How to orient CPU fan? Pics inside!

Davidelmo · Jul 4, 2009

Hi all,

New i7 920 rig, oc'd at 4.00Ghz but temps under prime95 are creeping towards 90C, which I don't like.

My case is a Coolermaster HAF, so adequate case cooling isn't a problem.

The CPU cooler is a Titan Fenrir. Good cooler but it will only fit 3 out of 4 possible directions because the fan can't go over the memory blowing out the back of the case, because the Patriot memory is too tall.
It could blow downwards, but I don't really see a point in that.. the airflow would be fighting the fan on the top of the case.

So my two options are:
BLOW it out the top
SUCK air out the back of the case

Which is better? I've attached pictures showing total airflow of my case. There is also a side fan blowing inwards.

unibrow1990 · Jul 4, 2009

I'd say blow it out the top, having all that warm air from the cpu floating around in the case wont do anything good for temps so your best bet is to get it out of the case as quickly as possible

A Cheese Danish · Jul 4, 2009

I'd also have to say have it blow out the top. Usually is better that way for temps and such.

LittleLizard · Jul 4, 2009

Blow out to the top unless u want to exchange the direction of all your case fans too.

FordGT90Concept · Jul 4, 2009

You never want to suck on the top because it will plaster your case with junk the fan sucked in. Blowing out evacuates the hot air pocket that lingers at the top of the case and also prevents dust, crumbs, etc. from getting in.

chuck216 · Jul 4, 2009

Nah the best way to orient the CPU fan is blowing down towards the MB

But then again i'm probably one of the few that doesn't use a tower type heatsink.

FordGT90Concept · Jul 4, 2009

Yeah, you want active airflow going through the heatsink (doesn't mater if it is a tower or not)--that is, blow into the heatsink, don't suck. Sucking doesn't move enough air to cool modern CPUs.

If you have a tower heatsink, you want to blow air across the heatsink and immediately have a case fan suck up that hot air and evacuate it out of the case.

Davidelmo · Jul 4, 2009

Hang on guys.. are some of you even reading what I wrote or looking at the pics?

Unibrow: The air isn't hanging around the case with either possible config. Either direction the hot air is being pointed straight at a case fan.

Littlelizard: Why on earth would I need to reverse the direction of my case fans? They're in the best possible configuration.. cold air in at the bottom, hot air out at the top.

And of course I'm never going to have the top fan blowing air in... that's just stupid beyond words! :roll:

The question is:
CPU fan sucking to the left and out the back of the case
or
CPU fan blowing upwards, and out the top

Thank you FordGT90Concept for being the first person to answer properly.

satelitko · Jul 4, 2009

Davidelmo said:
...
The question is:
CPU fan sucking to the left and out the back of the case
or
CPU fan blowing upwards, and out the top

Thank you FordGT90Concept for being the first person to answer properly.

FordGT90Concept said:
Yeah, you want active airflow going through the heatsink (doesn't mater if it is a tower or not)--that is, blow into the heatsink, don't suck. Sucking doesn't move enough air to cool modern CPUs...

So there you have your answer... And although it's a very tiny benefit, you're not forcing the air to go in a direction it doesn't want, which improves fan performance, as hot air tends to go up

Yukikaze · Jul 4, 2009

I run my i7 in a Nzxt Tempest. I oriented a push-pull config on my Mugen 2 blowing bottom->top through the cooler. Both 140mm top fans are obviously exhausting, and the rear case fan is an intake fan - This throws additional out-of-case air into the cooler vicinity and lowers the temps by a couple of degrees when compared to it being an additional exhaust fan.

I also ghetto modded an Arctic Cooling 92mm fan blowing through the I/O panel space (I never use the panel cover) to cool the PWM area. This dropped temps spectacularly, by nearly 30 degrees on the PWMs.

This is the best config for my case, any other thing I tried was worse. This keeps the CPU at around 62c when under load and the PWMs at a slightly lower load temperature.

Hope this somehow helps you out.

FordGT90Concept · Jul 4, 2009

Davidelmo said:
CPU fan blowing upwards, and out the top

This. I'm a little bit concerned about your memory overheating though. Memory is usually cooled by the CPU fan.

