The experiment starts at 4:42

I’m here just to see StarLord talk about a case

All the fans. Every single one. All RGB of course

THANK YOU.....I'm so glad you showed these results. I've been doing one of my top fans as intake instead of exhaust and have had much lower temps to the CPU in doing so. SO many tech channels place those top fans as exhaust fans and never bothering to show the test results of changing the front/top/rear fans in a different layout. Try this out next time though.....place the top fan that is over the CPU as an exhaust, and the other top fan(s) as intake (if the case allows for 3 top fans). That way the 2 fans closest to the CPU is pulling heat away (the top and rear), and all the other fans are delivering fresh cooler air into the case. I've notice it does affect the temps, not by much, but each case could provide different results. And to lower the GPU even more with the fan configuration I mention, you can add a small 80mm fan to the back of the case as an exhaust at the bottom to help pull the heated air from the GPU so that it doesn't recycle into the case. I typically just use a USB 80mm fan and mount it on the outside of the back of the case where the GPU lies. It further helps stabilizes the temperatures.

i don’t know if i have too many fans?, but when i press the power button my case levitates😆

This is exactly the video I needed right now. Thank you Dmitry

So Dimitri! I have 6 fans in my case: 3 in front, 2 on top, and 1 at the rear. After seeing this video, I reversed my top 2 fans from exhaust, to intake. This made a total of 5 intake fans, and 1 exhaust. I have a Noctua U12A on my Ryzen 3700X. Before the switch, my cpu would bottom out at 41 C for the lowest temperature. Now that a switched the 2 top fans to intake, it now bottoms out to 37 C, sometimes 36 C in rare occasions. My GPUs hasn’t seen any difference with its arctic accelero Xtreme III on it. So thanks for this experiment good sir!

I feel like it would have been extremely interesting to see what the temps looked like if you had moved the rear fan also to the front of the case. Because for this case. It seems like it really enjoys the front air stream. That's where the greatest gains are to be made.

Got this case myself and I really love it ^^ the Leds are just enough for adding to the eastatic without going overboard with it.

I am so grateful for discovering this video. I was about to add 2 exhaust fans to the top because it only sounds logical to have hot air raising out of the case. But this video has demonstrated otherwise. I will be sticking to stock 3 front and 1 back.

2:25 Dmitry finds everything "Tasteful".

5:00 So you're telling me that a computer can make hot pockets? I'm in.

literally jsut asked myself this question und then utube recommends this, i like this glassy person thing :D

Finally! I've been waiting for this review!

I watched at least 30 videos on the subject in the past week, and this one was the best by far, thanks!

Thank you Dmitry for this video! I'm about to move my hardware from the Meshify C to the Pure Base 500DX next weekend (Heat problems in the Meshify C because too narrow in width for my Asus ROG Strix RTX and the monstrous Noctua NH-D15). In preparation I replaced the three built-in Pure Wings 2 fans with Silent Wings 3, as well as changed the positions to 2 x front intake and 1 x rear exhaust. Today I saw this video from you and it gave me some additional info about this case other reviews didn't. The temperature measurements were particularly helpful. And as always, your video was not only informative but also entertaining. Thanks and keep it up 🙇‍♂️

I'd recommend placing a tiny 60mm Exhaust fan below your GPU and see what it does for the GPU temp.

Be quiet is such an interesting brand if you think about it. Someone must have been like "let's call our company be quiet and aim to make the most silent fans out there!". Besides airflow, noise it the other thing most looked at when buying a fan. And to build a whole brand around the noise aspect is really a pro gamer move. So simple.

Thank you, quite interesting as I've spent the past week on and off doing exactly the same thing. One thing I have noticed is to avoid conflicting airstreams. ie I fitted a lower fan blowing upwards, lower front, middle and top, one rear exhaust. The lower front and bottom fan caused turbulence which lessens the GPU (Arctic Excelero iii) fans ability to bite the air properly. I think this because as my GPU got hotter, increasing the gpu fan speed didn't reduce the temps as much as when I had no lower fan. That's my theory, so lower fan now removed and placed back in it's box.

A positive airflow keeps also the dust outside the case better! So 2 fans in front sucking air in and 1 blowing out gives the best result in temp and dust.

Maybe you should reach out to bequiet, so they can do two front intake one rear exhaust by default.

I really wish they'd start making front panels magnetic on higher-end cases... my Define S2 feels like I'm gonna snap it trying to pull the front panel off to dust it out.

