Install a fan to reduce temperatures?

[lowerstreet]

I was using HDTune today and the temperature on my original 2TD WD drive is at 52 C. I don't know what it was at before I installed a new hard drive. My case is a Carbide 300R and all four of my hard drive bays are now filled.

To solve the temperature problem, I was thinking of installing a second fan in the front of the case, maybe near the bottom beside the hard drives. Would that help?

I was wondering a couple of things:
1. Which fan would you recommend? I was thinking a 140mm one... a quiet one would be nice since I can hear a lot through the holes of this case.
2. Would I need to move the current fan I have at the front?
3. Where on the motherboard would I connect the fan?
4. Will there be another connector going to the power supply?

Any help would be greatly appreciated! I just want to know if it's worth it to do and to know the general procedure before I try.

 

[enaberif]

52 for a hard drive is nothing.

 

[moocow]

1. Download / dig out the 300R manual.
2. Buy decent fan.
3. Note direction of air flow during install.
4. Profit.

While I'm no expert in the area of cooling, you should at least read up on some benchmarks so you have some idea on noise vs air flow. For now, why don't you move the front fan down to the cage area and see if there's any improvement? Check the motherboard to see if you have any remaining fan header (the small 3 pin or 4 pin) but if now, you need to use the big 4 pin plug. Depending on the fan, you may need to buy power adapters.

 

[KaptCrunch]

if have no fan header on MB then use a molex adapter

 

[lowerstreet]

Thanks for the help, everyone.

A friend had an extra Noctua fan that he bought and never used. Unfortunately, it was a PWM fan (with a 4-pin connector) even though I didn't need one, but the box said that it can be fit into the 3-pin adapter too.

I couldn't figure out how to use the rubber/silicone mounts since they couldn't fit through the tiny holes at the front of the case (the hard drive cage was in the way too). The screws provided were really small, so I had to go out and purchase some longer 1.25 inch screws which I saw on the Corsair fan already installed.

There was an empty 3-pin Fan plug on the motherboard but there were other plugs on either side of it, and I couldn't squeeze in the 4-pin fan connector into that space. Luckily, I was able to move the other front fan (which had a smaller 3-pin) out of its slot, and it fit into that tight space.

So I plugged in the new fan to the now vacated wider space, and it worked.

But then I realized I should have plugged in the low-noise adapter to reduce the speed & noise of the fan since I can hear it. However, the plug now seems to be stuck onto the motherboard and I can't pull/wiggle it out. I don't want to break the motherboard, so I'm just going to leave it. The sound isn't that bad.

I've left the computer all day and now the 2TB drive is at staying consistently at 35C instead of 52C, so it did help... I'm glad to learn 52C isn't that bad, though.

When I pulled out the front panel of the computer, I noticed some of the metal whorl clip things were flattened. I tried to bend it back, the small piece of metal snapped. So I'm leaving the rest alone.