wanna know which case brand has good air flow? can anyone list em?

how to identify a case has a good air flow? does it must have 120mm intake/exhaust fan? is two fan enough? how many intake/exhaust fan needed to produce good air flow?

already search the net... mostly recommend minimum 2 fan... one for intake & one for exhaust.... still not clear about the matter, can any one help me

This post has been edited by E-J@1: Dec 14 2006, 03:24 PM

most branded cases like powerlogic or even cooler master provide sufficient fan holes which is normally 1 120mm fan in front and 1 exhaust at the back.....

2 fans is sufficient for any pc...

yep, i know what u r talking bout, cause lots of tips around the web state the same thing, 2 fan already sufficient enough... but what if i add another 2 fan (intake & exhaust), makes that 2 intake fan & 3 exhaust fan (one from psu)...

will the temp case be lower? if yes, how low can it be? does it really helps if add another 2 fan?...

another thing, does the fan's cfm also need to take in consideration? let say change all the case fan to 100cfm (yep, it's gonna be noisy, i know), will it helps lowering the temp? have anyone tried this?

About the noise, you can always opt for silent fans.
For both the intake and exhaust, try find those 12cm fans. I've heard quite some good words bout the CM silent fan which moves quite high CFM and not that noisy. You won't want to have 2 screaming loud Deltas which move 190CFM.

I tot powerlogic is just a cheapo brand. Branded huh?
In terms of airflow, i suggest you go for Lian Lis.
Their design are quite good in airflow imho.

i opening this thread cause wanna get my bro a new case, dunno to buy atx case or m-atx case...

done a lot of search, found out that m-atx case keen to be hotter than atx case, is this true? all i can think of is because of the heat produced inside is more than the heat is going outside (exhaust fan), meaning all the pc hardware produce lots of heat but onli a few get out (correct me if i'm wrong) ... any other reason u all can think of?

can anyone tell me their experience when using m-atx case then change to atx case? any difference in temp result?

power logic is considered branded to me coz there are some unbranded capalang casings around....

extra fans will reduce the temp by 1 or 2 degrees at best...

if u want to reduce the temp drastically, then u should opt to change ur stock heatsink fan to a better one(like Coolermaster/Thermaltake) or u can also go for water cooling

to me hving a gud airflow means dat
ur case temp will be the same with the room temp
(coz it could not get any lower )

meaning dat ur hsf performance isnt affected by the
temp inside the case...
so wat it should be is...even if u open
the side panel of ur casing, ur hsf temp
shoudnt be affected...it should be the same

goin back to ur Q on which case having the best airflow
to me any case with 120mm inflow + outflow would be gud
but its the arrangement of hardware inside ur case
dat should be more focus on...dun block the fan
from getting a good flow

well i kinda like the design of TJ07, Lian Li A10 design.... i like the PSU being blocked from the mobo area.... and the hdd also

This article might help in ur question, doesnt mention any casing in particular but mentions positive n negative air pressure in the casing thru the use of fans

http://www.xoxide.com/computer-cooling.html

Yes, exhaust is more important that intake. -ve internal pressure is desired. You may have only exhaust without intake, or bigger exhasut and a smaller intake.
But never have bigger intake airflow then the exhaust.

wah, good point there u have never thought of it

so, if 2 fan already enough lor.... but i still wanna know how will the case temp change if u add another 2 fan, maybe wanna blow hole on my case if te temp differ greatly

If you dont plan to on the rig 24/7 then a normal case would be sufficient..

But if u bring your gf to the shop to look at the case, she maybe would choose those fancy fancy case...

Coz it looks damm pretty

^good point...lol....
well bro as long as there is no significant blockcage or the airflow , then any case is good. if u wan budget case with good airflow, the icute 0408sl or the aerocool mastige, both retailing bout 230 at lyp... also the airflow also depens on ur cable management . less cable in the path of the airflow , beter airflow..

thanx for all the respon...

now trying to understand the link that cablesguy given... somewhat got my intention...

