fans in or out?

soulfood · 14 Jul 2013

hi i have a question about fans.my case is the corsair carbide 400r. there are 2 x120mm intake fans in the front ( which come with the pc), 1x 120mm fan in the back. and then extra room for 2x 120mm or 140mm fans on the top. and space for 2x 120mm or 140mm fans on the side, and 1x on the base of the case. now obviously, the front fans are intake. and the back one is exhaust. but are the top, side and bottom fans intake or exhaust ? and i am running a high end graphics card. thank you

essenbe · 14 Jul 2013

Much of that depends on you. There are basically 2 schools of thought. One is heat rises naturally so the top should be exhaust fans to get rig of the heat. But, in most cases this causes negative airflow which will draw in air (and dust) from the perforared rear panels and the extra pcie slots. The other school of thought, and my preference, is all fans are intake except the back fan. This causes positive air fkow and pushes out the hot air through the back with the dust along with it. There are several studies that show positive airflow reducse dust by up to 30%. In the end it matters what you want and what works best in your case. My case has all intake fans except the rear fan. It goes against typical practice, but it works well for me. My best suggestion is to try it a couple of ways and determine what works best for you and your case. What you want is the airflow to go front to back and fresh air for keeping your components cooler.

Phone Man · 14 Jul 2013

I have the same case and my bottom fan blows IN. My 2 side fans also blow IN. My rear fan has a CPU water cooler radiator and blows OUT and the 2 top fans blow OUT. I use a fan controller to adjust the fan speed for a positive pressure air flow and low noise.

Jim

madcratebuilder · 14 Jul 2013

I have a HAF 922 with very similar fan setup. I have all fans in except the rear, it has two fans, push-pull on my radiator. The top fan is a 200mm and I tried it both in and out and I had cooler (3-4*) internal case temps with it moving air into the case.

I recommend using fan filters to keep dust to a absolute minimum. I use DEMCiflex filters and they are superb. SilverStone has a large selection of low cost filters. I have not used SilverStone filters but I have used other SilverStone products and can say the customer support is top notch.

linnemeyerhere · 14 Jul 2013

I have the same case and don't see the need for the side panel fans but mine is set up to intake bottom and front and exhaust rear and top through the rad and my temps even with a crazy OC are fantastic.

AddRAM · 14 Jul 2013

Front and bottom filtered, in, top and back unfiltered, out.

If you have your in fans spinning to fast, your gonna pull dust in from every open crack in your case.

I noticed with my air on, the dust is much less.

Dude · 14 Jul 2013

I think essenbe said it spot on. Air flow is the important part. You will have to try different ways to see what is best for you. Like AddRam said, sometimes you have to try different ways, and play with the speeds.

kbrady1979 · 17 Jul 2013

The more fans you have blowing IN the case, the more positive air pressure you have and you are less likely to have dust settle in and on your components......provided you have dust filters on them. You do need at least 1 exhaust fan though. I know that case will handle a sack full of fans, but save some time and money and figure out what you need to keep your system cool and leave it at that. You don't need 15 fans in your case.

Britton30 · 17 Jul 2013

I go along with essenbe's plan too. I have 1 rear exhaust, 2 top, 1 front intake. My PSU is bottom mounted but draws air from the bottom and exhausts it and has little effect.

essenbe · 17 Jul 2013

This may explain it better than I can.