HSF fan, suck or blow?

[realBabelfish]

Hi guys, my HSF fan broke so i had to get a replacement, but i cant remember if they are supposed to suck or blow.

the replacement fan i have is a coolermaster but i cant remember the spec for it now.

am i right in thinking this fan should suck from the heatsink? there is another case exhaust right above it.

 

[mickyflinn]

Most fans blow threw the Heatsink , what cooler do you have ?

 

[realBabelfish]

hmmm, no idea. its my workstation so its been a long time since i bought it. its got a big old corsair heatsink though. its an OCUK overclocked bundle so im assuming it was a half decent one. but i cant find my old order.

 

[DragonQ]

Well the nearby exhaust fan is basically a pull fan for the heatsink, so you may as well also have a push fan.

 

[realBabelfish]

ok, so push onto CPU then? the bracket broke too so im gonna have to superglue it so i want to get this right first time lol

 

[HeX]

99% of the time fans blow onto the heatsink.

 

[David Bisset]

If you look at where the air will be flowing in your case this can help e.g. if you've a fan exhausting from the case just behind the heat-sink (pretty common) then you want the air generally flowing towards it. So if fan is on far side then blow onto HS and through to the vent, if on same side then pulling from HS towards the vent. If at 90 degrees to it then see if the top has intakes or venting fans and use the same logic.