You need one exhaust fan near the cpu cooler to transport that waste heat out of the system. All other intake and exhaust fans are optional.
That exhaust fan near the CPU cooler is normally the PSU fan.
I don’t know what crappy cases other people use… but dear lord I hope not. You don’t really want your PSU to be pulling in the hot air off the CPU cooler. A good case should have a 120mm exhaust fan pulling directly next to the CPU cooler, not relying on the PSU fan (which is usually smaller)
My case has a 120mm fan out the back near the CPU. It also has a 120mm fan pushing right into it as I use a Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme, they are lined up. Other than that just the standard PSU and GPU fans.
My case has no exhaust. The psu does, but it is isolated from the rest of the case. I have a large intake fan, a CPU fan on a tower cooler that pulls air in the same direction, twin fans on the video card, and then nothing but vents and positive pressure to move the air out. Everything is overclocked, and my temps are low and very stable.
Long story short: even the exhaust fan is optional if you have good airflow.
That is pretty much my setup as well
Fixed that for you. You’re pretty far down the case modding rabbit hole if you think an extra exhaust fan is mandatory. Normal systems have no extra fans whatsoever, period. There are fans on CPU, GPU, PSU and that’s all. Guess what, works just fine. Worked for me in 20+ years of building my own computers, that is (with no overclocking). The cases usually had mounting holes for extra fans but I never used them – there’s no reason to, unless maybe you live in the desert without air conditioning.
5 for me: gpu, cpu, psu, front and rear. I overclock, and really, the more fans you have, the lower rpm can be, so it will make less noise. So even if you don’t care for temperatures, there is an advantage to so many fans.
Low RPMs are important to reduce fan noise, but more fans won’t reduce RPMs further when they are already at the minimum for that particular fan. I do pick good quiet PSUs and aftermarket CPU coolers but I find that with my non-overclocked, non-SLI, non-RAID systems in cool Central Europe, all fans are running at or near minimum RPM anyway when I’m not gaming. When I am gaming I don’t care how loud the fans are because I’m wearing headphones. :p
I have 2 front fans, 2 rear fans, 1 side fan, 1 PSU fan, 1 CPU fan, 2 GPU fans. I think I have enough, as demonstrated by the insane noise my PC produces.
Generally though, as long as you have good air flow through your case you can make do with 2 large fans that don’t make much noise. 2 fans and a clear, uncluttered case is better than 6 fans and a messy, air-obstructing layout.
What the… are you talking about Dells and Gateways or something?
Last I checked I don’t build Dells or Gateways… so no. Just regular gaming systems home-built from components that don’t run hot enough to warrant extra fans.
I guess I’m not sure what case you’re using, but when I was shopping around two years ago, almost every case had an exhaust fan as a feature. I settled on an Antec Sonata III, which has a 120mm fan pulling the air from the CPU area.
You mean the fan was already built into the case? Nope, never seen that. I never used those famous case brands, though; mostly no-name cases. The one I have now is a semi-famous silenced case whose name I forgot but it didn’t come with any fans either. Fine with me as temperatures and idle fan speeds were always low enough that I didn’t see the need for more cooling.
cm 690 case:
120mm fans:
1 in the front
2 on the side
2 on top
1 in the back
1 on the bottom
Then you have the usual cpu fan, gpu fan, power supply fan.
Low rpm 120mm fans really are very quiet for the amount of air they move. Then again after 3 yrs a few have died:
1 on the side
both on top
the one on the bottom
and I haven’t bothered replacing them.
Again, I have no idea what cases you are looking at, but everything I’m looking at has a pretty clear arrangement of honeycomb holes stamped out of the back with 4 holes to screw in an exhaust fan, or that include the fan itself already attached.
Sure, all cases I’ve seen feature holes for fans but never the fans themselves. You talked about cases that had fans as a feature, that’s what I was replying to.
Ahh well. A case exhaust fan is peace of mind. 4 or more intake and exhaust fans is just crazy without being an overclocker enthusiast.
If you can read this thread aloud and hear yourself, you don’t have enough case fans.
I bought this case however many years ago so that I would never have to worry about airflow when overclocking. These days it doubles as white noise, which is nice to have downtown.