HSF direction

[Solari]

Hi chaps,

I've had conflicting comments on whether my HSF is the wrong way round. Could someone please settle this?

Basically... 1 fan sucks in air at the front, an exhaust blows out the back. The HSF fan is blowing out towards the exhaust fan. I don't know the physics behind this if the fans are at different RPM/shifting different amounts of air and whether this is good or not.

There's a vent at the top of the case so I was wondering whether I should have the HSF fan blowing air upwards instead? I think this would not really help as the PSU would then be sucking in warm air... Case is a Lian Li PC-something-or-other.

         _______....______
        |     |           |
       <- PSU |           |
        |_____|           |
        |                 |
        :   ||====        |
120mm  <- <-||==== HSF    |
        :   ||====        |
        |   	          |
        |                 |
        |=========        :
      <-:GPU            <- <- 120mm
        |_________________:

 

[Solari]

Thanks There's no fan in the top, just vent holes. I didn't bother fitting one as I assumed any hot air there wouldn't need help escaping. Saying that it might draw more cold air up over the CPU but 2 exhaust fans and 1 intake fan doesn't seem balanced?

The only thing that makes me a bit confused is that there is about 1cm gap between the fan on the heatsink and the fan mounted to the back of the case... that makes me think that it probably can't be that efficient? Air forced onto a fan must result in some deflection back into the case?

 

[Solari]

As long as they are blowing air the same direction then it isn't a problem. The idea is to get the warm air out of the case as quick as possible.

Cheers Huddy, appreciated I've seen a few pages on the net with the fan the other side of the HSF but I assume that they are trying to push air through the heatsink rather than "pulling".

 

[Solari]

It's an Arctic Freezer7 Pro. Not sure if I can get at it to swap the fan position around but doesn't a "pushing" fan generate more noise than a "sucking" fan?

I'll have a look later on as I can't be bothered pulling the rig apart unless I'm doing a major upgrade

 

[Solari]

I'm sure I turned the PC on and felt the fan blowing outwards That's why I mounted it the way it was... Paranoid now so I'll have to check tomorrow when I get some time.

 

[Solari]

OK chaps, I'll double check as I was convinced the fan was sucking air through the HS and hence blowing out towards the exhaust. That image above is blocked as I'm at work. Funny thing is my temps are alright

Hopefully I can swap it without having to pull the whole lot out of the case.

 

[Solari]

To be honest, if your temps are good who cares?

Well it's been like this for about a year or so.. I think the highest I've had the CPU temp in TAT is 60*C - that was in summer with a moderate overclock. At the moment load is about 49/50*C.

Lower temps would obviously be a bonus so I'll still look into it

 

[Solari]

If it's an AC freezer pro you got it round the wrong way. the fan blows through the HS

Random google image but it shows what needs doing.

Oh titties. Now I can see that (I'm back home), I see epic failure

Hum I'll order some cleaning stuff and TC and see if I can swap it at the weekend. No way can I get away with doing this in the case as the socket on my mobo is quite close to the back of the case and I can't get my hands in comfortably

 

[Solari]

Its not so bad easy enough to swap round ........ according to your diagram way up there though your fan was pulling air through the heatsink did you also swap the fan around or did you get the direction wrong in your diagram ?

I was sure the fan was pushing air towards the back.. I'll check when I have a few mins. Seriously, it's quite cramped in my case and I can't see it being too simple to swap around - it's a mobo out job so I might just wait until I get another CPU (probably after payday)