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How many fans do you have on your PC case?

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The 140mm top fan labeled 188M³ /H looks like it is the wrong direction, as an intake rather than exhaust, and that would be why its rattling and dying and your case is overpressurized. I drew a blue box around this fan in MSpaint, see the pic below (the top left corner).

You probably do NOT even need a fan there, try removing it and leaving an empty slot and see if temperatures change. It probably adds turbulence to your CPU heatsink which impairs cooling.

The upper part of the case might even run cooler if the 140mm hole was blocked so the air has only one way to flow: Out the back. You could test it by putting a book or other object on the roof and see how temperature and noise change.

More fans is not better. Particularly if you have a fan that flows the wrong way so all the fans in the case are pressurizing from different directions and fighting that fan.

View attachment 131892
From what I can see in the picture, 188M/H is exhausting through the top. Doesn't look like an intake, judging from the red arrow.
 
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10x Corsair ML120's
3x Corsair ML140's
 
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From what I can see in the picture, 188M/H is exhausting through the top. Doesn't look like an intake, judging from the red arrow.
The motor frame is on the bottom indicating it is an intake fan and not an exhaust fan. Most PC fans blow in the direction of the motor frame.
 
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3x120 silent wings 3 intake,
3x120 pure wings 2 exhaust.
Set to around 500/450rpm not gaming, 900/800rpm gaming.
 
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13 in my TT900:

3x 140mm Corsair AF 140 Reds up front in a custom push-pull intake rack configuration, designed by me, with an H115i in the middle
4x same in the side intakes
2x same in the top exhaust
2x same in the rear exhaust
2x 80mm intakes in the front, behind the mesh grills....

nearly constant temps of ~24-30c, even under heavy work loads :)
 
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Bill_Bright said:
the slower the blades spin, the lower the noise the fan makes. But that is much more due to less air moving past and through the fan than the noise of the fan motor itself
Wait, what now? You've managed to dismantle your own argument twice, in just one sentence.
Gee whiz. And you accuse me of misquoting you and taking something out of context? :kookoo: Folks can easily go back to post #47 above and see the context for that comment and what I really said.

Fact: I did not misquote you, I actually copied and pasted exactly what you said.
Fact: It IS about how loud they are. Contrary to what you implied, no case fan spins in absolute silence across its full range of speed. Even at very slow speeds, every fan makes some noise. Whether you can hear it or not depends on your hearing and ambient noise.
Fact: I did NOT dismiss the difference between dB and dBa as unimportant. In fact, I specifically said you were correct that the specs were weighted for human hearing. What you don't understand or refuse to accept is fan noise that is in the frequency range of human hearing, if loud enough, is still perceptible fan noise - regardless if weighted (dBa) or not (dB).

Less air moving through the fan? Uh no. The slower ML-140 pushes more air than the faster ML-120
Uh yes. You interject two specific fans in some attempt to obfuscate your silly point. It is clear you cannot or simply refuse to follow the conversational flow of this thread. You twisted my comments around. Again, it is NOT a like for like comparison. Yes, "IF" spinning at the same RPM, the 140mm fan will move more air than the similarly designed 120mm fan. I NEVER EVER disputed that! What I said is if those two fans were set to move the same CFM, the 140mm fan will be spinning at a lower RPM, thus will be quieter.

Fact: Your comment now about "more air" with the slower ML-140 is only true to a point. Keep slowing that 140 down and it soon will move less air than the 120mm. But it will still make less noise.

That comment of mine, which you took out of context from post #47 above , did NOT refer to any specific fan or size fan. In fact, as everyone can clearly see, no where in that post was any mention of fan size.

My comment merely stated a fact. Fact: When you reduce the speed of a fan, any fan, the fan noise goes down too.

Your crusade here deserves no more of my attention.

******

Since this thread seems to have turned into posts of what folks are using, my Fractal Design R4 has 2 x 140mm intakes in front, 1 x 140mm exhaust in back. While this case supports a bottom mount PSU and has a filtered bottom vent for the PSU fan to pull air in from, there is no seal between the PSU and that case vent. Therefore, some air is pulled from inside the case and exhausted out the back of the PSU. Overall, there is a slight but desired over-pressure effect that does a pretty good job of keeping air flowing in only through the filters, keeping dust out of I/O ports, the Blu-ray drive and other cracks and vents.
 
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Tatty_Two

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Excluding my AIO fans (top mounted AIO), I have just 3 decent quality (Phanteks) PH-F140SP 140mm fans (82 CFM @ 19DB), 2 front and 1 rear.
 
