How do you install/connect case fans?

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KindaHardcoreGamer

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That's the only part of the build that I don't know how to do so far.
A video would be fine, if they are out there.

Also, can you suggest some fans for use with the case 'Phanteks Enthoo Pro M'?
 
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JackNaylorPE
The air cooling scheme must be adaptable to the particular case and in this case some of the general assumptions won't apply here. A single rear exhaust fan pushing thru large open grille is moving orders of magnitude more air than thru the tiny holes on the top of the case.

1. We have two forces acting here ... The major one is that air or liquid moving in an open system will follow the path of least resistance. Test:

a) Take a soda straw and see how much air you can blow thru it and how hard you gotta blow to make that happen. You'll notice that straw fits thru the rear case grille.

b) Now take a 5 swizzle sticks, typically used in mixed cocktails and blow air thru that. You'll notice that it's opening is comparable to the...
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On your mainboard there are fan headers. They're usually labeled "CPU_FAN" & "CHA_FAN" or "SYS_FAN"

Just plug the cable on these pins and it should work.

Most.mainboards come with a software that lets you control them

I can recommend you many fans. Which fans do you need? Horizontal or vertical mounting? Intake or exhaust? Main intake or supporting fan? Low noise or high airflow?
 
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As far as connecting case fans, it depends on how many fans and how many fan connections you have on your motherboard. I prefer to have my fans controlled by my motherboard. However some prefer to manually control their case fans via a fan controller. Either is valid, though you have to remember to adjust your fan speeds according to the present load on the computer if you go with a fan controller.

Suggesting fans for your system is also dependent on your priority. Is cooling performance the priority? Or is silence the priority? Or is is a mixture of the two? Typically speaking fans that provide a lot of airflow are noisy, while quiet fans sacrifice airflow. Depending on the mount locations on the case in question, this can be mitigated somewhat by going with larger fans. Large fans are capable of moving large volumes of air at lower fan RPM which in turn makes them quieter.
 
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So having a look at your case specs, it comes with a single 140mm fan at the rear. According to the specs you can use up to 3 120mm fans at the front with the ODD (Optical Disk Drive) cage removed, or 2 140mm fans. You could also have 3 120mm fans at the top or 2 140mm fans.

My preference is balance, so if you intend to fill some or all of these locations, I would pick 140mm fans which are relatively quiet. Corsair has a decent line of fans. Noctua are excellent fans, but they are very expensive. Next comes which type of fan to buy (PWM or DC) and this decision will partially be dependent on whether or not you wish to control them via your motherboard or a fan controller. Furthermore it would be helpful to know what motherboard you have. On many motherboards, not all the fan controllers support PWM fans. Connecting a PWM fan to a DC controller will result in the fan running as a DC fan.

Now the upside to going all PWM (assuming your motherboard supports it) is that PWM fans typically have a lower minimum RPM that they will work at. So for instance two more or less identical fans one as a PWM the other DC, the PWM fan many operate down to 200 RPM where the DC model might only operate down to 300-400 RPM.
 
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The Pro M is a budget case and, as I recall, to meet this price target, I don't think it comes with the Phanteks Fan Hub. It makes the number of fan headers you have MoBo immaterial.

The Phanteks cases fortunately come with the best 140mm fans on the market. Therefere the best thing you can do with fans, is "more of the same"

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article1345-page7.html

Be aware tho, following "conventional logic" will not serve you will if you are going to fill all 5 fan mounts.

Top = 2 x 140mm
Front = 2 x 140mm
Rear = 1 x 140mm (pre-installed)

Of course determining your needs is impossible w/o knowing what is going on the case. Let's assume a GTX 1080 + OC'd CPU

130 watts OC'd CPU + 220 watts OC'd GPU = 350 watts....

Figure on 75 to 100 watts per fan if quiet is important ... stretch that a bit if you don't mind them running at full speed. 3 fans would give you about 117 watts per fan. Put them in the front as intakes. If you have more load or want more quiet, then I'd go with 5 fans ... and I am sure your 1st inclination would be to install them on top a exhausts.

Here's why that's a bad idea .... You'd have 3 out and 2 in... with the in restricted by inlet filters created negative pressure. If you use a fog machine to test as we have with the Enthoo Pro, the PSU and the GFX card are exhausting hot air out the back ... which gets sucked right back in thru the rear case grille because of the negative pressure. Reversing the top fans, we have 4 in and 1 out, forcing all air out the rear of the case and no hot air or dust being sucked back in.

Choices:

1. Connect your fans to three Chassis (CHA) or System (SYS) headers. Of not autoselect, make sure that if its a newer MoBo, they are set to DCV control. Most new MoBs are autoselect and provide PWM or DCV

2. Purchase the Phanteks Fan Hub $20; connect the Hub to a PWM header ... and then connect the DCV fans to the Hub... the hub provides a best of both works situation, converting the PWM signal to DCV giving you all the advantages of PWM (low speed control) and none of the disadvantages (cost, low speed hum / clicking).

3. You can control the fans thru MoBo utility or BIOS.


You can also use fan splitters if you don't have enough headers ($2.99 on Phanteks site) but the cabling gets messy. Make sure not to put more than 1 amp worth of fans on any one header. The Phanteks fans are rated at 0.14 amps each.

