XPS 8700, adding an 80mm case fan to front

Are you sure your EVGA PSU fan blows down onto your CPU fan? Most PSUs exhaust air out the back which means the fan should draw air into the PSU. Also, you would not want the heat from inside the PSU to exhaust into the case.

Ok I admit I am clueless about lots of computer stuff! It makes sense the PSU would pull air up and out. I was just automatically thinking exhaust. 

Thanks for making it more clear.

The more I think about it I guess the most sense would be add front fan bring air from front and help aid the exhausting of the rear 92mm case fan?! 

Again I apologize in advance if my logic and skills sound wrong. I joined this community to learn and am happy it exists outside of the general "Google" world! LOL.

You do not need to apologize. I was thinking if your PSU fan was actually doing that then something may be wrong. 

I am not familiar with the XPS 8700 case, but looking at the owner's manual it appears that although a front fan would help, the fan would have to be mounted low and air from the fan could be partially block depending upon the length of the video card.

I would mount the 80mm fan as low as I can as there is a nice void space in the case for it. My graphics card is a short one with single fan. It will be a fun project to see if it does much adding a front fan. I bought a y adapter cable to power the fan as the motherboard only has one 3 pin case fan connector. 

Here is my case and I sort of traced where I want the fan located. Fan location with sharpie square.Looking towards front and location for fan.

Having one fan blow in and one out is definitely better than just one blowing out (besides PSU fan).  I've added fans to PC's myself and it should make for a nice little whirlwind inside your PC.  From your photo, it looks like there's plenty of space for air to go around the GPU.

@ZippoMan    Here is my case and I sort of traced where I want the fan located.

Any fan is better than no fan . . . but 80mm is pretty small.  Is that the biggest fan that will fit in that space?

@ZippoMan The space looks fine for a fan and airflow should not be a problem, but I have to agree with @Anonymous. If you want to install a fan why not install a larger one.

I figured the quality of a Noctura fan at 80mm will fit best without having to move anything on the front panel like the drive bays. If you see my sharpie square markings on the front. That box is roughly 85mm x 85mm. I want the fan to mount nicely and not look to hacked! 

I know larger is better......"That's What She Said!" I have the fan coming already and Noctua 80mm ones are not inexpensive. I might be dumb for doing this but I will be unique I guess...lol 

I sort of thought about this for a while. I did see one other person who put a 120mm fan in his but to me it just looked hacked and stuff. 

I will let you know how this goes. I really like my XPS 8700 and have a little OCD so for me doing mods to anything make me worry but I do like the challenge. 

@ZippoMan    I will let you know how this goes. I really like my XPS 8700 and have a little OCD so for me doing mods to anything make me worry but I do like the challenge. 

Awesome! Post some photos of your mod project.

Front intake fan would help a lot....anything is better than nothing.

Problem with that part of the case was the sheet metal at that front intake location it’s not totally flat there.   @Danh cut out the sheet metal there and put a 120mm fan there, I believe a 92mm fan will fit there without any cutting and all you need is a couple of screws to hold it in place, even one screw would secure a fan there.  3m Super Advanced Moulding tape would also hold any fan you want to put there.

I did offset a 120mm fan there, it was really easy but the price of the rad stand I used doubled.

Pictures of that install with a corsair fan I had lying around are on this post

Pictures of the openings you need to keep clear are on that post as well.

Using a Noctua fan is recommended.

Also look at Noctua's 15mm slim fan offerings if you didn't want to remove that HDD cage.  Very good fans.

Just depends on how much room you have between the HDD cage and the front of the chassis.

I am sticking to my plan of the 80mm Noctua 25mm wide fan as it is on order from far away! Not easy to return and also not cheap. My sharpie square in the photo is a box 85mm x 85mm for reference. It should just miss the HDD/SDD cage mounts perfectly. I really don't want my old Dell to look like a cheap hacked up machine. I know I might be crazy/dumb but I don't need a massive gaming PC to be happy, plus my room is tiny for all of my desk and setup. I wish I had a bigger room but it is what it is. 

I feel spending money on good quality parts makes more sense over cheap, junky and louder parts! 

I will update once parts arrive and the mod begins.

Thank you guys for the replies and info. I appreciate this forum and all of you fine folks! 

@HanoverB I like your photo with the arrows showing which areas of the front to keep clear. I noticed where to keep clear after drawing my sharpie box on the front. I was looking at the area while putting the front panel back on. I think the box I have just clears the only area of concern I have. All other areas should be good. I don't think I will add a screen/filter to my fan. I will just maintain my cleaning schedule of every 2 months. So far so good! 

Thanks again for your help and link to your neat set up! Looks very good. 

@HanoverB - I like the photos also.

@ZippoMan - If the chassis holes don't line up the way you want, 2-way mounting foam tape, or advanced molding tape, as mentioned by HanoverB, is a good idea.

For an additional rear l.e.d. case fan in my Optiplex 7010, only 2 holes lined up, and the screws are visible.  I didn't like the way it looked without 4 screws, so I resorted to super glue.  Just enough to hold it well, but I can still remove it.  Though it's not an XPS, here's some fan photos:

Screws have since been removed.^

The front:

The catch with the front grill is light from l.e.d. fan doesn't come thru as bright as my previous 755.

Front fan was superglued in it also.