[SOLVED] Should I even bother with this case fan

[Furzumz]

I got a old antec 300 case that has a top exhaust fan, rear exhaust, two front intakes and a side panel fan shown in that picture

I was wondering should I even bother using that side panel fan? I had it set as a exhaust fan until I accidentally broke my splitter I used to plug it in and so I'm left wondering if its even worth getting a new splitter to continue using that side panel fan

Setting it as a intake fan causes more harm than good as my room is so dusty my power supply gets showered in dust. The front intakes have a dust filter which helps with that but the side panel fan has no filter

 

[Darkbreeze]

Not as an exhaust fan.

Probably not even as an intake, which is what any side fan should be for any tower case with a side fan.

Front, bottom and side panel fans should be intake in 99.99% of configurations. Top and rear fans should be exhaust. If you do use that fan, it should be an intake fan. That is case cooling 101, for years and years now. Since before they moved the power supplies from the top to the bottom of the case in fact.

Whether you even need it or not is another story. What does your system hardware consist of and what sort of CPU cooler are you using?

 

[OrlyP]

Is it safe to assume that your CPU has a stock or tower air cooler? Are you using discrete graphics?

If so, this is how I would do it:

Front: Intake
Side: Intake (Might help cool down your discrete graphics card)
Rear: Exhaust
Top: Depends*

*Note for top-mount fans:
1. For top mount fans without a radiator:
- If the top fan is near the back of the case: Exhaust
- If the top fan is near the front of the case: Intake
2. If it's a 120mm AIO radiator: Exhaust

 

[Furzumz]

Whether you even need it or not is another story. What does your system hardware consist of and what sort of CPU cooler are you using?

Is it safe to assume that your CPU has a stock or tower air cooler? Are you using discrete graphics?

My setup is a ryzen 9 3900x with a noctua NH-D14 cooler, video card is a 2070 super (this one in particular)

Not doing any manual overclocking as I'd probably blow up my motherboard and my case wiring can be summed up with "spaghetti"

No overheating issues that I've seen this far, my video card goes up to 70c tops under 100% load and the CPU is at a similar temperature in back to back runs in cinebench

 

[OrlyP]

If you're not having issues with high temperatures, it's really up to you whether to enable the side panel fan.

But again, if you do decide to use it, IMO, it will better serve its purpose if it's an intake fan. At the least, experiment between intake and exhaust and choose the method that yields the best cooling results.

I was going to suggest using a magnetic dust filter on the side panel. But seeing that the fan grille is protruding, that may not be possible. You'll just have to clean your PC more often.

 

[Furzumz]

Thanks for the help everyone

 

[Darkbreeze]

My honest advice, for the hardware you have right now, would be that you should SERIOUSLY consider the advantages of a case upgrade. Granted, what you have is working, but with modern feature advances you'd see better cooling potential, give yourself a good reason to cable manage that spaghetti mess of wiring and have the option of getting a case with front panel and PSU intake filtration so that you can keep the whole system and the power supply's internals much cleaner and likely extend the life of those parts considerably. Just a thought.

Given the hardware you have though, yes, I'd probably recommend using that side panel as an intake IF you can even put a fan there and have it clear the top of that D14 cooler. Not for the CPU in particular, but perhaps for the graphics card IF you have any thermal issues at all in that regard when running a thermal test like Furmark torture test.

 

[Krotow]

Had same Antec 300 case in previous PC for 11 years. Never used side fan - it would only suck extra dust into case and interfere with vertical CPU cooler. If your CPU temps are acceptable, don't bother about that fan at all.

 

[HWOC]

Unless you have temp issues, I wouldn't use that side fan with your config.