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How to position fans on the motherboard?

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razor2890

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Aug 2, 2012
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Hi Guys!!

I am in the process of upgrading my PC. I can't upgrade the entire system in one go.. So I went with Samsung Evo 850 500GB SSD and 2TB WD Caviar Green. I already had a 2TB WD Caviar Green and 1 TB WD Black.
Since I had only 2 HDDs the heat generated was not a big deal, but now I am going to have 4. So I thought of buying 2-3 fans to cool the cabinet.
I need advice on the best possible position of these fans.

My current cabinet setup :

PSU is at the top(Corsair CX500). Its fan is downwards facing my Asus GTX750 TI GPU. GPU has 2 fans which is facing down to the end of the cabinet.
Processor is in the middle.
I can place 1 fan at the end of the cabinet and 1 at the front. Where can I place the third fan?

Thank you.
 
Whats the case brand and model?
 
Ok front panel fan should be blowing into case, side panel fan should be blowing into case, rear fan should be exhaust.
 
One more request.. How to find the correct fan size. The exhaust fan slot measures only 85 mm, while the front slot can accommodate one 140 mm and side slot can have one 120 mm and one 80 mm fans..
Will it be fine to have more air in than going out?
Can u also recommend some low noise fans?
 
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more air in than out is recommended, its called positive air pressure.
helps to prevent dust build up.

I prefer fractal or noctua fans, i have a silent PC and don't tolerate noisy components.
 
Hello @razor2890 , it's pretty much straight forward on your case. You don't really have any options on it. Just use every spot for fans there.
As @Mussels said more air in than out is called positive pressure. If you have time/ desire to read, you can check out these two articles : Fan Positions and Vertical vs Horizontal cooling . They have some very useful conclusions in general. If you don't have any other choice - put only the side fan- it is really important.
 
I like to use fans on things that require cooling.

So in my case, one standard fan out rear, one huge fan out top, this moves heat from my VRM's and the circuitry around my CPU.
I then have a direct fan blowing at my Northbridge which is a 92mm Noctua.
I have a in take on teh bottom of the case feeding fresh air into the video card.
The front of the case has a panel opening to improve airflow, as much as vents are good they do block intake.

PSU is facing down as it should.

My system is a heavily overclocked system so my priorities are to keep it as cold as i can, and that i achieve well.


You won't see many Xeon's hitting max temps of 55c on a ITX cooler at 4.4ghz.


Also learn to adapt things for your own PC, not a single PC is the same and airflow requirements will be different.

untitled-png.78894



The PC.

Untitled.png
 
Thanks Mussels.. I just opened the cabinet and found that i can't direct airflow to the HDDs.. So any other way to keep the disks cool. Presently I have 2 which heats upto 42-45 Celcius.. So having 4 will definitely increase the temperature.
Any idea on how to cool them?
 
razor2890 said:
Thanks Mussels.. I just opened the cabinet and found that i can't direct airflow to the HDDs.. So any other way to keep the disks cool. Presently I have 2 which heats upto 42-45 Celcius.. So having 4 will definitely increase the temperature.
Any idea on how to cool them?
Click to expand...


take same nicely lit pics of the case, or link to your exact one? Not all cases have good cooling options.
generally front + side in, rear + top out.

If your case has no fans at all for cooling the hard drives, there are bays you can get that fit in the DVD bays, and let you put hard drives + a 120mm fan there.
 
The system is close to 10 years old.. It still runs like butter.. I am in the process of upgrading the system as I am not able to play games released from 2016 onwards due to low RAM(4GB) and processor.
So I am first upgrading Hdd and then the cabinet. I am also searching for a good cabinet. http://www.primeabgb.com/online-price-reviews-india/corsair-carbide-series-400r-mid-tower-cabinet/
or http://www.primeabgb.com/online-pri...hite-series-760t-full-tower-windowed-cabinet/

I have removed the DVD encasing.
 

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razor2890 said:
The system is close to 10 years old.. It still runs like butter.. I am in the process of upgrading the system as I am not able to play games released from 2016 onwards due to low RAM(4GB) and processor.
So I am first upgrading Hdd and then the cabinet. I am also searching for a good cabinet. http://www.primeabgb.com/online-price-reviews-india/corsair-carbide-series-400r-mid-tower-cabinet/
or http://www.primeabgb.com/online-pri...hite-series-760t-full-tower-windowed-cabinet/

I have removed the DVD encasing.
Click to expand...

It's time to clean the dust out on the inside of your case...:p
 
P4-630 said:
It's time to clean the dust out on the inside of your case...:p
Click to expand...

Haha :laugh:.. It has served me very well... It can still play AC Black Flag/FIFA @1080p. I can also play Fallout 4 at lower settings.. It can run several instances of eclipse & VMs.. Its only 2016 games I am not able to play.. I have been postponing the upgrade as I can't buy all at once.. This month I am buying a Hdd/ssd.. Next month a cabinet & so on...
 
clean that dust out, especially on your CPU heatsink. That will probably give you a big performance boost, since it will be thermal throttling.

This is just an example image, but its a good idea of what i spoke of before: You lose 3x DVD bays, but gain space for a 120mm intake fan + 3-4x HDD bays directly cooled by that fan.
Hiper_Osiris_HDD_Cage.jpg



You could also just look into a new case.
 
Nice!! Great system you got there.. I was not able to find that model here in India. I'll just ask my dealer..
 
@razor2890 cable managemente could be done on generic cases, but may be harder to accomplish compared to a pro case,
For example,
4.jpg
Also please fill this!
 
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