Tips for Installing Fans

[Derek Semeraro]

Be sure that to have them in the correct direction. The face of the fan (generally, the aesthetically pleasing side) intakes the air. The back of the fan, usually with little beams in the middle behind the blades and (sometimes) it has a sticker on the back with legal/company information, etc., exhausts the air.

In most cases, the front case fan, the back case fan and the cpu cooler fan should all be facing the same direction. Using your hand to see which direction the wind is blowing can be deceptive because an intake can mistakenly feel like its pushing out air when your hand is next to it. Use a piece of paper instead.

[NeilBlanchard]

I will link to an SPCR article that goes into some depth about fans:

http://www.silentpcreview.com/Anatomy_of_the_Silent_Fan

[yakuman]

I actually learned from Linus about the fact most fans also have arrows that show the correct orientation to use: https://youtu.be/lHQGjGPK1Jw?t=157