Wile E · Jul 4, 2009

Might as well have it blow out the top. The only other useful way would be to have it blow out the back.

unibrow1990 · Jul 4, 2009

I misunderstood your second option, I thoght you meant you wanted to suck cold air out the back of your case and over the cooler, that being said i still stand by my original answer of blowing it out the top of the case.

Duncan1 · Jul 4, 2009

blowing out the top of the case is the best for your case.

''SUCK air out the back of the case'': Dont even think about it.

HellasVagabond · Jul 4, 2009

Simple Physics

SUCKING AIR INSIDE THE CASE / FOR ALL CASES
Front Fans
Left fans
Bottom Fans

BLOWING AIR OUTSIDE THE CASE / FOR ALL CASES
Top Fans
Rear Fan
Right Fan (if you happen to own a case with a right fan)

MilkyWay · Jul 4, 2009

NZXT TEMPEST

Graphics is wrong it goes in through the fan and out the back

HellasVagabond · Jul 4, 2009

Kieran it is best to have your PSU facing down so it can get COOL air inside it and not hot from the case....Providing the case has a grill on the base for it to get air from...
Also the CPU Cooler fan should Look at the front and exhaust air on the back.....

mc-dexter · Jul 4, 2009

HellasVagabond said:
Kieran it is best to have your PSU facing down so it can get COOL air inside it and not hot from the case....Providing the case has a grill on the base for it to get air from...
Also the CPU Cooler fan should Look at the front and exhaust air on the back.....

That all depends, if you have a big enough gap from the floor or desk unit and the base of your tower. otherwise they would be insufficient air being sucked in. but generally it would work best that way.

HellasVagabond · Jul 4, 2009

even if the case is 2cm away from the floor the small ammount of cool air sucked in would be a lot better than much amount of hot air.

mc-dexter · Jul 4, 2009

HellasVagabond said:
even if the case is 2cm away from the floor the small ammount of cool air sucked in would be a lot better than much amount of hot air.

The air at that low point inside the case wouldnt be very hot at all though would it, like it's been mentioned, hot air risers.

and 2cm is plenty of space required to have on the underside of tower.

HellasVagabond · Jul 4, 2009

Most cases have 1cm+ of space beneath....The ones with grills on the base usually have 1.5-2cm...
And no the air that the fan would suck is not on the base of the interior, it would be the air surrounding the Graphics card and generally speaking inside a case there ain't much room and so almost every bit of air is hot.

In any case the PSU facing down when a grill is present is the right way, no reason to debate that.

Wile E · Jul 5, 2009

HellasVagabond said:
Most cases have 1cm+ of space beneath....The ones with grills on the base usually have 1.5-2cm...
And no the air that the fan would suck is not on the base of the interior, it would be the air surrounding the Graphics card and generally speaking inside a case there ain't much room and so almost every bit of air is hot.

In any case the PSU facing down when a grill is present is the right way, no reason to debate that.

Doesn't always work if your computer is on thick carpet. But yeah, if the bottom vent is unobstructed, the psu fan should be facing down.

Processor	Intel i7 920 @4.20Ghz
Motherboard	Gigabyte EX58 UD5
Cooling	Titan Fenrir
Memory	6Gb Patriot 1600Mhz
Video Card(s)	ATI HD4870 1Gb
Storage	2x250Gb Seagate Barracuda (RAID 0) plus 2B storage
Display(s)	Samsung 22 inch Widescreen
Case	Coolermaster HAF 932
Audio Device(s)	Auzen Prelude 7.1
Power Supply	PCP&P 750W Silencer
Software	Win7 beta

System Name	FUBAR
Processor	AMD Phenom II 720BE @ 3.6Ghz
Motherboard	Jetway HA06, 780g sb700
Cooling	Sunbeamtech Core Contact Freezer, 2x 40mm fan 1x 70mm hdd fan, 2x 80mm case fans, 4x 120mm case fans
Memory	4gb OCZ Reaper ddr2 800@ 4-4-4-12-1t 2.2v
Video Card(s)	HIS 4850 ICEQ4 512mb crossfired with XFX 4850 512mb
Storage	WDC Black 640gb SATA, 250gb Hitachi Deskstar SATA
Display(s)	Acer X193W+ 19" 5ms 1680x1050
Case	Modded Raidmax Smilodon Extreme Black
Audio Device(s)	Integrated W/ Altec Lansing 2.1 speakers
Power Supply	Rosewill RP550V2-D-SL 550W with FSP Booster X3
Software	Win 7 Home Premium 64-bit

