How To Install Pc Cooling Fan

If you click on a link and brand a buy we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy.

How to install a PC example fan

Whirr mongering

Ah, a nice easy, beezy upgrade that even the most nervous technophobe can apace make to their gaming rig. Learning how to install a PC example fan is equally unproblematic every bit reading this guide, and actually doing it barely requires whatsoever more endeavor. What'southward more, adding more ventilation your PC is almost never a bad idea, considering heat is as much of a natural foe to its well-beingness as malware and spilled drinks.

That's non to say that calculation a fan will amend functioning (similar the all-time graphics cards and best CPUs for gaming might), nor that your PC will outburst into flames if you keep using the fan configuration information technology came with. Merely thermal throttling tin exist a genuine issue for CPUs and NVMe SSDs in item, and so some added airflow could assist with your components' long-term health. You could end upward with a quieter system as well, as having more example fans means they don't need to spin every bit fast to shift a good for you amount of air.

Before we get into the business organisation of screwdriver-ing in a new fan or 2, in that location are some preflight checks to handle. Offset, make sure your instance really has empty fan slots to fill, and second, just buy fans that volition fit them. 120mm is the virtually common fan size and only most any example will fit them, but you can also get 140mm fans hands as well. Aftermarket fans come with their ain mounting screws and apply a universal manner of cable connector, then you're not limited to fans from your case manufacturer or anything – it's mainly the size that matters.

You should also think about whether your new fan should act as an intake fan, to draw cool air into the case, or an exhaust, to miscarry the hot air that would otherwise build up within the primary sleeping room. Generally, fans at the forepart of the instance should always exist intakes, and fans at the rear should e'er exist exhausts; top-mounted fans tin usually become either way, but flooring-mounted fans are better as intakes because in that location won't be much infinite underneath the PC for the ejected hot air to disperse.

Installing a case fan equally either an intake or frazzle is merely a case of having it face a certain management. On one side of the fan, the frame will include several confined extending from the centre – air volition flow in from the opposite, 'open' side towards the side with the bars. Continue this orientation in heed and just flip the fan over to change its airflow direction.

Right! Now for the fun scrap.

A PC case fan and its screws laying on top of an open case.

How to install a PC instance fan

Step i: Detect a spare fan slot on your PC. These are normally at the forepart, pinnacle and rear of your case; some might take 1 or two slots in the floor of the case as well.

An empty top fan slot on an NXT PC case. — This particular mounting slot volition concord either a 120mm or 140mm fan.

Step 2: With i hand, position the fan and then that it'southward both facing the desired direction (based on whether it's an intake or exhaust) and so that the screw holes line up with the holes in the case. Try and get the cable facing towards to your motherboard or fan hub besides – this volition hateful it's not stretched across the fan itself once it's connected.

A 120mm case fan being positioned into the top fan slot of a PC case. — With this orientation, the fan will act as an intake. An exhaust layout would also work since the slot is closer to the case's rear, but at least this mode some cold air will hit the hot GPU backplate.

Step 3: With your other hand, take hold of your screwdriver and employ the fan'south included screws to mount it to the case. One time the commencement spiral is in, it should exist secure plenty that you can let get of the fan and utilize both hands to adapt the spiral pigsty alignment, tighten them more than easily and so forth.

A screwdriver tightens one of four mounting screws on a PC case fan. — Equally ever, a magnetic-tipped screwdriver helps handle such small-scale screws.

Step 4: With the fan in identify, it's fourth dimension to connect the cable. Start past threading it into the cable management area behind the motherboard tray – or at the very least, away from whatever other components.