How Many Case Fans Do You REALLY Need

The Effectiveness of Fan Placement: A Comprehensive Study

In this experiment, we explored the impact of fan placement on the performance of a computer system. The goal was to identify the most effective configuration for cooling the CPU and GPU, with minimal use of additional fans. To achieve this, we started by analyzing the existing airflow in the 500D case, which features six fans running simultaneously. Our initial observations revealed that the current setup is quiet, but not ideal for temperature control.

Upon closer inspection, we noticed that the fan on our light was louder than the system as a whole, indicating that some fans were doing more work than others to achieve optimal temperatures. To address this, we began by relocating the top fan to the front, positioning it both above and below the CPU and GPU. This simple adjustment resulted in a three-degree drop in CPU temperature and only one-degree decrease in GPU temperature. We observed this improvement without adding any additional fans; we were simply reconfiguring what was already present.

However, when we swapped the top fan to exhaust mode, our expectations were met with an unexpected outcome: both the CPU and GPU temperatures increased. This suggested that having no intake of air inside the case may not be ideal, and excessive exhaust alone might not be sufficient to cool whatever is being accumulated within the enclosure. To mitigate this issue, we then decided to flip the top fan back to intake mode, which led to a CPU temperature drop of three degrees, returning it to its default control point.

We continued our experiments by rotating the top fans, with some configurations resulting in higher temperatures than others. This highlighted the importance of proper airflow management within the case. By analyzing these results, we began to develop a deeper understanding of how different fan placements affected CPU and GPU temperatures.

A crucial finding emerged when we populated all 140mm fans on the front to create an optimal intake configuration. With this setup, both the CPU and GPU temperatures reached a 74-degree equilibrium, closely approximating our control point's temperature range. This improvement was significant, demonstrating that the right balance of airflow can greatly impact cooling performance.

One final twist arose when we repositioned the top fans as exhaust, creating competing airflow streams between the lateral CPU cooler and vertical top exhaust. Under these conditions, temperatures soared, indicating the need for careful consideration when designing airflow configurations. This experience reinforced the idea that each component's optimal operating temperature is crucial to maintaining overall system health.

In conclusion, our experiment revealed several key takeaways about fan placement and its impact on computer cooling performance. Firstly, relocating the top fan to the front proved effective in improving both CPU and GPU temperatures. Secondly, adequate intake was found to be more important than exhaust when it came to maintaining optimal temperatures for the GPU. Finally, our results underscored the importance of carefully managing airflow within a case to prevent overheating.

