Cool my case for me!

[Great_Society]

Hello guys, could I please get some help choosing the right case fans for the Fractal Design Define R4 with Window?

Will having 2 intakes (one in front, one in bottom) and 1 exhaust (rear) suffice?

Or how about 3 intakes (two in front, one in bottom) and only 1 exhaust (rear)?

 

[Beezy]

i try to go for one solid flow over the motherboard. idk if front, back, and bottom is best, i would go top and rear exhaust, two front intake.

 

[IDontUnderstand]

Hello person with the $2,000 build lol

I would also go with the suggested scenario by Beezy, two front intakes, one top exhaust, one rear exhaust, or two top exhaust.

 

[zink1701]

Agreed, 2 Front, 1 Back. In my experience thats the best setup if you have the mount then top rear is a good spot for another fan. Bottom mount fans are not that effective and in my case with the bottom fan setup it disrupted good air flow causing turbulance (I tried multiple setups with a smoke stick).

 

[Great_Society]

hello lol

I am decided on everything but the amount and location of fans. So how about 6 fans? 2 front 1 bottom intake, 1 rear 2 top exhaust?

 

[IDontUnderstand]

4 is enough, too much will not give you significant temperature difference, but will cause more noise.

 

[brarboy]

the better cooling guide would be installing as equal numbers of intake and exhaust in your case, if you are staying in odd number with fans like 3, then the best is to install 2 as exhaust and 1 as intake. Due to the fact, it is better to get hot air out of your case than to pump cool air in, particularly when it comes to CPU cooling. With 3 fans; fill this first fan in the side panel for intake, followed by the rear exhaust mount, followed by the roof exhaust mount.

 

[Great_Society]

Agreed, 2 Front, 1 Back. In my experience thats the best setup if you have the mount then top rear is a good spot for another fan. Bottom mount fans are not that effective and in my case with the bottom fan setup it disrupted good air flow causing turbulance (I tried multiple setups with a smoke stick).

interesting... So how about 2 intake fans in front (one 140mm Silent Series R2 fan, one Noctua NF-A14 PWM 140mm Case Fan) and one exhaust fan in back (140mm Silent Series R2 fan)?

this is the parts list btw:

CPU: Intel Core i7-4770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($309.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U14S 55.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($69.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: Asus Maximus VI Hero ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($179.79 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance Pro 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($94.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($139.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($57.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 780 3GB Video Card ($489.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: Fractal Design Define R4 w/Window (Black Pearl) ATX Mid Tower Case ($89.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: XFX ProSeries 850W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($109.99 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($19.98 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($99.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $1662.66

 

[Great_Society]

the better cooling guide would be installing as equal numbers of intake and exhaust in your case, if you are staying in odd number with fans like 3, then the best is to install 2 as exhaust and 1 as intake. Due to the fact, it is better to get hot air out of your case than to pump cool air in, particularly when it comes to CPU cooling. With 3 fans; fill this first fan in the side panel for intake, followed by the rear exhaust mount, followed by the roof exhaust mount.

I was concerned that having an equal number of intake and exhaust fans would not allow for positive pressure which is something that I am hoping to achieve. To alleviate this perhaps the solution would be to use 2 Noctua NF-A14 PWM 140mm Case Fans in the front as intake and 2 140mm Silent Series R2 fans as exhaust (one in rear and one on top).

How does that sound?

 

[IDontUnderstand]

Do it.

 

[brarboy]

I was concerned that having an equal number of intake and exhaust fans would not allow for positive pressure which is something that I am hoping to achieve. To alleviate this perhaps the solution would be to use 2 Noctua NF-A14 PWM 140mm Case Fans in the front as intake and 2 140mm Silent Series R2 fans as exhaust (one in rear and one on top).

How does that sound?

concentrating on traditional front to back cooling and creating one strong, continuous air flow is one of the best way to setup cooling for your case. Fill the 2 front intakes and the 2 with roof and rear exhausts as you said. It would be the best to go.

 

[Great_Society]

Im going for the 4 fan set up then. So do I need to buy a fan controller as well? Also the Maximus VI Hero MOBO only has 3 x Chassis Fan connector(s) so will using a Y splitter on one pair be a problem?

 

[brarboy]

Im going for the 4 fan set up then. So do I need to buy a fan controller as well? Also the Maximus VI Hero MOBO only has 3 x Chassis Fan connector(s) so will using a Y splitter on one pair be a problem?

Fractal Design Define R4 Arctic White has 1 - Integrated fan controller for up to 3 fans according to manual. You don't need to buy. You are all good 😀

 

[Beezy]

Im going for the 4 fan set up then. So do I need to buy a fan controller as well? Also the Maximus VI Hero MOBO only has 3 x Chassis Fan connector(s) so will using a Y splitter on one pair be a problem?

Fractal Design Define R4 Arctic White has 1 - Integrated fan controller for up to 3 fans according to manual. You don't need to buy. You are all good 😀

And it should be able to handle 2 fans (with a splitter) on each channel

 

[Great_Society]

Im going for the 4 fan set up then. So do I need to buy a fan controller as well? Also the Maximus VI Hero MOBO only has 3 x Chassis Fan connector(s) so will using a Y splitter on one pair be a problem?

Fractal Design Define R4 Arctic White has 1 - Integrated fan controller for up to 3 fans according to manual. You don't need to buy. You are all good 😀

And it should be able to handle 2 fans (with a splitter) on each channel

Well in this case I think I'll buy 4 3-pin Noctua NF-A14 FLX 140mm fans and connect them to the fan controller. Thanks for the help guys!