Before you add a fan, you have to buy one. Before you buy, you need to know what to get. You’ll have to inspect your case for fan mounts and determine the fan sizes you need, and then settle on the specs of the fan itself.
Fans come in sizes measured in millimeters. The measurement indicates the length and width of the fan (nearly all case fans are square)–not the diagonal measurement like that of a monitor’s viewable area. Commonly used fans are 80mm, 90mm, and 120mm, although they come in many more sizes. This photograph shows a 120mm fan mount in the front of a case.
You can spot a fan mount in your PC’s chassis by the presence of a grill (or many holes next to each other) surrounded by four symmetrical screw holes, one in each corner. To determine the size of the fan you need, measure from one screw hole to an adjacent one (again, not the diagonal one) with a metric ruler. Round it up to the nearest 10 millimeters. For example, if you find the holes are 115mm apart, you need a 120mm fan. Fans come in various depths, too, usually around 25mm. Some fans include LED lighting.
Fan specifications include, among other things, three values: The RPM (rotations per minute) frequency, the acoustic noise level in dB (decibels), and, most importantly, the air volume they push in CFM (cubic feet per minute). In general, fans that push more air will have higher RPM frequencies and run louder. You also need to pay attention to how the fan is powered: Most come with 4-pin Molex pass-through connectors, while others have three-pin connectors for motherboard fan headers and can be monitored if the board supports it; some have both.
Consider the total CFM of airflow going into the case and the total being exhausted. Try to make the two figures close, but don’t worry about being exact.
You can get PC fans at any computer store, or for a wider selection, check out online stores that cater to overclockers, such as FrozenCPU.com. Look for fans that move as much air as possible with acceptable loudness. To give you an idea of decibel levels, your own normal breathing is about 10db, a whisper is about 20db, and normal conversation in a quiet room is about 50db. I don’t mind fan noise, so my cutoff when I shop for a fan is about 40dbA; if you want a truly quiet computer, go for fans quieter than 25dbA.
Actually adding a fan takes a matter of minutes. Most fans will come with four screws, and somewhere on the side of the fan you’ll find arrows marking the blades’ turn direction and airflow direction. You simply orient the fan, inside the chassis so that the holes line up with the holes in the fan mounting area, and screw it in. The screws should go through the case and into the fan, not through the fan and into the case.
Sometimes, you’ll encounter a fan mount that you can’t reach from inside the chassis. The fan for that mount will actually go outside the chassis; if it’s in the front and if the fan isn’t too deep, it will fit between the chassis and the front cover. Cases that have such mounts usually include long screws with their hardware bundle. If you were wondering what you’d ever do with those, this is it. The screw holes in the mount correspond to the threads of those screws. You simply thread them right through the fans’ holes, into the mount holes, and tighten them up—see the photograph. Don’t over-tighten, as you will bend the corners of the plastic fan and may even snap them off.
Occasionally, you’ll encounter a case with plastic fan holders already installed in mounting areas. That’s a bonus: All you have to do is snap the fan into place and power it. Before you buy a fan, consult the case documentation or measure the plastic fan holster to see what measurements the fan should have, in length/width and depth.
Always fire up the PC with the case open after you install a fan, to ensure that the fan works and that the air is blowing in the direction you intended.
Continued…
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