Get him another case just like ures lar. 4x120mm fans. 2 intake n 2 exhaust. Sure beri beri good.

dunno lor bro, he more interested in m-atx case cause easy for him to carry around since he moving around a lot (going back home weekly)... just can't seperate the computer from him even for a day....

just research on lian li's m-atx case seeing makes me want it too

This post has been edited by E-J@1: Dec 14 2006, 07:42 PM

http://www.lian-li.com/Product/Chassis/Min...ini_PC-V300.htm

saw it few days ago at ATE
d@mn nice one

yep that was the casing i've been searching for... hopefully ATE still got it

go buy fast fast la
b4 it all gone
my fren bought one of those last month
black colour

yeah they still have it.
its a nice little cube (not that small )

heres sumthin i found awhile back... its an old article in toms hardware (2003) but mebbe this might help to give an idea

http://www.tomshardware.com/2003/04/28/spr...ness/index.html

my HEC 6919 is in there

damn , ur fren bought the black color, hopefully they still got the black color


how u know they still got it? u went to ATE ar today?


thanx for the link...will read it now...

This post has been edited by E-J@1: Dec 14 2006, 10:02 PM

Yes, get the hot air out of your case and naturally cooler air will come in (there is an explaination for this, but rather lengthy-involves thermodynamic laws). Only put intake fans at hotspots like HDD (which even a single medium speed 80mm or slow speed 120mm will be enough). 2 120mm exhaust fans will be more than sufficient for any system except for the most extreme. Even 2x 80mm exhaust fans is ok for low to moderate systems, for higher systems fans which are powerful enough would be too noisy-get 120mm.

You can always trade off silence for more cooling power with noisier, more powerful fans, but its your call. Bigger fans move more air at lower noise, but casing needs to have mounting for it.

Yup, blockages will reduce airflow AND increase fan noise. Tuck away and tie your cables properly. Rounded cables help a lot.

i count by this way

okok check the full load then with the case closed up tie.. exp 1 fan at front and 1 at the bak..
mark down the Celcius

then open the left side panel.. if the temp drop more then 5"c mean ur case airflow ar stack..

bsz i doing like this now even i open the side panel there no diff with close up..

noise lvl see how much u want to spend.. spend more then ma more low noise lor

that my way to test out enough fan or not

Thats a good way. Also try to disable the intake fan, sometimes you may notice no temps change, then can cut down another fan in the pursuit of silence

i think its a must to have at least intake and exhaust with 8cm fan at least.

btw ive jus added a 12cm fan as exhaust. god its powerful! n noisy. now i guess my cpu is cooler n my room is hotter now.

at least A intake (8cm/12cm) and a exhaust fan(12cm) are good enough. take care of the cables wires management in ur casing too.

optional:
a side intake fan just beside the GPU or CPU hsf.
a top exhaust fan
a down intake fan

How much will that case cost? any idea?

good airflow

- silent 12cm fan in front
- silent 12cm fan at the back above the io panel
- air vent with adjustable funnel (if no funnel can make your own from mineral water bottle ) on the side panel near cpu
- air vent at pci/pcie area
- air vent on top of the case is optional
- make sure the hard disk drives are located near the front fan to cool them

air filter for fans to minimize dust

I read some AMD article stating that intake fans don't really help that much... and another site did some tests and found out the best combination was exhaust fans + top blowhole fan...

And like kitman said above, air vent with funnel near the processor and an air vent below the graphics card bracket should help reduce component temperatures further still...

errr...i'm constructing a fan free solution for my CPU heatsink......there are only intake and exhaust fans but there are no CPU fan......hope it'll work fine as my proc is a barton running at 1.92Vcore.....



anyway, for a good airflow casing, first of all you need to identify which hardware in your PC is hot and does it require high airflow or not high airflow, direction of airflow(closely related to heatsink orientation) and how much airflow is needed...