Having done builds in almost all Phanteks cases, we find that they operate well set up as follows (assuming your MoBo Software has these capabilities)

CPU Cooler Fans (325 - 1250 rpm)

Case Fans (375 - 850 rpm, shut off below 375 rpm)

Fan Hub
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811984004

Fans (Just missed a newegg sale.... been $12 to $15 last few weeks.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835709022
 
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That hasn't been my experience .... .... and having been on the Phanteks forums since inception both on their site and at overclock.net ... I'd say "some users" is more accurate.

Personal Box (Enthoo Primo) - 10 radiator fans, 3 case fans installed horizontally
Wife's Box(Enthoo Pro) - 3 fans installed horizontally
Son's box (Enthoo Luxe) - 2 cooler fans installed horizontally, 5 case fans installed horizontally

23 horizontal fans here... 1 made noise ... replacement did not.

Overall, we have used installed over 120 Phanteks fans in our own and user builds ... So far ... had just the one which was installed horizontally that made noise. Called Phanteks and they overnighted 2 replacement fans (no charge) ... asked for an address to send faulty fan back, they said keep it ... I installed it vertically in another box.

SPCR's top 20

Phanteks PH-F140HP/TS
Noctua NF-A14 FLX
Noctua NF-A15 PWM
Noiseblocker B12-2
Noctua NF-P14 FLX
Scythe Gentle Typhoon 120-12
Noiseblocker M12-S1
Corsair AF120 Quiet
Corsair AF120 Performance
Thermalright TR-TY150
Scythe Gentle Typhoon 120-14
Xigmatek XAF-F1453
Nexus Real Silent
Xigmatek XLF-F1453
Noiseblocker B12-PS
Corsair SP120 Quiet
be quiet! Silent Wings 2
Noiseblocker M12-S2
Antec TrueQuiet 120
Noiseblocker M12-P

The performance advantage of the Phanteks over the next closest competitor (Noctua) is 3C ... and that's while spinning 300 cfm slower

http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/phenteks_f140/3.htm
 
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I want to use 4 pin fans because I'd rather have my mobo control them. My friend told me 2 fans is all you need. I don't want to use more than 4 fans because of noise and that i feel they are unnecessary.
I need to use three drive bays, one for my hard drive, another for my solid state drive, and another for my disk burner. I can remove anything else.
I was thinking one intake in the front bottom and one exhaust in the back top (if I used 2 fans). What do you guys think?
 
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It might help to know what motherboard we are dealing with. As I said before, even though the motherboard may have a physical 4 pin connection, doesn't mean that it actually supports PWM fans on those connectors. If a PWM fan is run in DC mode, it will operate as a DC fan and the added cost would be a waste. I've seen motherboards with 5 4 pin connnectors (including the CPU connector) and only the connector for the CPU supported PWM fans.
 
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I have a Maximus Viii Hero.
 
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Very nice board, I have the Hero VI and am very happy with it.

As for fan control, all the fans will work with PWM fans. While the CPU and CPU_OPT fans can be left as Auto (in Monitoring), the chassis fans (CHA_FAN 1-4) need to be specifically set to the correct operating mode, there is no Auto. These fans default to DC, so if you use PWM fans, you'll want to change them from DC to PWM to take advantage of the lower RPM that they are capable of. Furthermore if you find you want one more fan, you can use the Water Pump Control to power a fan. It defaults to Disabled, so you will have to change it to either PWM or DC depending on the fan you connect to it.
 
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How many fans would you say I need?
My friend told me two is all you need, one on the front and one on the top.
Alternatively I could use 4. I don't want 3 because I want neutral airflow (2 intake 2 exhaust, or 1 intake 1 exhaust). More than 4 seems unnecessary and loud.

Also, can you suggest the fans, depending on what you think I need?
I want a fair balance between noise and cooling potential. My build is primarily dark colors. The memory is red though.
 
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I would suggest at a minimum three, personally I like positive air pressure. Whether that is actually achievable is another thing.

Since you are interested in 4 fans, I would keep the 140mm at the rear, then I would put two 140'a in the front for intake, and one 140 at the top as exhaust. This keeps with the ATX convention, draw cool air at the front / bottom and exhaust it at the top rear.

As to which fans to use, I would consider something like these:

Corsair 140mm Fans

Because of the versatility of your motherboard's fan tuning, you can tune these for whatever your priority is. If you want quiet, select the Silent profile, if you want balance, select Standard. If you want absolute cooling performance select Turbo, and if you want more control, use Manual and set your own fan curves.
 
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I was thinking I could use the 4 fans, but have it err on the side of positive (the intake fans being slightly more powerful than the exhaust).
Could I just buy 4 of the same fan and use that? (2 front intake, 1 rear exhaust and 1 top exhaust like you said)
Do fully modular power supplies come with enough 4 pin connectors to power 4 fans?
And finally, is corsair my best choice for fans? It seems like noctua fans are priced similarly but have, for example, more RPM.
Sorry for all the questions, just trying to make sure I know everything before I buy.
 
