Are front intake fans WORTH IT on the NZXT S340?
**Constricting Airflow in the NZXT S340 Case: A Detailed Analysis**
As I took a closer look at my PC build, which features an i-5 7600 K CPU overclocked to 4.2 gigahertz, cooled by a Cryo Rig H7, and equipped with a GTX 1060 pilot card, I couldn't help but feel that something was off about the case's airflow design.
I decided to put my PC through some stress tests to see how it would perform under load. First, I used the Ida 60 for CPU stress testing, pushing the CPU to its limits. Then, I ran a GPU stress test using FurMark, which pushed the GPU to its maximum thermal load. The system was running for 15 minutes, and I took temperatures before and after each test.
Although my room temperature was around 19 degrees Celsius, with my air conditioning unit running at that temperature throughout the day, I'm aware that there's some margin of error in this reading. However, since I ran all tests consecutively, I hope there wasn't a huge variation in room temperature between them.
The next thing I needed to do was gather system component information for you. The PC was equipped with an i-5 7600 K CPU, overclocked at 4.2 gigahertz; the Cryo Rig H7 cooled it, and a GTX 1060 pilot card provided the graphics processing power.
**Test Results: A Mixed Bag**
Unfortunately, the test results were fairly similar to my previous attempt. The only difference was when I added a fan to the top slot, which shaved off two or three degrees from the CPU temperature. However, none of the configurations made any significant impact on the GPU temperature.
However, there was one notable exception: when I pulled the front panel off and installed fans in both slots, it made a huge difference in CPU temperature. In fact, the fans managed to bring the temperature down by as much as nine degrees!
This surprising finding highlights the issue with the NZXT S340's airflow design. With its solid front panel, there isn't enough room for air to circulate and feed the fans, making it difficult to achieve optimal airflow.
**A Conclusion: Not Worth the Extra Noise**
While adding a fan to the top slot did result in a slight temperature drop, I wouldn't recommend doing so unless you're willing to accept increased noise levels. In fact, I think it's not worth it for the marginal benefit it provides.
The issue with cases like the NZXT S340 is that they prioritize aesthetics over airflow. The solid front panel design may look great, but it restricts air circulation and makes it difficult to achieve optimal temperatures.
However, as an added bonus, my system has been running smoothly for almost a year now, with no issues during long gaming sessions or at high temperatures. While the case's temperature performance is not ideal, I've never had any problems that couldn't be resolved through other means.
**A Final Note**
That concludes our analysis of airflow in the NZXT S340 case. If you liked this video and found it informative, please like it and subscribe to my channel for more videos like this one. Until next time, bye!
WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhello and welcome my name's David and this is the channel where I do tech stuff now six months ago I made a video about the air flow in an NZXT s340 case and it's not been received very well because I wasn't hugely thorough with it and I just didn't do it properly but that was back when I had no professionalism I was starting the channel it was one of my first videos so I decided to tackle it again and do it properly this time with all of the concerted effort of my growing professionalism now the premise of that initial video is to see whether or not it was necessary to buy extra intake fans because while NZXT doesn't include any of them with the s340 and because it's a fairly budget case it's not hugely cheap but it's fairly budget it is a bit of a stretch sometimes to add more intake fans if they're not necessary so I put a fan in the front it made no difference and then took it away so the confusion in my video was that while don't buy intake fans because it doesn't really matter the reason I said this happened though was because the airflow was good enough in the front of the s340 that it doesn't make a difference adding more fans but this is obviously a terrible conclusion because if there was very good airflow in the front it would have meant that fans would have made so let's see how I decided to go about the tests with my newfound professionalism so the fans that I decided to use our fan Tech's 140 millimeter premium fans I genuinely think that that's what they're actually called because I can't find any more naming information on them and how I decided to configure them in the case was have one test with no fans in it another test with 140 millimeter fan in the bottom fan mount and then another test with it in the top fan mount and then another test with them in both fan mouths and then I decided to even be more thorough as thorough as humanly possible I did all of those tests again without the front panel on to see how much of a difference the front panel makes an actually constricting airflow into the case and for the three of you that's never seen in NZXT s340 before here's a quick glimpse of what the case looks like as far as how I decided to get the internal components toasty I used Ida 60 for stress test on the CPU and then I did fur mark on the GPU so pretty much a maximum thermal load for the system and then I ran that test set up for 15 minutes and then took a temperature then as far as ambient room temperature goes I don't actually have an accurate thermometer that I can test the room temperature with but I did run my air conditioning unit for the entire day before the testing at 19 degrees and I'm pretty sure that's the temperature that was at but there is some margin of error there although while I was running the tests as well the aircon was running at that temperature and I did all of the tests consecutively so hopefully there wasn't a huge variation in room temperature between the tests oh okay I'm almost finished with all the housekeeping I just have one more piece of information that you need and that's what system components did I use so the PC was running an i-5 7600 K that's been overclocked at 4.2 gigahertz it's a fairly mild overclock to be honest it's being cooled by a cryo rig h7 and then I have a GTX 1060 in there it's a pilot card which means it's not a blower style card so it dumps all of its heat straight into the case okay there we go let's see what the results of all of these tests actually were and unfortunately the test results are fairly similar to the first time I ran the tests the only time it made any difference in temperature is when you add the fan to the top slot then it shaves like two maybe three degrees off of the CPU temperature but none of the configurations made any difference to the GPU temperature but this story is completely different when you actually pull the front panel off because then the fans made a pretty big difference in temperature in fact we have both sorts occupied with fans it actually makes up to a nine degree difference in CPU temperature which is a pretty big deal so what that does is show that the reason that adding front fans doesn't matter for the NZXT s340 is because it's just too constricted in the front there isn't enough air to come in to feed the fans to be able to make any noticeable difference in temperature in the actual case and with that I think it's time for a conclusion and rather boringly it's fairly similar to what it was last time there's a