In this episode,
we're going to identify how and where to install our system fans.
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Hello, ladies and gentlemen.
Thank you for joining in to more of the Hands-on PC Build.
That's right, in this episode,
we're going to be looking at all things system fans.
I thought it'd be interesting to show you
how to install your system fan.
So that's what we're doing,
identify how to install your system fans
and also determine what the positions are.
So let's take a look at the bench here.
We've got a few tools and components here as well.
You might remember that in an earlier episode,
we actually removed our system fan from the backside of the case
so that we can get our heatsink in.
And I thought it would be good to show you
how to get that installed,
as well as a 120mm Noctua fan.
We're going to install that in the front position right here.
So we're pulling...
or pulling, if I could say that... cool air into the case
and then exhausting it out of the back of the case.
So the first thing that we need to do is
we need to go ahead and we need to get our fan installed.
Prior to doing that, though,
it's important to understand and determine
what the direction of the airflow is
and basically, what the direction of the fan's turn will be,
how does it spin.
And we can actually see that.
Right here at the top of your system fan,
you can see that there is some directional arrows.
And what that does is that says,
hey, we're going to pull air in from the front
and exhaust it out the back.
And then this is the rotational direction,
it's going to be counterclockwise of this fan.
And when we install it,
we actually will install it right here
in this position just like so.
Now, the next thing that we're going to do
is we're actually going to take our screwdriver,
and this is a different Phillips head screwdriver
that I've been using throughout the series,
and it's just because I need a little bit more torque.
Sometimes these fans,
especially with the plastic pre-drilled holes,
you might need a little bit more torque.
So that's what I got.
But it's just a standard Phillips screwdriver
with a little bit wider grip here.
And if we look at our tech cam,
we can actually see that the little mounting holes
will come into play right here.
I'm going to get my hand out of the camera
and you can see there, we've got these positions here.
And I'm just going to start one.
We'll get it started here
and just kind of hand-tighten it just a little bit
and make sure that that is in the right position,
because it's kind of like a socket set.
And we'll take the second one, and again, making sure
that we've got it in the gear to actually tighten it down.
And then we'll do the fourth one.
And it's a real easy thing,
not too difficult in order to do this.
And I'm just going to go ahead
and just kind of tighten these
and make sure that all of those positions
actually line up the way that we want.
And so, there we go. That is it.
We're going to go ahead
and we'll tighten those up here in a second.
But the next thing that we want to do
is we want to take our fan connector
and we want to connect it to a four-pin header on the motherboard.
And I'm going to go ahead
and shine some light on the situation
and see where this is actually located for us.
And if we take a look in our case, we'll see
that up in the upper top left-hand corner of your screen,
you're going to see
that there's this little four-pin header right here,
and even says system fan,
just under where we connected the CPU, power supply
or power connection in an earlier episode there.
So we're going to go ahead,
we'll take our fan connector here,
and we're just going to get this installed right
on that little header.
And it could take a little bit, especially if you're like me,
you've got some big hands,
it might be a little bit difficult to get it into that case
and get it installed.
Looks like we didn't have too much problem there.
And that's it.
That's how you get your rear fan here installed.
I'm just going to thread down these bolts,
tighten them up a little bit more.
But we also want to show you
how to get the front 120mm Nocta fan installed.
So in order to do that
and give you guys and gals out there a better view,
we're going to go ahead and just reverse the case.
And when we come back, we'll get our front fan installed.
All right, we've gone ahead
and we've tightened down the rear fan.
And what we're going to do
is we're going to install the front 120mm Nocta fan
in the lower position.
Now, just like all fans,
really, it's important that you understand
what the rotational direction of your fan is,
as well as how does it move the air?
Does it move the air out of the case
or does it pull air into the case?
And if we take a look, you're going to see this one's
just like the rear fan that we installed.
Now notice the position here.
It's saying that it's rotating this way,
but it's pushing air out of the case.
That's not what we want
because this is the front lower position,
we have to make sure that we turn it into the appropriate,
you know, the appropriate direction here.
So what this is going to do
is this is going to pull cool air into the case,
which is exactly what we want.
And then we're just going to install that right here
in the lower position.
Now, when we do this, you're going to notice
that if we look at the tech cam,
it's really not much different
than what we've seen when we installed the first one.
You'll notice that there are going to be some screw holes here
and some mounting positions on this case.
And again, fairly straightforward process.
Now, I will tell you, I definitely, from time to time,
drop a few of these screws here.
So I'm going to go ahead
and I'm going to get just a couple of these started
because I'm sure that you all out there,
ladies and gentlemen,
can install the screws and then tighten them down.
And we'll just go ahead and take a second here,
and I'm going to tighten that so it stays in position.
And then I'm going to go ahead
and install the other four screws,
and we'll tighten them down.
And then this fan is pretty much going to be ready
for installation, or it will be installed, for that matter.
But there is one other thing that we want to do.
Again, just like the rear fan here,
we've got our system fan connector
that we've got to connect to the system header.
And let me show you where it is.
In our case that we're actually looking at.
You can see right here, there's a four-pin header
on the motherboard and it says system fan here.
It's just below this big cable,
which is actually our USB 3.0 connectors.
And you just line up the little rails here.
And in this case, if I go ahead and install that...
in fact I'll go ahead and install it like this
and maybe you can see this go into play.
It shouldn't be too difficult to install.
That's one of the good things about a lot of these positions.
The way they've got these cases built,
they've got these kind of no-nonsense,
no-fault type rails on them
that makes it easy to just make your basic connections.
So there you go.
The only thing left to do to this fan
is just to tighten down the other two screws here
and we've got our rear exhaust fan
and our front intake and fan installed.
Keep in mind that the front intake fan
did not come with the system case.
This is after the fact.
We've actually upgraded the cooling system within this case
to allow for extra airflow.
Cool air coming into the case,
and it should exhaust out the back of the case.
But that's how you...
really, how you install your case fans, your system fans.
Remember that they can be all different sizes.
They could be 80mm up to 240, and sometimes even larger.
You just have to make sure
that you pay attention to the vendor specifications,
order the right fan for your case,
identify those locations on the motherboard,
make sure you make those connections.
And that's how you install your system fans.
Thank you for watching ITProTV.