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First off, your case comes with a 140mm fan in the rear location. However you could purchase 4 fans if you wish to replace this fan for the sake of having them all the same, this is up to you.

As for the PSU powering the fans, this isn't a concern. The PSU won't be powering them directly. You could technically, but having your motherboard power / control them. So they will be plugged into the motherboard directly and not connected to your PSU.

There are are definitely other choices. Noctua are very good fans, but I don't have any experience with them. I offered up the Corsair fan because I have experience with Corsair fans though not this model specifically. I just thought this was an all round good fan and quite quiet. Generally more RPM mean louder fan. That said according to the specs the Corsair fans I linked will move almost 100 CFM at max RPM's. This is quite a lot of air moved.

 
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You have made some incorrect assumptions which are leading to incorrect choices:

1. Your MoBo will control both 4 and 3 pin fans... On older MoBo, it will only control 3 pin fans (except for CPU fan)

2. The Hero VI is a Z87 moBo and all the Chassis headers are DCV not PWM... therefore you do NOT want to use 4 pin PWM fans. Yes, you are going to tell me that you have 4 pin headers so you should use 4 pin PWM fans. Not according to Asus; on Z87 the 4 pin CHA headers are all DC Voltage controlled.

https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?46351-Hero-PWM-fan-control-do-the-chassis-connectors-have-individual-channels

So no, you can bot use 4 pin PWN fand pn any connectors other than CPU and CPU OPT ... All CHA headers must use 3 pin DCV fans. The Corsair fans recommended above therefore should not be used.

EDIT: OP has the Hero VIII which supports both DCV and PWM on all CHA headers. Either PWM or DCV will work just fine

3. You should have one 140mm fan for every 75-100 watts / one 120mm fan for each 50-75 watts

4. Not sure what drive bays has to do with fans

5. Avoid the misconception that you need to "balance air flow. Two basic rules of case fan placement

a) Front in, bottom in, side, in / top and rear out *
b) The case grilles are an essential part of case air flow design

*Exception... radiator fans always blow in

If you have 1 in and 1 out, then because the out is hampered by the pressure loss across the filter, you have more air going out than in thru fans ... that makes air get sucked in thru rear case grilles which not only brings in dust but the hot air exhausted by PSI and GFX card

 
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Noctua fans are the way to go
as are Phanteks

with Corsair, it depends
I find Corsair fans to be a bit louder than Noctua/Phanteks
and you gotta look at the bearing. many Corsair fans use a rifle/sleeve bearing which is not recommended for horizontal mounting and will run not as smoothly as magnetic or hydrodynamic/fluid bearing
 
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He doesn't have a Maximus Hero VI, I have that motherboard, he has the Maximus Hero VIII which supports PWM on all fan headers.
 
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The Corsair fans I recommended are mag lev fans in PWM.
 
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What happens when you take the Noctua PWM Fans off a Noctua cooler and replace them with Phanteks DCV fans that are 300 rpm slower ?

Your CPU temp drops by 3C !

http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/phenteks_f140/3.htm

At the same 1200 rpm, the Phanteks fans keep the CPU 6.3C cooler. As the case already comes with the better PH-140SP fan, makes sense to just get more of the same.

a) Phanteks gives better temps
b) Phanteks is lower rpm
c) The Phanteks are 3 pin DCV, matching the control scheme on the Hero VIII CHA headers which support both DCV and PWM. Or pay more for the PWM version
d) Noc fans cost $21, Phanteks cost $15

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835709023
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835608036



 
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Oops... where did I get in my head that it was the VI.... All Z97 and beyond boards support BOTH PWM and DVC on all CHA headers

 
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Just get 3 more of the same stock Phanteks 140mm fans. It's the cheapest route, the fans are the best, they also match up with the existing case fan. Placement will depend on the cpu cooler. If it's a stock cooler, stick 2 fans up top and 2 as intake. Absolutely no need for a rear exhaust whatsoever. If you have a tower cooler like a hyper212 then q fan at rear exhaust, 1 fan top rear mount, 2x intakes. If you have a liquid cooler that changes things. You can either use the coolers fan as top exhaust and just move the exhaust fan to intake (2x2) or with a single sized radiator add 1 fan to intake and use the cooler/exhaust fans both on top. The only reason a top vented case ever needs a rear exhaust fan is if that's the direction of the cpu cooler exhaust from a tower cooler. Heat naturally rises, gpu heat rises, trying to blow it 90° sideways when it's naturally wanting to go out the top is counter productive.
 
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No, my cpu cooler is a noctua cooler (not stock).
I don't want to use the stock cooler because it's 3 pin, meaning the motherboard cant control it.
 
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So. If it's a 9i that looks kinda like the stock then put 2 fans up top, 2 fans intake, if it's the big double tower like a D14 then 1 fan at rear exhaust, 1 fan on top rear and 2 intakes. Run both pairs of fans on splitters, so both intakes to 1 header, both exhaust fans on another header, and cpu fan(s) on a 3rd header. Use the Asus fan Xpert software (it's by far the best available) and treat each header as a single fan. Very easy to setup.
 
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