Keeping it cool

Antec TriCool (80mm)

Remember we said we were going to get some extra fans, with blue LEDs?  The first one is called an Antec TriCool (the same brand as the case).  It fits on the side panel and will help to keep the CPU cool.  The other one is made by Zalman and is a little larger.  It fits inside the front of the case.  The photo here is the Antec - the Zalman looks pretty much the same. We're not sure whether the computer will sound like a jumbo jet with all these fans, but I guess we'll find out soon enough.


The most important thing about fans is to get the right diameter for the place you want to attach it to the case - the Antec is 80mm diamaeter and the Zalman 92mm.  We would have got them both the same brand, except that we couldn't find an Antec LED fan at 92mm. Both fans will pull air into the case - the bigger fan that came already installed in the back of the case will push air out.

Fitting them was a little fiddly.  First, the Antec didn't have any arrows on showing which way the air would flow, so we had to use a little guesswork.  Second, the Zalman came with very stretchy silicone pins, which were supposed to go through the holes in the case and then through the fan - all helping to keep noise down apparently.  Well, the pins were never going to fit through the holes in our case.  Luckily the case itself had come with some extra screws, just for fitting fans, so we used those instead.