Case fans or case off with house fan?

[The_Ryz_Factor]

I'm just asking is it better to get some case fans, or to just use a regular house fan? I have this really nice white one, and with my case on and no case fans, I have about 46-47c idle temps, but with the case off and with that housefan next to it, I get 38-39c idle temps. Is it more worthwhile to buy case fans? Can they get me cooler than that? Your feedback is appreciated. :)

TheRyzFactor

[wildbilly2k]

i am wondering the same thing i know it would be cheaper to have a house fan that is what i am doing right now and i get bout 39 degrees celcius too.

[cookedcomp]

spend the extra money and get some case fans. with the propour setup you can achiev very low temps dew to the wind tunnel affect (fast air in one direction, contained). I found that my overall temps drop 1 to 2 degrees C with the case on and fans.

[cjtune]

Open cases with table fans blowing directly on the mobo is very effective. Lots of my varsity friends O/C this way but you gotta understand that they do not have dogs or children wandering near the PC....
Also be careful with spilling drinks and your foot.

You can go without case fans. A table fans can anytime supply the airflow of 20-30 80mm fans and directly to the chipset, CPU, vid. card, etc. As for wind tunnels, they are there for producing high SPEED flow, not high mass flow rates. The amount of heat a fluid can carry by convection depends on the mass flow rate.

[SickBoy]

You do realize that dust will become a problem at some point, aside from other dangers of open cases....

Once you mod your case a little and get some good 80 MM fans into it your temps should be comparable with it on or off. I put a 80 MM 36 CFM sunon in the side of my case directly over my processor and the temp difference is generally a degree or two C between when the side is on or of. My case temps are still a little higher with it on but the processor is a lot cooler. A fan in front, one over your processor, an exhaust in the back, and a blowhole on top should be more than enough fans to eliminate the difference between having your case on or off.

SickBoy

[The_Ryz_Factor]

Can anyone here name some good brands for case fans? I don't care about noise, d00ds. I want power in these babies, I want cooling, I want blowing so hard that it can move me around the room on my wheelie chair. :D

[brennan77]

I used to run my case open with a fan blowing in. Then I got a pre-modded case and watched the temps drop. The mobo and CPU temps are about 3C cooler with good flow through the case rather than one big fan.

http://brennan777.homestead.com/files/case1.jpg
http://brennan777.homestead.com/files/case2.jpg
http://brennan777.homestead.com/files/case3.jpg

[kentank]

wow nice case.....

anyway i think the fans in the back
is causing some turbulence ...

try to stop the fans in the back and
tell us ..

i was drooped my temp about 4C
by cut the case and put 2 80mm
fans above or top of the cpu...

i suck the air out from front the case..
by one 80mm fans
but now it give me noise just on my nose.. i must change the place...

[brennan77]

I'm thinking that if I unplug the two side fans two things will happen.

1.less on video card
2.less cool air on CPU.

I'll try it nonetheless. But those two holes will probably lessen any 'windtunnel' effect.

[Billvill]

This is getting out of hand ! Taking case covers off and blowing house fans on the rig ? I think that fall under my definition of unstable. For something to work well it needs to meat all the goals of its intended purpose and do it for a number of years ( well eighteen months in the computer game ) without excessive service. Everyone seems to want to circumvent the system, with a gimmick!

That’s just my two cents, Billy

Ps: Could you picture an office filled with caseless PC’s and a bunch of fans on the desk cooling them . Quick I am going to invest in paperweights.


Ohhhhhhhhhhh and don't spill that beverage in the machine !

[wildbilly2k]

:D Well i think it would be asome to walk into the office one morning and see all the cases open with big desk fans blowin in and as long as you clean the iside of your case dust wont be a problem but i have dog to wory bout so i will just put some chicken wire over the side of the case and im set!!!

[RickTalbot]

Check out my article here:

http://www.overclockers.com/tips586

This article shows some preliminary evidence that a 80mm fan on the side of the case, blowing through a duct onto the CPU heatsink can produce a good temperature.

However, during this heatwave, lastnight I tried using a table fan, and I found that my overall internal temperature dropped about 5C. The CPU temperature didn't drop more than 1-2C lower than my ducted temperature.

The way I've got the setup is just one 80mm fan blowing through a duct into the heatsink area, and one 80mm fan blowing out through the power supply. It's really minimal cooling (and quiet) to concentrate on CPU temps, but it does have one drawback - it has limited cooling for components like the hard disk and cd-r drive.

[wildbilly2k]

well i have a latch on the side of my case right above my cpu so i cant cut a hole there because my case wouldnt stay on and i dont want to use screws!!!!!!! You have any ideas to what i might do to get alot of air flow straight to my cpu!!!!

[RickTalbot]

Wildbilly,

Here's something I've tried before:

You can make a duct from the back of your case to the cpu area. Instead of a straight duct, obviously it'll be a 90 degree shaped duct. The problem is a lot of cases don't have the extra room in the rear to mount a fan.


The best would be to make a hole in the back of the case, the same height as the cpu area, and as close as possible to the side panel. That way the duct just goes in an "L" shape. On my case there's an area with a lot of holes in it, just infront of the PCI slots. I had a duct going from there to my heatsink, and using the heatsink's own fan to suck the air through. It hepled reduce temperatures a little.

Does this make any sense at all? I don't know how to expalin it better.

Also, you can put a piece of cardboard underneath the output of the powersupply to keep the hot powersupply air from mixing with the intake.