When constructing a brand new PC, it is solely pure to deal with the big-ticket objects, just like the CPU, GPU, and RAM. Followers nearly really feel like an afterthought. However until your PC case comes with a couple of pre-installed followers, it is easy to miss one important part—the rear case fan.
The Rear Fan Is in a Essential Spot
There is a good motive why tower PCs have included a rear fan for the reason that ’90s. Because it’s positioned close to your GPU, CPU, and motherboard VRMs, the rear fan is within the ultimate spot to maneuver sizzling air away from these vital elements.
Your GPU is the only hottest part in your PC. Except it is outfitted with a blower-style cooler (which exhausts air immediately out of the case), the recent air has nowhere to go. GPUs unfold sizzling air contained in the case, and the rear fan expels that warmth.
The rear fan additionally aids the CPU cooler, whether or not it is air or liquid. Protecting the VRMs cool, particularly with high-performance or overclocked CPUs, additionally helps preserve stability and minimizes thermal throttling, guaranteeing optimum CPU efficiency.
The significance of a rear fan grows with high-end PCs which have the next TDP. If in case you have a contemporary gaming rig, see it for your self. Play a sport for half-hour or longer, then place your hand close to the rear fan—you may really feel the recent air being expelled from the case.
The need of a rear fan will depend on how a lot airflow you have got in every single place else, although. If you have already got highly effective exhaust followers on the high, the rear fan may not be vital, however it’s nonetheless extremely really useful so as to add a rear fan for optimum cooling efficiency.
On the flip facet, in case you solely have one case fan to spare, inserting it within the rear is a no brainer. For example, I’ve some anecdotal proof to share: My pal’s pre-built PC got here with two giant consumption followers on the entrance however no exhaust followers in any respect. After a couple of hours of gaming, his system would overheat, and he’d begin seeing efficiency points and crashes. One $10 rear case fan later, his points have been gone. Granted, he was utilizing a inventory CPU cooler, however this instance nonetheless highlights the significance of getting a rear fan to expel sizzling air.
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It is an Essential A part of Your Airflow Design
Standard knowledge means that entrance and backside followers ought to act as intakes, whereas high and rear followers function exhausts. That is typically the most effective airflow setup as a result of the consumption followers attract cool air whereas the rear and high followers expel the recent air generated by the elements. Furthermore, sizzling air rises, making it simpler for the exhaust followers to do their job. The rear fan, when set as an exhaust, may help preserve impartial or barely unfavourable air strain, which improves cooling by drawing out warmth successfully.
If in case you have an air CPU cooler that pulls air from the entrance and directs it towards the rear, the rear case fan helps take away the recent air away out of your cooler.
A PC With no Rear Fan Simply Doesn’t Look Good
Should you eliminated the rear fan out of your case to repurpose it elsewhere, or in case your case by no means got here with one, and also you didn’t think about including it as a result of it’s not very seen, let me persuade you in any other case. Most standard desktop PCs have had a rear exhaust fan for many years.
There are cutouts for it within the rear, so anybody with some expertise constructing PCs will instantly discover its absence. Personally, I believe that it is an amazing spot to mount an RGB fan in case your PC sits in your desk. The fan’s glow ought to all the time be seen, no matter how giant your CPU cooler is.
Ought to the Rear Fan Be Set as Exhaust or Consumption?
There are various proponents of constructive air strain (with extra consumption than exhaust followers) as a result of a PC accumulates much less mud when the strain inside it’s larger than ambient. In PC circumstances that don’t have a spot for backside consumption followers, constructive strain might be onerous to attain, as you merely don’t have sufficient followers to create it. That’s why you would possibly wish to use the rear as an additional consumption, particularly if you have already got high exhaust followers that may expel air.
Nonetheless, the rear will not be an excellent place for an consumption fan resulting from a number of elements. Many graphics playing cards exhaust sizzling air from the edges and again, so a rear consumption fan would pull a few of that heat air from the GPU and push it again into the PC.
Moreover, in case you have exhaust followers on the high, among the incoming air shall be instantly expelled earlier than it might cool sizzling elements. Even in case you flip the followers in your CPU cooler to make the entrance an exhaust, it is loads of effort for suboptimal airflow that goes in opposition to conference with none clear profit.
That stated, in case you have a liquid-cooled CPU and particularly GPU, and also you’re adamant about reaching constructive strain, you possibly can think about testing out the rear fan as an consumption. Simply be sure to get a mud filter in entrance of it first. Nonetheless, I doubt you’ll see higher outcomes than when it’s used as an exhaust fan.
The rear exhaust fan is not only an elective part—it’s essential for preserving your system working cooler and extra steady. It’s a very powerful fan in your system, and in case your setup lacks one, be sure so as to add at the least an affordable unit in that spot. It’ll considerably enhance your system’s cooling efficiency.