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"Decent" quality? I think you are selling them short. While there are other "decent" quality fans with similar noise levels, and there are other "decent quality fans that move that much air, most don't move that much air that quietly.

I would categorize those fans as top quality - at a great price too.
 
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Eight in total if you include the PSU.

1x 140mm in the front for intake (due to clearance from the rad on the bottom)
2x 120mm in the floor as intakes through thick EK rad.
3x 120mm in the roof as exhaust on slim Hardware Labs rad.
1x 140mm in the rear as exhaust.

All radiator fans are Noctua Redux @ 1300 RPM max via PWM and controlled by CPU temp. They rarely go above 800 RPM in my rig - nice and quiet! The two exhausts are Enermax fans from an AIO that was reviewed previously.
 
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Corsair 230t here. Seven case fans, Two in the front, two on top, two in back (doubled up on a 120m water cooler) and one on the bottom. All 120mm controlled through a 5.25" fan controller from NZXT with the exception of the two watercooler fans, which are motherboard controlled with an aggressive fan curve.

Will go to 9 (doubled on top) if I ever get a 240mm rad and watercool the GPU as well. But that is waiting for a rx 5970xt/3080ti to drop.
 
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Channel 0 - Twin MCP 35X2 Pumps .... RPM Range 2000 - 4500 rpm
Channel 1 - MoBo Header => Fan PCB1 => (6) Fans on 420mm x 45mm Radiator
Channel 2 - MoBo Header => Fan PCB2 => (4) Fans on 280mm x 60mm Radiator
Channel 3 - MoBo Header => Fan PCB3 => (6) Case Fans Fans

-All Fans are 140mm, Phanteks PH-140SP

Radiator fans all blow in (of course). Fans shut off when temp curve calls for < 350 rpm. Ramp up is immediate; ramp down is 90 seconds. Max speed is 850 rpm under starees test ... typically 375 - 650 rpm when gaming.

Case fans (5) in / (1) out aren't really needed. Main reason they are there is to keep Hot (25-27 C) air from exiting the front of the case. The rads are cooled by 23C ambient air which forces the warm air out the the large rear grille. Fans shut off when temp curve calls for < 400 rpm. Ramp up and ramp down is 30 seconds. Max speed is 850 rpm under stress test RoG Real Bench + Furmark) ... typically 375 - 650 rpm.

Coolant Temp under Stress test if 8.6C above ambient.


- Why 140mm ? Cause they are much quieter cfm for cfm.

- Why standard pressure ? Because it's not the 1990s. In the 90s, radiators had a very high fpi and they required hi-speed fans to push air thru the tiny spaces. Today's copper rads are typically 8 - 14 fpi and neither HP or MP fans provide any benefit here. Aluminum rads or CLC rads will likely require MP high speed (2000 rpm) fans

- Why Phanteks ? 1) Cause when I built box they were the best on the market based upon real world testing. See silentPCreview.com chart and Overclockersclub testing (take noctua fans off noctua cooler and replace with Phanteks and at same rpm, temps drop 6C


2) Why replace them if ya can't buy better ?
3) Half the cost of the competition

The Silent Wing 3's were not tested but based upon various builds, I would say they are equivalent.

- Why aren't intake and exhaust fans equal in number ? The fact is you don't need to balance intake and exhaust. If ya have no AC and want to cool an attic or a room there is an attic exhaust fan ... there's no attic intake van, just a vent. When you put an exhaust fan in one window, open the other window and tuyrn the fan on , what happens to the curtains in fromt of the open window ... mine are at about 45 degrees from the rush of air coming in.

In addition, intake fans have filters, as they clog with dust they restrict more and more air flow. A good rule of thumb is to have no more than 1 exhaust fan for each 2 intake fans.

- This related to the next topic ... Why do rad fans always blow in ? Well the logic that generally has folks having them exhaust is that hot air rises.

Finally, when folks talk about negative pressure the downside most talked about us dust .... This is minor compared to the problem almost always missed. Example:

Let's say your case has a 3 x 120mm CLC blasting air out of the ccase with 2000 rpm fans. Y0u also have two intakes in the front with folters and 1 exhaust fan in the back. A dust clogged filter can restrict air flow by 30% ... if ya real lazy, even 50%. But let's say for the sake of argument that all fans are 2000 rpm and the air inlet filter restriction is only 25%. What are we left with ?

