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Everyone knows that PC airflow is important. If you don’t keep your thermals low, your components might overheat. If that happens, your performance will drop. But the advice about airflow that gets repeated online often comes without any context. The truth is, a lot of airflow tips are baseless.
You Don’t Need Static Pressure Fans for Good Airflow
When buyingaftermarket fans for your PCbuild, you’ll see lots of fans with “static pressure” functionality. A lot of first-time PC builders assume these are just somehow better than normal airflow fans; after all, why specify the static pressure feature if it isn’t superior somehow? Make no mistake, static pressure fans have their uses, but they aren’t inherently better than the alternatives.
Static pressure fans are designed to better push air through resistance. This means they are great for mounting on intakes with dust filters, CPU cooler heatsinks, and radiators. But static pressure fans tend to be a little noisier than regular airflow fans. So if you are placing fans in unrestricted slots, or your case has an open mesh front with little resistance for airflow, why go for the noisier option that’s not notably more effective?
If you fill your entire case with static pressure fans, your system is likely to be a lot louder under load, and this could even actually worsen your thermals if you have those fans in places where there is no airflow resistance to work against. It’s much better overall to use the right type of fan for the right type of job. Only use static pressure fans in areas where you really need to push air through obstacles and resistance. For all other areas, just use regular airflow fans.
Front-to-Back Airflow is Not the Only Viable Option
A lot of cases are designed with focus on front-to-back airflow. In fact, most of them are. So it’s understandable why rookie builders might assume that front-to-back airflow is just the right way to do things if you want optimal cooling. Now, admittedly, in many cases, this airflow orientation is optimal, especially if you are using a case that was built to facilitate that orientation. But it’s not the only way to do things by any means.
First of all, there are other types of cases out there. Some of them support other airflow orientations like side-to-rear and bottom-to-top. Cases with open or dual-chamber designs especially have a lot of leeway in how you cool your components. There are even good reasons to consider a different airflow orientation.
For example, if you are concerned primarily with your GPU thermals, it might be better to install intake fans at the bottom and exhaust fans at the top of your case. But ultimately, the ideal airflow orientation really depends on the unique properties of your build;cable clutter, hardware layout, case design, fan orientation, and lots of other factors all play a part. So don’t get it stuck in your head that you have to use front-to-back airflow. What works best for your build might be something completely different.
Positive Pressure is Not Always Preferable
It’s commonly said that you need positive air pressure to keep dust out of your case. To achieve positive air pressure, you need more intake fans than exhaust. There is some truth to this, but without context, this tip falls far short of its intended purpose. Air pressure is just one part of your airflow system, and there’s no point in shoving intake fans into your case to outnumber your exhausts.
You won’t get optimal cooling performance just because you crammed four intakes into your case with one exhaust. It’s more important to focus on airflow balance instead of aiming for a particular pressure. Of course it’s important to have a lot of fresh air coming into your case, but it’s just as important to have an escape path for hot air to easily flow out of the case.
That said, having a slightly positive air pressure in your case is generally a good idea for most PC builds, but a well-balanced setup that focus on regular thermal dynamics will usually be better overall than a build that pushes exclusively for positive air pressure at the expense of all else.
Phanteks T30-120 Fan
The Phanteks T30 are the kings of the PC fan market. They offer impressive performance at every RPM point while also staying silent unless pushed to max RPM. They are outstanding PC fans that excel as case fans, CPU heatsink fans, and radiator fans.
More Fans Are Not Always Better for Airflow
It’s easy to believe that having more fans means your case will have better airflow. After all, how could having more fans possibly be bad? Well, having more fans haphazardly crammed into a case can actually make temperatures worse due to increased turbulence within the case.
It’s not about the number of fans in your case, but rather, how well they are placed. If you have too many intake fans and not enough exhaust fans to pair with them, you’ll create too much positive pressure, which can cause hot air from your components to stick around inside your case. If you have too many exhaust fans and not enough intake,your case will suck in dustfrom every conceivable gap.
It’s better to place your fans strategically to improve airflow. That will almost always go much farther than just adding more intakes or exhausts, and will do more for your thermals and airflow than fan quantity ever will.
Ultimately, the most important thing to keep in mind about airflow when building a PC is that each situation is unique, and there is almost no advice that holds true in every circumstance. Your case, hardware and cable placement, room location, and temperature all play an important role. You’ll have to take all of that into consideration and be ready totweak any advice you may getto fit your particular needs.
