Please Help: Does Pointing a Fan At PC Case Help Cool It?

Hey guys, I'm sorry to be asking such a basic question, but I didn't know who else I could ask.

My PC is making my study VERY hot. I just wanted to know if I could point a fan at the PC to help reduce the heat.

To make it easier, here's a picture of what I mean:


Thank you!

It will dissipate the heat faster, but the heat will still be present. You'll cool the PC but not the room, because you're just spreading it around faster. Is this a recent heat problem? I would suggest checking for dust but if the picture linked is your rig then there probably isn't much dust in there!

Would using a fan like the one pictured reduce the heat of the CPU at all?

I've already cleaned out my PC and removed the dust.

It should help cool the CPU by dissipating the heat faster, but it's going to send that heat a few feet away. Blowing the air past the open side and out a window would be your best bet if you can.

Thanks I'll give it a try and report back!

See if you can get the airflow to run straight (and close) down the side you have open now, and take the panel off the back side. The Bernoulli principle should pull air through the case and into the airstream. That's the best I can think of with the materials you have at hand. Good luck!

I'm going to try aiming the fan at the part of the PC case that's open.

The PC is lying on its side on the floor and I've taken the top panel off, which is the biggest panel of the PC case.

GreatUSA said:

I'm going to try aiming the fan at the part of the PC case that's open.

The PC is lying on its side on the floor and I've taken the top panel off, which is the biggest panel of the PC case.

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Is this what you wanted me to do?

Taking the panel off to expose the internal components can lower temps significantly if air flow is poor with the panel on because so doing allow hot air to escape and gives fans access to air that is no pre warmed. In my experience, pointing a household fan to blow into the open case usually doesn't help much because it is being pushed into a cul de sac as it were. The best approach is to leave the panel on put robust fans in the front and rear/top panel of the case to push/pull fresh air through the case. I'll attach a pic that demonstrates good case airflow. Fans that push air into the case are called "intake" fans and those that push air out of the case are called "exhaust" fans. Focus on moving the air from the front down low to the rear up high. If all the places to put fans are already occupied in the case then get stronger fans to move more air. This will not have any impact on total room temperature because you aren't changing the total amount of heat being produced by the pc over time. It will just move the heat from the inside of the case into the room faster. But that can have a favorable impact on the components inside the case. Don't worry about putting fans on the side of the case. That can do more harm than good because it can disrupt the flow from front to back.

The picture here has the side panel off for so you can see how the air flows. It's not intended to suggest you should leave the side panel off.

I just found out that the CPU cooler I was about to buy will not fit into my motherboard so I'm going to need to try something else...

What is the socket generation of the motherboard?

like they said all it does is spread the heat around. open a window and aim the fan at yourself.

I was initially talking about taking off the side panels and aiming the fan's airflow close to and parallel to the open left side (the side shown in trents' graphic above), thereby drawing air through the now open framework on the opposite side and sending it out the open window.

Wow. The cable management in that picture is outlandish. I don't see how there is any air circulation at all. You'd be better off setting it on the back porch and running your Power and Display cable thru the window. Spray the dust out too, from the looks of it the chance that the Cpu fan doesn't even spin anymore, are overwhelming.

Rainwater said:

Wow. The cable management in that picture is outlandish. I don't see how there is any air circulation at all. You'd be better off setting it on the back porch and running your Power and Display cable thru the window. Spray the dust out too, from the looks of it the chance that the Cpu fan doesn't even spin anymore, are overwhelming.

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Cable management doesn't really affect termpertures

That is not always true. When you literally have so many cables in a small case that is could/is restrict(ing) airflow, it will make an impact. Even if it is very small, an impact will be made. Along with massive dust build up. A neat clean PC has it's benefits.

Rainwater said:

That is not always true. When you literally have so many cables in a small case that is could/is restrict(ing) airflow, it will make an impact. Even if it is very small, an impact will be made. Along with massive dust build up. A neat clean PC has it's benefits.

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Absolutely. I've proven it with my own rig. I had 3 HDDs, an AIO, a graphics card, and TV tuner card stuffed in a small case and had to mount the rad in the side cover pulling air from the outside. When I cleaned up the wiring I dropped 3C-5C on my FX temp. with no other changes.

GreatUSA said:

My PC is making my study VERY hot. I just wanted to know if I could point a fan at the PC to help reduce the heat.

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No matter how cool your components run. Whether 50 degrees. 90 degrees. The actual heat dispelled from your case will be the same. The wattage is the same. Watts directly translate to the amount of heat dumped into your room.

Computer 1: 500W total component output. Under water cooling, CPU is 50 degrees, GPU is 60 degrees.
Computer 2: 500W total component output. Under air with small case. CPU is 80 degrees, GPU is 85 degrees.

Total watts are the same. The heat will be the same. Regardless of temps.

TD;LR, may lower system temps, won't lower your room temps. Open a window or get air con lol.

Let us not forget that the guy in the video was using five fans.