Case with rear slot fan?

Luke M · Post by **Luke M** » Mon Jul 05, 2010 7:59 am

I wonder if there are any cases which support mounting a fan where the slots are. The fan would block all the slots except the first, but it would be quite effective if you only have a single high power card in the first slot with no fan of its own (or if you're using a mini-ITX motherboard, which only supports one slot anyway).

I realize you can place a fan externally and duct it to a slot opening, but I'm asking about a case where you can replace the slot mountings with a fan mounting. Would be a good feature I think.

Tenoq · Post by **Tenoq** » Mon Jul 05, 2010 5:01 pm

I've seen plenty of people zip-tie a case fan over spare PCI slots, but I don't think I've seen a case specifically designed for it! I would be interested in seeing one though. Evacuating GPU heat can be tricky business.

Luke M · Post by **Luke M** » Sat Jul 10, 2010 3:46 am

After considering this more, I no longer think this is a great idea. A better approach is to put an intake fan in the case bottom. For maximum (or any) benefit the high power card should be in the lowest slot, otherwise it would be shielded by another card. If no cards are installed, the bottom fan would contribute to CPU cooling.

I haven't seen any cases with bottom fans - do they exist?

Tephras · Post by **Tephras** » Sat Jul 10, 2010 1:47 pm

Some cases with bottom mounted fan: Corsair Obsidian 700D/800D, Fractal Design Define R2 and a bunch of cases from Cooler Master. Then, of course, there are the Silverstone cases with a rotated motherboard tray, but that's a different airflow concept altogether.

Luke M · Post by **Luke M** » Sat Jul 10, 2010 4:00 pm

Tephras wrote:Some cases with bottom mounted fan: Corsair Obsidian 700D/800D, Fractal Design Define R2 and a bunch of cases from Cooler Master. Then, of course, there are the Silverstone cases with a rotated motherboard tray, but that's a different airflow concept altogether.

Thanks for the info. These cases use a bottom mounted power supply, though, which restricts the fan placement. I had in mind a fan at the bottom rear, directly blowing at a card.

flemeister · Post by **flemeister** » Sat Jul 10, 2010 10:07 pm

Is this the sort of thing you had in mind?

Luke M · Post by **Luke M** » Sun Jul 11, 2010 1:01 am

flemeister wrote:Is this the sort of thing you had in mind?

Wow, that case (Coolermaster 840) has a lot of fan options! It's a monster. Top or bottom mounted power supply, 120mm bottom fan, 120mm external ducted slot fan, 2 120mm hard drive fans, 230mm front fan, 2 230mm top fans, and 120mm rear fan. It doesn't look like it's designed for a fan at the bottom rear, but you could put one there anyway.

What I'd like to see is a small quiet case with just two fans, a 120mm rear fan and a 160-200mm bottom fan. The bottom fan would provide quiet cooling of a fanless video card. This could be enhanced with a partition that seperated the video card airflow from the CPU. Make sense or not?

Tenoq · Post by **Tenoq** » Mon Jul 12, 2010 3:56 pm

My old CM690 had a bottom case fan mount. I believe the CM690II also has the same mount. It is not directly below the GPU (that is power the PSU is located) but probably close enough to significantly improve cool airflow to a GPU (particularly one of the newer kind with a stock cooler at the end of the card).

shleepy · Post by **shleepy** » Wed Jul 14, 2010 4:37 pm

What about something like the (theoretical) case below, where the case is wider, allowing for a huge fan (~160mm) near the I/O panel, and something like a 80mm fan to the side of the PCI slots. Not sure if it would really have practical applications, beyond better cooling for extra-wide GPU coolers, like the AS1... The red squares are fans... you can ignore the partial-fan sticking out, hehe.

Luke M · Post by **Luke M** » Thu Jul 15, 2010 1:50 am

shleepy, I've seen a case (forget the model) which has holes for 60mm fans in that location. This doesn't force air in between the cards, though, so I don't think it's ideal. Another approach is to use the location as an intake for a duct, with the fan above (perpendicular to) the cards, like a side fan.