Side vent Q.

[fvalls]

The front fans suck air in, while the rear fan sucks air out. What about the side vents? Right now I have both side vents on the left side sucking air in. I noticed that all the logical vents that suck air in have a filter for the dust so I am thinking of changing the lower fan to start sucking air out. Is that what that vent is suppose to do? I am talking about the vent underneath the air duct on the left side. Also, I added a fan to the cpu air duct to help suck air in. Is this right?
What do you guys think about the exhaust blower on the pci slot? Does it help the gpu temp? do you have it above or bellow the card?
I also have a vent for a 80mm fan on the right side of the case by the hard drives. Should these be sucking air out?

Thank you for your help!

[webstaa]

i think the rule my friends and i use in building is 1.5:1

this means that there should be 3 intake fans for every 2 exhaust fans, in order to avoid stress on the exhaust fans

this usually keeps the cases several degrees cooler than equal intake and exhaust in the cases i have used:

Antec 900
Raidmax Sagitta 2
and a couple of no-name cases
(including the one i use myself)

[Sabrewings]

Excessive intake fans are good for keeping dust out of the system by creating a slightly positive case pressure. That way all the little holes and cracks have air moving out, and the only air coming is coming through the filtered intakes (if you have filters, lol).

For the side fans, I usually set them to intake. That way fresh air is blown right onto the motherboard and CPU area.

[fvalls]

Thank you guys. I am thinking that that what I am going to do is put a filter on the side fan and make it an intake. This leaves me with 2 intakes ( plus cpu intake ) and 1 out. Once I make a hole in the top of my case and put a 120mm I will add another 120mm intake on the 5.25 bays.
My case was nice and cool until I put it on the pc stand underneath my table. My temperature went up by 10 degrees C.! Hopefully this will help otherwise I might just take away the shelf and just put it on the floor or something.

Again, thank you for the input.

[thomas_w_bowman]

...case was nice and cool until I put it on the pc stand underneath my table

Is that pc stand open in the back ? Is it close to a wall ?

My wife got an enclosure to hide my 'ugly' stereo Amp, but it was very 'tight' and not open on the back - so I cut a hole in the back of the shelves and installed a 120v 5" muffin fan to run whenever the pre-amp is on.

You may have a similar issue, it may be more effective to ventilate the pc stand enclosure (I'd use an exaust fan), otherwise you may be intaking warm air that was recently exaust...

[fvalls]

thats my problem. The back is practicaly closed. There is a lilttle opening in the top for the wires to go through but it doesnt seem to be enough vent for the computer. Besides adding the top exhaust fan I was considering adding atleast one fan to the back of the shelf to let the air out. The air around the case does get warm and thats the air being sucked in my the CPU! I hope that a 120mm in the back will be enough if not I could add one to the side of the table.

Thanks for bringing that up.

[thomas_w_bowman]

It won't take much of a fan to exaust the hot air - my small fan is cooling a 300w/ch Surround amp (which I like to run at about 50%, perhaps 30-45 w since poweroutput is Log [so 5 of 10 on volume control is about 10%]).

Suggest exausting, because intake may cause turbulance that may not clear out all of the heat as well.