Do you really need a case fan?

okay sounds like a stupid question, but I found this to be rather odd. I was working on another problem with a computer, I ended up having to open the case to fix the problem.

To my amazement I opened the case up and there is not one case fan in the computer. The only thing that is cooling it is the fan in the power supply and the CPU fan . I'm kind of thankfull I put it on a flat, elevated surface to give it more ventalation(has a fan vent on the bottom).

I think I'll eventually get around to putting a few fans in this one, But I'm curious to see anyone else has found this on a computer? They got the computer from a computer show, so it's not a name brand.

 

I have 3 no names with just the power supply and cpu fan....running celerons 800 with only one hard drive and a cdrom....nothing fancy....but they run a cool 40ish C.........

 

The operating temperature is the key to knowing if you need extra cooling fans. I've seen lots of systems with just the P/S and processor fans, and this one I'm using has a three case fans, and fans on the processor, graphics board, and of course, the P/S. I just picked up some CoolerMaster fans with temperature sensors to cut down the noise a little.

 

The local company that my employer use to buy from builds all his PCs that way. IMHO it's asking for trouble. One PC had the power supply fan fail. Not suprising since I could see it was a cheapo power supply. The real problem was that once that sole fan failed the hard drive overheated. The hard drive overheated because the cheapo case had the hard drive mounted on top of the power supply. Really stupid design. Fans are inexpensive. about $5 USD. Course that does you no good if the p.o.s. case has no place to mount it or you have no place to power it from. I have on this PC 4 fans not counting cpu or the power supplies 2. May I recommend filters for intakes as well. Easier to clean a filter than the interior of a case. but you don't have to take my word for it. See here

 

my PII doesnt' even have a cpu fan, do I need one? I only have the P/S fan, but I run with the side cover off all the time. How do I measure cpu temp?

 

Check in your bios setup....may be under cpu info or PC Health info.....

 

As I remember the first chip I had a heatsink on was a 486. First fan on a K5. Modern chips produce a lot of heat and on an increasingly small die surface area (see http://www.tomshardware.com/cpu/20020916/index.html ) I dont have a case fan for my K6-2 500, but certainly do for my athlonxp 1800
I would guess the case fan need starts above 1 gig.

 

Perhaps I should have mentioned the PC I had trouble with was a PIII 450. A $5 case fan & $10-$15 on a better case woulda saved that Hard drive.