I have that same configuration going on in my tower right now with front and top both as intake. I ended up with a couple spare fans after installing my new AIO, so kinda just did it on a whim to satisfy my OCD for having positive pressure in the case. It's nice to see from your testing that the configuration can be a viable choice.

I’ve been waiting for this video from someone for ages, thanks.

how many case fans you need? corsaid 1000D: yes

"How many fans do you need?" Me: "Yes."

I built my new pc in February and in my research found that more intake than exhaust seems to be best. Exhaust fans have few options for positioning in most cases, so I put the two exhaust fans in the rear and top rear. While keeping two intake in the front panel with a third fan added to the bottom front. My intention was to create a positive pressure atmosphere that would channel diagonally across the components. With the power supply drawing in from the bottom and out the back for isolated flow. Since I used a Fractal R6 case, I had options for the driver trays. I left the tray setup in the "hidden" configuration which does put the two HDs horizontally placed in the path of the front fans. But I used this to help deflect some air flow from the bottom fan, toward the GPU, while positioned in the middle of the front fans to minimize resistance. Basically forming a "T" when lined up with the front fans. I think this has worked well with average game temperatures in the mid 60C range with a Noctua nh-u12s black on the CPU. Other components include the MSI MEG X570 ACE, RTX 2070 Super, and three M.2 mvme SSDs.

I'm building in this case currently and planning on a 240mm AIO rad on the top so glad to hear 2 front + 1 back works well!

I honestly thought I was going to break the 500dx front panel the first time I took it off!

I always thought the optimal use of the top fans is to function those as exhaust, now I understand it's not too good for the CPU. So, exhaust is only done by the rear fan. Thank you for this experiment!

Excellent demonstration. Not just speculative blather. Keep up the good work.

Perfect timing, as I was watching Linus' video about the same topic less than an hour ago.

How about 2x front intake, rear & top rear as exhaust and front top as intake? According to my testing it works the best...

I recently bought a Meshify S2 and I'm already planning on having fans on the front, top, and bottom as intake, and the rear as an exhaust. Should be very chilly for the 3950X

Hi Dmitry, thanks for the review. And I know this is a bit late, but when you put only 2 fans on the front case, I think you can put max 3 so which position did you use (top 2 or bottom 2)? Thank you

I actually needed this video, thanks

I WAS JUST LOOKING FOR THIS AAAHHHHHHHH

Video title: HOW MANY FANS Half of the video: CASE COMMERCIAL!

Dimitry, how do you colour grade your A73? :)

Interesting result with the best having the top fan as intake, as most suggest using the top fans as exhaust (for the reason heat rises).

It would have been really interesting to go back to the old days and just install ONE fan in the rear. Temp results would have been very interesting and highlight how most of us over cool our PC's.

Great review comparison of fan configurations. I wonder what would happen if you used only a single exhaust fan on top in the rear position. The top front exhaust is spitting out fresh air from the front before it has a chance to pass over any of the parts, wasting the cool air. As a way to get even crazier, you could do a top front intake to blow across the VRMs and top rear exhaust.

This is perfect, I’m about to buy some extra fans this week.

This helps me feel good about my 3x 120mm front and 1x 140mm rear. It keeps temps decent at low/quiet fan speeds, and creates lots of positive pressure, so there's almost no dust inside the case, even after years.

Great vid Suggestion: adding "500DX" in the title or just more hashtags for ppl are doing research for this case

I'm actually interested if changing 2x 140mm fans for 3x 120mm on the front would change anything in terms of acoustics and cooling in this case.

Thanks a lot for the video. Very useful for most DIY PC users.

Thank you. I now need to redo my top case fans to be intake instead of exhaust.

For those of you that clicked for the title, the test results start at 5:14. The rest of the video is a case review, and should be split out or labeled as such in the title.

I feel one configuration that is missing is two front intakes and 1 rear and 1 top exhaust. Ideally, so to not starve the components of air (and therefore have them heat up as you're seeing), you want intake and outflow of air balanced, with slight positive pressure better then negative, for the sake of avoiding dust accumulation via various openings not covered with filters. Having tried this myself however, I don't think you'll notice much difference between 2 front intake 1 rear out, and 2 front intake 1 rear 1 top out. Mine were only a degree difference so I didn't bother with a top exhaust in the end. One comment you should incorporate however, is difference in these configurations when you have a graphics card with exhaust of warm air out the back of the case vs. into the case as this will affect both the airflow within the case as well as overall case temperatures, and might be different for different case fan configurations. Just something to think about :)

Interesting, thanks for great video. I had been doing these "2 front one rear" for air-cooling since ... forever, as long as cases allowed for it - and if not, I even tried to mod cases way back when, to make it that way (Yeah drilling out plastic and holes, what do you know...). I moved drives up or down and used to buy those slimmed IDE and floppy cables (or make my own), for those thicc ribbons not to obstruct airflow. I never measured it but It just seemed most logical to me - fans to push some fresh air to GPU and CPU coolers, maintaining positive pressure to not get too much dust in through other holes, and sucking hot air out through rear.

