Extra Fans - Is it Worth It?

Hey All...

I am not overclocking any component (at the time) and my temps at idle are 35 (cpu) / 37 (mobo). Under load, it goes to 43 / 46. I believe this is a little high for stock parts. Now, I have an Antec Soyo Server Case (SX1040BII) that has two rear vent fans (that blow air out), the CPU (P4 2.4b) has stock Intel HSF, my PSU (Antec Smart Power 400W) has a bottom vent fan taking hot air from the CPU, and I have a front case fan blowing over a HDD. The mobo chipset also has a fan on it as well (came with mobo - Gigabyte GA-8SQ800). All case fans are 80mm. Finally, I have rounded IDE cables, but have not tied them up in a clean manner, as they seem to be going all over the place.

Now, this case has the extra capability of putting a fan in the side panel (used for blowing hot air out) and another front fan to blow air towards the mobo.

First question - Would adding the extra 2 case fans (side and bottom front) make that much of a difference in my temps?

Second question - I have a Radeon 9700Pro that I want to overclock, but am worried the stock HSF it came with won't keep the GPU cool. I am not that much into doing my own mods on the 9700 pro (remove shim, place HSF, Zalmans, etc), so I was considering adding slot mounted fans to keep the card cool? What are your thoughts on that?

Any other recommendations would be great! Thanks!

Sammy5gs

adding two extra case fans could possibly help such as if your side fan blew air onto your video card then that would obviously help, if your front fan would change the air current of any of your current fans i wouldnt add it, as for a slot fan it could possible help, but a side fan may be all you need

Cant hurt, unless you get loud ones.

To answer you fans question:

You need to keep the intake and exhaust flows about the same.
Too much exhaust creates a vacuum = not good.

What is your ambient temp a.k.a. room temp?

What size is your case? Full tower? Mid tower?

If you are running a mid tower temps are a bit high for my liking.

The side fan is usually for intake, not exhaust, you would most likely see you processor and mobo temps (and video too im sure) go down if you put a side fan on it as intake.

about the radeon, i got a gforce 2, which i OCed to summat like 270/360 (in my sig) and its at stock cooling, so it can take at least something before dying just beware of artifacts...

Your idle to load temps have a big difference, are you sure that's what they are? If they are, something is making the case a lot warmer during load. My guess would be the stock heatsink on the CPU. My next guess would be the video card. Adding 2 more fans could improve the temps, but I wouldn't count on it.

Or like someone hinted at, you might just have a high room temperature which would explain the drastic idle to load temp difference. In that case, adding those extra fans would not help.

You can also make sure the main intake and exhaust fans are not being obstructed. If they have case grills(case fan vents), cut them off and use wire grills. For the front intake, make sure there's openings in the front for it to bring in air. Sometimes cases are poorly designed and there's a spot for the fan, but no openings for it to bring in air.

squirtle632 said:

To answer you fans question:

You need to keep the intake and exhaust flows about the same.
Too much exhaust creates a vacuum = not good.

What is your ambient temp a.k.a. room temp?

Click to expand...

About 65F

What size is your case? Full tower? Mid tower? [/B]

Click to expand...

Server Tower

Extra Fans - Is it Worth It?

Click to expand...

never hurts

if you're not overclocking, leave the case as is... computing in general is much more pleasant w/out fan noise

if you want to overclock your vid card, however, you might want to add a source of fresh air over it... with a nice cool breeze from teh outside, even a stock vid-card heatsink will work well while overclocking

you might want to check the temps on the vid card also because a while ago i stuck my finger on the back side of my Geforce 3 and it was HOT! (burn my finger HOT) so i went nuts and stuck 2 intake fans (red LED) positioned over it, and an old 60mm cpu fan on top of the card. Now it feels room temp. Plus it dropped the temp of my AMD cpu about 4 degrees.