Good idea to add a side panel fan?

First of all, here is a pic of my case without the side pannel so you get an idea of what i want to do.



is it a good idea to add a intake fan right above the Heatsink fan?
The fan thats on the rear of the case is also set as intake, so this way id have the heat sink fan only taking in cool" air from outside the case. Now the other question is should i switch the rear fan to out take hot air from the heat sink? Then add a fan to the front of my case (where the drive bays are) to intake and make a tube so it blows the hot air from the heatsink then to the rear out take fan then out the case?
Does this make sense?

wait that fan in the pic is the only case fan?

ok this is what I would do. I would have a fan set up as an intake in the front of the case and the back fan as exhaust. Then add a side panel fan blowing over cpu.

front intakes are usually how most ppl have their intake fans.. you should relaly have that fan in the back as exhaust to expell the hot air from the cpu. A side fan on top of the cpu fan as intake will work too

theres a 120mm outtake fan in the bottom front. but the intake for the 120mm fan is very limmited due to a plastic covering, theres only a small opening on the bottom. It serves better as outtake. IMO

Ktulu said:

theres a 120mm outtake fan in the bottom front. but the intake for the 120mm fan is very limmited due to a plastic covering, theres only a small opening on the bottom. It serves better as outtake. IMO

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Ktulu, It is your case and you can run them anyway you want.

That said, I would note that because hot air rises and the typical setup in most cases (CDROM, DVD, floppies, hard drives in the top of the case front in most cases), most OCers bring the air in the bottom front, bottom and bottom side while exhausting the top and back. Also most PSU are in the top back and are generating heat too. Thus most folks try to aid this more or less "natural case flow."

Placing a side fan over your cpu is a reasonable thing to do and doesn't conflicit with the typical case flow that much plus it directs cool air at the cpu HS.

Be

As others have said the rear fan should be an exhaust fan, the front fan intake. You really don't need a fan one side, what works really good is a duct from the side that almost touches the fan on the cpu. The cpu fan draws cool air through the duct, cools the cpu then the warm air is expelled out of the back fan. You could add a fan and duct in the side, but a duct alone works pretty well and less noise. I have tried both. Just a plain duct lined up exactly over my cpu, lowered my cpu temp as if the case were open. It was actually 1c lower, because without the duct the cpu fan tends to pull the warm air back into the heatsink, but with a duct it can't as easily.

crull said:

what works really good is a duct from the side that almost touches the fan on the cpu.

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I tried a duct, a duct with a side fan, and a side fan. The side fan alone was best for me but I would have bet otherwise before hand. Good thing is that you can test it out yourself if you have a spare fan to use. Ducts do work well for most folks.

deeppow said:

I tried a duct, a duct with a side fan, and a side fan. The side fan alone was best for me but I would have bet otherwise before hand. Good thing is that you can test it out yourself if you have a spare fan to use. Ducts do work well for most folks.

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I think a side fan alone would be helpful in a different way because it will cool important areas around the cpu. Like on my system using the smartfan 2 alone, which spreads the air out a lot it will focus that air on the DDR, the mosets, the northbridge and the backside of my video card. It doesn't help the cpu all that much though that way. Another thing to think about is, with a duct and side fan...you might have a problem were the cpu fan fights the side fan for air flow which lessens its cooling. So from all the testing I have done with my system....overall a plain side duct is pretty good with no fan or a side fan with a customized duct like I settled with on my system. I made a square duct that fits over the smartfan 2 and comes to around 3/4" away from the Tornado fan on my cpu that way the Tornado can still pull air in from the sides so it doesn't fight the smartfan for air flow. I also found and this is really odd, but cutting off two sides of the duct helped with temps on the cpu and with case temps. Basically a square duct minus two sides. The side closest to the back of my video card, and the side closest to the front of the case. Which is good because I get more airflow over the northbridge, I get air towards my DDR....and I get better cpu cooling. It doesnt help the mosfets much, but the SLK sends air that way and it goes right out the back...........at least I think it does : )

deeppow said:

I tried a duct, a duct with a side fan, and a side fan. The side fan alone was best for me but I would have bet otherwise before hand. Good thing is that you can test it out yourself if you have a spare fan to use. Ducts do work well for most folks.

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When I was testing a side fan alone it seemed pretty good, but then I started testing under load using cpuburn it wasn't as good as with a duct, or a duct and fan. I was using a plain duct for the longest time and it really worked great. I then had the bright idea of taking it off and adding a fan in its place. Now I have more noise, not all that much improvement and a headache from trying to remember when to crank it up : )

I was testing under load using the Prime95 benchmark and my cpu temp was cooler. I would say our results indicate that flows in the cases maybe different and have an effect on the results. Anyway, I would agree with you that he should consider the duct alone and see what it does for him. Can always add a fan later.

Ain't no right and wrong, just what works.

Yes, different cases, size of fans, location of fans......will produce different cooling results comparing two different systems. The only way to know for sure in his case is to experiment...duct, duct and fan........or just fan. So many things come into play as I have found with my system when it comes to cooling. Right now I'm looking for a way to thermally controll a Tornado fan any ideas? Its around 9 watts which is alot. I have seen these pyramid fan controllers which can handle the wattage, but from a review I have read you cant use the rpm sensor wire any more when you use one. If it wasn't for that I'd buy one to try it out with a Tornado.

WOW! tks allot guys. I think im gone with just the fan on the side..so some air is spread to the ram and other areas.