I'm putting together my first PC build and I'm a bit confused about fan placement and airflow. I know that reverse blade fans are mainly for looks, but I'm trying to figure out the ideal setup for positive, negative, or neutral pressure. Here's my current plan: I have 3 reverse blade fans at the bottom, 3 standard fans on the side, 3 fans from the CPU cooler on top, and 1 standard fan at the rear. Can someone help me understand if this setup will create positive, negative, or neutral pressure? Also, if this arrangement isn't ideal, what would be the best fan placement?
2 Answers
It looks like you might be on the right track! Having 3 reverse fans on the bottom is good for pulling in fresh air, while the top 3 should ideally be set to exhaust to remove hot air. Your side fans would also work best as intake unless you're using a large AIO cooler, in which case they should be exhaust. Overall, you should aim for more exhaust fans than intake to maintain a good airflow balance.
Thanks for the insight! For some reason, I find it hard to wrap my head around how these fan configurations actually work!
With that number of fans, it could almost take off like a drone! Jokes aside, having 3 fans pulling air out from near the CPU and above the GPU should provide decent cooling. Make sure your airflow is balanced, and you should be good to go!
Here's a visual reference for this setup: [example image](https://ibb.co/0RcNY3dj). If you're using a tower cooler instead of an AIO, then yeah, it's better to make those side fans intake. Just adjust based on your cooler type.