I just bought a CoolerMaster case for my quad build. It has by default a front and left side intake fan with a rear outflow all @ 120mm. I can add another 120mm fan on the left side, an 80mm on the right, two 120mm on the top and one 120mm on the bottom. As I'm going to be pushing the CPU to the max with folding, what would be the best config for the top and bottom fans? In or out? Thanks all.

Oh, I have the stock Intel Q6600 HSF which seems to performing well enough with 3 cores maxed out at 55C and a 7600GT soon to be an 8800GT or better. The front intake also blows over the hard drives, three of them. Oh, the temps are with the side open.

I have my Lian-Li case setup with only the front fan drawing air in and the rest blowing out, that is the side, back and the two fans on the power supply all blowing air out, and the one front fan drawing the air in.

By the way that is with my case closed up, and folding at home running, and my temps stay around 40 C

yeshuas wrote:

I have my Lian-Li case setup with only the front fan drawing air in and the rest blowing out, that is the side, back and the two fans on the power supply all blowing air out, and the one front fan drawing the air in.

Hmm, OK, I just noticed you have 2 vid cards plus 2GB more RAM than I do. My PSU only has one 120 blowing out. If you're happy with your setup then I'll follow that. I think I'll leave the bottom opening alone except to put a furnace filter over the grate and one over the front intake if I can. If you're happy like that then I'm sure I'll be too.

Anyways, I just love the way the CPU handles things, when I had one folding client running, it was spread over 2 cores mainly and now with three clients going, they still don't pin the cores as opposed to my AMD X2, I'll see what happens when I load up the fourth core and hopefully it'll stay whisper quiet. I just love it!

EDIT: 40C and with all cores folding? Hmm.

BTW, the stock Intel cooler is the biggest noise maker with rythmic ticking noise as if the blades were rubbing on something but it's not loud enough to bother me. I'll stop gushing now.

sorry for the confusion, I just have one folding client running

yeshuas wrote:

sorry for the confusion, I just have one folding client running

Ahh OK, with one client I was at 43C or so. No load was 38C.

The fan(s) on the top I'd have going out and the bottom I would have air intake. If you setup the fans so that more are blowing out than in (or the other way around) it could actually decrease the potential cooling due to a lack of air flow. With to many fans blowing air out, they won't move as much air as possible due to a lack of air going into the case. It could cause the fan(s) blow air in to run faster than it was designed to as well, causing problems. Ideally, you should setup the fans so that approx. the same number are pulling air into the case as are blowing air out. If you have an odd number of fans, I'd probably have it setup so the odd one was taking air out of the case.

imnuts wrote:

Ideally, you should setup the fans so that approx. the same number are pulling air into the case as are blowing air out. If you have an odd number of fans, I'd probably have it setup so the odd one was taking air out of the case.

This makes complete sense after thinking through everything. So with 3 fans to intake and 3 for outflow plus the PSU blowing out, I should be fine. Also, I'll wrap up the extra PSU cabling and put it in the 5 1/4" bay, plenty of room in there.

I have all 4 cores pinned with folding ATM and with the side open and it's at 54C, I'll see what happens when I button this case up tomorrow. Oh, ambient temp is around 68F. Thanks.

Hmmm

I had a post on this last night, I must not have press submit.

You need the same CFM going in as going out from the fans. Most fans are rated by CFM.

That is one reason I buy th emid ragne Lian cases, they have either 2 80mm fans or 1 120 mm fan in the front, 1 each 80 mm in the top, and 1 each 120mm in the back. Everything seem to be balanced fine, I can hold my hand over the top fan and it blows out cool air.

NT50 wrote:

Hmmm I had a post on this last night, I must not have press submit. You need the same CFM going in as going out from the fans. Most fans are rated by CFM. That is one reason I buy th emid ragne Lian cases, they have either 2 80mm fans or 1 120 mm fan in the front, 1 each 80 mm in the top, and 1 each 120mm in the back. Everything seem to be balanced fine, I can hold my hand over the top fan and it blows out cool air.

Ya know, I think I'll leave it as it is for now as summer heat is over. It's two intake 120's @ 43 CFM, with the rear 120 fan controlled by the P5Q Pro mobo and the PSU with am 80mm with it's own internal temp sensor to control fan speed. If things go bad then I'll add one outflow on the top. Thanks.