Whuch case fans to use...

[MatBailie]

I've read around a lot about fans, and am now much the wiser.

That is, I now KNOW just how ignorant I am

I've just got a second hand BeQuiet Silent Base 600 case, but came without the fans. I've added my own old fans, but a couple are a bit "tricky". So, I'm trying to work out what fans to use where, how much it matters, what to believe on manufacturers site, whether PWM matters on case fans, etc, etc.

My ignorant thoughts so far...

- The front panel only has narrow side vents
- So, use higher static pressure fans?

- The bottom vent has good clearance, and a filter
- So, a high airflow fan is fine?

- The rear vent lines up with my air cooler
- So, a high airflow fan is perfect?

- Putting fans in the top is noisiest
- Should be okay to leave empty?

This means that I think I'm happy with my old Phanteks F140TS in the back. It has 9 fins which indicates air flow rather than pressure? And air flow is more important for an unobstructed exhaust?

Then I looked around for cheap 140mm options for the bottom and front intakes. I found on ebay 3 Phanteks (coincidence, I have Zero brand loyalty) F140SP fans for a TOTAL of £9.50 (including postage, from inside the UK).

Should I be scared of fake fans at that price?

I've also seen that the MP version of the fans (and others with high static pressure) have 5 fins rather than 7. Does this mean that in Reality the F140SP may struggle with the obstructed intake of my front panel?

Assuming I've found a bargain, does leaving the top exhausts empty matter?
- 3 intake
- 2 empty exhaust
- 1 rear exhaust

Finally, my MB seems to support both PWM and voltage controlled case fans. The F140SP are 3pin and so no PWM, does that matter? Or is voltage control fine? (P8Z77V, with FanXpert software to control speeds)

What I'm cooling is relatively low power...
- 2500K @ 4.3GHz
- 1060 6GB @ 2.05GHz
- 3 x 1.5 TB HDD
- 1 x 250GB Samsung 840 Evo

As you can see, a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing. Hopefully over the next few days I'll learn enough to help myself

[MatBailie]

I've just realised this is a Corsair area?

Sorry!

If anyone can move this to a more appropriate location then I'd be grateful.

[imadaily]

Firstly, does the GTX1060 have a reference style cooler? If it does, then you probably are overthinking the amount of fans you need!

I've got a GTX960 and a 3570K (so a somewhat similar build) My 960 vents out of the case, and a 212evo on the CPU. A single 140mm high flow case fan on the front does a pretty good job of keeping everything cool.
The intake at the front of my case has minimal restrictions compared to most cases though.

As far as choosing the type of fans needed:
One easy way is to look at what the case manufacturer installed when they designed the case! (they probably know quite a lot about fans and airflow!
In your case, BeQuiet provide it with PureWings2 fans which appear to be airflow optimised, so static pressure fans up front are probably not needed.


As far as those fans go... UM... the seller is also selling a 10 pack for £25????
£2.50 a fan seems a bit fishy!
The eBay feedback seems ok so it could be a great deal *shrugs*

[imadaily]

I got a set of the F140SP phantek fans to see what they're like, and thought it might be useful to give my impression of them...

So, 2 out of the 3 fans I received had one of the supports cracked and one was a little noisier than the other, this was a little disappointing however the fan with no damage is actually much quieter than expected.

Even getting 2 fans for ~£10 seems like a reasonable deal, hopefully the broken and noisy one at least gets replaced by the seller.
I'll provide an update when I find out if i'm getting a replacement one or not. If not then the broken support can probably be glued.

If anyone else is thinking of getting some it would probably be best to tame your expectations down to 'refurb quality' and not new as they come in bubble wrap without any retail packaging, but for cheap fans... well they all actually turn! :/



Edit: There are screw thread marks in the mounting holes so these are NOT new.

[Dashers]

Bernoulli's principle states that as flow increases pressure decreases. Worth bearing in mind when dealing with fans.

The general rule of thumb is high-airflow on your case to get as much air being exchanged as possible.

High static pressure fans are for where there are some serious obstacles, such as heatsinks.

Air, like all fluids, don't really like having to change direction. So shoving a solid panel on the front of your case puts you at an instant disadvantage. Still, I probably wouldn't go for high-static pressure here as there should be plenty of space for air to be drawn through the side vents.

The classic flow works fine for most cases, get fresh air in the front and bottom, and expel hot air top and rear. If you have more exhausts than intakes you land up with a slight negative pressure, this can lead to more dust in your case as air will be drawn in from passive vents. If you have more intakes than exhausts you have a slight positive pressure - which can lead to dead spots in your cooling. I tend to go positive.

Heat is produced by your electronics and dumped very inefficiently into that fairly good insulator - air. This is sometimes focused and improved via the use of heat sinks. It's up to the case fans to encourage the hot air out so it can be heated up again by the heat sinks.

The only really effective way to cool a component is direct cooling - i.e. pointing a fan directly at it (e.g. like the fan on your CPU heat-sink).

Don't worry about hot air-rising, air goes where you blow it. It's only when it's left to it's own devices it will go up.