Side Fans. Any benefits or just a myth?

[mclaren85]

Good evening/day everyone;
Recently I've bought an MSI Velox 100P case in order to fit my long GPU. But this case comes with a pleasant surprise: Side Panel with capable of 2x240mm fans. As you may know from my previous couple of posts, I've been complaining from relatively high temperature of my x570s chipset. Do you think adding two fans in the side panel would work as I expected? Or decreasing overall temperature? If the answer is yes, would you prefer them to place them as an intake, or exhaust fan?
Here is the photo of my new case:

btw, Happy new year all!

 

[Bill_Bright]

It is my experience they create unwanted turbulence that adversely affects the desired front to back flow of air through the case. The exception is when they blow directly into a tube that channels the air directly onto a CPU or GPU.

But - every setup is unique. So try it, monitor your temps, and see for yourself.

 

[mclaren85]

It is my experience they create unwanted turbulence that adversely affects the desired front to back flow of air through the case. The exception is when they blow directly into a tube that channels the air directly onto a CPU or GPU.

But - every setup is unique. So try it, monitor your temps, and see for yourself.

Thank you I will. And I wish you a great new year!

 

[santis]

mmm your problem is the 3080 hehe I have one too and in gaming it gets very hot and warms the other components... Are you using the 3x12cm front fans? For what I saw googling you MPG VELOX 100P AIRFLOW is that it comes with 3 front coolers but you you loose them if you put the side fans. Like Bill said I´d prefer front and exhaust fans to create an even airflow. Also how do you monitor your fans? ChaFAN and ramps up with temps? Let us know how it goes.

 

[mclaren85]

mmm your problem is the 3080 hehe I have one too and in gaming it gets very hot and warms the other components... Are you using the 3x12cm front fans? For what I saw googling you MPG VELOX 100P AIRFLOW is that it comes with 3 front coolers but you you loose them if you put the side fans. Like Bill said I´d prefer front and exhaust fans to create an even airflow. Also how do you monitor your fans? ChaFAN and ramps up with temps? Let us know how it goes.

I've set full speed for all intake/exhaust fans from bios. Currently there is only default fans running. But I'm not sure which fan should I pick (noctua, arctic etc..) and which size?

 

[santis]

Rear it seems only allows 120mm.
Front I would go for: Size 140mm F series for Flow, P series is for (Static Pressure) radiators.

F14 PWM | 140 mm 4-Pin Case Fan with PWM | ARCTIC

The PWM case fan series allow perfect case fan regulation with PWM and therefore the required cooling at the lowest noise level | Free shipping in DE…

www.arctic.de

Your 3 front 120mm MSI fans I would use as exhaust on top. Maybe not at full speed because of noise but it may help to take out the hot air.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

P-14 fans are supposedly pretty quiet but even Noctua NF-A12's are loud at full rpm just like every fan.

Get three PWM P-14s. plug them in the front and configure them in bios to run in normal or performances mode for PWM. stock MSI fans (which you have three of??) take one of them out and run two at the top. Keep the rear 120mm fan.

Run those two at the top in their quietest mode if they are PWM. Hot air doesnt take a whole lot of effort to exhaust unless youre pulling through a radiator or a dust filter.

Most important thing is the fans pulling air into the case so the front fans should always be ran faster than the exhaust fans.


If it was me i would toss out all the stock case fans and replace them with something else but of course that costs money.

 

[mclaren85]

P-14 fans are supposedly pretty quiet but even Noctua NF-A12's are loud at full rpm just like every fan.

Get three PWM P-14s. plug them in the front and configure them in bios to run in normal or performances mode for PWM. stock MSI fans (which you have three of??) take one of them out and run two at the top. Keep the rear 120mm fan.

Run those two at the top in their quietest mode if they are PWM. Hot air doesnt take a whole lot of effort to exhaust unless youre pulling through a radiator or a dust filter.

Most important thing is the fans pulling air into the case so the front fans should always be ran faster than the exhaust fans.


If it was me i would toss out all the stock case fans and replace them with something else but of course that costs money.

Forgive me for asking one more question, should I buy the high pressure version for front?

 

[prehensileman]

This helped me decide on positive pressure ventilaiton: benefits? less dirt and dust while maintaining a relatively constant temp overall

11 Ways to Keep Your Computer Cool

Here are several ways to keep your computer cool. If your PC gets too hot, it can stop working and cause damage. Keeping the temp down is important.

www.lifewire.com

 

[FreedomEclipse]

For me personally - yes i would. you can run them at lower RPM if they are too noisy. (The speed can be configured with a fan curve from the bios - so this may take a little dialing in to get things right)

Arctic fans are pretty cheap so long as they are the black non-rgb ones.

I prefer the high pressure fans because the fans are still pulling air through a dust filter which can be an airflow restriction.

 

[80251]

I did some testing with a side fan on my Thermaltake Armor Revo which comes equipped with a slow speed 200x32mm side fan. The side fan I ended up using is a Silverstone AP-182. When configured as an intake the side fan is using an intake filter.

	maximum CPU temp (delta T)	maximum GPU temp (delta T)	ambient temp in celsius/farenheit (i.e. outside of case)
side panel on with AP-182 as intake*	72°C (48.1°C)	55°C (31.1°C)	23.9°C/75°F
side panel on with filtered hole in place of 200mm fan*	76°C (51.6°C)	59°C (34.6°C)	24.4°C/76°F
side panel on with AP-182 as exhaust*	72°C (47.6°C)	58°C (33.6°C)	24.4°C/76°F
side panel removed*	68°C (44.7°C)	57°C (33.7°C)	23.3°C/74°F
AP-182 as intake, 127x50+delta 127x38 fans installed on 1080ti	74°C (52.3°C)	54°C(32.3°C)	21.7°C/71°F

NOTE: * denotes 1080ti cooled by both nidec 120x38 with 40mm of shrouds/spacers and delta 127x38 with 38mm of shrouds/spacers

 

[caroline!]

Side fans work, just... not in that side.

Ideally you should have them on the left right where the graphics cards are. That works better for open fan cards, blowers benefit more from fast front intake fans.

 

[Space Lynx]

Side fans work, just... not in that side.

Ideally you should have them on the left right where the graphics cards are. That works better for open fan cards, blowers benefit more from fast front intake fans.

yep, exactly this. Every day I regret getting rid of my Corsair Carbide 500r case, my gpu temps were always 10-15 celsius colder because of the side fan blowing on it.