Is it better to have 2 or 3 fans over 1?

[Absolut Talent]

I was cleaning out my case the other day, and I started to think about putting 2 or 3 fans on top of each other, all blowing/sucking the same way. Example: 2 60mm fans (one on top of the other) that blow the air down onto the HS. Would this move more air around and give better cooling effect than just one fan alone? Or would there not be that much improvement?

Same thing for all the fans for intake/outtake. If I double or triple them up, would I get better cooling in my case?

I know I would have a nice loud case, but would it be cool?

[sethpa]

stacking fans won't gain you any air flow, just noise.


sethpa

[FlyingPenguin]

You'll create turbulence and that won't help - might even reduce airflow.

The ideal cooling arrangement for a power user or gamer, IMO, is:

- 1 or 2 (depending on how many mounts there are in your case) INTAKE fans on the front of the case.

- 1 EXHAUST fan on the back (outside) vent of the powersupply

- 1 additional EXHAUST fan on the INSIDE vent of the powersupply. Your powersupply needs to be designed for this and have two fans built-in. It's been pretty much shown that the secret to stable power regulation is to maintain adequate cooling across the voltage regulator heatsinks in the powersupply and ALL hi-grade powersupplies now have dual fans for this reason.

For the average user a 1 fan PSU may suffice, but nearly every regular on this forum is either a power user, a serious gamer, and/or an overclocker. A good hi-grade PSU with two fans doesn't cost THAT much more than a cheapie.

- 1 good reliable ball-bearing fan with an adequate heatsink on the CPU.

- Optional - and only really necessary if you have high-performance drives and they get hot (some 7200s and almost all 10K RPM drives) and your case is designed for it) 1 fan blowing across the hard drive bay. If you open your case after the computer's been running for a few hours, and the drives are almost too hot to touch, you need drive cooling.

Some drives are better at this than others, and it also depends on the case design. Drives screwed directly to the chassis get the benefit of some extra heat dissipitation by using the metal of the case chassis as a heatsink. Drives mounted on rails (especially plastic ones) may not be able to conduct much heat to the chassis.



All this assumes you have adequate airflow through the case. All the fans in the world won't help if the airflow is blocked:

- Tie up all your ribbon cables out of the way so they do NOT block the smooth airflow from the intakes to the exhaust fans. You want a clear path between them, and across the top of the mobo.

- Regularly (and I mean like once a month - ESPECIALLY if you have pets) vacuum or blow out the dust on the fans, heatsink fins and vent holes. Even just a thin film of dust will reduce fan efficiency and also throw the blades out of balance which will prematurely wear out the bearings.

Frankly it's better to blow it out than vacuum - it's the best way to get dust from between heatsink fins. Buy some canned air at Office Depot. Take it out to the porch and go to it.

- If your case is designed for it, use filters. DUST WILL STILL GET IN! It'll just stay cleaner longer in there. Clean the filter once a month and at the same time always check to see if you need to blow it out as well.

[FuNPoLiCe001]

i asked this question in OC'ing a couple of days ago and got mixed answers. So I was sitting at co-op today and thinking about it, and the best explanation i could think of for myself is paddling in water.

If you have a motor and it creates waves, putting another motor in front of it will actually disrupt some of the waves produced by the first motor

[blade]

Only way I know that having 2 fans would help cooling is a design like the Tak68.