These findings offer valuable insights for anyone seeking to optimize their system's cooling performance without resorting to expensive upgrades or additional fans. By understanding how different fan placements affect temperature control, enthusiasts can take steps to improve their own systems' efficiency and longevity. As we move forward with future experiments involving other airflow mesh front enclosures, such as the Phanteks P500A and Lian Li's LANcool 2, it will be fascinating to explore these configurations further and uncover new insights into the delicate dance of airflow within a case.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enI finally have an AC unit so temperaturecontrolled environment invites some casetemperature testing one might sayquarantine hair yellow good people I'mDimitri and what we have here on thereview table is the be quiet pure base500DX we saw this case CES and I gottasay what they've done here is bothcompetitive affordable and I'm hopingmore companies follow and what be quietis doing here the 500DX is basically anairflow iteration of the pure base 500you can check out that review over herebut the guts remain identical with a fewexterior changes that make this a verycompetitive and an airflow excellentenclosure so now that we find ourselvesin a temperature controlled environmentI want to do some airflow testing bothmove some fans around add some fans andsee what is the most optimal fanconfiguration for an airflow focusedenclosure like the 500DX with myairflow system configuration and thereason why I think this testing willapply not only to the 500DX but manyother cases in 2020 is because manybrands are choosing the whole front meshpanel and including quality fans so the500DX for example comes with 3 140millimeter pure wings 2 fans which spinat 900 rpm don't worry about the lowerrpm because the larger fan does movemore air and having non-restrictivefront intake it gives us fantasticintake and also the 900 rpm gives usthat whole peak quiet operation whichthey're obviously known for so in thisvideo let's test out 7 different fanconfiguration options all using 140 morefans just so that we can utilize what isalready included with the 500DX and seewhat fan configuration is best rightafter this the X299 CLX from asrock isthe best place to house your new core Xprocessor it features aluminum alloyheat sinks with dr. Mazda 13 phase powerdesign for the best overclockingexperience it also has Wi-Fi 6 support3m 2 slots along with reinforced PCIbrackets learn more down below alrightso before we get into the air flowtesting let's quickly recap what is newon the 500DX sosee the front panel mesh is new we havequite high density of the holes in boththe left and right side with that a RGBstrip in the middle and I do find theirillumination implementation inside thisenclosure quite tasteful plus we have aninternal RGB strip inside the case thatis not visible when the side panel is onand it does help to illuminate whateveris in the top section on the case and itdoes actually spill to the bottom allthe way through the glass creating thislike pretty cool line at the bottom Ialso really like how it illuminates thepower supply shroud corner so it helpsto separate the internal sections Ithink it looks quite nice obviously youcan change the color and modes of this aRGB strip with a button up top and herewe also find a type c connection only asingle USB 3 port and i really do notlike this pattern and this directionthat many case brands are now doing nowthe good thing about the front panel isthat we have pegs instead of wires thatconnect the main panel to the contactson the chassis but it's really difficultto remove this thing and one more thingwhen reinstalling the panel make sureall three pegs are making contact withthat frame because otherwise this frontillumination will not light up so behindthis front mesh we have a dust filterspanning the entire portion of thatintake and we also have a bottom dustfilter removal from the front withoutthe need to remove the front panel firstnice the glass panel is attached withthe regular thumb screws and the rubberbits on the frame stay with the framethey're glued there and they don't fallout when you remove the glass panelwhich was the case with a dark baseseries as for the top panel we no longerhave the closed off section that we onlyhave the mesh magnetic plate and behindit you can install dual 140 s or 120 sand their respective radiators as forairflow at the front you can do triple120 s or dual 140 mm fans with theirrespective radiators too as for theinterior nothing has changed here ATXmotherboards support a perforated powersupply shroud doula says these besidethe motherboard and this nice littlecable coveredheids whatever is exiting from the backand the right side panel has some noisedampening form applied to it that helpsto compress some of the cables and justreally dampen whatever is exitingthrough the right side of the case Idon't really have anything else new tosay about the 500DX so now let's beginthe airflow experimentI kept the room at 22 degrees Celsius Ihave this thermal meter with dualtemperature probes one that kept on theoutside of the case to measure ambienttemperature just to make sure that mycontrol point was on point and correctand fluctuations for that temperatureprobe was only 0.1 degrees Celsius I'mvery happy about thatand the second probe I kept right abovethe VRMs on the motherboard just to seeif a hot pocket would accumulate thereand if you add more fans or remove fanswhat will happen to that spaceso first let's establish a referencepoint with our default fan configurationout of stock cooling here we have 74degrees Celsius and 78 degrees Celsiuson GPU and CPU respectively these arepretty decent temps and that front panelis not a massive bottleneck for air flowso we only drop one degree Celsius onthe GPU and two degrees on the CPU butthat front mesh removed now removing thedust filter as well so we have totallyunrestricted intake we do drop slightlyon the CPU but the GPU remains the same73 and 73 and the really interestingthing about the noise profile with adust filter and the mesh removed is theydo dampen this sound a little bit butit's basically like it sounds like anopen and closure already which is whyhaving lower rpm fans helps a lotthis machine behind me has six fansrunning and it's very quiet actually thefan on my light is louderI can hear it more than the system withsix fans in it so let's see if we canmove some fans around and get bettertemperatures so the first thing I wantedto do is move the top fan to the frontso both the CPU and GPU have that nicefresh column of air and as expected thatfresh column of air does actually dropour CPU temperature by three degrees andonly one degree on the GPU and this iswithout adding any fans we're justreconfiguring what is already here am itesting previously with cases like the H510 from NZXT having dual exhaustsone at the top one in the rear doesactually help with CPU temperature butthat case has a pretty restrictive frontintake whereas here it seems like thatbenefit of having fresh air intake andhaving like plenty of exhaust at theback is enough to drop our CPUtemperature by a little bit and Iwelcome that but what if we move thosefront fans to top exhaust and thisactually surprised me quite a bitbecause our CPU temperature actuallyincreased to 79 degrees Celsius that ishigher than our default control pointand the GPU temperature also increasedby a degree so it seems like having nointake inside the 500DX is not a goodthing and having everything beingexhausted isn't enough to cool whateveris being accumulated inside theenclosure I then decided to flip the topfans to intake air and a CPU temperaturedid drop to 78 degrees so back to ourcontrol point but the GPU actuallyincreased in temperature I'm guessingthere's just nothing to remove whateverair is being accumulated at the bottomand finally let's populate all 140 ml offans thoughts in here having to thefront to the top and one for exhaust soI kept the top fans as intake and havingtwo front fans delivering air so there'sa lot of intake happening here and boththe CPU and GPU temperature has reacheda 74 degree equilibrium giving us thecoolest CPU temperature 74 degreesCelsius but still not too far off fromthe 78 degree of our control point andfinally I rotated the top fans asexhaust and weirdly the CPU temperaturedid go back to 70 80 degrees Celsiuswhile giving us a nice cool GPU stayingat 73 now what about that internaltemperature probe above the V RMS and asyou can see this space is onlyadequately cooled when there's intake ofair either from the top or the frontwith the good balance of temperatureswhen we reposition the top fan to thefront but what's really interesting herewith the top fan set to exhaust thisarea becomes really toasty because ofcompeting airflow streams between thelateral CPU cooler and vertical topexhaust so something that should bemitigated if you rotate the CPU coolerand it seems like for this type ofTower if we don't have enough frontintake GPU temperature suffer and if wedon't have enough top exhaust GPUtemperatures suffer again and the mostinteresting thing here is that if wehave all fans populated the bestconfiguration is have both top intakeand front intake as well gives us betterCPU and GPU temperatures at 74 degreesCelsius but the second next bestconfiguration is to simply move that topfan to the front intake which is prettysurprising but then maybe we'reencountering the law of diminishingreturns of like adding too much air flowwhere the components are adequatelycooled already out of the box for myconcluding remarks this whole thing hasbeen quite interesting being in atemperature controlled environment andplaying with some variables to see whathappens with our GPU and CPUtemperatures and the most impressivething is you don't need to buy any morefans simply relocating the top fan tothe front will improve both GPU and CPUtemps and if you really want to go allout and having the best temperaturesinside this enclosure then in my testinghaving intake at the top is better thanexhaust for the CPU and as long as youhave adequate intake for the front GPUtemperatures will not suffer so I hopeyou guys enjoyed this one I'm reallyinterested to test this type of airflowconfiguration with many other airflowmesh front enclosures coming up in thefuture like the Phanteks P500a comingout something from Lian Li with the LANcool 2so yeah let me know in the commentswhat do you think of this experiment andpotentially move your friends around tosee what gives you better temperaturesnow Dimitri thanks much for watchingcheck out this how the relevant contentsubscribe for more I'll talk to you innext videoyou\n"