Fan Placement

thczv · Post by **thczv** » Fri Jul 11, 2008 7:59 am

I need some opinions on where I should place the fans in my new system. My PC will include a Q6600 cpu and a fanless ASUS EN8600GTS with a big heat sink on it (big being a very relative term). You can see a picture here:

http://www.legionhardware.com/Pics/ASUS ... age_00.jpg

I am using a Coolermaster Centurion 590 case. I chose this case because it is (a) pretty cheap, and (b) I like that it has 9 5.25" drive bays. I intend to use four of those drive bays to suspend four hard drives on elastic. The case comes with a HD rack that takes up three of the big drive bays. It looks to me like the only way to put a fan on the front of the PC is to mount it on this movable HD rack. If I use the 5.25" bays for suspending my hard drives, and I can only mount the fan on the HD rack, I can't have my fan blowing across the hard drives.

So the question is this: Is it better to mount the front case fan above the four drives, or below them, or in the middle (say, with 2 below and 2 above)?

I also need to get some air blowing on the EN8600GTS heat sink. Should I mount another case fan in the side panel pointed toward this heat sink, or would the front case fan provide enough air to the video card?

Keep in mind that on this case the entire front is covered with mesh, so the HDs will get some air, even if the fan is blowing directly over them.

Thanks,
Dave

xev · Post by **xev** » Fri Jul 11, 2008 8:36 am

that link doesnt work

i believe the card was reviewed here http://www.silentpcreview.com/article770-page1.html

but getting a regular 8600gt and an s1 or s2 would be better.

hdd placement shouldnt matter too much, but i think 2 on each side of the fan could be better since they will have more room to breathe

jhhoffma · Post by **jhhoffma** » Fri Jul 11, 2008 11:45 am

If you do your cabling neatly, you can put the fan behind the HDDs and have it sucking air past the HDDs. Not as effective, but still doable.

However, if you design your airflow right, you won't need a fan. If you space the HDDs out enough, block off all other intakes and either put very slow moving fans or blanks in the top of the case, the natural airflow will draw air over those hard drives enough to keep them from burning up.

thczv · Post by **thczv** » Fri Jul 11, 2008 2:17 pm

I bought the 8600GTS already, and believe it or not, it was cheaper than the 8600GTs. I like your suggestion about putting 2 hdd on each side of the fan.

thczv · Post by **thczv** » Fri Jul 11, 2008 2:24 pm

If you do your cabling neatly, you can put the fan behind the HDDs and have it sucking air past the HDDs. Not as effective, but still doable.

I haven't bought the case yet, but I don't see what I could mount the fan on. It looks like the case is designed for the fan to mount on the HDD cage. But I am not going to use the cage for the HDDs, but am rather going to suspend them with elastic.

However, if you design your airflow right, you won't need a fan. If you space the HDDs out enough, block off all other intakes and either put very slow moving fans or blanks in the top of the case, the natural airflow will draw air over those hard drives enough to keep them from burning up.

I really like this idea, but I am worried that my video card will overheat without some directed air flow.