Best air flow

[The Quicken]

I'm looking for some input on best air flow for my case, I have an Antec 302, no GPU but full HDD bays.
Pic below is same case I have.
Fans marked Red #'s are self explanatory, Blue #'s represent fans on side/s of case. #6 is behind CPU.

Which would be best exhaust/intake ?

[Trocko]

you can really do whatever you want.... I have my case setup so that ive got 2 intake fans on the front (1 &2) pulling air through my rad, blowing onto the GPU, and exhausting out 4 & 3 (a 120mm on 4 and 2x 140mm on 3)

If you wanted for dust, you could make all fans push air out of the case, and make the #4 draw air in, since its high up, but dont makee#3 intake, as dust would settle and menace you forever lol.

It also depends if you are using an ALC or not....If you are using an air cooler, this is the best setup IMHO, the picture above.

If youve got an ALC, or custom loop, you dont need much air blowing over the top of things, so dont worry too much

[Dzzope]

1256 intake 3 and 4 out.

Positive pressure is better for dust so have better intake than exhaust.
If your pushing more cooler air in the exhaust fans will remove it easily and any excess that isn't removed by the exhaust fans will get out any gaps in the case rather than negative pressure when it comes in the gaps(attracting dust to where there are no filters).

Also think about getting a second fan for the AIO cpu cooler, not only will it help keep the cpu cooler but should improve the amount of air getting out of the case.

[Bond007]

I would block 5 and 6 with some black cardboard so you can't notice it, 1 and 2 intake, 3 and 4 exhaust (that is what I did with my antec 300 even with a gpu and everything still runs nice and cool...the box my 300 came in was where I grabbed the piece of cardboard to block). This will be the smoothest airflow. Air goes in low at the front and out high at the back (hot air naturally rises). I know some people like to jam a fan where ever there is a spot, but it creates disturbed airflow and therefore potential hotspots and also extra noise. IMO the only reason to use 6 is if you are concerned with a hot running motherboard, and the only reason to use 6 is if you have a hot running graphics card. This setup also forces all air in through the front which has a dust filter, so you have nice clean air in your case.

[The Quicken]

Originally Posted by Bond007

I would block 5 and 6 with some black cardboard so you can't notice it, 1 and 2 intake, 3 and 4 exhaust (that is what I did with my antec 300 even with a gpu and everything still runs nice and cool...the box my 300 came in was where I grabbed the piece of cardboard to block). This will be the smoothest airflow. Air goes in low at the front and out high at the back (hot air naturally rises). I know some people like to jam a fan where ever there is a spot, but it creates disturbed airflow and therefore potential hotspots and also extra noise. IMO the only reason to use 6 is if you are concerned with a hot running motherboard, and the only reason to use 6 is if you have a hot running graphics card. This setup also forces all air in through the front which has a dust filter, so you have nice clean air in your case.

Point taken on #6, I forgot to include my heatsink in pic.

[The Quicken]

Originally Posted by Dzzope

1256 intake 3 and 4 out.

Positive pressure is better for dust so have better intake than exhaust.
If your pushing more cooler air in the exhaust fans will remove it easily and any excess that isn't removed by the exhaust fans will get out any gaps in the case rather than negative pressure when it comes in the gaps(attracting dust to where there are no filters).

Also think about getting a second fan for the AIO cpu cooler, not only will it help keep the cpu cooler but should improve the amount of air getting out of the case.

]1256 intake 3 and 4 out.

This makes sense to me (except for 6 - #6 'bugs me.)
My Coolmaster Hyper 212 intake is fan is on the right, pushing air through the rad out to #3 & #4.

I've got to open it up tonight to add a molex/sata power adapter, maybe I'll take a pic of what really going on. (Wires/HDDs etc)

[Dzzope]

Thats only if you want to put fans in / have fans for each spot..

BTW, if you have 4 intake and want a third exhaust you could flip the PSU, it'll be fed plenty of cool air from 1,2+5 and will mean you have less cleaning to do
(especially if the filter isn't easily removed)

[The Quicken]

Arrows represent current air flow.

[Dzzope]

Tidy up the cabling (get it all behind the motherboard tray) and your good... there is plenty of airflow in that case as is... if anything you could remove fans so it's quieter.

[Bond007]

Your good for fans. As mentioned you should tidy up cabling to improve flow. Get the excess cable behing the mother board tray or hard drive cage.