* hotspot
* direction of airflow
* amount of airflow


the most common design flaw is the normal ATX version which the PSU is directly above the motherboard, as that location is probably the best spot for the exhaust to be located.....hence, adding a top fan will help, or by using a strong exhaust through the rear will help also.

1.92Vcore?? That barton is headed for the grave the moment it overheats. 1.82v also considered dangerous already unless cooling is very good.

all you need is really silent 12cm fans. if it's a home theater setup, you'll hardly notice it. affordable ones so far coolermaster led silent fan. they cost about rm30 a piece. i'm having barton for my ht and using these fans plus the low speed gigabyte socket a hsf. you can check these up to see if acceptable but a oc barton is quite hot so a fanless solution might not be viable. if it's just for ht you can consider running it at default speed and bring down the power & heat - it's speedy enough for ht without oc

This post has been edited by kitman: Mar 10 2007, 12:13 AM

Best way actually is to experiment urself... I found out adding a 2nd exhaust fan helped lower my GC temp by about 4 degrees!

Use 25cm Sidepanel fan... at the sidepanel as exhaust and the front n back as intake.. cut a 12" fan hole at the top of the case... then exhaust it... your rig will be cool enough...but if the intake is hot air eg: no air-cond room. then put your com near the window and the 25cm exhaust facing the window... it will be jus nice...

air-cond room- use a paip like the one we use for our washing mechine or something like that...put at the air-cond out put. then put it inside the case.

remember- hot air will always go upward; cold air below the hot air.

hope tis help...


25cm casing fan

wow duct in aircon - abit extreme

Yeah, someone posted that (air-con idea)in the forum somewhere; even got someone put his laptop in a freezer to cool it because fan konked out. Fan's bigger than 120mm damn hard to find le..that 25cm I've only seen in some iCute casings (or was it Power logic?). Must take care properly; don't think can find replacements.

Put at the window? Make sure don't rain and got stong wind...

This post has been edited by lohwenli: Mar 11 2007, 10:37 AM

make sure no sun in the morning or evening to cook your pc when you place it at the window

I agree with the idea of adding top exhaust but only applicable to high-end like the Antec P180. The top exhaust really helps alot. Best solution still put a strong fan to suck out more hot air, then the CPU area will be cooler.


better if you add another fan which can suck hot air from the southbridge and VGA, fit it to the PCI slots, preferbly just below the Graphic card. It'll cool the bottom part of the casing.


1 way which I read once saying if you wanna know how good your case airflow, just run the fans with the PSU inside,no mobo or anything else, then light some cigarates, or burns a small pc of paper and let the smoke be suck in by the front intake. With a transparent side panel, you should notice how the smoke moves inside until it exits the casing and see if the case traps any of those smoke and those r the area that will be warmer.

Make no mistake, expose to sunlight may just cancel out whatever advantages you get from a direct intake. Especially for dark coloured casings they will get pretty hot.

read this article (especially how he tests it out at the end)
http://www.dansdata.com/hx45fan.htm

actually it's best to strike a balance - not too many fans, not too many holes. too many fan - noisy (even with quiet ones), too many holes - dusty (even with filter).

the front and rear 12cm fan plus side panel cpu funnel & pci slot vent is more than enough. the top blow hole is optional. alot will depend on which cpu you are using and how extreme you oc.

i doubt that "too many fan - noisy (even with quiet ones)", currently using 4 case fan (CM Silent LED Fan 120mm x 4) barely hear any sound

using Lian Li PC-G7 (modded by Ianho) can see the worklog code: Black Parade, there u can see i got 4 fan, which is (1 intake & 3 exhaust) or (2 intake & 2 exhaust)

he refers to general situation ... if u aren't using CM Silent fan with the G7 case ,,,

i doubt it could be so silence ... the same configuration u apply into other case ... u might end up with a noisy case ...

i personally used CM 530 ... two fans already killing with CM Silent UV and LED >.....

