Best cooling setup?

Ok, I need opinions on the best cooling setup. I have four 80mm Panaflo L1As on the way for case fans. As of right now, 2 are intake and 2 are exhaust. But, I had this crazy thought that I could use all four as intakes and then mod my case and put a 120mm blowhole on the top to act as the exhaust. Any thoughts on that being a better option for case cooling? I have a Antec SX830, BTW. THANKS.

There's no set way.

Your best way would be trial and error.

I'd say 2 intake, 2 exhaust and the blowhole as an intake would be the best, but try different combinations.

well, let's look at it this way :
i have a window fan in my room.. if i turn it on exhaust it get's hot as hell in here , but when i let the air blow in to my room it stays a lot cooler. i'd say go with your idea... especially since hot air rises. oh, and to increase airflow make sure you tape up tor open PCI slots and other opening that might let air out... i've seen it significantly improve peoples temperatures thus allowing higher clockspeeds.

Thank you both. Anyone got any more ideas/suggestions?

If you can fit a 120mm blowhole on top, go for it. Keep your 2 intake and exhausts and make sure they're unobstructed. If your case has those vents cut into it for the fans, cut them out and use wire fan grills instead. Also, if your system gets too loud with the 4 80s, get a fan controller to keep the noise level low when you don't need it.

Well I would say that you should set up the 80mm fans as 2 intake, 2 exhaust. For putting in a blowhole I would consider putting one 120mm on the bottom of you case blowing out. And one 120mm blowing in from the top. If you placed them in a good place they would remove alot of heat from around the CPU therefore keeping case and CPU temps down very well. And it would also help to keep some of the dust from collecting in your case.

Thank You,
Daniel

I have read on various threads that a side fan mounted on the door actually hurts cooling performance rather than helps it. I also read that the side door fan should be blowing in instead of out in order to cool the video card. Am I wrong here? Also, the reason I got this idea was that people on various threads had said that when they put a blowhole in as an exhaust at the top and then used all of their case fans as intakes, temps dropped something like 5 degrees. Anyone have experience with this? THANKS.

On a side note, does anyone know how useful a Zalman fan bracket is? Would it be useful to use it to place a 80mm fan over the video card? Or place a smaller fan over the RAM slots?

THANKS

I would leave teh four 80mm fans. Then get two nice quiet 92mm fans in the side. One blowing on your video card, and one blowing on your cpu. Then have a 120mm blowhole in the top blowing out.

That's how I set up my case.

SwishBish33 said:

I have read on various threads that a side fan mounted on the door actually hurts cooling performance rather than helps it. I also read that the side door fan should be blowing in instead of out in order to cool the video card. Am I wrong here? Also, the reason I got this idea was that people on various threads had said that when they put a blowhole in as an exhaust at the top and then used all of their case fans as intakes, temps dropped something like 5 degrees. Anyone have experience with this? THANKS.

On a side note, does anyone know how useful a Zalman fan bracket is? Would it be useful to use it to place a 80mm fan over the video card? Or place a smaller fan over the RAM slots?

THANKS

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***Exclusive window fan update***

it's about 85 degrees outside and my room is nice and cool while all my friends complain about the heat.