How many fans do i need?

[IceFrogg]

Hey,
I was wondering how many fans i need to keep my machine cool. i so far have 2 80mm fans room 4 2 more. Obviously the mtb and graphics card have fans so yeah. shud i spend $40AUD 4 2 more fans? My build fits under a 450w powersupply whether that has relevance to how hot my machine gets, i dunno, it hasnt arrived yet, but my p4 6600gt on its last year had an normal temp* according to windows. There was alot of dust in the fans though so...
Should i get 2 more fans for my new build?

Thanks

[btcomm]

Well, others could speak more knowlegibly but I have hardly any fans, the one on my CPU the one on my vid card and the one in my power supply. I keep my case opened and the temps are pretty good, if you are going to try to super overclock then perhaps you should get a couple more fans though.

[IceFrogg]

I keep my case opened

Don't it get dusty that way? or just the side off a bit?

Anyways ill consider that. Thanks

[mjordan]

I'm wondering what this has to do with Unreal Tournament III.
Anyway, the number of fans is not fixed. All depends by the final layout and the case you have chosen.
The number of fans is not important. What matters the most is the final air flow.

[bclagge]

Having the side off the machine may keep it cooler. Although it can allow heat to build up. Having a closed case with case fans moves the hot air away from the components and draws cool air in. And that way my internal components are in no danger of ever being touched by something they shouldn't.

How many case fans do you need? You need a fan(s) on the back of the case next to your CPU. The CPU produces tremendous heat, so there's usually a case fan here to draw heat straight out. Then you need a fan in front of the case, near the bottom. This fan draws cool air in, sometimes over the hard drives as it comes. A second fan there would be fine too, especially if you have two at the rear (not counting power supply). A proper gaming case will also have a vent over the video cards and either a vent or another fan on the side of the case over the CPU drawing cool air in.

Some tips: Make sure your fans are facing the right direction. I helped a friend build a computer recently, which promptly crashed. The fan over the CPU was facing the wrong direction (not my fault ). So there were too many fans blowing out, causing the PSU not the get any air and overheat. On that note, make sure that you balance the number of fans blowing out vs fans pulling in. Counting the PSU now, I recommend you have 1 more fan blowing out heat. That way it'll draw some air in through your GPU vent.

[Giggity]

It really depends on how loyal your fans are. I mean obviously you need about 30 fans blowing air from their mouthes to keep your case cool. If you can use some fan's saliva for liquid cooling then it's all the better really.

[Helfdane]

A better CPU fan would be a far more effective way to spend the money. I had the Intel provided CPU fan for a few weeks on my rig and saw an idle temperature of 30C. I put a $24 (USD) CPU fan on with the same case fan and now the temperature is 15C idle. The CPU used to overheat often before and hasn't been above 40C since I replaced the fan, and I've even put on a quieter, lower throughput case fan since then and the CPU temperature hasn't changed.

I would suggest not to add any case fans but rather to replace the cooler fans on the CPU or gc or whatever is having the heating problem.

My system is a Duo6750 (2.66 GHz), OC'd to 3.1 GHz, by the way.

[AlienMind]

I would say 300 and a few groupies, you can get away with most things then.