Super newb about fans

[Valkerye]

I was just wondering how you determine if a fan is set to push or pull air in or out of case?

[MrSlacker]

turn it on, and feel it. lol thats how i do it.

[Malatory]

On the side of the near one of the corners there are arrows point which way the blades spin and which way the air is going to move.

typical setup is for a case. Push air out of the back of the case and suck air in from the front.

You also want more air being pushed out than sucked in.

[Valkerye]

Thanks both.
Mr Slacker, I figured that part, but was wondering if there was a way to tell before I installed them not that it matters

[crazybillybob]

Big tip for New Air cooling guys. More isn't always better. You want things balanced, I.E. you want as much air coming into the case as going out.
That gets hard when you've got a 120mm in the side 3 80mm in the back and 2 92mm in the front. Remember all fans are rated in CFM (cubic feet per minute).
Just keep a running total if your 120mm is 45cfm (in) and your 80mm are 20cfm ea (that’s 45+20+20=85CFM) then each of your 92mm must = 42.5CFM (or add another so the total =85CFM) (NOTE: All these values came right out of my butt, I don't know if their even close to real, I'm just showing you proof of concept) as always close is good enough as long as your off by just a few CFM your ok. The other thing you want to think about is stale air (dead zones, hotspots, etc) basically it's areas in your case that for some reason or another the air doesn't flow there. To help this tidy up those rats nests of wires. If you've got a nice window in your case and a fog/smoke machine turn the pc on and let it suck in some smoke (then turn off the smoker) watch where the smoke hangs for a long time (stale air!). If you don't have a smoker some of the things you can look for are:
set a fan to blow across the main part of the mobo, this will bring cooler air to the north/south bridges, the video card, other cards and ram. If you have a taller case remember heat rises, so putting in a nice blow hole fan(on top of case) can help (In my case the temps go up 10degrees when I turn the blow hole fan off while gaming). If your case has a fan mount in front of the HDD area, you may want to use it (high speed HDD get toasty when used allot, especially when there crammed together tightly).

As with all mods a little thought before start goes a long way in making it, Safe, Fun and Useful...Oh and Kick Butt!

Crazybillybob

[sXenoG]

Wow thats some very useful info to me as im a few months of from water cooling. I need to get my case cool. Especially the gpu on my first card. Im running sli and the top card has almost no way to get rid of the heat. right now im being very bad about my cooling cuz im just too cheap. Currently only have my cpu fan chipset fan and 2 gpu fans no case fans wat so ever I do however have my die totally open and since i hae the new .o9nm venice core my cpu hasnt hit above 40c other then when gaming then its gone p to 42 and i feel this is pretty dang decent for a stock HSF.

But in a week or two im planning to seal my case so thanks for the info ill be using it when i buy my fans and set them up

[Zeus]

hey crazyso&so does the smoke machine not leave behind any residue or anything?

[Valkerye]

Thanks for the info BillyBob, much appreciated.

[crazybillybob]

hey crazyso&so does the smoke machine not leave behind any residue or anything?

Depends on what kind it is. If they do it is very little (the goal is a light fog so you can see the air move, not Pea soap shroud of death type thing).

If your worried about residue here it a test, turn the fog cannon on , run your hand trough it (about 1/2-3/4 out in the cloud stream (I don't know the technical word)) rub your fingers together....Feel anything? Still worried, do the same with a small mirror (make sure it's room temp!) can you see any residue on the mirror?

Hope that help clear the smoke up!

Crazybillybob


Dry Ice in water would work for this too, and shouldn't leave a residue (it's not really smoke it's c02 gas)

[Crimson Sky]

the "fog juice" in most fog machines is non conductive. The mini smoke generator I'm using for Doom3 is for model railroad use, and the uncovered circuit board in the generator has been fairly soaked in the fog oil since it was first turned on--no problems.

as you can imagine, the fog juice used for theatrical productions is made as safe as possible--most of it is vegetable based, not petroleum.

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