Case fans

[Typsylol]

Should I set my top case fans to exhaust or intake?

[r.linder]

Exhaust, hot air rises naturally

[Cathulhu]

Indeed, don't fight thermodynamics, use it.
Intake from the front, sides and/or below, exhause on top and/or back.

[C1REX]

I would exhaust air but only behind or on top of the CPU, and not before it, to avoid exhausting cool air before it reaches the CPU. This could potentially make cooling worse.

Also, be careful not to have too many exhaust fans, as they may create negative pressure, which would result in excessive dust build-up.

One of the best airflow cases on the market, the Fractal Torrent, has zero exhaust fans, not even on the back of the case.

The exhaust on top works best if you have an intake on the bottom as well.

[Supafly]

There is a reason why fans are commonly fitted Bottom & Front are intakes Top & Rear are exhausts. Hot air rises naturally so exhaust makes sense.

[DevaVictrix]

To throw a cat amongst the pigeons… I think it depends in how good your intake is. Without fans on the top my case naturally sucks air in through the top so if I were to add fans I’d have them as intake. But I’ve got a case that starves my front intake fans.

As someone said a few posts above… I would only exhaust behind cpu, not before.

Having said all that, when I tested top fans all it did was create more noise so I don’t have any now!

[Ralf]

Originally posted by C1REX:

One of the best airflow cases on the market, the Fractal Torrent, has zero exhaust fans, not even on the back of the case.

So the rear 120/140mm fan mount is intake too? I dont like dumping all the heat into the PSU

[C1REX]

Originally posted by Ralf:

Originally posted by C1REX:

One of the best airflow cases on the market, the Fractal Torrent, has zero exhaust fans, not even on the back of the case.

So the rear 120/140mm fan mount is intake too? I dont like dumping all the heat into the PSU

There is no fan on the back at all. Some people tested results after adding an exhaust but it improved nothing. Big intake fans seems to be enough to be one of the best cases for air cooling on the market.

https://youtu.be/HBxo2_lwKps?si=uZhjmYxfrLeKdIUw

[pasa]

depends on your whole case and all the other fans.

With a normal flow case the usual setup to have flow fans at front taking in through the grill and everything else is exhaust. But if you have a braindead box with mostly closed front, the top may be your only sensible way to get in cool air.

[plat]

Originally posted by C1REX:

There is no fan on the back at all. Some people tested results after adding an exhaust but it improved nothing. Big intake fans seems to be enough to be one of the best cases for air cooling on the market.

Thanks for this information. I'm going to def. keep this in mind, since my Fractal case has poor airflow with the way it is now. Come to think of it, I follow Lian Li and at times they omit the rear fan themselves.

Edit to fix quote

[C1REX]

Originally posted by plat:

Thanks for this information. I'm going to def. keep this in mind, since my Fractal case has poor airflow with the way it is now. Come to think of it, I follow Lian Li and at times they omit the rear fan themselves.

Edit to fix quote

Fractal almost always add a rear exhaust fan - just not in their best performing one in terms of air flow ironically.

Lian Li has some of the best value cases on the market with a top tier cooling performance as well.

I personally went with Fractal Meshify XL2 due to its size and that it fits an 420mm AIO on top.

[Phénomènes Mystiques]

Front as intake, top and back high-speed fan as exhaust. I also recommend PSU pointed down away from the GPU and GPU pointing down for formative non-exhausting gravity for the fans.

Will last at least 7+ years that way for both even though the heat will come back up, the top fans should release the heat index.

Tested a few ways and this seems best for fan maintenance (non-collective dust build-up and gravity bearing weight)

I also recommend full or super tower cases with a honeycomb pattern for maximum airflow if using fan cooling for the CPU.

I run 6 fans at 700RPM stable with temps very cold for a fan system. 30C since 2016, lol.

Then again I use the old school 99% silver-based thermal paste.

[L.o.D.]

Originally posted by C1REX:

One of the best airflow cases on the market, the Fractal Torrent, has zero exhaust fans, not even on the back of the case.

Gonna have to look into this case some more for my new AMD build I am putting together.
Seems most build with front and bottom fans only with water cooling. PSU on top is kinda weird to me.