I am building my first custom gaming PC. I would like some advice on how to set up my fans.

dragicornJake

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Dec 20, 2013
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The case is a NZXT Phantom 410. It comes with two 120mm fans for the front and back and one 140 mm fan for the top. I am buying an extra 120 mm fan. The case has room for one 120mm in the back (I will use one of the fans that come with it), two spots on the top for either size (I will use the farther back one with the 140mm that comes with it), two 120mm or one 140 mm in the front (I won't be buying anymore 140mm fans, so I will use one of the fans that comes with it for the front), one 120mm on the bottom, and one 120mm or 140 mm on the side. I am thinking of making the top one exhaust (as hot air rises) and the back one exhaust so I don't have hot air blowing on me. The front one will be intake. I don't know if I will put the fourth fan I'm getting on the side or on the bottom. But whichever I choose, it'll be intake also. So two intake, two exhaust. But I would like some experienced advice where I should place the fourth one, and which fans I should make intake or exhaust. I doubt I will need to buy any more fans.

I am just a casual gamer and will not need the most powerful stuff and my budget is about $1100.

Some extra specs:
CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core
RAM: A-Data XPG Gaming Series 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (I might add an extra 4GB variant)
Video Card: MSI Radeon R7 250 1GB
Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM

Thank you!
 


Okay, since the case comes with the three fans, I'll just use those three. In the front, back, and top. But which ones should be intake or exhaust?
 
positive air pressure ie more fans blowing in then out can let you run filters on the intake fans + prevent dust from building up inside the case. (since you know where the air/dust is going in at). Other then that air intake near the cpu/gpu can help a little.