Very good tips here. I like the tests he did. But hard to smoke my casing, need to clean up the dusts later hehe.

I know for sure the expensive casings will offer superb airflow, but economic ones such as CoolerMaster and icute, i'm not so sure, those will definitely need to be tested.

not general i think, cause he state "even with quiet ones"

& no fan can be silence, i barely hear sound, whisper yes

haha yes i meant the cm led silent type too. i am using 2 for my current case. they are quiet but still audible. it is still miles better than my stock standard fans that came with the case. the point is even if you're using low noise level fans the more you have of cos the more noticeable they are

This post has been edited by kitman: Mar 12 2007, 02:07 PM

Dust will be a problem with too many fans, even slow/silent ones; and airflow suffers quite badly for those when you put filters because they don't have much static pressure.

He used a proper smoke machine-no dust. But those of us with no access to that will just have to deal with cigarrettes/joss sticks/mosquito coil and deal with the dust.


You should join silentpcreview forums bro, I think you could fit in there quite well. For them, even a CM silent LED is considered noisy already. Give them a delta and they'll faint.

lol lohwenli ...... actually i'm not that crazy but my pc for my ht setup need to be reasonably quiet or else how to enjoy the movie? also my room's pc need to be quiet too cos i'm bt over the night - need to sleep.

what i'm saying is look at your needs - if you only oc mildly and in an aircon enviro - there is really no need to install lots of fans - dun go overboard . if just need good airflow as more fan doesn't necessary means better airflow

This post has been edited by kitman: Mar 12 2007, 03:06 PM

that's what we call trade off...

dust is a must, no matter u put filter for it, different is dust will accumulate slower compared to non-filter fan just have to live with it, dust, its everywhere

CM Fan also noisy, dunno what fan i can use anymore if i were them i meant the cheapo ones la

hahaha CM Fan also audible

i guess u need this then:

Zalman Multi Connector 1


enable u to run ur fan on +5V or +12V, surely silent one if u run on 5V if things start to heat up, change back to 12V & have to keep it that way

This post has been edited by E-J@1: Mar 12 2007, 03:21 PM

umm maybe i need therapy ........ joking lo, i won't faint when you switch on those turbo charged delta fans . sometimes i find it hard to imagine my 1yr ago pc actually sound like a table fan on full speed , i can hear it outside my room with door closed

It's a sign of age ler... When I first join this forum, I was a big fan of delta fast spinners... the bigger and faster the better.

Now, anything over 1000rpm = Noisy for me.

OMG i'm getting old! time to join olang tua club

They do better than that, either they dig fan controllers or customise with resistors to get the 'perfect' silent speed. The fans they usually use are pabst or panaflos, the more extreme guys use nexus and another brand I can't recall. So damn silent, hard disk also damn loud by comparision. Oh ya, never mention a >30db fan there-sure got ppl flame/kutuk wan. Worst case also 25db only.

I thought old people's hearing get worse rather than more sensitive No offense.

what it i use 3x 120mm on the top case,3x 120mm at the front and 2x 80mm rear..Is it Good..?

I think you won't wanna use that multi connector with any of the cheapo fans, coz u'll feel no air is moving at all. At such low voltage of 5V, the fan spins too slow and you can not feel any air moving out or in at all. I'm using the Evercool GT365, when I shut down the pc, the 2 intake and exhaust fan still works to move the hot air inside and out of the casing. But, i'm not sure how effective it is since the fans are moving so slow. Mayb it'll be effective with panaflos only.

By the way, I used to visit the silentpc website quite often, but hard to keep up with the budget that those ppl use there. Surely, I'll be happy to get more Panaflos if its as economical as the CM ones.