I receive my 500dx today normal. I'm so hyped

Me with a old laptop running at 98°C constant: *cries in heated corner*

i made my AMD Wraith Cooler a Case Fan :D

Also the grooves on the blades help straighten the airflow at the other side so creates better pressure and efficiency

I got 6 120mm case fans and 2 140mm fans for my AIO in a 5000D airflow case and this is one of the quietest desktops I have ever had. They all run 700 - 1000 RPM and temps stay a bit under what this PC was doing. 3080 TI, 5950X. I love these type of cases.

How Many Case Fans Do You REALLY Need? Me: Need?? Man, I already have them all

i literally just got this case yesterday, pretty happy overall but moving top to front makes sense now

Bought the case after seeing this. Going to use 2 top intake, 1 rear exhaust and one aio 280 in front with 2 intake. Replacing all the fans with Noctua NF-P14s Redux 1200 PWM. Thanks for the video.

This is exactly what I've been looking for! It was between this or a micro atx coolermaster chasis so my pc can have a more comfortable and adequately cooled home c:

It's nice to see theories backed up with data (numbers), but I felt there was a lot of guessing on the analysis. A smoke/fog machine would be very helpful (just remember that it's not the kind of thing you really want to introduce to your electronics - perhaps demonstrate on an empty case or with an old mobo). Step 1 is going to be making sure you have more fans (or at least higher forced airflow) blowing into the case than blowing out, and that those fans have filters. This gives you positive pressure in the case with clean air. If you have negative pressure in the case (suction) from too many exhaust fans, then you end up drawing dirty air in from every crack and hole in the case. This invites dust and prevents you from controlling the overall flow of air. Dust and grime on your electronics and clogging your heatsinks is going to do far more long-term harm than gaining a couple degrees bench testing. Step 2 is to have an actual planned route for the air. It's not enough just to set several fans blowing in random directions. Hot air rises - use that to your advantage. Draw in cool air from the front, bottom, and lower sides, and help it follow a path up past the GPU to the CPU and then out the top and/or back. Possibly raise your case on blocks or books if it is on carpet. Remember that if your CPU is air cooled, that is a fixed parameter that you are going to have to work within. For example, don't blow air in from the rear of your case toward the exhaust of the CPU heatsink. Also, avoid pushing or pulling too much air through the top perpendicular to the CPU heatsink & fan. In addition to disrupting directional airflow across the heatsink, you can create circular eddy currents that just recycle the heat in circles, or draw cooler air out of the case before it can be used to cool the most important part. Lastly, don't forget about auxiliary heatsinks and chipsets. The Northbridge, Southbridge, MOFSETS, and HDD/SSD drives all need some airflow too, especially if you have watercooling and they cannot rely on residual airflow from the CPU fan. Think of the airflow in your case as a fluid, dynamic system rather than a series of individual points to be cooled. Sometimes too much ventilation can be just as bad as not enough if it is not working together.

My first build back when I was 14 or 15 had nine case fans in it. Yes, nine. Airflow was IMMACULATE. Today, my much more expensive and much higher-end build has one fan at the back and one at the top. People really spend way too much time and energy on airflow in my opinion. As long as your temps are good, you don't need to worry.

Super interesting. Thanks. Never knew the front mattered so much. I think my front fan has died so I need to take care of that.

I've seen some comments about people mentioning that the temperatures are higher than they like. You have to keep in mind, that CPU is overclocked for 4.8ghz, which makes it run hotter regardless. I would venture a guess and say if run at stock speed or a small overclock, seeing temps in 60s would be the norm. I'm glad I found this video, as I just purchased this case to build in, and I was questioning how I was going to set up the fans.

It would be interesting to see 2 front intake, top (near back) and rear exhaust so the cool air has to pass through CPU tower. In your scenario that top front fan was moving cool air from from front to exhaust right away. A good way to test whether your exhaust fans are effective is to put temperature probe on the exhaust and see if its much higher than ambient. If it's close to ambient than that fan is useless and even harmless.

I would had loved to see a 1 fan(both intake and exhaust) and no fans included as well

Beautiful, saving those bucks, thank you sir!

Really helpful for the customers

How many? Answer: As many as will fit.

