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Fan Arrangement

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Dracknem

Member
Joined
Oct 22, 2002
I have 5 fans in my Chieftec Dragon case and it has 5 fan slots. 2 lower front, 2 high rear, and one side. I don't really overclock much as of now, but I was wondering how I should arrange my fans for best cooling. Which should be intake and which outake? They all spin at the same speed and are the same size.
How should I get best cooling for my video card? It seems that my video card gets artifacts after a while of being at the comp, it sometimes gets better and sometimes worse. I think this could be due to the cooling and could be fixed with some better fan arrangements. (I don't want to admit the possibility of my video card being broken, but if you think artifacts without overclocking are caused by that please inform me.)

Thanks in advance to any help.
 
As heat rises, you want to put the intake fans as low as possible, and the outtake fans as high as possible.

You also want to keep the amount of air blown in as close as possible to the amount of air sucked out (or vice versa), just keep in mind that your PSU is also sucking air out.(For some a slight over pressure seems to work better (Which will also keep dust from entering your case thru little holes), while for others a slight underpressure seems to work better....I think it depends on where you place the fans and the cards used in your rig).

I can't tell you much about the fan on the side as it might differ, intake is probably best, but as I'm using a PEP66 it's better for me to use it as an outtake.

The artifacts might be due to too much heat, but I can't say for sure, I suggest you give it a try with the side of your case off, and you could monitor your temps with a program like MBM5 (NOTE: There seems to be a problem with the server ATM).
 
I have that same case. I use the two fans in front for intake, two in back for exhast, the one one the side is a custom hole in my case,right onto the vid card. My internal temps are only about 5deg over ambient. Something like DigitalDoc5 is a good way to keep an eye on things. Link
 
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