On a single case fan installation, is it best to set it up as an exhaust fan or as an intake fan.Thanks Chuck

. If it's blowing into the case, it's taking some of that heat with it and contributing to the heat that you're trying to get rid of.In addition, you're more likely to get the airflow over the components you need too cool if you've got an exhaust fan rather than blowing air willy-nilly into the case. Of course, if you could direct the air straight to a particular component it might be worth it.

Setting the fan up as an exhaust fan also prevents against dust and other particles from building up inside your case.Ryan-Flightpro08 :-cool VATSIM Pilot/ControllerZLA ARTCC Senior Controller (C-3)ASRC (Advanced Simulated Radar Client) Beta Tester-----------------------------My "Home Made" System Specs:Intel Pentium 4 2.2GHz ProcessorTurbo Gamer ATX Mid-Tower with 420W Power SupplyEPoX 4G4A Motherboard with Intel 845G ChipsetVisiontek XTASY GeForce4 128MB Ti4600 (Det 42.01 Drivers)512MB PC2100 DDR RAM40GB Matrox 7200RPM Hard DriveWindows XP Home Edition SP1*No CPU or GPU Overclocking*3dMark2001SE Score: 11298-----------------------------Click Here to Download my American Eagle POSKY CRJ-200!

The short answer: ExhaustAir always finds its way into the case through the vents and openings in the case. If you have an exhaust fan, fresh and cold air will be sucked in as the old hot air is exhausted.You want the exhaust fan at the back of the PC, not in the front. You should put intake fans in the front, and exhaust fans in the rear of the case.If you have a power supply with dual fans, it might be better to put the case fan as intake in the front. Too many exhaust fans near the CPU area means that the CPU fan has to fight for air.

Here's a link that has alot of good ideas.I've just added an exhaust fan to my case also.KJhttp://www.tweak3d.net/articles/spyware/

There are lots of different ways to cool a computer case. Here is the type of case I am using and have been very satisfied so far.Directron/ Super Flowe 201S, http://www6.tomshardware.com/howto/20020521/case-16.htmlTwo fans in the front pull fresh air in through a washable foam filter, two fans under the power supply exhaust air out the back, one fan blowing out on the removable side cover and one fan blowing out the top of the case. Even with all of those extra fans running besides the ones in the power supply, CPU, and video card; my system is still not as noisy as the old AMD with only two fans (added after I had major heat problems). I also have to say that the P4 (2.2) does not make the heat of the AMD chips. I hope this along with the other threads gives you some good ideas on cooling your system.TerryPS: I tried to upload a snapshot of my case temps to show how well the case cools but for some reason the image would not load. It was a small jpg (62K) but maybe the system is de-activated since there were some problems in the past with people posting all sorts of pictures in this forum. The temps were as follows:Board Temp 31C/87FCPU Temp 44C/111.2Pwr/Aux Temp 28C/82F