Power-Cooling Balance!

[moejoe125]

How do you know much cooling is required for a system?
How do you know much many fans you need in the case?

What i mean is that how do u know how to balance between power consumption and cooling?

because if more power = more heat and more cooling NEEDS more power then how do u strike the perfect balance?

[flanzig1]

If the case comes with fans, then basiclly start with them. Monitor case temps, if they get into the high 40c range then you start adding fans. A 120mm exhaust fan in the back and a 80mm in the front should handle most systems.

[moejoe125]

ok thanks for that flanzig, but how do u distribute power more evenly throughout the system to give you a more stable machine? one other thing i dont understand the rails thing about the PSU, e.g. 5v rail etc.

[flanzig1]

Rail is a term used to discribe each voltage line coming from a PSU. The term is probably a carry over from the main frame days when each DC voltage had a copper bar or "rail" that power leads where bolted to.
To balance the connections don't make all the connections on one run of molex plugs.