Went from 'more fans = better' to proper airflow planning after a random comment
Was at a friend's place last month helping him rack a new switch, and he just casually said 'you know stacking fans in the back is just recycling hot air, right?' I had 6 Noctua fans crammed into a 12U rack thinking it was genius cooling. Actually measured temps after rearranging to a push-pull setup with proper gaps. Dropped my CPU idle temp by 8 degrees Celsius. Now I actually measure static pressure instead of just slapping fans everywhere. Anybody else fall for the 'more airflow' trap at first?
Guessing all the air was just bouncing off that glass straight back into the case, right? Reminds me of the time I built a PC in a cheap acrylic case back in the day and literally melted a zip tie inside because there was zero airflow. Took a saw to that front panel and temps dropped like a rock, felt like a genius for about five minutes until I realized I'd made a permanent mess of the thing. Point is, sometimes these cases look slick but they're basically just hot boxes with pretty faces.