Fan Placement - CPU cooler or side intake

[Tim.C]

I'm new to the forum so please excuse me if this has already been asked

I have CM Centurion 534 with three 120 mm fans installed; One in the front, one of the side, and one at the rear of the case.

The front fan is a Xigmatek fan, not sure of the model, but it spins at around 1400 RPM and puts through around 60 cf/m. I have a very similar fan on my CPU cooler but with the speed at 100% it seems to never reach 1100 RPM.
I have a scythe slipstream (1600 RPM, approx. 90 cf/m) on both the side and rear of the case (side for intake, rear for exhaust).

My question is this: Would I get better results by replacing the side intake with the fan from the CPU cooler? I wouldn't have as much airflow going to my MB or my GPU but neither of them have any problem with temps. I could even put the CPU fan in the front of the case, where much less airflow is required, and put the seemingly more powerful front fan on the side panel.

Thanks in advance for any help!

 

[Nebulous]

Welcome to O/C Forums

Actually no. The fans are installed right. Temps are dependent on ambient air. As long as you have your fans like so:

Front-intake
Side -intake
Rear-exhaust

That's pretty much it. You can get better airflow if you have higher CFM fans, but of course this will result in more noise.

Keep your wires tidy and out of the way to maximize airflow thru the case.

 

[Tim.C]

Welcome to O/C Forums

Actually no. The fans are installed right. Temps are dependent on ambient air. As long as you have your fans like so:

Front-intake
Side -intake
Rear-exhaust

That's pretty much it. You can get better airflow if you have higher CFM fans, but of course this will result in more noise.

Keep your wires tidy and out of the way to maximize airflow thru the case.

Yep, fans are mounted in that order and wires are about as tidy as they can be in my case. I don't have any real problems with any temps, I would just prefer if they were lower as I would have the option to overclock if needs be.
I only recently began using Speedfan and noticed that the CPU fan was running at quite a low speed. I was presuming that having a more powerful unit on the CPU heatsink would give better CPU temperatures at the sacrifice of maybe a one or two degree rise in ambient temps, which would be basically negligible.

 

[Nebulous]

Well if the CPU fan is mounted to the Cpu fan header on the motherboard, then it'll speed up when it needs to. You can always plug it in directly to the power supply molex (3pin/4pin to molex) and it'll run full speed 24/7. Again you need cooler ambient temps to get better cpu temps.

 

[dtrunk]

you failed to mention (or i'm blind) what cpu cooler you're using. what cpu TIM (thermal paste)? what are the temps? what is the cpu? how many eggs are in a dozen?

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

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