Most effective case cooling

[Pop music sucks]

This thread is meant to help people with their case cooling needs. Besides the obvious bottom case intake fans upper case exhaust fans. What else are needed and how should the set-up be? These all should be non-liquid based suggestions

CPU heatsinks and fans, what are the best ones?

What's more effective, having the CPU heatsink's fan as blowing into the heatsink, or blowing out of the heatsink?

Hoods, or that air duct that goes from the CPU heatsink to the exhaust fan on the side of the case, is that really effective?

How many fans should there be inside the case for most effective cooling?

How about leaving the whole side case panel off, would that also help with cooling?

Answer away

[Klown]

I find liquid Hydrogen to be quite an effective coolant. :)

I only have two case fans, they seem to stop my GPU/CPU from overheating so I'm happy with them, I'm interested to hear a few answers to those questions too actually, since I'm going to be upgrading my system soon.

[TheBlueBaron]

I have an Asetek WaterChill cooler for my CPU on this rig. I was always a bit skeptical having water pumped around my case but I eventually got over that and bought a kit. I also have 2 120mm case fans which I have running at a lower RPM to keep noise down but just to circulate the air within the case. I have another fan that I put on the side of my case to help with the cooling of my GPU but that is ony an 80mm. I keep them all running slower as I want a quiet computer, it may be a few degress warmer than if I was running them at full capacity but I hate the noise.

[Phalanx]

What's more effective, having the CPU heatsink's fan as blowing into the heatsink, or blowing out of the heatsink?

The CPU cooler wouldn't work if it was blowing out of the heatsink, the whole idea of a heatsink is that air runs through the fins taking away the heat with it.

Hoods, or that air duct that goes from the CPU heatsink to the exhaust fan on the side of the case, is that really effective?

Yes they are effective as it will remove the hot air quicker

How many fans should there be inside the case for most effective cooling?

2 is the recommended minimum for a case, with one pulling air into the case and the other pulling air out of the case. The more the better but its best to have a balance between number of fans and noise

How about leaving the whole side case panel off, would that also help with cooling?

No, that would do nothing

Answer away[/QUOTE]

[Ephemeral]

When I built my PC, I had an over all count of 5 fans (Front, Back, CPU, and 2 in the power supply). It kept the system pretty cool, but it felt like you were sitting next to a truck when you used it. :(

So, I disconected the front fan that I had put in, and the noise stopped. Before closing the case back up, I put in a remote thermomiter to moniter the temperatures. The weird thing is though, the case and CPU were cooler without the front fan. I haven't heard a quiter PC now. It's incredible. There is no difference in sound from when you have it turned off, and when you turn it on. It's an Antec Sonata II Case, by the way.

[Phalanx]

My computer has 10 fans in total inside :D

[CarnageFairy]

I have 7 fans. 4 case fans (3 intake, 1 outtake), CPU fan, GPU fan, and 1 in the PSU. I run Folding@Home so my CPU is pretty much constantly at 100% and I'm at 36C.

The fans are somewhat noisy, but it's drowned out by my music.

[Turtle Soup]

The Antec Sonata II is very well cooled

[Zakath]

I have 5 fans in my gaming pc and it works quite well. And don't leave the side open, that's just asking for misc crap to get inside the case.

[Ally]

Best cooling?

Fill your case with oil :lol:

If you have the money, invest in some quality water cooling.

Oh and leaving the side panel off will just make your computer a dust magnet.

[ChodaBoy]

While we're on the subject of cases and such, anyone know what form factor this mobo is? Im pretty sure its MATX, but need to triple check before buying a new case.

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y55/ChodaBoy1/formfactor.jpg

[CarnageFairy]

While we're on the subject of cases and such, anyone know what form factor this mobo is? Im pretty sure its MATX, but need to triple check before buying a new case.

[img]http://i3./y55/ChodaBoy1/formfactor.jpg[/g]

Looks like one to me. I'm not 100% sure, though.

[Lionheart1827]

I have 3 case fans, and the cpu fan. you want the heatsink fan to blow outward. the side case fan is intake and i have two on the back, one exhaust and the other intake. My system stays at an ambient temperature of 38C.:thumb:

[Voyage34]

I have a total of 9 fans.

That's:

2 fans in the PSU
1 on the graphics card
A gigabyte copper heatsink/fan on the CPU
4 120mil fans (2 intake, 1 rear exhaust, 1 top exhaust)
1 80mil intake attached to a vent that cools the graphics card / PCI slots


I use Antec Tri-speed fans set to slow.

All inside an Antec P180 case. http://www.antec.com/uk/productDetails.php?ProdID=09180

I have no problem with overheating, and it's all pretty quiet due to the 120mil fans and the sound dampning sides of the case.

[Zakath]

Oh yea I forgot my graphics card fan. I guess I have 6. :cool:

[Lionheart1827]

Oh yea I forgot my graphics card fan. I guess I have 6. :cool:

Well if we're counting EVERY fan and not just case fans, I guess I have 8 fans in all:thumb:

[Zakath]

Well if we're counting EVERY fan and not just case fans, I guess I have 8 fans in all:thumb:
Well the other guy mentioned his, so I guess we are.

[Pariah]

While we're on the subject of cases and such, anyone know what form factor this mobo is? Im pretty sure its MATX, but need to triple check before buying a new case.

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y55/ChodaBoy1/formfactor.jpg

Yep. Micro ATX.

My case has one on the power supply, one on the CPU, one rear chassis fan, one side-panel chassis fan, and one on my video card.

[Pop music sucks]

Soon I'll have 11. Here's how it's gonna be set-up

1 top of the case exhaust to 1 exhaust via PSU
2 exhaust (back of the case)
4 bottom case intake (front of the case)
CPU heatsink/fan
GPU fan
1 sidecase intake

Before I even had any cold intake on the front of the case, the GPU was running really hot. Like 76-77C.

Now when I play games for a long period of time, it's around 58-60C.

[Ally]

don't forget, more case fans = more dust. If you're going to have alot of case fans, mayeb buy some dust covers for them.