Suggestions on air flow?

[alexbruce]

Hey Guys,

Wanted to know people's opinions/thoughts.

I've done a fair bit of reading up on air flow within PC cases, and the advantages/distadvantages of positive/negative air flow etc

I've just purchaed a new cheap case, to replace my current media PC, It's a standard mini tower and not exactly media centre-esque but it seemed to have good cooling for £20...

here's a pic of what it looks like design wise

http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/7126/79189227.jpg

And links to the actual product, click on the little galery button on the left hand side

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/150291

As you can see it takes 2 x 120mm fans and 1 x 80mm fan, I have Xilence Red Wings to fill these positions, as well as a host of voltage reducers/fan controllers etc, so noise isn't a problem because it can be customised to be my liking

Round in the longest way ever, how would you position the fans?

I was thinking that having the front 120mm sucking in over the HDD's, having the rear 80mm also sucking in and having the side 120mm as an exhuast looking like this...

http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/3130/21193769.jpg

I know what your thinking, wow, I wish I could design such details blue prints 😛

Does that look about right? or does anyone else have any siggestions regarding the matter?

Cheers, And REALLY sorry for such a long winded post.

Alex.

 

[alexbruce]

The reason I was unsure about the whole set up, is because I thought having the front as an intake and side as an intake would create a lot of good flow across HDD's and board/CPU and the 80mm could just be there to remove excess heat?

 

[MRFS]

No: hot air rises: cold air falls.

In general, intake colder air from the front, bottom and left side.

Exhaust warmer air up and/or out the rear panel.

This is called the "stack effect".


The Cooler Master CM 690 is "masterful" in this regards:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119137


Think of chimneys: smoke rises up from the chimney top,
just like hot air balloons


If there is a fan grill in the top panel too, then
hard drives should be positioned in the uppermost
5.25" drive bays with an integrated cooler blowing IN,
like Antec's excellent hard drive cooler:

http://www.antec.com/Believe_it/product.php?id=ODM=


Then, the HDDs' warmer air will exit directly out the top
panel, without warming any other interior components.

Likewise, a good place for the PSU is the lower-rear:
by taking cooler air in from a grill in the bottom panel,
and exhausting warmer air out the back panel,
the PSU does not add heat to any interior components
and it also stays cooler than it would if it intakes
hot air exhausted by the CPU's heatsink/fan.

See the many options available in the CM 690.


MRFS

 

[alexbruce]

So as I put in the little follow up reply.. If I use front and side for intake and rear for exhaust that will probably provide the best performance?

Sorry if i've completely missed what you've told me, it's late ;-)

 

[bobbknight]

Air flow is best from front to back, bottom to top.
The Antec 300 is a great cost effective case.

 

[Xenonvector927]

Yup. ATX cases have been designed like that from the very beginning. Intake at the front, exhaust at the back. For cases with side fan areas, I would suggest that you use it as intake so that the cool air from the outside of the case can be brung into the case and sucked in by the CPU cooler to cool the CPU. That seems to work best. Man, I've answered this question too many times... 😴

 

[alexbruce]

LOL

I can imagine, but it's so hard actually finding concrete answers, airflow seems to be very individual so to speak.

But I'd come to the answer you've given too

Thanks man

 

[Xenonvector927]

You're welcome 😀 . I understand. Airflow inside the case can also make a big difference to overclocking potential as well, so keep that in mind, and tweak the airflow to find what's best for you. Cya later.

 

[alexbruce]

It wasn't so much for OC potential, it's jsut that my current case with poor airflow leaves my CPU at 50degrees solid, with THE CPU fan turned down to abour 1200rpm, hopefully this bigger case will lower my CPU temps a bit! otherwise I'll have to start wearing sun glasses when watching movies from it 😀