January 29, 20188 yr I recently got a CM HAF 912 case. It has 2 x 120mm in front and 1 120mm rear exhaust. It also has room on top for 2 x 120mm fans (or 1 x 200mm fan) I don't have any graphic cards or fancy coolers. I put one 120mm on the back.. but I'm wondering what to do about the top.. its open mesh. Should I leave it as is? seal the top? remove the rear fan and replace it with 2 x 120mm on the top? whats the best for airflow for hard drives? noise is not an issue, the box is shoved into a back room.
January 29, 20188 yr Generally you want air to come in from front / bottom. And you want air to exit from rear / top. You also want more air coming in than going out (reduces dust inside the case). For drive cooling, you want fans specifically blowing on or pulling air past each drive. The bottom of the drives tend to be the hottest surface. The best drive cooling is from using hard disk cages with integrated fan. Best I know is the CSE-M35T-1B. Looks like your case could accommodate one. They pull air in from the case front over the drives, and then the air goes into the case. You need exhaust fans inside the case to pull some of the air out and make room for new air coming in. If you don't have a CPU that runs hot and are not running a graphics card that runs hot, case cooling is not as important as the airflow over your drives.
January 29, 20188 yr 7 minutes ago, SSD said: You also want more air coming in than going out (reduces dust inside the case). I have never managed this feat - after a while the cases tends to blow up and explode. But overpressure in the case is definitely the way to go, because that means the only air getting in will do it through the input fans - and this makes it possible to use dust filters at the input fans to catch the dust.
January 29, 20188 yr 29 minutes ago, pwm said: this makes it possible to use dust filters at the input fans to catch the dust. Which clog up and reduce the flow so the internal pressure reduces again. Endless cycle. Computers make the most effective air filters I've ever seen. A Dexter style clean room is probably the only way to keep dust out of a machine.
January 29, 20188 yr 1 minute ago, jonathanm said: Which clog up and reduce the flow so the internal pressure reduces again. Endless cycle. The good thing is that a supervised machine can tell you every x months it's time to clear the dust filter.
January 29, 20188 yr 2 hours ago, pwm said: I have never managed this feat - after a while the cases tends to blow up and explode. But overpressure in the case is definitely the way to go, because that means the only air getting in will do it through the input fans - and this makes it possible to use dust filters at the input fans to catch the dust. Everyone's a comedian. Obviously if you have more air blowing in than blowing out, the air pushes out somewhere. Haven't seen too many cases blow up like a balloon!
January 29, 20188 yr Author Well, I have two pulling air in near the bottom for the drive bays and one pushing air out the back. so I assume this would result in positive air flow, other then mesh.. no real filters on the box so I guess an air blast every few months. I put a kleenex on the case top grill.. it doesn't move so I'm guess a little bit of suction from the rear fan. I can see that being a dust inhaler.. I will put some cardboard on the top and live with the rear only fan. Drive temps are good.
January 30, 20188 yr I have a Cooler Master 590 and I have: (3) fans in front with Filters which I clean out weekly. (1) 120 Fan on my Processor (1) 120 Fan top rear From the inside I covered my Top Radiator fan holes simply with paper to limit air flow out/in From the inside I covered the side Fan hole with same sheet of paper to limit air flow out/in My Fans in front are all 7volt modded so they tend to run just a tad slower to reduce noise and the pressure seems just fine
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