Fan Questions

[Karthik1019]

Is it safe to use black electrical tape to tape wires down so they don't get in the way of any fans? Also, are all fans supposed to connect to the fan ports on the motherboard or is it okay for them to just connect to the power supply? Finally, is it better to have exaust or intake fans? Thanks.

[Confused]

Electrical tape - yes.

Most mobo's only hve a couple of fan headers. Therefore some fans have to be hooked to power supply. The heat sink fan should be connected to mobo. Some mobo's won't start if fan isn't present.

A good start with cooling is a intake fan on lower front and a exhaust fan loacated upper back.
Chas

[Cricket]

Originally posted by Karthik1019 Is it safe to use black electrical tape to tape wires down so they don't get in the way of any fans?

Sure, but black electrical tape won't hold the wires for long. A better option would be to use adhesive cable tie mounts with zip ties to hold the wires out of the way.

Cricket

[Karthik1019]

Okay thanks. I was also wondering what an average good/healthy running temperature would be. Also, is it true that the net exaust and intake must be equal to zero, or is this just for optimum performance, oh yeah, also, do the two fans on the power supply cool the case or just the psu? Thanks, if you haven't figured it out yet, I'm a newbie.

[Panama Red]

Unless you seal up all the mating surfaces and areas around the fans, negative or positve air pressure will be somewhat negligable. You can add too many inlet fans or inlet fans that deliver a lot of volume and create a positive or over pressurized case. The biggest restiction is in how much air you can get in thru the front area. Even when you add a front intake fan, the opening behind the fan is still the area of restriction. That's why some folks often resort to adding fans on the sides to add additonal inlet air. Best places to exhaust are up high and in the rear.

Average temps for a non-overclocked P4 would be in the upper 30 degree C range. Low to mid 40's with a slight oc. AMD's will run roughly about 5 degrees C warmer than that.

The two fans on the psu are designed to help remove some of the warm air inside the case. Lower the case temp inside helps by not forcing the psu to only have hot internal air to pass over it's components for cooling. If you put your hand behind a running psu fan, it will feel quite warm. If you move more air thru the case by increasing exhaust air and/or adding inlet volume, the psu fans will have access to cooler air also.

[flanzig1]

Another option for holding down wires out of the way is to use a hot glue gun on the wires on the fan.

[Designer]

That sounds a bit dodgy flanzig1, doesn't it melt the wiring.

I've always used the cable ties and adhesive bases as Cricket suggests. Spira-wrap is also handy for tidying up bunches of wires.

[Karthik1019]

Thanks for all the great info panama. About the hot glue guns though, I think I'm gonna have to agree with designer. Plus, it would be somewhat of a problem if I needed to re-wire or replace any hardware or what not. But thanks for the suggestion anyway. I do have one more question though. I think this is it. On the rear of my case, there is one big circle with holes for a 120 mm fan. Next to that, there is this rectangular grating. The holes are the same size as the fan grating's holes. Is this for a fan, or is it just a vent. There is a considerable amount of space behind it and it has two little notches along its longer side. Does anyone know what this is?

[raftero]

hot glue won't melt the wiring, i sometime use it at connections where wire is exposed and tapeing isn't practical.

[Designer]

The extra holes are probably just vents