How many fans?

[A Computer Guy]

pMy last PC had just two fans

• 1 for the CPU
• 1 for the power supply

while the GPU was passive.


My new PC now has 10 fans,

• 3 for intake
• 3 for exhaust (up from 1)
• 1 for the CPU
• 2 for the video card
• 1 for the power supply

Seems a bit excessive to me, although I am happy with how silent it is.

How many is typical?

Typical if anything would probably depend on case style.

On my main rig 011D

• 3 for rad 1 exhaust
• 3 for rad 2 exhaust
• 3 (slim) for bottom intake
• 1 90mm for cooling dual Optane 905p top & bottom (custom mounted intake on rear of case to card)

Gaming rig ML-09B

• 2 (80mm) for 4060LP GPU exhaust
• 1 (slim) for CPU exhaust
• 1 (80mm) for intake

Gaming rig (WC configuration) NR200P

• 1 for CPU intake
• 2 (slim) for rad 1 top exhaust
• 2 (slim) for rad 2 bottom exhaust

 

[de.das.dude]

resurrected the old rig. Old Monke.

2x intake, 1x exhaust.
2 x push pull on Hyper 212 EVO.

1 for PSU
2x fans for GPU

 

[Scattergrunt]

4 case fans (soon to be 7ish), 2 CPU fans, 1 PSU fan, 2 GPU fans.

CPU fans are orientated so the air they blow through is taken by the exhaust case fan, and the rest of my case fans are intake. Temps are.. fine. Need to switch everything around when I get those extra fans to be way more optimized but I just haven't gotten around to it yet.

 

[FoulOnWhite]

10 here in a 7000D airflow

 

[Chrispy_]

10 here in a 7000D airflow

How many case fans depends on the case. Some cases need all fan bays populated to work as intended, others don't.

My HTPC uses 5 case fans, 11 if you include fans on components.
My desktop uses 8 case fans, 12 if you include components.

In a typical ATX tower, two intakes and two exhausts is the point of diminishing returns, but fans are relatively cheap so you might as well spend more and fill all the fan bays. You can run them slower for lower noise levels if you don't actually need that cooling, and even though I'm not a fan of RGB lighting, I'll admit that fully-populated cases look better than ones with a ton of empty fan mounts.