 

[Barty1884]

Hot air rises naturally, so the top mounted fans should (almost always) be exhaust.

That being said, just because you have additional fans doesn't necessarily mean you should use additional fans. Perform a control test, see how your temps look currently. Then add the two as exhausts and the top and retest (trying to keep all other variables the same) and see how you fare.

I'd expect 2x exhaust to perform marginally better, but fairly negligible overall.

Since you have the fans available to you, there's no harm in testing the various configurations proposed.... but I'm pretty sure you'd land on either top exhaust, or no additional fans after testing all the configurations.

 

[geofelt]

My advice: do not add any more fans.

The front 200mm intakes are more than enough to supply cooling airflow.
If they are filtered, your parts will stay cleaner.
Whatever cooling air that comes in the front will cool your parts and exit somewhere, out the back or top, taking heat with it.
The single 120mm rear exhaust is useful to direct the airflow past your cooler, motherboard and graphics card.

If you add extra fans, either as intake or exhaust, they will draw in unfiltered air from adjacent openings. Extra fans also add noise.

But, since you already have some fans that you are itching to use, why not try different options and see if any one is significantly better.

 

[m0j0r1s1ng]

thanks for the responses... I really appreciate it!

Your arguments make sense and I will resist the urge to add more RGB bling to the case then 😉 (the new case fans are ARGB heh)

I have a 2nd PC I am building from the replaced parts on my #1 gaming PC... I will put those fans to use in that case instead.

Again, thanks for the prompt and helpful advice @Barty1884 and @geofelt

I marked the 2nd answer as accepted only because I couldn't do 2 (they were both very good answers) and @Barty1884 is already a mod ;D

 

[Barty1884]

I marked the 2nd answer as accepted only because I couldn't do 2 (they were both very good answers) and @Barty1884 is already a mod ;D

🤣 All good, we're just here to help out.

If you have another system you're building, the fans would certainly be better utilized there.