Case Fans - What is good enough?

[twobit94]

I am putting together a system with a MSI K7T266-Pro RU and
AMD Duron 1200. (Unknown video card at this time). My AOpen case has room for two 60mm fans in the back. Should I put two 60mm fans or is one enough? If one is enough what should the airflow rate be on the fan? Finally, is there a lot of difference in fans or is one as good as another? Thanks for the input.

 

[paparazi]

As long as you have a reasonable quality heatsink and fan on the processor and you don't intend to overclock there should be no need for extra case fans on a Duron 1.2.
If you feel the need anyway and cooler as they say is better, put one in the back top exhausting and one in the front drawing in cool air, just standard 80mm case fans will be fine yes they do come in all sorts of CFM ratings (the amount of air the fan moves) but high performance fans are noisey and expensive and in your case definate overkill. Martin Replying helps further our knowledge, without comment leaves us wondering.

 

[CitrixEngineer]

The main point of installing case fans is to improve airflow. I put up a very basic FAQ on How to make a PC run cooler, which includes a link to a site which describes airflow in very scientific terms.

Basically, as Paparazi says, a fan at the front, near the bottom serving as an intake, and a rear exhaust is all you'll need.

Consider that you already have an exhaust (albeit an inefficient one due to the job it does) on the PSU. To get a perfectly balanced airflow, you'd need to measure the rate of exhaust against the internal clutter (especially IDE cables) to work out how powerful the intake should be.

Alternatively, you could just get a fan with a slightly higher CFM rating for the front and a cheapie for the rear and not worry about perfect balance. Bear in mind that the noise a fan makes goes up disproportionally to the volume of air it shifts, so if noise is a concern, then examine these figures. There are a LOT of fans on the market, so you've plenty of choice. Apparently Foxcom make very serviceable fans that typically retail for $2 - $5.

My own setup is two front intakes, two rear exhausts, and a side intake directly above the CPU. That's over the top and noisy, but as Paparazi knows, my CPU is very cool CitrixEngineer@yahoo.co.uk

 

[paparazi]

Yes and I'm very jealous of CitrxEngineers temperatures.
But when I said cool! I mean him not his PC lol.
Martin Replying helps further our knowledge, without comment leaves us wondering.

 

[twobit94]

Sounds good. Thank you for the info.