Buzz
Most modern PCs and cases come with one or a few cooling fans included. While this suffices for mid-range and lower-end setups, you might want your rig to run cooler, thereby extending its lifespan and avoiding performance drops due to overheating components. In this article, we'll guide you on how to install fans to achieve maximum cooling efficiency for your PC build.
When Do You Need to Add Extra Cooling Fans?
Excluding cooling fans on the power supply, graphics card, and CPU, typically, a PC case comes with 1-2 fans. This is adequate for most users. However, you should consider adding extra fans in the following situations:
- A very powerful PC setup generating a lot of heat. Adding fans will enhance cooling capabilities and keep components cooler.
- Placement in a particularly hot environment. This is a cheaper solution than installing an air conditioner for the whole room.
- When you want to overclock components and need better cooling solutions, but aren't ready to invest in water cooling.
- Replacing old fans. Not all case fans bundled with PC cases are of high quality, and older fans may become excessively noisy.
- Enhancing the aesthetics of your case. When there's a desire for this, gamers often install LED fans to elevate the visual appeal of their PC setup.
Cooling fans not only provide cooling but also add to aesthetics.Key Metrics of PC Cooling Fans
PC cooling fans come in various sizes, typically measured by their diameter. The most common are 120mm fans, but you can also find many other sizes like 40mm, 80mm, 92mm, 140mm, 200mm, etc.
The most important metric for cooling fans is CFM, or 'cubic feet per minute,' indicating how much air the fan can move in a minute. The higher this value, the stronger the fan, and it can be considered to have higher cooling efficiency.
There are various sizes of cooling fans available.Additionally, you may come across terms like exhaust fans or intake fans when researching how to install cooling fans for your PC. All fans can be either exhaust or intake, so we don't need to worry about this when purchasing fans, just ensure they are installed correctly in the case. This will be explained further by Mytour in the subsequent section.
Foundational Principles for Installing Cooling Fans in Your PC Case
The first thing you need to know when considering adding extra cooling fans to your PC is to check which fan sizes your case supports. Nowadays, premium cases are designed with numerous fan mounting positions, each accommodating various sizes. These positions may also come equipped with or without dust filters, so if a fan mounting position lacks a dust filter, it's advisable to purchase a separate filter for usage.
Dust filter panels can be incredibly helpful.Next, let's circle back to the 'exhaust, intake fans' mentioned earlier by Mytour. This is actually quite straightforward: if you use a fan to draw cool air from the outside into the case, that's an intake fan. Conversely, if the fan expels hot air from inside the case outwards, that's an exhaust fan. Simply changing the fan's direction will alter its function.
How do you determine the intake and exhaust directions of fans? Some manufacturers imprint arrows on the fan body, indicating the airflow direction. If you can't find these arrows, remember a simple rule: if there's a sticker attached, that's the exhaust direction. If no sticker is present, observe the fan blades: the concave side of the blades indicates the air exit.
The two arrows indicate the fan's rotation direction and the airflow direction.Typically, intake fans are installed at the bottom, side, and front of the PC case, while exhaust fans are mounted at the back and top of the case. The reason for this is that hot air rises, while cold air remains at the bottom. If you install an exhaust fan at the bottom, the cold air inside the case will be expelled, while the hot air escapes more slowly from the top.
Positive Pressure or Negative Pressure?
Next, you need to decide which cooling approach to take: positive pressure or negative pressure. These two methods have their own advantages and disadvantages, sparking considerable debate within the PC community. Mytour will provide detailed introductions to both for you to choose from.
'Positive pressure' is when the air pressure inside the case is higher than outside,
created when the amount of air brought in by the intake fan exceeds the amount of air pushed out by the exhaust fan.- Advantages: Reduces the amount of dust drawn into the case, keeping components clean.
- Disadvantages: Due to fewer exhaust fans expelling hot air, the cooling efficiency is lower.
Positive pressure cooling occurs when there are more intake fans than exhaust fans.'Negative pressure' is when the air pressure inside the case is lower than outside,
which happens if the amount of air brought in by the intake fan is lower than the amount of air pushed out by the exhaust fan.- Advantages: Draws in more cold air from the outside, not only through the fans but also through the gaps in the case, thus providing better cooling.
- Disadvantages: Air infiltrating the case without passing through the cooling fan filters will carry more dust.
Negative pressure cooling occurs when there are more exhaust fans than intake fans.Depending on specific conditions, you may choose one of the above cooling methods. However, there's also another method called balanced pressure, where the number of intake and exhaust fans are equal, evenly distributing the pros and cons of the two previous solutions.
Conclusion
With the information shared by Mytour in this article, you should now have a better understanding of how to use cooling fans for your PC. In the next article, we will delve further into installing fans inside the case and adjusting fan speeds. Stay tuned!
