Case fan placement

[Inigma]

Hi all!

Hopefully this is in the right place. I have a Lexa S currently, all fans are stock atm, one at the front bottom (intake), one on the side panel (intake), one at the back (exhaust) and one on the top (exhaust). I was wondering how everyone ventilates their computer, short of using liquid cooling.

My main question was: if i were to add another fan at the top, be it intake or exhaust, would it make much or any difference? I assume you would make it exhaust, but would that be affective at all at getting rid of the heat, more so than what my current fans are doing now?

Thanks in advance!

 

[ignatzatsonic]

You'd have to test it to find out.

The larger question is why do you think you need another fan?

You appear to have 4 now, more than most people. Why stop at 5? Why not 10?

There is something called diminishing returns, but you may be one of those who thinks that 27 degrees is demonstrably preferable to 31 degrees.

Or maybe you just like tinkering.

 

[Inigma]

Well at the moment my cpu sits around late 30's early 40's if I remember correctly and my gfx card around the same too.

I was interested to see what other people have and their thoughts on fan cooling. Maybe someone has the same case as me and has tried adding the fifth fan.

 

[Solarstarshines]

Fan placement does make a differnce but there is a limit on how much fans will do after a while

I have seven tottal fans two on the heat sink 2 on top 2 on the side one in the rear and not stating the obvious my psu has a fan

Anyway i am running a crossfire set up and i have both of my cards 2 slots away from each other still makes no difference the amount of heat issued by both cards in tandem is nuts

I had readings at 90c at one point on the #1 card but after changing drivers it has gone down more then 20 c

So what i am saying to you cooling has a big impact but only so much sometimes the drivers we use will also turn the heat up a notch or bring it down more then normal just wierd that way

 

[ProjectDan35]

Adding an extra fan may not make a difference. It probably would if you were producing tons of heat that couldn't escape the case fast enough.

I run 1 120mm in the front pulling air in, 2 120mm on top exhausting, 1 120mm in the rear exhausting, and a 200mm on the side panel window blowing in.

But then again since I have a fan controller, I only run the top 2 and the rear at 50%.

 

[Layback Bear]

If you are all ready running cool adding fans will only help a little. The only weak point with your case that I have found is the cpu cooling.
NZXT Lexa S Review - Overclockers Club
I would monitor the temps of the cpu under load. That will tell you a lot and whether or not you need more cooling. I use Real Temp for a monitoring program.

 

[smarteyeball]

Well at the moment my cpu sits around late 30's early 40's

Stock intel cooler? Sounds about normal and certainly far from warm.

if I remember correctly and my gfx card around the same too.

Normal temp there too.

I was interested to see what other people have and their thoughts on fan cooling. Maybe someone has the same case as me and has tried adding the fifth fan.

Adding a fifth fan to that case really wouldn't make much difference tbh. You'd get more impact by replacing all the stock fans with ones that push more air.

 

[Inigma]

Thanks for all the input so far!

Yeah the cpu cooler is stock and is what I would expect from a stock cooler and my gfx card gets to around 65+ after playing bf3 for a while, was just wanting other opinions to see if adding another fan would bring it down.

 

[Layback Bear]

Temps under full load are the ones that count. Idle temps mean very little. As smartyeyeball has posted better quality fans would probably do you more good than just adding fans. Knowing the load temps exactly of your cpu and video card so we can compare them would give us a good indication of your tower cooling. Also your ambient temp are need with your load temps. Example: If you CPU and video card are hot (not overclocked) under load your case needs more cooling.
Intel stock CPU fan work well if installed properly and you are not overclocked.

 

[fseal]

Another possible issue is making sure that heat you are expelling out the back and top is not being sucked right back into the side or front. I.e. make sure that the computer is not boxed in under a desk, it will heat it's own air supply and run much hotter. Keep it open so that air blown out goes away from the computer. (Course your room/ofice at large will heat up eventually when gaming even at that, be sure to open a window )

 

[M1GU31]

i have 4 cases fans and a 3rd party cpu cooler that has one fan but can add another which i might later and which works wonders for me.Just keep it like on top of your desk like i do with enough room for it to blow the air out of the case. You can add more if you want to though, I see nothing wrong with it. I can still add another 4 fans to my case if i liked since i have a big case and has good ventilation with holes on the top of the case and the bottom with a see through case with led fans that blow out through the wholes on the left side. Anyways up to you if you want more fans then I believe it's alright. Just make sure there blowing the air out and not in because once i accidentally put the fan backwards once and it made my graphic card hotter then i realized it was backwards and set it back to how it was suppose to be and made the temperatures go down lol, just my piece of advice make sure you put them in correctly they have little arrows on them indicating which way they spin and blow.

 

[linnemeyerhere]

Inigma,
With only one hard drive and one GPU you should be fine with four. That being said there is nothing wrong with making sure the case has good air flow. The layout of the air flow of your case is similar to mine but I have twin front mounted fans and four fans in push pull on top flowing through my H100 corsair. A side intake fan and standard rear exhaust, PSU and two 50mm rear case fans tops it out. Oh don't forget the GPU fans on my card. It's very important to consider super quiet fans or fan controllers or both when running lots of fans.

 

[Darkelk]

I've always opted for lots of fans for my cases but I always got the loud ones. It really is worth extra money and effort to get some super quiet fans because under load you can really hear it.

 

[Inigma]

Yeah, agreed! My current computer is quite loud when under load with 4 fans

 

[Darkelk]

Are you running a stock CPU cooler? The stock intel ones will actually push air onto your ram, motherboard etc and itd be better to get your hands on some arctic silver 5 thermal paste and a decent cooler. (The 212 is a nice budget cooler I'm opting for the noctua d14 on my next build. This would be a better upgrade if you don't already have an aftermarket cooler. Also considering case size a guy at work put his antec 1200 system into his antec 300 and got better temps due to its size. There can be a lot of 'dead' air circulation in the case. But yeah, I would probably personally get a fifth but replace all of them with fans that have lower noise. I'm buying a corsair 600t and the stock fans are atrocious so I'll be up for some quiet fans soon. I would say majority of the fan spaces are worthwhile, as its been said already if 5 degrees makes a difference to you personally then go for it.

 

[vierasniper]

what you can do if you get another fan, and flip the ones on top and make them intake. i had the same for the longest time, and thought about doing it . so 1 in the front, 2 on top, and the one on the side, leaving the one in the back as exhaust. i forget what kind of pressure it makes and it helps prevent dust from entering your case. it also keeps your components cooler since you got 3 fans pointing and shooting.

 

[Layback Bear]

If for what ever reason loud fans don't bother you go for it. The same for quiet fan, if you like them do it. Quiet fans do cost more. But I'm worth it.