should the fan on the side of the case by sucking air in or blowing it out?

[ssgohan434]

it is on the exact middle of the case. should it be blowing or sucking in? i have one intake in the front. this fan on the side of case is outtake, and one more slow outtake in the back under psu.

http://svc.com/ra32almidtoc.html

that is where the side fan is positioned on my case. cases are almost same except for color.

 

[mateo]

I would venture a guess and say blow...otherwise, it might deny the front intake air from the CPU area (perhaps?).

Since it's easy, best way to do it is try both ways and see which gives lower temps.

 

[nerdlogic]

I say try it both ways and see what kind of temps you get. The best way of finding things like that out is to experiment yourself and see what yields you better temps.

 

[chasingapple]

On my wifes computer she only has a 60mm outtake in the back of the case so I have her side fan blowing out for extra exhaust...and only 1 80mm intake.

 

[juliendogg]

it's allways good to have slightly more air (rated cfm's) coming into the case than leaving, this way you keep slightly positive air pressure inside the case, makes for nicer airflow and prevents dust from being sucked in through all the cracks. generally i'd think a fan in the side would do better as an intake, supplying cool air to the cpu and the gpu at the same time.


cheers,

J.

 

[eaglescouter]

Both of my PC's have side fans which are intake fans, and they blow fresh air onto my video card. They were preinstalled by Antec and Chieftec.

 

[OrionRU]

Have it blowing out, temps are lower by 1-2°C

Also intake for the side fan might distrub the airflow through the case ( might depend on your wiring, mines are to the side).

I.e. Mixing air from this fan, Vid card fan and CPU fan will create turbulance as in all of them are coming from diff direction.

I

 

[ssgohan434]

changed it to intake an temps are lower now

 

[adelphia83]

In most cases having an intake fan for the side will produce better results...

For example if you have your intake fans in the front, and an exhaust fan in the side and rear: A lot of the colder intake air will go right out the side of the case, without blowing out any HOT air.

In most cases the side fan is placed in the center of the side panel (more toward the front), it will not aide in cooling hot components (CPU, GPU, etc), if it is used as an exhaust fan. All it does in this situation is route the cold air that is coming in, out of the side.

By mounting it as an intake, it will blow cold air in from the side, right into the path of other oncoming intake air (from the front) where it will pass through the area of the CPU and other hot components, and will exit out the rear.

Yes this setup does add some extra turbulence (and as a result less airflow), but so does configuring the side fan as an exhaust.

I read several reviews on fan configurations (tomshardware.com was one of them), and they all seemed to come to the conclusion that side and top mounted fans (found on many cases today) are better set up as intakes.

 

[timmyqwest]

I also assumed the side fan was for your GPU, thus blowing in is a good thing

 

[V8gent]

equal to slight negative case is preferable in all cases (pun intended ) I don't know why so many people think positive pressure is better. please read this entire thread for more info.


EDIT: fixed typos

 

[OrionRU]

And you get less dust

V8agent is right

 

[adelphia83]

This thread became a sticky for a reason; Good advice on how to set up an effective cooling system whether it be the case, CPU, etc

http://forum.oc-forums.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=70679

 

[V8gent]

the article is good for the most but the point about positive case pressure is incorrect. postive pressure might help reduce dust build-up (with un-filtered cases) but .. is NOT the most effective way to minimise case air temps. it is a major misconception that positive case pressure is better.

can the sticky be changed perhaps?

 

[adelphia83]

Could you provide a link for your source of information?

 

[Epox]

it should be in your face, sucking air out, so you can't talk.

 

[Since87]

Yes V8gent,

How about backing your statement up with a scientific explanation.

What possible benefit can there be to having lower air pressure in the case?

 

[adelphia83]

It seems the only consensus is that a positive air pressure will allow "hot-spots" or areas of no air movement inside the case.

As was mentioned in the sticky-- I invite people to test this theory by using a lit cigarette or incense near each of the intakes and see exactly what happens. It seems that it would be apparent if any of these "hot-spots" existed by using this method.

Also that is a great method of testing the airflow in general inside the case. The faster it gets purged, the better. Also better if the air movement is past hot areas (cpu,gpu) to get rid of the hot air.

I tried it today but since I can't smoke inside the house (damn you roomates , I had to make do with what I had... melting wires by shorting a NiCD battery... Couldn't produce enough smoke...

Someone try it and let us know if this test is worthwhile

 

[WuChild]

Well one benefit would be that hot air in the case is a bad thing, and many times positive preassure just keeps the hot air in.

Remember that fans were *just* fans UNTIL Spangler invented the Vacuum, which is really the only TRUE way of moving air from one place to another.

So in either case, you are not going to be creating much of a positive OR negatively charged environment without equipment specifically designed to create a vacuum or a positively preassurised environment.

What you need to promote however, is decent airflow, to get that hot air out of the case, which is best done, by forcing air upon another fan which then blows it out.

 

[Since87]

I tried it today but since I can't smoke inside the house (damn you roomates , I had to make do with what I had... melting wires by shorting a NiCD battery... Couldn't produce enough smoke...

ROFL

Burning insulation and a NiCD blowing up and spraying Cadmium around the room. So much better than cigarette smoke.