Fitting case fan

[Jamieg285]

First time I've had a case with no fans on it, so I've got to fit my own and I could do with some advice.

There's fitting options on the rear and the sides, I've got one fan now and may get another later.

My questions are, if only using 1 fan, do I fit it on the side or the rear, and should it be pushing air in, or pulling it out?  

If I then fit a second one, does that do the same, i.e. both pushing in, or should they be opposite, one pushing one pulling?

[Incursus]

Generally I would say air out the back or side, in at the front if you want/need

[Jamieg285]

Cool. (pun not intended!)

I also need to pull the case apart and see if there are any vents/fan mounts at the front near the drives.

It's these that I believe are over heating.  I had it once before on my old case, where I mounted all 4 in adjacent slots. After a short period the machine would lock up.  When I separated them it ran OK. (although that machine had at least one working fan too.)

New case doesn't give me the same options of spacing the drives out. As well as adding the fans, I'm also looking for a NAS bay in the near future, to relocate 2 of them.

[Pod]

Pretty much the same thing Chris said.

The air needs to go in, flow through the case (past the hot bits!) and out the other end.

The power supply almost certainly blows out the back. Maybe check where it pulls from.

Which case is it?

[FUBAR]

The general rule is air in at the front & normally over the drives first, then out at the back or top (if the case has a blowhole fan option)

Your Gfx card will more than likely vent out the back of the case as well (If its a 2-slot jobbie)

also your CPU cooler should exhaust towards the back of the case if it has its fans mounted at 90deg to the Motherboard.

[Jamieg285]

Don't know what the case is, it was just a cheapy from Maplin.

So if I only have 1 fan, should I extract from the back, or blow in from the front over the discs?

There are vent holes/fan mount points at the rear like the pic above, as well as two more next to each other on the side panel, level with the rear fan.

I also looked at my PSU.  It seems to be blowing down, into the case?!?

[Pod]

Quoting: Jamieg285

So if I only have 1 fan, should I extract from the back, or blow in from the front over the discs?

Doesn't usually matter which, with only one fan.
Seeing as the disks appear to be the problem, prpbably mount it at the front to blow in to them first.

Quoting: Jamieg285

I also looked at my PSU. It seems to be blowing down, into the case?!?

Check the psu fan direction with a piece of paper while it's running (carefully!).
They normally suck in from inside the case and blow out the back.