[SOLVED] Do we really need all the fans if we are not overclocking ?

[emeralds1000000]

Simple Question ,

I noticed that Rendering workstations from DELL , use only one or two fans for their workstation , and most of the time they use only one fan. and small ones too , 120 size

If we are not overclocking , do we really need to use 3-4 fans like most of the cases have ? or is it a waste ?

I am asking this because less fan means less dust and less cleaning and maintenance .

 

[Supahos]

Depends on the CPU/GPU cooler and stuff how well air can get in and out of the box to begin with

 

[jojesa]

You should check the temperatures of your system and see if adding more fans will improve thermals.
You are correct, Dell uses one or two fans on their systems.
If you check the temperatures inside a Dell case while the CPU is a 100% it might be very hot and the CPU might throttle.
We have thousands of them and the ones we use for heavy workload are usually on well cooled spaces.
Having more fans doesn't necessarily adds more dust.
It depends of the environment and if you have dust filters on your case.

 

[Deleted member 217926]

It really depends on your components. Even at stock speeds a modern 6 or 8 core CPU produces quite a bit of heat at load as do other components like NVMe M2 SSDs and especially, graphics cards.

If it's a basic office/browsing machine with an i3 and no GPU then no, you don't really need much more than a fan or two. If it's a higher end machine that will be used for heavy workloads then you'll want more cooling. Enough to keep the temps safe.

 

[Karadjgne]

Optimal cooling airflow is achieved with 2x intakes and 2x exhaust fans. Linus tech tips did a good video (can't find it for some reason) on the subject. Just an older i7 with a stock sized cooler. Under 100% loads, with 1 exhaust the cpu throttled temps over 99°C. With 1 intake temps reached low 90's. With 1-1 temps dropped 10°C to low 80's. With 2-1 or 1-2, temps reached high 70's and with 2-2 temps reached 72°C. Adding more fans dropped the temps 1-2°C, so the conclusion became 2-2 as best since more fans did next to nothing but add noise.

So while those Dells are made to run somewhat heavy workloads with minimal cooling, it's done at a cost of higher temps internally.

A few years ago, case manufacturers finally figured airflow was important and that heralded the demise of the AT case with its solid front and 80mm exhaust fan. ATX was born and intakes are now prevalent.

On the plus side, more fans push/pull more cfm, and if you don't need the cfm you can turn down fan rpm, the major cause of noise being high rpm. So for most systems usage, 4x fans will be next to silent with decent fans, whereas to get the same performance 2x fans will be far noisier.

 

[rubix_1011]

Airflow is always your friend...no matter if you run overclocked or a stock speed system. Even stock-clocked CPUs can still generate a decent amount of heat that needs to exhaust to ambient air.