Originally Posted by
MicroCat
Sure. If you like the cool air from the front to get sucked out of the case before its gets to the cooler. The issue with pushing/pulling the airflow in various directions is it creates turbulence (more noise) and eddies which can result in stagnant hotspots.
I love many, many fans, but not all of them in the same case at the same time. ;-)
While almost every case has top fan mounts - they're usually designed to support the devil's coolers - those AIO thingies. It's not against the laws of physics or conspicuous consumption to not install extra fans in those sad empty fan mounts.
The ideal case airflow is achieved when cool air can be pulled in easily, flow smoothly in one direction and exhausting quickly - like a wind tunnel, but without the nosy aerodynamists huddled around your monitor.
Check
doyll's case airflow how-to for the airy details.
A simple effective test optimal airflow is to measure the temperature gradient between external ambient temps and the internal case temps in front of the cooler using a cheap indoor/outdoor digital thermometer. If the gradient between ambient temp and internal air temp at the cooler intake is 2-3c then it's very close to ideal. If it's a 10-15c gradient, there's some work to do - either modding the case, filters and swapping in other fans. Hence why it's more fun to have a drawer full of fans and a select few in the system cooling quietly and effectively.