I recently got a new case that came with 1 fan as exhaust at the back, 3 fans exhausting from the bottom, and 3 fans as intake in the middle. I left the top fan area open for a future air cooler. My concern is that heat tends to rise, but I'm hesitant to adjust the fan setup because I'm pretty new to modifying hardware. Is it fine to keep the configuration as it is, with the three bottom fans acting as exhaust?
4 Answers
Technically, hot air rising doesn't really matter much inside a PC case since the airflow created by fans is a lot more impactful. However, having those bottom fans set as exhaust is actually a bad idea. The GPU pulls air in from below, so if those fans are exhausting, they will be working against the GPU and could make it run hotter.
Doesn't hot air rising matter, though? That's why top fans are generally exhaust.
Not advisable since the GPU usually draws in fresh air from the bottom. You want to make sure your fans are working together, not against each other.
I really recommend flipping those bottom fans to intake. After I swapped to two 140mm intake fans at the bottom, my GPU fans barely even kick on!
Switching them seems easy—just unscrew, flip them, and screw them back in. Simple!
It's generally not a great setup. You’re creating a situation where the bottom fans are fighting against the airflow of the GPU, which generally pulls in cool air from below and pushes hot air out the top. It's worth checking if your bottom fans might be reversible; some cases have that option for intake.
If I do switch them, then I'll end up with 6 intake fans to just one exhaust, right?