A case with no intake but all exhaust fans

[ayet]

Is this ok? to minimize dust I have my system running with this setup, all exhaust fans no intake, Iam using Scythe Ninja without a fan my CPU temp is 42C on idle and 58 when playing games without AC, and my room temp is about 30C.

[Spawne32]

Your still gona have dust...alot of dust. By having only exhaust fans your creating negative preassure inside the case, so air is coming in through all the vents in your pc, every hole there is in that case, air and dust is getting sucked in through.

[momoceio]

I don't really see why not, you're still getting air flow through your case. The best thing would to place dust filters over the intakes.

[ayet]

yup thats what I used fan filters on my 80mm fan holes.

[Ar3s]

dust filters over the intakes work in positive pressure casings where your intake is stronger not the exhaust. you are creating a vacuum cleaner effect.

[ayet]

http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii83/ayetalviola/album_pic.jpg

I dont have recent pictures of my new setup, but basically this is my case, I removed the blue fan which is suppose to be the intake and replaced both 80mm fan holes with fan filters, and I have the 120mm fan as exhaust. and I dont use that thermalake HSF but a fannless scythe.

[EvilBellyLint]

Is this ok? to minimize dust I have my system running with this setup, all exhaust fans no intake, Iam using Scythe Ninja without a fan my CPU temp is 42C on idle and 58 when playing games without AC, and my room temp is about 30C.

You won't actually be minimizing dust this way, but you will have a
much quieter, more efficient case cooling system.


EBL

[naokaji]

if you want to minimize dust you need to have more intake than exhaust fans and then get dust filters for all intake fans.

[Serra]

I am actually a large supporter of the negative pressure case design. I think there's a level where it would become a detriment, but you should be good.

[roadie]

That would be the dustiest set up possible as air is going to be scavenged from wherever offers the least resistance. This could be through PCI slot covers, bezel gaps and other unfiltered areas.

I myself am a fan of having slightly more intake volume than exhaust. I also try to seal areas that could offer air a lower resistance than through my intake filters. Of course the pressures involved are so low, and cases are no way near airtight so it is hard to create a perfect set up but I think this is the way forward.

[momoceio]

I am actually a large supporter of the negative pressure case design. I think there's a level where it would become a detriment, but you should be good.

I always hear about negative/positive case pressure but it makes absolutely no sense to me and sounds like a bunch of bunk. It's a computer case, I really doubt that some 120mm fans can create much positive pressure or negative pressure inside the case. As soon as any air leaves the case it would be sucked in instantly from the surrounding atmosphere and vice versa. Is there really any proof of this whole positive/negative case pressure theory? If you had all intake fans and zero exhaust fans you would be pumping air into the case but air would be leaving the case at the same rate meaning no pressure.

[Serra]

I always hear about negative/positive case pressure but it makes absolutely no sense to me and sounds like a bunch of bunk. It's a computer case, I really doubt that some 120mm fans can create much positive pressure or negative pressure inside the case. As soon as any air leaves the case it would be sucked in instantly from the surrounding atmosphere and vice versa. Is there really any proof of this whole positive/negative case pressure theory? If you had all intake fans and zero exhaust fans you would be pumping air into the case but air would be leaving the case at the same rate meaning no pressure.

Ah, but there are a few crucial differences.

The most illustrative example will be a more or less standard case which has no venting in the area of the video card, but an exhaust around, say the CPU on the side of the case and on the back. In a positive pressure case, the area under the video card pretty well just swirls around, with a very low exchange rate. There used to be a video floating around which I'll have to find again one day where this was demonstrated by filling a case with smoke then using regular case fans to dissipate it. The area under the video card took a solid 30-40 seconds longer to lose most of its haze than everywhere else. Anyway, in a negative pressure case you can (not always will, but can) eliminate these self-containing pockets of air, assuming you have at least a few cracks in that area of the case.

I will admit though that it depends so much on exact case layout that most discussions on the topic are moot, but if you're just looking for a rule of thumb...

[CJ145]

Negative case pressure will reduce the life of your DVD/CD drives. Dust will be sucked through the cracks and coat everything inside. You can see this happen in older OEM's like dell before they moved to ETX case design. The most common problem with hardware that I have seen in older OEM's is this.

[xlink]

Negative case pressure will reduce the life of your DVD/CD drives. Dust will be sucked through the cracks and coat everything inside. You can see this happen in older OEM's like dell before they moved to ETX case design. The most common problem with hardware that I have seen in older OEM's is this.

coolermaster centurion, lian li PCV-1000/1200/2000, and some other designs

the whole case is semiiferous... no need for air to go through optical drives whenre there are holes all around them

[CyberDruid]

Effect will depend on the case design and components installed.

RE: dust. Expect to find plenty of dust in your opticals, backplane, and any crevices of the case... you are basically sucking mung into those orfices

[NightCrawler™]

Interesting... I have a V2000 and I think I might actually try this...

[jspace]

Either way you will need to remember to blow dust out of your components. Upgrading? Strip everything and clean anything you're reusing.