Direction of fans

pibrahim · 22 Oct 2010 at 10:44

Hi all,

Have just installed a Noctua NH-D14 heatsink onto my i7-950 and still experiencing pretty high temperatures. I'm wondering if I've got the fans pointed in the right direction (irrespective of whether horizontal or vertical).

For instance, on this page:
http://www.guru3d.com/article/noctua-nh-d14-review/5
they have the fans facing the IO shield / back of the PC.

But on this page:
http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1212/4/
the heatsink is facing the IO shield, and the fan is facing the memory / front of the PC.

I'm assuming only one of these is correct - one is going to pump the air out the PC and the other's just going to pump it around inside the PC. Any idea which way's right..?

game4it · 22 Oct 2010 at 10:58

The normal way is link 2,with the heat being exhausted out the back of pc.
I presume your case has a fan there to vent it?

What temps are you getting on load?

pibrahim · 22 Oct 2010 at 11:02

Idle was around 35, but on load (with Prime 95) it was between 68 and 74 which is far too high for a non-OC'd (yet) i7-950 and with this particular heatsink. Something seemed very wrong indeed. I guess it's a case of taking it off, reapplying the paste and trying again..?

game4it · 22 Oct 2010 at 11:15

pibrahim said:
Idle was around 35, but on load (with Prime 95) it was between 68 and 74 which is far too high for a non-OC'd (yet) i7-950 and with this particular heatsink. Something seemed very wrong indeed. I guess it's a case of taking it off, reapplying the paste and trying again..?

Yes thats a wee bit on the high side for stock speeds

Reseat the cooler is deffo the next step.