Air flow

hey guys, i'm about to build a pc in the corsair carbide air 540, and i can't decide if i should put 

x3 120mm fans in the front, or x2 140mm fans in the front.

the fans i will be using is be quiet silentwings. which option would give me better airflow? i will be using one 140mm in the rear as exhaust and the 3 OR 2 in the front as intake.. so basically, which option gives me better airflow?

I mean, if you look at the numbers, 2x140 would get you roughly 280mm of fan, whereas 3x120 would be 360mm of fan. So if you have more fan, theoretically more airflow. 

well my vote goes to 2x140mm fans.

The reason is because the 140mm fans are bigger, and have a higher CFM. They also run on lower rpm, so will be more quiet.

thats what i thought aswell, but do you think itll make a big difference? since the case is so short, the fans wont have to move a whole lot of air :P

might go that route, cuz as you said itll be more quiet and also cheaper, cuz i only buy 3 fans instead of 4.. but do you think i will notice a big difference between the 2? cuz i mean the case is so short if you understand

Well if we talk about the same fans, but just 120mm and 140mm versions then in my opinnion 140mm versions will be more quiet.

i need to check those fans out.

it also depends a bit on your case situation, if your fans have a free flow way, then in my opinnion again 2x140mm, because of quieter etc.

If you intake is blocked allot, then you could concider 120MM Static pressure fans. But it will be louder and what not. SP fans are more used on radiators with small fins density.

i still think that i would go with dual 140´s.

Three 120mm Silent Wings 2 fans will have a cumulative airflow of 151.5 cfm and a sound pressure level of 25 dB.

Two 140mm Silent WIngs 2 fans will have a cumulative airflow of 120.8 cfm and a sound pressure level of 21.8 dB.

So the 2x 140mm setup will be cheaper, but have less airflow. Sound-wise the difference will be sort of noticeable, but not by much I think: 

http://www.gcaudio.com/resources/howtos/loudness.html (scroll down to the "Perceptions of Increases in Decibel Level" heading).

As for the actual math behind adding decibels, it's Lps + 20 log(n) = Lpt, where Lps = sound pressure from a single source (dB), n = number of sources, and Lpt = total sound pressure (dB)

Thats great additional info thanks.

i was expecting a smaler gab in CFM between triple 120´s vs dual 140´s with those fans. I did not looked the fans up yet. But indeed there is a diffrence.

However i still dont think that will gonne matter a whole lot. whatever dual 140´s or triple 120´s. still dual 140´s are cheaper, and slightly quieter.

So i would still go the dual 140 route, because they are quieter and cheaper still. ☺

that really is great info :P but do you by any chance know how much difference it will make in real life usage? i will be using a be quiet dark rock 3 as cpu cooler, so more airflow will mean that the cooler will perform better right? same thing with GPU, are we talking 5 degrees, or more? :P

those fans (silentwings 2) arent cheap to begin with, so dual 140 is cheaper yes, and quieter and since im using the carbide air 540 itll be nice to keep the sound level down as much as possible, however, do you know how big of a difference itll actually make? like are we talking 5 degrees or more? maybe lesso n the GPU and cpu cooler (air)

ill be using the carbide air 540 so there will be free flow way, only a dustfilter in between :P

well i dont think there will be much of a real life diffrence at all.

maybe 1/2 degrees or something.

2x140 intake and 1x140 exhaust is a positive pressure configuration. so it should be fine.

then i'll go that route ^-^ same some money and get rid of some noise! sounds good to me :3 thanks for all the answers :P