should it be blowing into the case or out of the case?

 

Generally you want air to move from the front of the case to the rear. So any fans at the front should suck and the ones at the rear shoudl blow.

 

ok. thanks.

ive only got 1 case fan at the rear but it doesnt seem to keep the temp that much lower than with out it?? maybe i need 2?

 

You can measure the temp? And you've done it with disconnecting the fan?

Why do you think it's too hot?

Like Dan said, the rear should blow out. If there's another opening on the back, and you have extra fan connectors on your motherboard, go ahead. IT's easy. You can install one on the front to blow in, but make sure the fan speeds and amount of air they move match up front to back.

 

i can measure the temp inside the case with the case fan. monitoring teh cpu with and with out it isnt changing. maybe 1-2 deg 117 F with out 115 F with case fan on.

 

What is your room temperature? 117F is kind high.

 

?? It's only 47C. If he's running an AMD-64 it's fine. They stay around 40-45C at idle and peak at 55C at room temp.

 

^^ yeah, depends on what type of CPU you're running.

you could also get a better CPU heatsink & fan

 

its a P4 3.2 and fan that came with it

 

my room is about 10 deg warmer than the rest of the house due to my computer

 

Are you running a Northwood or Prescott? That temp seems high. I run that at load. WE have the same CPU.

After some research with another friend, we found that exhaust fans are much more important than intake; as long as you have adequate intake access in the front of your case. If you can just use exhaust fans, your case will naturally allow the air to passively move from the front to rear without the use of other fans.

I use this method and I run 30 degrees C idle and 47 degrees C at load with just two SilenX 9dba fans. Keep in mind, I have 2 WD Raptors, 2 EIDE HDs, 2 CD drives, a Cardreader, and other components. Everything is nice and cool.

 

P4's rnt supposed to run so hot, mayb its time for sum watercooling, im running 12 fans and watercooling on my athlon xp 2500+ oced to 2.2 at 30C idle