Oh yah, lohwenli, does the blade design contributes too ? Coz I tried once to construct a fan using those tamiya motor, i use cardboard and bend it to form the fins of the fan. I notice that, if you bend the fins differently, the air flow is totally different. Its also a trade off coz when the airflow is higher, the noise from the air moving is also audible too. Is it true or it's just co-incidence in my experiment ?

Things that effect the power of a fan
-blade pitch (how sharp are the blade angles, sharper will result in more airflow but greater resistance to the motor)
-blade diameter (the bigger the better)
-blade count (more blades means more airflow)
-rotation speed-this one everyone knows

Thera are other factors but these are the main ones. So you are not far off the mark. Noise increases proportionally with airflow, so high airflow fans could never be as quiet as low airflow fans.

slap two Thermaltake Duct Mod on the side panel (each side one duct mod)

this way, the air will be directed towards the mobo, not straight to the other side of the case

OCZ,

guys i'm not too knowledgable in fans and air flows but i came across thing on the web

http://www.xoxide.com/computer-cooling.html

hope it can solve your problems. i think it make sense..

regards,
point blanc

design of a fan is a very complex thermodynamics and fluid mechanics situation if you were consider it from every aspect

mmm... if you wanna run high rpm fans and scared of the noise... use rubber gromments. It cuts down alot of the vibration caused by fans and therfore cuts down significantly on the noise level. Better yet, (i'm still looking for the link) create a vacum in your case. What i mean is that, close every hole in your case except for your intake and outake areas. This create a suction effect jus like a vacum.. once i have found a link i'll post it up.. kinda interesting...

This post has been edited by Xtreme_Hightz: May 20 2007, 03:37 PM

any ideas where to find those rubber gromets?

normal hardware stores... i bought alot jus under 3bucks... you can get really think ones that will fit the screw for your fans which only cost 20cents extra.. they are full rubber so they can take alot of the vibration away. The rubber grommets are usually used for piping.

Yeah, vacumn or otherwise known as negative pressure ventilation cools down cases quite well because of thermodynamic effects (long story, that one).

However, don't forget that the air movement of high airflow fans also causes noise on their own. Well designed and well balanced fans make no vibration noise and only have the 'whoosh' sound of air moving. Vibration damping will have no effect of those fans' noise levels. Removing airflow obstructions would work better.

Xtreme_Hightz can u show some image about that rubber grommets?
No idea what is that.

Em my casing ( Lian Li pc-60 plus ) got 2 12cm fan( front intake, side exhaust) and 8 cm fan ( real intake for cpu, top exhaust ).
My 2 12cm fan can control the speed, so if my hardware ( GC, CPU )hot i need to make more intake coming or i make that side exhaust more air going out ?

if add exhaust fan --> no need to add intake fan

if add intake fan --> need to balance with intake/exhaust air or exhaust cfm greater than intake cfm --> don't want the hot air trap inside due to the excessive intake air & insufficient exhaust fan to suck the air out of the chassis

which one to add? if possible try to add intake fan that can directly blow ur hardware (proc & vga) but then again, you will need to add exhaust fan also to create the negative pressure

This post has been edited by E-J@1: May 26 2007, 12:28 PM

I see, thanks E-J@1. But any idea about that rubber grommet? I totally no idea what is that. Just like a rubber ring.

yeah... it's a rubber ring... lemme find a pic... it's usually used in piping to create a good seal.

-this is a pic of the rubber grommet:
http://cableorganizer.com/images/rpd-gromm...RPD-grommet.jpg

Hmm need go hardware shop there c c, scare later ask also don't know what is that......

Normally is for what pipe use it, maybe easy let that hardware shop ppl know.

hmm usually those that u could found in hardware shop is in quite large size .

so I' doubted it could fit for case fan ... besides some aren't that soft like rubber grommet found in some premium case ..

Yaya, hardware shop will large size because for other type of pipe use. All way ask hardware shop what for pc also get large size 1.

