# Optimal case fan orientation



## stoggs1 (Mar 21, 2017)

Hey guys, so I was wanting to know what is the best case fan orientation when you have 5 case fans with rear, top and front mounts?

I have 4 120 mm fans and 1 140 mm.  The rear is a 120, the two on top are also 120 and I have the other 120 and 140 at the front.

Now my cpu heatsink is the cooler master t4 and the fan is vertical and is in the exhaust position to not blow hot air on my graphics card so should I have my top fans in the same direction?  And what about the front fans?

Thanks.


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## DeathtoGnomes (Mar 21, 2017)

Front and Bottom = In, Top and Rear = Out. Heat rises naturally so best thing is to aid airflow in that direction and not fight it. If CPU fan can be turned, make it flow towards the closest exhaust fan.


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## stoggs1 (Mar 21, 2017)

DeathtoGnomes said:


> Front and Bottom = In, Top and Rear = Out. Heat rises naturally so best thing is to aid airflow in that direction and not fight it. If CPU fan can be turned, make it flow towards the closest exhaust fan.


It cant be turned but I can move the fan to the bottom of the heatsink, can u give a diagram for the best airflow config?  Im more of visual guy lol.


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## Ebo (Mar 21, 2017)

Heat goes up, so you have to get fans and backend and  to blow out, front
has to go in.


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## BiggieShady (Mar 21, 2017)

stoggs1 said:


> It cant be turned but I can move the fan to the bottom of the heatsink, can u give a diagram for the best airflow config?  Im more of visual guy lol.


https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/share-your-case-airflow-fan-setup.219337/


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## DeathtoGnomes (Mar 21, 2017)

The first post in the link from @BiggieShady displays an image of typical air flow. When in doubt, point up and say "Heat rises"


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## eidairaman1 (Mar 21, 2017)

Front fan Intake, Back Fan Exhaust. If your case has a top fan or bottom fan, make top fan exhaust and bottom fan intake. If the case has a side panel fan make it intake, your heatsink if it is tower style place  in front of fins towards front of case make it blow to the back through the fins. Exhaust fan on the cooler make it suck, most fans have an arrow for proper flow.


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## stoggs1 (Mar 22, 2017)

I have the cooler master hyper t4 i have an amd cpu and u can only mount it with the facing up or down which kind of sucks, i have 2 120 mm fans at top facing the same direction of the  heatsink fan well I will when i transfer my hardware to my new case.


Im currently using on old case because the 8 pin cpu connector on the psu is to short so i have to buy an adapter for it.

So with that in mind how would you set it up that way?


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## DeathtoGnomes (Mar 22, 2017)

8 pin extensions are cheap, if ya buy one now, you will have it for your next build. Not sure what case this is in, but its as i said earlier, if you have top exhaust fans, point the CPU airflow up. 

What new case did you get?


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## stoggs1 (Mar 22, 2017)

Diypc vt830 i got it for 25 bucks it was on sale normally its around 80.  I need to update my specs only thing that i still have from my old pc is my 960.

I like my new pc quite a bit.  With 16 gbs of gskill ripjaws, my amd 8320 and 2 tb sshd its alot faster than my old system.  Yes i know the fx chips arent the best but i got a great deal everything plus the case was around 320$. 

And my 960 was bottlenecked pretty hard in my old pc.


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## peche (Mar 22, 2017)

stoggs1 said:


> Hey guys, so I was wanting to know what is the best case fan orientation when you have 5 case fans with rear, top and front mounts?
> 
> I have 4 120 mm fans and 1 140 mm.  The rear is a 120, the two on top are also 120 and I have the other 120 and 140 at the front.
> 
> ...


@stoggs1 the airflow settings are for your listed case: *hp xw8400 workstation case ,* Fan setup is designed to provide an ideal ariflow that might giver a fresh flow of air trough the hardware, rushing heat with fresh air and using the same flow for getting heat out naturally, so take in consideration that heat tends to raise...

tell us moar about the case you are trying to set up!

Regards,


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## thebluebumblebee (Mar 22, 2017)

stoggs1 said:


> Diypc vt830


Think you mean vt380?  Just like their picture shows


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## Frag_Maniac (Mar 22, 2017)

I would put the 140 on top to exhaust if you can. Then two 120s in front for intake, one 120 rear for exhaust, and one 120 side for intake blowing on GPU.

Ideally what you want is strong flow front to back, with a gentle pull at top to exhaust built up heat. You also want a bit more intake than exhaust to keep air pressure slightly positive, which resists dust being pulled in through crevices by neg pressure. Ideally all intakes should have easy to clean filters as well.

Note as well you scratch off the PSU fan as neither intake or exhaust if you have a bottom vent under it and it's fan is mounted underneath, but count it as as exhaust if you have no bottom vent or mount it with it's fan on top.


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## Devon68 (Mar 22, 2017)

If that is your case I would put the 1x140mm in the front as a intake and 2x120mm on the top for exhaust. No need for more than that. More fans = only more noise (in most cases it does not even affect the temperatures as much).
But here is a video that show differences between mounting fans in different positions in the case. They even used your CPU cooler but in the other orientation.


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## stoggs1 (Mar 23, 2017)

Ok thanks I have a better understanding now and how to set up my fans.


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