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How to determine the side a cooler will face on the mobo?

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Hello everyone!

I will be upgrading to a 2500K and an ASRock Pro3 Gen3 but still not sure on the cooler. Funny to me that I never thought about it, but I have no idea how or what determines which way the heatsink's fan will be facing (facing RAM and pulling the air to rear of the case OR facing the PCI slot and pushing the air to the top of the case).
I'd prefer if the fan pushed the air from RAM to the back of the case :)
 

Starla

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It is going to depend on the case intake/exhaust arrangement.

I use a HAF 922 with a Noctua NH-D14 (2 Noctua NF-P14 fans).

- front: 20 cm stock fan. Cool air first passes through HD array, then ascends until it reaches CPU front fan.
- side: 20 cm Cooler Master MegaFlow 200 Red LED. Cool air right at the CPU front fan, GPU fans (MSI GTX570 Twin Frozr III PE) and Z68 chipset (Asrock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3)
- bottom: 12 cm Tacens Ventus. Cool air right at GPU fans, Z68 chipset, contributes to expected case airflow and front case intake redirection.
- top: 20 cm stock fan. Hot air exhaust right after CPU second fan, contibutes to expected case airflow.
- rear: 12 cm Noctua NF-P12. Auxiliary hot air exhaust, right between both CPU fans.

So for me, optimal arrangement is CPU fans intake facing the PCI-E slots. I have no direct front case intake aligned with CPU fans.

Side and front fans probably to be replaced with 2x12 cm Tacens Ventus or Noctua NF-S12B FLX each.
 
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you would be better off with a intake case fan blowing air from outside the case directly into the intake fan of your heatsink, even if that means you have to have the computer pulling air in from the back of the case.
 

Starla

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Yes, why not. The rear 12 cm fan is now an additional cool air intake for the CPU.
 

de.das.dude

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its best for following bottom to top flow.
its better for the heatpipes as well.
 
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Umm let me rephrase the opening question ;)

When I buy new motherboard and cooler I want to know which side the cooler fan will face. I really want to get the Thermalright Archon but it's 155mm wide (that's a lot imo) and it would probably interfere with more than 2 RAM slots (out of 4) if the fan would face the PCI slots. But if the fan faces the RAM slots then all is dandy.
I used to think that you could rotate the heatsink however you like but I certainly can only install my Titan Fenrir to face the PCI slots :(
 
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Assuming you're posting about the cpu cooler, you're saying that your options are to have it blow either towards the pci slots or towards the ram slots. Is it possible you make it blow towards the back of the case?

It all depends on your pc case ultimately, and what other fans you have.

Originally I had installed my cpu cooler blowing towards the back. I had a 60mm exhaust on the back, 60mm intake on the side and 120mm intake at the front, apart from the 120mm exhaust of the psu.

I discovered I could get ~ 5 degrees lower by making the cpu cooler blow into the psu's 120mm exhaust, and switching the 60mm side fan to exhaust instead of intake, as per diagram below. Sounded crazy, but it worked... :cool:

Here's a diagram showing the airflow (red arrows). It isn't showing the side exhaust though since the side window isn't there.. Keep in mind that it all depends on your case. My solution might not work for you.

 

de.das.dude

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Umm let me rephrase the opening question ;)

When I buy new motherboard and cooler I want to know which side the cooler fan will face. I really want to get the Thermalright Archon but it's 155mm wide (that's a lot imo) and it would probably interfere with more than 2 RAM slots (out of 4) if the fan would face the PCI slots. But if the fan faces the RAM slots then all is dandy.
I used to think that you could rotate the heatsink however you like but I certainly can only install my Titan Fenrir to face the PCI slots :(

generally on intel boards, its possible to change the orientation.
 
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My case is the Antec 1200 V1 (2x 120mm rear blow out of the case, 1x 200mm top blows out of the case), motherboard ASRock Pro3 Gen3 and still can't decide on the CPU cooler since I'm scared I'll have to fit it facing the PCI slots and it will block too many RAM slots.
 

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Umm let me rephrase the opening question ;)

When I buy new motherboard and cooler I want to know which side the cooler fan will face. I really want to get the Thermalright Archon but it's 155mm wide (that's a lot imo) and it would probably interfere with more than 2 RAM slots (out of 4) if the fan would face the PCI slots. But if the fan faces the RAM slots then all is dandy.
I used to think that you could rotate the heatsink however you like but I certainly can only install my Titan Fenrir to face the PCI slots :(

Since Intel's mounting holes form a perfect square, you can rotate the cooler either way and mount it however you want.

AMD's mounting system isn't as flexiable, which is why your current setup only allows you to mount the fan facing the PCI slots.

Of course Thermalright is one of the few genius heatsink manufacturers that have figured out mounting brackets for AMD that allow the cooler to be oriented either way.
 

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If you want to throw ThermalRight in a genius boat with NZXT and Thermaltake, go right ahead;)
 
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Since Intel's mounting holes form a perfect square, you can rotate the cooler either way and mount it however you want.

AMD's mounting system isn't as flexiable, which is why your current setup only allows you to mount the fan facing the PCI slots.

Ahhh didn't know that, thanks!
 

de.das.dude

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see i had said that already. on intel you can mount it anyway you like.
 

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If you want to throw ThermalRight in a genius boat with NZXT and Thermaltake, go right ahead;)

Anyone that can figure out how to get tower coolers mounted in any direction on AMD, yes, I would put in the genius category after going so long with no decent solution for it...
 

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its hard because of the heatpipes on most coolers. and the need for the long clip thingy that keeps it in place. its possible, but you need to make it yourself.
 
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I put a thermalright in my dad's pc when I built it, and I did not manage to get the TR cooler (that has the famous TR mounting mechanism mentioned above) aimed backwards. Only upwards.
 
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