If tell them rubber grommet they will show you what is it or still got other name?

its also know as a rubber washer rite?.. try asking for rubber washer at the hardware stores

yeah... rubber washer, rubber grommet or jus print the picture out and show them. They will definitely not get it wrong with pictures

ya o XD take a picture let them see easier.
Hope can get some of them to try on my fan XD.

hahah.. hopefully you like the result lar.. so far i did it for my gf's case and it's really effective..

Hehe hope so, i slot 2 12 cm fan for my pc-60 plus, after turn on, same rpm got 2 different sound from the fan, dont know is that front intake got panel block or what will noisy abit. So try and reduce that vibration then got low down that noisy or not XD.

but if you put the rubber washer, won't there be a gap between the fan and casing?.. does ties affect the fans functionality?

ya, oh got a space between casing and fan, I havn't go find that rubber grommet. If got i try and c how.

But if there got a space, i think no so wide, because that rubber grommet is put on case there then u only screw your fan.

Now i wonder the size that the rubber grommet i want looking for.....

This post has been edited by vincent09: May 28 2007, 03:52 PM

There isn't much space... if there is also... this is what prevents your case from vibrating and making noise. Then space is about half a centimeter or less... you can barely notice it. Any hows... there are different thickness for rubber grommets that you can buy. Just need to find the size that you want.

I got the same casing as vincent09, wanna replace my case fans with UV led or led fans, can anyone recommend good 80mm and 120 mm fans(possibly a high performance but silent, is there any?) By the way, the 120mm(front intake) and 80mm (top-exhaust)...

For the other two fans (120mm side exhaust & 80mm back intake), is it ok if i'm using normal led or uv led fans(meaning that, not high performance fans)?

katunX, if u just want buy case fan at Low Yat with nice performance and acceptable noise can try VIZO UV fan. If got fan controller any terible air flow fan also can use, u just need to control it.

But katunX, make sure u balance the air pressure.
I'm using 2 12 cm ThermalTake smart fan with own controller, hot day turn it 2000rpm ( game sound can cover the noise XD ), midnight if still open then turn it 1500 rpm and silent for sleep.

Ok, thanx bro, will find some times to go to lowyat to search for the fans. Need to wait for weekend to go there...Anyone know any other shops in lowyat that sell other brand than vizo? Like arctic cooling, TT or other good brands?

haha i also like to know what other fan lowyat sells..........so far i being looking for weeks already and limited choice of VIzo, evercool and CM.......others even shadow also cannot smell

Other brand got Thermaltake smart fan 12cm, coolermaster UV/ LED silent fan, evercool and those normally we can c i-cute, aerocool....

I strongly agree. Lowyat Plaza needs more choice for fans, like Yateloon, Nexus...even Silverstone! I gave up looking for these fans d....but SUPRISED..SURPRISED, I found 92mm Silverstone case fan in one of the computer shop in my hometown seremban...tempted to get those...

For the most part, icute fans are crap. Not very powerful, yet not exactly dead quiet.

For normal use, I-cute LED quite ok 1 if want compare with normal case fan. But quite alot problem for that led fan, sometime led burn out sometime the fan not work properly.

i saw a lot of silverstones at lowyat...also the cool looking evercool aluminum fans

which shop? must share...share...

Mypc have quite some stock on silverstone fans, evercool ALL it have quite some, as for aluminum fans 120mm i saw in fair only lar......... LYP i still could not find

how about the silenX 120mmx 25mm wif 14dB-20dB but produce at LEAST 64cfm although there put 72cfm ?

The good air flow depend on the route that u design . If ur component too close to each others , the decrease the the flow rate .

but the fan is damn expensive ma

Evercool at that ALL IT near clean stock already.... Hope they replace more stock for fan and other thing.

can anybdy help me...

wat type off 120mm fans u guys recommend..

Vizo,CM or sylverstone..

i dunno which one is good...

me noob with fans liao..

Thanks...