Fan direction?

bhuether · Post by **bhuether** » Thu Sep 27, 2007 10:56 pm

I have a P182. Should the rear and top fans be blowing air out or should one of them be blowing air across the motherboard?

Also, can I get away without using the top fan if I have passive video card (7600GT) and a fan on the CPU?

Likewise can I get away withjout using the fan in the lower chamber if my PSU has a fan and I have just 2 hard drives in the lower chamber?

thanks,

brian

thejamppa · Post by **thejamppa** » Thu Sep 27, 2007 11:42 pm

That is entirely up to you. I plan to see how turning top fan effects my system (at the moment top and rear are both in exhaust in my game rig ). But before that, I need to find way to filter that fan. Some have removed top fan entirely. Other keeps top and rear exhaust some have turn top fan as intake.

You probably should try which works best for your system.

andyb · Post by **andyb** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 12:40 am

I only use the back fan, which is a 1000 rpm nexus running at 500rpm - 850 rpm depending on system temp, that seems to keep my X1950 pro with an Accelero S1 cool, the other fan in the top section of my P180 is also a Nexus that runs even slow and is pointing towards the back of the case and blowing through my Ninja.

Andy

bussoguy · Post by **bussoguy** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 1:32 am

It doesn't matter too much wich way the fan is blowing/sucking. What makes the most differece is to have a consistant flow.Air currents should not be fighting one another. That includes convection heat currents as well as fan currents.. If air comes in the front and sides it should exhaust thru the back and top. I have a Thermaltake Tai-Chi and by using temperature probes and the temp readouts on my CPUs , GPU and HDDs I found that with the rear and rear door fans as the intake (ie sucking from outside and blowing in) and the hot air exhausted thru the top of the front face and top was best. The exhaust fan on the top front sucks air over the 3 hard drives to the outside.
This works for me but seems to be the exception, with most people opting to exhaust thru the rear.

DerLjubljana · Post by **DerLjubljana** » Sat Sep 29, 2007 1:04 am

I'm with andyb here. If you just use the fan mounted on the back, you can move the top fan to the front of the case, either in the upper hd cage or above that with a Kama Bay (or a homemade equivalent). I've found that this is better for airflow.

Bluefront · Post by **Bluefront** » Sat Sep 29, 2007 2:00 am

With a little searching, you'll find many answers to your question......mostly because there's no single "right" way to arrange airflow in a p180/2 case. IMHO....this is true because the PSU location is different from most cases. But many people still look at this case as a standard case, and attempt to apply their own experiences with standard cases to this special design. So you're likely to get answers to your question that may not be ideal for a p180/2.

The upper fan/opening is one big "sticky" point. Many people are so frustrated they simply cover the hole and remove the fan.....very sad IMHO. They are missing out on the ability of this case to passively exhaust heat from this top vent, even without a fan.

Me....I prefer positive pressure cases with all the fans blowing inward, and the exhaust passively leaving the case at the top. I think a p180/2 would work well like this, with only slight other modifications to the top. Presumably we're all trying for the quietest/coolest setup. The p180 cases are ideal for experimentation ....... there's no one right way.

newschool · Post by **newschool** » Sun Oct 07, 2007 11:19 am

with positive pressure the cold air will blend into the hot air before going out of the case. with negative pressure you remove the hot air so the cold air can directly cool your components.

ddrueding1 · Post by **ddrueding1** » Sun Oct 07, 2007 11:33 am

newschool wrote:with positive pressure the cold air will blend into the hot air before going out of the case. with negative pressure you remove the hot air so the cold air can directly cool your components.

Care to explain your logic? That makes no sense to me.

newschool · Post by **newschool** » Fri Oct 12, 2007 10:42 am

If your fan push air into the case, the pressure wont be instant, it will take a little time to build up and then air will go out of the case where you didnt put a fan.

if your fan is right in front of your cpu or vga card it will be ok. but if your fan is on the other end of the case the fresh air will have time to mix with the hot air already present in the case.

jhhoffma · Post by **jhhoffma** » Mon Oct 15, 2007 7:15 am

I still don't think that makes much sense. The air nearest to the exhaust will be the air that forced out of the case (if the exhaust is at the top, it will be the warm, less-dense air). The intake air will mix slightly, whether it's forced in or not.

Unless you're talking about a top intake, which would make no sense at all, as you'd be fighting natural convection AND throwing a crap-load of dust into the case (big no-no).