Help with fan placement in Thermaltake V3

[bigredmachine]

As I posted in the general hardware thread, I am building a computer and need some help deciding where to place the case fans. The case is a Thermaltake V3, it has a bottom mounted PSU, 2 top fan spaces, 1 bottom fan space, 1 front fan space, and one upper-rear fan space. All are 120mm. The PC isn't going to be doing anything that should make it real hot but I want to make sure its well cooled. I was thinking of just putting a front and rear, but will the spaces in the top and bottom cause circulation issues without fans installed there? I'm building a new pc because my current notebook is failing because the graphics card overheats quickly..so I'm a little paranoid about keeping things cool. :suspiciou

 

[red1776]

Fans are comparatively cheap, and I err on the side of more airflow is better so i would say fill all of the available fan spaces, or put one more exhausting air than pulling it in for a negative airflow. Its a bit more dusty, but gets more air through the system.

 

[captaincranky]

PARANOIA......(o)__(o).....(o)__(o)....

Do you feel like you're being watched...??? :suspiciou

Anyway, your case comes with the rear fan...

I always install a front if there's a space.

It's probably worthwhile to install both top fans, as these can be set to low, to preclude noise, while still venting a fair amount of air.

Then it gets a bit dicey listening to me about the rest of it. I'm not a gamer, or a 125 watt TDP CPU person.

That said, I don't bother with side fans. Methinks you can disrupt cooling as much as benefit it, if the levels of the side fan is not set correctly.

You just hit on a pitfall typical with buying an inexpensive case. (I'm not judging mind you, I do it all the time). An Antec 900 comes with 4 fans, ($90,00 on sale), whereas an Antec 300 comes with , I think one, and fans cost 5 to 15 dollars each. You can walk in Microcenter and either find Cooler Master fans on sale sometimes, (6 bucks maybe), or buy their generic fans, but neither of these choices is adjustable, running at full speed all the time. Now, entering from the wings is Mr. controller panel, @30 bucks or so.

 

[bigredmachine]

Thanks Captain..I've used speedfan in the past to regulate fan speeds..is this not compatible with all fans?

 

[captaincranky]

Well, Speedfan is only going to regulate fans that are directly plugged into the board. With as many fans as you're going to have to have plugged in via Molex,. a controller will be necessary. At most the board will have four fan taps, and one of those is, (specifically, and likely PWM), for the CPU. All of my Matx boards have only 2 or 3.

I always err on the side of caution, and never try to gang fans off the motherboard tap. Others may say this is OK. Were you to parallel 3 fans off one tap, they wouldn't be individually controllable.