(2) intakes x (A) cfm x 75% of full flow due to filters = 1.50 (A) coming in
(3) radiator exhaust x A cfm x 90% of full flow due to rad restriction = 2.70(A) going out
(1) rear exhaust x A cfm x 100% of full flow due to no restriction = 1.00(A) going out

End result 3.70A going out - 1.50A coming in = 2.20A that's gotta come in somewhere. look at the case, where is the biggest least restrictive openings > ... answer to rhetorical question ... the rear grille. What's the air like back there between the case in the wall ? the space that your 750 watt PSU and 300 watt GFX card are exhausting all their hot air ?

You're not exhausting hot air out of your case, you're recycling it. Think about it ... your 3 x 120mm AIO is exhausting heat created by your 75 - 125 watt CPU by cooling the coolant with air preheated by your 35 watt MoBo, your 300 watt GFX card and other odds and ends. If ambient is 23C and your interior case temp is 28C with say 33C coolant .... numbers chosen 'to make the math easy".


Top Rad intake: Cooling air is 23C / coolant is 33C, Delta T = 10C
Top Rad iexhaust: Cooling air is 28C / coolant is 33C, Delta T = 5C

The cooling efficiency of your cooling system is directly proportional to Delta T, with those numbers intake fans provide cooling which is twice as effective. While 28C might be appropriate for a small number fans, no matter how many you add, it's always going to be warmer inside the case than outside:

We have tested this extensively, varying pump speeds, fan speeds, number of intakes and number of exhausts. Equipment used includes (6) temperature meters and 1 6 channel digital display, accurate to 0.1C. Coolant temps are measured in and out of each rad, the remaining 2 measure ambient and interior case temps. But the most defining tool is a cheap fog machine, my son left here from his teenage garage band days.

Set up ya box with that top rad fans blowing out and direct the fog machine exhaust behind the case ... unless you can still manage to still have more intakes than exhausts, ypou will see the case fill up with fog.

Air flow design / fan selection should always be tailored to case design, number of fan mounts and keeping with attention to where make up air is coming from ... workoing on a bakery right now where they have more exhaust than intake air and when oven is on, you can't open the doors into the building due to the pressure differential.
 
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Have had both. Now using 3x120mm BeQuiet Silentwings 3 High Speeds at very low RPMs, 1 exhaust top rear. I've got them set to monitor CPU temp, if that goes into the red (>85C) they go fast mode @ 1500 RPM.

Had 2x140mm Gelid low-RPM optimized in the previous case. Overall performance... very samey. The low RPM Gelid setup did have some heat build up in the case, but that was only on hot days with everything running full tilt for hours on end.

Airflow is airflow, and in most situations, if you can feel it move, its OK. When it comes to ambient / air cooling.... I see far too many people (here too...) overcomplicate things tremendously. Calculations and... seriously? Just grab a few fans that sound nice at the desired RPMs and you're done. And that is already going into detail.

OK... then...
Back on topic I have 2 case fans, both intake and let everything vent naturally out the top or back of my case. One is 140 and the other is 120.

I prefer venting naturally as well. :rolleyes:
 
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In simple terms a larger fan will move more air with less noise. It really is as simple as that. Given similar circumstances

Personally my gaming PC has 3- 120 in 1- 140 out so there is a slight positive pressure
 
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In my Raven RV02 I have
bottom: 3x 180mm silverstone AP181 700>1000rpm 90>110cfm
top: 1x 120mm Scythe Gentle Typhoon 1850rpm 90cfm
front: 1x 120mm Globe ~1500rpm ~57cfm

because of the way the case airflow goes I get ~300cfm blowing upwards on all components and all hot air is exhausted out the top of the case
 
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On my latest build I have 1x 60mm fan on the VRM, 2x 75mm on the back, 1x 120mm on the side blowing on VRM, CPU and RAM, 2x 140mm on the front radiator, 7x180mm on the radiators on the top and on radiators & PSU light box under the mother board. The computer case is an old, modded Cooler Master Praetorian 730. All fans are blowing air in to the case except the 2x 180mm radiator fans on the top. The case has a slight positive pressure. Temp on VRM and CPU is 65 - 73 °C when running on full load, Threadripper 1950X@3900MHz + RTX 2080@2025MHz. I'm running WorldCommunityGrid and Folding
 
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I don't care about positive/negative pressure, as there is no way you can measure that in my PC case or room.
So i have 4x Coolink 120mm fans, two in the front and two in the top, that spin ~ 800 rpm and a 120mm Noctua in the back set to the same 800 rpm as the others. All controlled by the motherboard/BIOS.
 