little bit of a different spin on it because I have more information to base my conclusion on but yeah the point is that it makes a very small difference if you populate the top fan spot you're gonna save a couple of degrees on your CPU fan temperature but is that really worth the extra noise and expenditure even if you have a fan lying around I wouldn't necessarily recommend populating that slot with it because it's not gonna give you a huge amount of benefit for the noise that it's gonna generate and that kind of brings me to the issue of cases like the NZXT s340 with that solid front panel design yes it looks very nice but it's just too constrictive and airflow wise it's it's a bit of an issue and with something like the fractal design mesh if I see you can have a good looking front panel that is very breathable it doesn't have to be like closed off with zero airflow that being said though temperature isn't that much of an issue with this system I've been running it for about a year now almost and I've never had any issues while with during long sessions of gaming with temperature at so it's not that the temperatures in the case is terrible it's just that it's not as good as it can be and there isn't much room for improvement over the stock configuration anyway with that I think I'm already droning on for too long so thank you very much for watching this video if you liked it and you thought it was better than the previous one please do like the video and subscribe to the channel for more videos like this one and until next time bye byehello and welcome my name's David and this is the channel where I do tech stuff now six months ago I made a video about the air flow in an NZXT s340 case and it's not been received very well because I wasn't hugely thorough with it and I just didn't do it properly but that was back when I had no professionalism I was starting the channel it was one of my first videos so I decided to tackle it again and do it properly this time with all of the concerted effort of my growing professionalism now the premise of that initial video is to see whether or not it was necessary to buy extra intake fans because while NZXT doesn't include any of them with the s340 and because it's a fairly budget case it's not hugely cheap but it's fairly budget it is a bit of a stretch sometimes to add more intake fans if they're not necessary so I put a fan in the front it made no difference and then took it away so the confusion in my video was that while don't buy intake fans because it doesn't really matter the reason I said this happened though was because the airflow was good enough in the front of the s340 that it doesn't make a difference adding more fans but this is obviously a terrible conclusion because if there was very good airflow in the front it would have meant that fans would have made so let's see how I decided to go about the tests with my newfound professionalism so the fans that I decided to use our fan Tech's 140 millimeter premium fans I genuinely think that that's what they're actually called because I can't find any more naming information on them and how I decided to configure them in the case was have one test with no fans in it another test with 140 millimeter fan in the bottom fan mount and then another test with it in the top fan mount and then another test with them in both fan mouths and then I decided to even be more thorough as thorough as humanly possible I did all of those tests again without the front panel on to see how much of a difference the front panel makes an actually constricting airflow into the case and for the three of you that's never seen in NZXT s340 before here's a quick glimpse of what the case looks like as far as how I decided to get the internal components toasty I used Ida 60 for stress test on the CPU and then I did fur mark on the GPU so pretty much a maximum thermal load for the system and then I ran that test set up for 15 minutes and then took a temperature then as far as ambient room temperature goes I don't actually have an accurate thermometer that I can test the room temperature with but I did run my air conditioning unit for the entire day before the testing at 19 degrees and I'm pretty sure that's the temperature that was at but there is some margin of error there although while I was running the tests as well the aircon was running at that temperature and I did all of the tests consecutively so hopefully there wasn't a huge variation in room temperature between the tests oh okay I'm almost finished with all the housekeeping I just have one more piece of information that you need and that's what system components did I use so the PC was running an i-5 7600 K that's been overclocked at 4.2 gigahertz it's a fairly mild overclock to be honest it's being cooled by a cryo rig h7 and then I have a GTX 1060 in there it's a pilot card which means it's not a blower style card so it dumps all of its heat straight into the case okay there we go let's see what the results of all of these tests actually were and unfortunately the test results are fairly similar to the first time I ran the tests the only time it made any difference in temperature is when you add the fan to the top slot then it shaves like two maybe three degrees off of the CPU temperature but none of the configurations made any difference to the GPU temperature but this story is completely different when you actually pull the front panel off because then the fans made a pretty big difference in temperature in fact we have both sorts occupied with fans it actually makes up to a nine degree difference in CPU temperature which is a pretty big deal so what that does is show that the reason that adding front fans doesn't matter for the NZXT s340 is because it's just too constricted in the front there isn't enough air to come in to feed the fans to be able to make any noticeable difference in temperature in the actual case and with that I think it's time for a conclusion and rather boringly it's fairly similar to what it was last time there's a little bit of a different spin on it because I have more information to base my conclusion on but yeah the point is that it makes a very small difference if you populate the top fan spot you're gonna save a couple of degrees on your CPU fan temperature but is that really worth the extra noise and expenditure even if you have a fan lying around I wouldn't necessarily recommend populating that slot with it because it's not gonna give you a huge amount of benefit for the noise that it's gonna generate and that kind of brings me to the issue of cases like the NZXT s340 with that solid front panel design yes it looks very nice but it's just too constrictive and airflow wise it's it's a bit of an issue and with something like the fractal design mesh if I see you can have a good looking front panel that is very breathable it doesn't have to be like closed off with zero airflow that being said though temperature isn't that much of an issue with this system I've been running it for about a year now almost and I've never had any issues while with during long sessions of gaming with temperature at so it's not that the temperatures in the case is terrible it's just that it's not as good as it can be and there isn't much room for improvement over the stock configuration anyway with that I think I'm already droning on for too long so thank you very much for watching this video if you liked it and you thought it was better than the previous one please do like the video and subscribe to the channel for more videos like this one and until next time bye bye