Case Fans - Intake/Exhaust, Electrical, Ventilation

[sgs]

Planning to add 2 front (intake) and 2 rear (exhaust) 80 mm fans to ATX case.
Case optionally allows these extra fans and standardly includes 1 side fan. PC
will potentially house 1 CD-Rom drive, 1 DVD drive, 3 Sata 150 drives, and
(approximately) 500 watt power supply (at rear of case). Based on comments, am
leaning towards Panaflo L1A case fans.

1. Are intake fans typically distinct from exhaust fans, or do the case fans
typically have a switch for configuring for intake or exhaust?

2. How are case fans typically connected electrically: to the mobo; to the
power supply; to the case (somehow)? When would it be appropriate to
connect a case fan to the mobo? How do you determine if the mobo can
connect to the 4 fans?

3. What extra connections (fan regulators) are needed so that fan(s) speed will
automatically react to interior temperature (i.e. fans not loud if interior
not that hot).

4. Based on the electrical connections, what type of connectors are needed?

5. Should I disable/remove the side fan and just go with the (regulated ?) 2
front and 2 rear fans (+ power supply fans and CPU heat sink fan)? Would
the side fan be accomplishing anything?

[The Lodge]

1. Just flip the fan around. One way exhaust, the other intake.
2. The ps. With one of the four pin connecters from ps.
3. There are quite a few fans that have a temp sensor you attach to the fan.
4. Just the plain connectors off of ps. You can daisy chain them together also.
5. No, keep it connected. Helps in cooling the video card, blowing fresh air right onto it.

[scottluebke2003]

Front and side fans should be intake. Rear and top should be exhaust. Experiment with fans ON and OFF and find the perfect temperature/noise balance. It's not fun having a computer that keeps you up at night. If Dell can make quiet computers with the same hardware, then so can we.