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Overall my system is pretty quiet.
 
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I don't care about positive/negative pressure
I did not want to imply I felt great importance should be put on +/- pressures within the case. IMO, there is way too much emphasis put on that. I was only stating what I have.
as there is no way you can measure that in my PC case or room.
Well, pressure in the room is immaterial, assuming the room is not a vacuum chamber! ;) Only the ambient temperature matters there. I agree there is no practical way a normal person can "measure" such pressures within the case but if you know the characteristics of your intakes and exhaust fans, it is easy to determine if you have positive or negative.

I only mentioned it because generally a "small" amount of positive pressure is desired - not so much for cooling efficiency but to force the vast majority of intake air through the filters to trap the dust floating in the air, and not through our I/O ports, optical drives, and other unfiltered cracks and openings.

I do emphasize "small" positive pressure, however because too much inside pressure can actually hinder the desired "flow" of air and create pockets of heated air. Not good.

So if your case has intake air filters, you should care a little bit that you achieve a bit of over-pressure to ensure "clean" air is being pushed out those I/O ports and your optical drives (if you have any) instead of dirty air being pulled in through them.
 

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I've always assumed that it's better to have some positive pressure than some negative pressure because with negative pressure you might end up sucking in air where you don't need to, like with the gap in the side panel or fan cutouts that haven't been used. With some positive pressure the hot air can escape through the gap in the side panel or unused fan cutouts but it's still hot air being vented out of the case.

That's why I pick out a case that has 2 front intakes and 1 rear exhaust.

Ultimately the proof is in the pudding and my GPU and CPU stay nice and cool. It helps, of course, that my rig is in a finished basement where the ambient temp is pretty cool even in the summer here in the South.
 
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The 140mm top fan labeled 188M³ /H looks like it is the wrong direction, as an intake rather than exhaust, and that would be why its rattling and dying and your case is overpressurized. I drew a blue box around this fan in MSpaint, see the pic below (the top left corner).

You probably do NOT even need a fan there, try removing it and leaving an empty slot and see if temperatures change. It probably adds turbulence to your CPU heatsink which impairs cooling.

The upper part of the case might even run cooler if the 140mm hole was blocked so the air has only one way to flow: Out the back. You could test it by putting a book or other object on the roof and see how temperature and noise change.

More fans is not better. Particularly if you have a fan that flows the wrong way so all the fans in the case are pressurizing from different directions and fighting that fan.

View attachment 131892
Thanks for hint, but the fan is installed properly. I don't have any issues with temperature. The only thing that bothers me is the noise of this 140 Akasa fan running on full speed. But i think it is the price of performance.
Everything with my airflow is fine. I have a slight overpressure but it helps a little bit with dust.
 
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5 Corsair high pressure low speed 120mm (sp120s) and one of the same in 140mm.
 
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Well, pressure in the room is immaterial, assuming the room is not a vacuum chamber!
If your window and the door are open, you could make, what i think is called, a draft. It was intended as a joke.

I do have fan filters in the front, that is a kind of mesh and i duct-taped the other intakes in the bottom, except the one for the PSU that has it's own filter. I clean it about every 3 months or so, it only gets a fine lair of dust.
Cutting the fan grill helped a lot, i added that grill to protect the fans from cables or fingers :p
adwdawd.jpg
 
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If your window and the door are open, you could make, what i think is called, a draft. It was intended as a joke.
The problem with "jokes" in technical discussions (where tone-of-voice is not heard and facial expressions/body language are not seen) is they have to be very well crafted, or obvious. Sadly, that was neither. That's why there's, "what I think is called" :rolleyes:, smilies - there to avoid such confusion.

For the record, a draft does not create over or under pressure either. Now if just the window was open and you had very strong winds blowing in, that would be another story.

And if your mother-in-law is in the hallway complaining about the bum son-in-law, then there's some extreme over-pressure going on - at least it would be in my blood vessels. ;)
 
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As few as possible to achieve acceptable temps. I am a test geek. Perform smoke tests and place thermal probes throughout the case with various configurations. Often less is more. Go with the flow.

Probably not the answer you were looking for. I use a re-purposed Dell T3500 as my main system (see sig).

Two 120x38mm front = intake
One 80x25mm CPU cooler
Two 92mm graphics card
One 80mm PSU = exhaust
 
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