Side panel fan push or pull?

[The Build Phase]

I have a corsair 400r and I was wondering? Should I pull in air from the side panel to cool my 760 from gigabyte. Or push out to expel hot air from inside? I know a little about fan configurations but this baffles me.

 

[Someone Somewhere]

Usually intake. This helps shove the air out the vents on the back of the card.

 

[MarkW]

In nearly all situations, the best way to setup fans is to have 1 or 2 (2 is better) pulling cool air in at the front. And 1 fan pulling the warm air out the back. This creates a natural flow of air that flows through your system picking up the warm air that is moving off of your CPU and GPU.

By adding a side fan, you interrupt that natural flow, and can actually create "hot" pockets of air within the case, something that is not desirable.

 

[Someone Somewhere]

Good point.

Top fans also usually work reasonably well, as they're still near the rear of the case.