Windows 7: How Many Case Fans?

adamguk · 16 Mar 2012

Hey there! Building a new build PC and was just wondering how many case fans people would recommend for it. The hardware and case is as follows,

Asus M5A78L/USB3 AMD Socket AM3+ 8 Channel HD Audio ATX Motherboard
AMD 960T Black Edition 3.0GHz Socket AM3 Processor
XFX HD 5450 Heatsink 1GB DDR3 VGA DVI HDMI PCI-E
Corsair 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1333MHz XMS3 Memory Kit CL9 1.5V unbuffered
WD 500GB 3.5" SATA 6Gb/s Caviar Blue Hard Drive - 7200RPM 16MB Cach
Samsung Optical Drive

and the case is a Coolermaster Elite 330 with 500w PSU .. and the case has one rear case fan which I think is 120mm.

Thanks for your input in advance!

-Adam

vierasniper · 16 Mar 2012

well that's really up to you. how many can your case hold? more fans can keep it cooler and help keeps dust out if you position them properly. However it also equals more noise, unless you get some silent fans. i have 5 fans on mine, i can add 2 more tho.

mickey megabyte · 16 Mar 2012

hi adamguk, and welcome to sevenforums.

it depends.

i've only got two in my case (which isn't fancy by any means) rear 120mm and top 140mm, both turned down to minimum rpm. they keep my rig perfectly cool even through mammoth overclocked gaming sessions.

i'm not a big fan of fan noise.

mjf · 16 Mar 2012

Adam
I think it depends also on the ambient temperature your system runs in. In the UK you may be in a better situation than me but I think an intake fan blowing over your spinning HDDs is a good idea.

tw33k · 16 Mar 2012

I have 10 case fans and 3 on my CPU. It's only because I have 2x UK-3000s running full speed that I can hear it. When I turn them off, it's virtually silent.

JoeDavola · 16 Mar 2012

I have 7 case fans, all 1850 rpm Gentle Typhoons hooked to a fan controller. I hate fan noise so most of the time I run them between 800 and 1100 rpm.

profdlp · 17 Mar 2012

Add the optional 120mm fan to the front as an intake and make sure the rear fan is positioned to exhaust. The rest depend on your CPU heatsink.

Personally, I think those fancy hard drive coolers (the kind that are mounted directly to the drive) are worthless. Good airflow over the drive (that's where the intake fan comes into play) is what you want.

Your case doesn't appear to leave you a ton of options, unless you're handy with a hole saw:

Elite 330 - Cooler Master - Leading Provider of Computer Case | Cooler | Power Supply

M1GU31 · 17 Mar 2012

i got 5 fans in my case and it runs cool and not to loud. I rarely notice the noise and even when gaming it's at a resealable noise level for me.

smarteyeball · 17 Mar 2012

Quote: Originally Posted by profdlp

Add the optional 120mm fan to the front as an intake and make sure the rear fan is positioned to exhaust. The rest depend on your CPU heatsink.

Your case doesn't appear to leave you a ton of options, unless you're handy with a hole saw:

You could probably get away with a side intake fan too - even if you have to blu-tack/masking tape it into place.

But adding the front 120mm is imperative.

As long as the core components (CPU, GPU) and to a lesser extent HDD's and ambient are within the limits, it's fine - more isn't always better.

(My personal max was 13 case fans in a HAF 932. My current Lian Li has 4 and overall, there is SFA difference in temp difference between 13 and 4 fans

)

mickey megabyte · 18 Mar 2012

why do people need so many fans? just how hot does your case get?

if i were to put my mobo in the oven, i may need five, ten, thirteen fans to keep it cool, but i don't.

maybe too many fans start to cancel each other out? i like quiet pc's, me.

or maybe i'm lucky, and the fact that my psu sits in the bottom of my case really helps air flow a lot, allowing me to run cool with just two fans, even though i overclock and play games?

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