Side Panel Fan Or Top Case Fan??

[Dissolved]

ok, i was thinking about putting a 120mm fan (blowing out or up) on the top of the case. my friend thinks " it pulls air up and disrupts the air flow thru the case, causing an imbalance in the heat coming in/out and causes hot pockets in the case"-exactally what he said. what is better? i think the top to let out the heat from the psu. i was planning on doing a side panel alot, but i just ordered a 120mm fan/grill/filter.. and if the top fan isnt good then ill just do the side panel.
TIA

[William]

I would go for top, but I would love to know where you have your other fans in the case.

[Dissolved]

ok well i have an antec full tower (alienware edition gray). the case w/o moding holds 2 fans in the back, and 2 in the front. right now i have those 4 fans, plus delta fan on the cpu, the stock fan on my gpu (graphics) the psu fan, and i added a pci blower fan (im not sure what the name is, but its a slim blower fan about 42cfm). hope i helped ya.

[William]

i would go for the top.

[jb]

You could also put it on side panel and make duct to replace you hsf. Then you could put the hsf on the top to blow out the hot air.

There a great article posted Aug. 2nd on how to make the fan+duct work. It should be alot better then your current hsf.

Thats what I am doing next. Just a suggestion. By the way just go to the front page of this site to read the article.

[RedDeathDrinker]

I've set my mates one up with a 120mm exhaust on top, and 3 80's blowing in from the front, back and side(ducted straight onto the cpu heatsink). Sounds like it will take off, but keeps the whole thing cool (1gig Athlon@1.425GHz)

If you have the space, go for the top. Heat rises!

I remember seing a good article somewhere about a chap who put large feet on his case, and had a row of fans on the base, and a row on the top. I think it was 4 80's on the base, and 2 120's on the top.....

[Dissolved]

good idea.. i was thinking about making a duct to the cpu and connectioning a 300+cfm blower.. but i dont wanna go threw all the trouble, and it would be hard to take the panels off, as much as i do now. but its a good idea to cool.

[zoopa_man]

I don't care for side mount fans because it does make the sides of your case harder to get off. You always end up with wires hanging on to the case when you try to open the dumb thing. I think a top mound fan would greatly improve the temps in your case. As already stated heat rises, so why not give it a little help by sucking it out the top. I think this will be my next mod...Just got to find the time to do it.

[Paiynn]

I'd go for the side mount. I think you'll see more cooling from it.

[Dissolved]

well i guess ill try the top fan.. ill switch it so if it messes the cooling up, i can just shut it off.. ill do the side panel fan soon.. thanks

[SickBoy]

I put an 80MM 36 CFM Sunon directly over where my processor is in my case and I noticed a huge difference in CPU temps, not so much in case temps. I'd try both.

SickBoy

[Superman53142]

I put a 120mm Sunon blowing in (originally out but in made it cooler) on top of my case (right above the cpu) and it made a huge difference. It was the only case fan I had though.

[Smizack]

How about both?

[fireball****aka fireball_87]

top, because hot air rises ;D

[dugans]

Go for the top.
I am working on a "fan manifold" that will duct room air to all the hotspots in my case and then be evacuated through the top. Right now I have one 80cm fan inside the case behind a 40 in the front- both blowing in towards the bus slots, also one old fan pulling air OUT from the cards and sending it to the top of the case (trying to get rid of the "dead air space" in there!) and one 80 cm fan blowing hot air out the top. Duallie runs low case temps, but my video card and cpu temps still run warm. On hot days the cover comes off and a room fan goes in!
The biggest single improvement I've gotten was the top fan.

[kat]

cooling ;D cooling ;D cooling ;D

[Shadow ÒÓ]

moved post to Cooling.