System Name	HTPC\|\|Lenovo IBM ThinkPad
Processor	AMD Phenom II x4 965 stock 3.4GHz\|\|Intel C2D T9300 @ 2.5GHz
Motherboard	Zotac 890GX-ITX WiFi\|\|Lenovo 8918CTO
Cooling	Stock 3x 120's\|\|Stock stuff
Memory	8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 6-6-6-15\|\|3GB DDR2
Video Card(s)	Asus 3870x2\|\|nVidia Quadro NVS 140M
Storage	1TB Seagate Barracuda, 1x 2TB WD EARX \|\|Hitachi 160GB 7200RPM
Display(s)	Samsung T260HD\|\|
Case	SilverStone Grandia GD05\|\|
Audio Device(s)	on-board\|\|on-board
Power Supply	Cooler Master 450W\|\|6-cell
Software	Windows 7 Pro x64\|\|Windows 7 Pro x64/Linux Mint x64

System Name	The Lizard v2.4
Processor	Intel Celeron G1840 (for the time being
Motherboard	Gigabyte GA-H81-S2PH
Cooling	Intel Stock Fan
Memory	16GB Kingston HyperX 1600
Video Card(s)	MSI Gaming GTX 750Ti (For the time being)
Storage	500GB Samsung F1, 160GB Maxtor "Older than god"
Display(s)	AOC 28' LCD
Case	Coolermaster N200
Audio Device(s)	Onboard
Power Supply	Antec VP500P
Software	Windows 7 Ultimate x64
Benchmark Scores	No crashes in the last 24 minutes.

System Name	BY-2021
Processor	AMD Ryzen 7 5800X (65w eco profile)
Motherboard	MSI B550 Gaming Plus
Cooling	Scythe Mugen (rev 5)
Memory	2 x Kingston HyperX DDR4-3200 32 GiB
Video Card(s)	AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT
Storage	Samsung 980 Pro, Seagate Exos X20 TB 7200 RPM
Display(s)	Nixeus NX-EDG274K (3840x2160@144 DP) + Samsung SyncMaster 906BW (1440x900@60 HDMI-DVI)
Case	Coolermaster HAF 932 w/ USB 3.0 5.25" bay + USB 3.2 (A+C) 3.5" bay
Audio Device(s)	Realtek ALC1150, Micca OriGen+
Power Supply	Enermax Platimax 850w
Mouse	Nixeus REVEL-X
Keyboard	Tesoro Excalibur
Software	Windows 10 Home 64-bit
Benchmark Scores	Faster than the tortoise; slower than the hare.

How to orient CPU fan? Pics inside!

Davidelmo

New Member

Attachments

unibrow1990

New Member

A Cheese Danish

LittleLizard

FordGT90Concept

"I go fast!1!11!1!"

chuck216

FordGT90Concept

"I go fast!1!11!1!"

Davidelmo

New Member

satelitko

Yukikaze

FordGT90Concept

"I go fast!1!11!1!"

Wile E

Power User

unibrow1990

New Member

Duncan1

New Member

HellasVagabond

New Member

MilkyWay

HellasVagabond

New Member

mc-dexter

New Member

HellasVagabond

New Member

mc-dexter

New Member

HellasVagabond

New Member

Wile E

Power User

Processor	AMD Ryzen 3800x
Motherboard	Asus TUF Gaming X-570-Plus (WiFi)
Cooling	Corsair Hydro Series H110i
Memory	32 GB Corsair Dominator RGB DDR4 3200 Mhz @3600
Video Card(s)	Asus AREZ RX Vega 64 Strix OC 8GB
Storage	Samsung 970 EVO Plus 1 TB
Display(s)	Asus PB258Q 25" 2560x1440
Case	Cooler Master Master Case 5 Pro
Power Supply	Corsair RMx 1000
Software	Windows 10 Pro 64

