I just built a computer with a modded case and all that, but my question is: How many fans should be in the case and where should they be? Right now I have 2 exhaust fans on the back, 1 exhaust fan on the side of the case in the window, and two fans on the power supply (both pulling air out of the case). My case is capable of holding 4 intake fans in the front, and right now I don't have any. Would you recommend adding several fans in the front, or does it not matter to much? I do monitor the CPU temps (AMD 2200+ w/ Volcanoe 7), but that is never over about 105*F. The system temp is about the same too. Thanks for your feedback. -Jonathan

If that's the temperature with 100% cpu usage it should be quite fine. I wish I could keep my my system that low! If you don't need the case fans for the optic I don't see a reason to install additional ones. With all the fan blowing air out of the case there should be enough air flow through it. If you need or want to install fans at the front to blow air into the case start with the lowest because there the air is a bit cooler than around!

You need fans on your cpu and power supply, and the stronger the more cooling you get but its not necessary and many people undervolt their psu and cpu fans to make them quieter. In contrast case fans make a lot of noise for minimal payoff, the payoff being only indirect cooling of the hard drive, mobo northbridge, memory, and vid card. Very slight case airflow is all that's needed to keep those items cool enough assuming you are not overclocking, which changes everything. I would suggest you flip that side fan around so it becomes an intake, and get rid of one of the rear exhaust fans. If you want to still use that fan, you might place it or hang it internally in the case so it blows on the hard drive. In non-overclocked systems the first thing to die (hopefully years away) is going to be the hard drive, and 7200rpm drives can easily be 40c-50c (about as hot as other things in your system) yet have a lower rated heat limit (55c) than anything else.

http://www.xoxide.com/thervol7cool.html I am using a volcanoe 7 right now, and it only reaches 105 when playing heavy games and when the speed is on medium(4500 rpm). When the computer is idle, it ususally hangs around 95 with the speed on low (3000 rpm). I have another PC that I have seen the CPU at about 145`F, but with a volcanoe 6 and no case fans. Hehe. But, that is just a backup PC and I am not to worried about it. As far as the side intake fan, it is very near the rear exhaust fans, so I am worried air would go strait in and strait out without cooling the entire case. The two fans in the back are LED lighted, so I would like to keep those where they are. Looking at my case right now, I could mount a fan under my hard drives. That hard drive fan would be right in front of the intake fans, so it should be cool air blowing onto the hard drives. The main reason I don't have the intake fans now is that I was worried about the noise level. Including CPU and P/S fans, I have 6 fans total and the system runs very quiet. So, I guess it wouldn't be to much louder to add 2 to 4 more for intake? Thanks for above replies, -Jonathan