Intake fan necessary?

[AndrewGray]

Hey all, kinda new here...but trying to make a relatively silent gaming pc.

Specs:

Athlon 2800+
1.5gb ram
Geforce 6600gt agp
1x 80gb ATA HD
1x DVD drive
460w enermax psu

Fans:

2x exhaust PSU
2x vantec stealth 80mm (rear exhaust)
1x zalman vf700-cu on 6600gt
1x AC copper lite on cpu

temps:

case: 25c
cpu idle: 32c
cpu load: 37c
ambient temp: 22c

I'm just wondering...is an intake fan necessary? it just seems to make the pc so much louder, since the front of my pc is right by me. have no stability issues...and temps seem fine...i just don't want to be shooting myself in the foot thanks for any input.

[mrzed]

Not usually.

For a standard case setup, intake fans are normally used around here as spot cooling for hard drives (if needed). You case temps are low enough that HD cooling is probably fine without a front fan.

[tehfire]

No need for an intake fan. In fact, I'm sure you could get by by pulling some of your exhaust ones.

[Ralf Hutter]

With all the loud fans you've got planned for that case (Enermax PSU fans and the Vantec (UN)Stealth case fans), you'll most likely not hear a front intake fan at all.

I'd do a bit of research here at SPCR regarding your fans and your PSU choice. You'll be able to make your proposed system much quieter if you do.

Typically, an intake fan will do nothing to reduce your case temps, but may help with spot-cooling of your HDD, assuming it's placed correctly.

[AndrewGray]

thanks for the feedback guys...

also, i know it's probably been recommended alot around here, but I can't give enough credit to the zalman vf700...ridiculously silent compared to the stock one on my evga 6600gt.

funny thing is...when i looked at the stock fan/hs, it was just a small thermal pad on the bottom of a black metallic heatsink...i don't even know how that was supposed to provide cooling.

see ya guys around...glad to have joined here.

[ronrem]

Hey all, kinda new here...but trying to make a relatively silent gaming pc.

Specs:

Athlon 2800+
1.5gb ram
Geforce 6600gt agp
1x 80gb ATA HD
1x DVD drive
460w enermax psu

Fans:

2x exhaust PSU
2x vantec stealth 80mm (rear exhaust)
1x zalman vf700-cu on 6600gt
1x AC copper lite on cpu

temps:

case: 25c
cpu idle: 32c
cpu load: 37c
ambient temp: 22c

I'm just wondering...is an intake fan necessary? it just seems to make the pc so much louder, since the front of my pc is right by me. have no stability issues...and temps seem fine...i just don't want to be shooting myself in the foot thanks for any input.

You CAN run 10C hotter all around with no harm-and removing those intake fans won't even raise temps that far. If you had a more potent (bigger) HS on the CPU-you'd get even more of a margin and could also drop the noise from the other fans.

Is this a 2800 Newcastle? 754 socket? If so you might find you can get a Sempron or Venice of better performance cheap-that runs cooler....stick a Ninja on it....toss all but one exhaust fan and see what the temps are then. It ain't a beer cooler. As long as nothing gets to 50C you are okay.
As is you have 6 fans going? OMFG! 3 ought to be MORE than enough,and that's allowing for the 2 fan PSU

Our Big Fan guru would have removed at least one fan from the PSU...and ALL the others-installed a 400 rpm 220 mm big fan in the door-replaced the chip with a Sempy or Venice and have reached relative silence that route,even before other SPCR mods like HD silencing,case damping.
6 fans ain't a computer---it's a bloody helicopter.

I'm not up on gamer vid cards but I'd think you can passive-cool that one.

[J. Sparrow]

have no stability issues...and temps seem fine...i just don't want to be shooting myself in the foot thanks for any input.

In my experience you only need intake fan(s) if:

1) You have hot memory. Test your memory with memtest86+ or RAM Probe 2007; tests #5 and #6 are known to heat memory up quite fast.

2) There is not enough airflow to cool down your HDDs.

3) Your CPU cooler is too small.

[psiu]

From your temps, if that's without the intakes, then no. If it's with intakes, try removing them.

I try to avoid them now, but will put them in as circumstances warrant. In builds for others that will be far away--yes, I will add the extra fan.

In my case (P180), I have one in the upper chamber, though I don't really need it anymore...ended up putting it in while I had my socket-A system in there, but with my socket-939 I don't really need it. But I would have to unscrew it from the front (yes, it's hard mounted too!) and I hate doing anything with my computer--too many cords in the back, and too many that barely reach.


My wife's mATX system has an intake angled to assist with HD and VGA cooling, works nicely.

[ayjay]

As a kind of benchmark I have a 3200+ running so much hotter than that it's silly. I took out a case fan a few weeks ago and plonked it in another machine instead. The temperatures didn't flinch.
Definitely take it out. I only have one intake blowing over the hard discs but that's really slow and just to stunt my paranoia!