I think a config with 5 x 140mm fans would be best in this case. Here's how I'd configure it: Front: 2 intake Rear: exhaust Top-front: intake Top-rear: exhaust

So this might be one of the first times that I have come back to watch a Hardware Canucks video after upgrading my monitor to the new Samsung G7 and I got to say this video is amazingly sharp and the colorgrade looks perfect :3

Good video, good analysis. Curios since I have 2 140mm intakes, 1 120 mm exhaust, 1 92 mm exhaust and a Noctua L12 downdraft cooler (2 fans). In general, would adding a top exhaust fan make any difference or compete with downdraft cooler ? Case is a Thermaltake mesh Core G21, I7 7700K, Asus GTX Strix Gaming 8 GB. Under load CPU temp is around 80C, idle is around 35C.

16 of them. And _all_ of them need to be Delta TFC1212DE's.

this is why I have my AIO on top as intake, 3 fans at front as intake and 1 rear + psu as exhaust. Keeps everything cooler that way

Was there a way to have the front fans exhaust air and the rear and top fans intake air? That way your getting cooler air constantly flowing over the cpu and gpu and exhausting the hot air away from those items that heat up the most.

I really like the idea of this video and I'd like to see you do it with other cases. Would take out a lot of the guess work. Which I've been trying to do in my 011 Dynamic. It's a real PITA when it's your primary system and you can't really have the downtime.

For optimal cooling performance; Use AC, unrestricted FineMesh front panel, good fans and clean room

DMITRY, GET TO THE PANZERSCHRECK!

So glad someone linked this video to me after I bought the same case and CPU cooler!

Have the white version of this case and its a thing of beauty, for a case with a small footprint, you sure can fit a lot of hardware into it. Best case I ever owned.

My rule of thumb is always: How many fans do i need? YES.

You should have tested with only ONE fan exhausting at the top rear. Could have been the best result. All the top front fan does is disrupt the air flow, either as exhaust or intake.

Thank you! I just ordered this case to make my first build. I was asking this very question on LTT board. Do you think things would improve if you changed the fans out with different ones with higher rpm? I’d love to see that, realizing you would lose some of the noise dampening. I bought the case primarily because the Meshify C was overpriced and on backorder and the Phanteks 400a and evening 300a where out of stock everywhere... :(

Great work! Do this for every case review! :))

Me: 3 front 2 up 1 back

How many fans? If all the fans are the same, i say "as many as intake and exhaust" like 3 intake fans, 3 exhaust fans.

This makes me happy. I dont have this case but it has a nearly identical design as far as intakes go and the two front intakes and one rear exhaust is exactly what i did. Dont have everything set up to run temp tests yet but sounds like my idea was the right way to go.

Exelent video! Many thanks! What an amazing case for the price! It comes in white also which in my opinion it looks good..

Whenever I hear "Air flow" what I think is dust flow.

This video should be renamed: sponsored case review with airflow review of this case...

A really very good video ,congratulations. It would be very interesting the scenario to put the one top fan intake (front one) and the top rear one as exhaust .Dont forget that you are using a massive cpu cooler and the top fans are working as cpu fans in this huge heat sink . So I think the fans customization depends on the cpu cooler . Something also important is the fan speed distribution . For example 2 exhaust and 2 intake fans should have the same speed but in case that you have 3 intake and 1 exhaust the last one should spin 3 times faster to achieve a good air flow without air reflections .

Very interesting test. Appreciated!

The title is click bait. This appears to be an advertisement instead of "how many fans do you really need". The title should say ad.

lol its a bootleg version of the lancool 2 basically with less features.

Thanks for this video, it is very useful for me, I recently bought a NR600 and 6 RGB fans and wasn’t sure on what the best setup was.

Every computer I've built since Core 2 Duo days has been 2 front intake, 1 rear exhaust. That's the secret special tactics. It creates a basic wind-tunnel effect for airflow. (I don't build any computer with liquid cooling, but if I had to do a liquid cooled AIO or custom loop, it'd probably would be better to have the radiator at the top of the case, with fans blowing up, through it to exhaust, and an equal number (or greater) of fans doing intake.

what is the best ITX case you would recommend to build a stock standard (no overclocking) 1080p gaming machine?

It's more about positive vs. negative pressure than "how many fans". Try setting both the top and front ones to have them pull air in your case, leave the back for exhaust.

Nice one. Can't wait to see what fractal will do with the newer meshify.

Wow, I want to buy this case in white colour and your review really helped. Thanks! And what if one of the two top fans, which one is closer in the front cover, is flipped for air intake?