System Name	Dire Wolf IV
Processor	Intel Core i9 14900K
Motherboard	Asus ROG STRIX Z790-I GAMING WIFI
Cooling	Arctic Liquid Freezer II 280
Memory	2x24GB Corsair DDR5 6667
Video Card(s)	NVIDIA RTX4080 FE
Storage	AORUS Gen4 7300 1TB + Western Digital SN750 500GB
Display(s)	Alienware AW3423DWF (QD-OLED, 3440x1440, 165hz)
Case	Corsair Airflow 2000D
Power Supply	Corsair SF1000L
Mouse	Razer Deathadder Essential
Keyboard	Chuangquan CQ84
Software	Windows 11 Professional

System Name	The ClusterF**k
Processor	980X @ 4Ghz
Motherboard	Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5 BIOS F12
Cooling	MCR-320, DDC-1 pump w/Bitspower res top (1/2" fittings), Koolance CPU-360
Memory	3x2GB Mushkin Redlines 1600Mhz 6-8-6-24 1T
Video Card(s)	Evga GTX 580
Storage	Corsair Neutron GTX 240GB, 2xSeagate 320GB RAID0; 2xSeagate 3TB; 2xSamsung 2TB; Samsung 1.5TB
Display(s)	HP LP2475w 24" 1920x1200 IPS
Case	Technofront Bench Station
Audio Device(s)	Auzentech X-Fi Forte into Onkyo SR606 and Polk TSi200's + RM6750
Power Supply	ENERMAX Galaxy EVO EGX1250EWT 1250W
Software	Win7 Ultimate N x64, OSX 10.8.4

System Name	SECONDARY RIG / PRIMARY RIG / THIRD RIG
Processor	i920@3.6GHz / i920@4GHz / AMD Phenom II 955
Motherboard	Gigabyte EX58-UD4P / Gigabyte EX58-UD7 / ASRock 890GX3
Cooling	CoolIT Domino ALC / Thermalright Silver Arrow / Thermalright VenomousX
Memory	12GB DDR3 @ 1800MHZ / 6GB DDR3 @ 2250MHZ / 4GB DDR3 @ 1600MHZ
Video Card(s)	XFX ATI RADEON 5970 / GAINWARD NVIDIA GTX 580 / 2xGEFORCE GTX295
Storage	1550GB / 6TB SAS - SSD / 160GB SSD
Display(s)	NEC 26WUXi2 / NEC 3090WQXi / SONY 55A2000 (1080P 55inch)
Case	COOLER MASTER HAF 932 / COOLER MASTER ATCS 840 / ANTEC DARKFLEET DF85
Audio Device(s)	Soundblaster X-Fi Xtreme Music / SoundBlaster X-Fi Fatal1ty Pro / Realtek Onboard
Power Supply	CWT 1200W / Enermax Revolution 85+ 1250W / Ikonik Vulcan 1200W
Software	Windows 7 x64 / Windows 7 x64 / Windows 7 x64

System Name	The Abominable Dust Bomb / Just A Box
Processor	AMD 6400+ BE (Windsor) @3.35Ghz / AMD 3200+ (Barton)
Motherboard	ASUS M2A VM - HDMI / Abit NF7 - S2
Cooling	Xigmatek HDT S1283 / Gigabyte 3D Cooler Ultra
Memory	2x 1Gb Kingston DDR2 667Mhz Dual Channel @800Mhz (soon 3Gb Dual) / 2x 512Mb Geil Dual DDR 400Mhz
Video Card(s)	XFX GeForce 8600GT (soon to be ASUS 8800GT) / MSI Geforce 5200FX
Storage	80Gb Maxtor 2mb cache Maxtor 500Gb 32mb cache / 2x 40Gb Maxtor's
Display(s)	19" TFT, 15" TFT, 32" TV / 15" CRT
Case	XBLADE / Everest
Audio Device(s)	(Onboard) Realtek ALC883 5.1 High Definition / Onboard
Power Supply	Antec True Power 480w / 400w Winpower
Software	Win Vista Premium SP2 / Win XP Pro SP2
Benchmark Scores	3D Mark 06 = 6709 ... lol