Cooling & Fan Positioning

[Norwood]

I understand that the golden rule is:

Top and back: Exhausy
Front, bottom and side: Intake

However, my setup seems a bit odd.

So, as you can see the CPU fan is blowing downwards, towards the video card which itself has a fan blowing downwards. Both of these are blowing towards the side fan, which I have configured as intake.

I purchased that CPU cooler because I was always seeing high temps with the standard heatsink. I'm not seeing much of a difference.

So I'm wondering if I should turn that side fan around and make it an exhaust. I know it's recommended in some situations, so I'm wondering if this is one. That's an awful lot of hot air blowing downwards, struggling to find it's way upwards - that CPU cooler is a strong fan.

Ideas? Thougts?

 

[linnemeyerhere]

I like it ! Really the golden rule should be same volume of cold air in as hot air out. Then the other concern is circulation in the case and dead zones !

 

[Dwarf]

Fans in the system should be arranged to assist the natural flow of air through the case. This is generally from the front (bottom) and side to the rear and top. Where possible, all internal fans should follow this protocol. Looking at the image of your heatsink and fan, I think you've mounted it upside down. In this orientation, the fan is effectively disrupting the natural flow of air through the case. Can you reattach it so that the fan is on top?

 

[linnemeyerhere]

Fans in the system should be arranged to assist the natural flow of air through the case. This is generally from the front (bottom) and side to the rear and top. Where possible, all internal fans should follow this protocol. Looking at the image of your heatsink and fan, I think you've mounted it upside down. In this orientation, the fan is effectively disrupting the natural flow of air through the case. Can you reattach it so that the fan is on top?

+1 to this ! Enhancing natural convection air flow is what most of us go for. But as these fans are very forceful if you're not dealing with OC'g or SLI/Crossfire then options abound !

 

[Norwood]

Looking at the image of your heatsink and fan, I think you've mounted it upside down. In this orientation, the fan is effectively disrupting the natural flow of air through the case. Can you reattach it so that the fan is on top?

That's what I was beginning to suspect. I didn't really look at their "directions" except to reference the direction in which they recommend the fan point, and it appeared as though their diagram had the fan pointing in the direction of the other slots (PCI etc).

But I think it is blowing the wrong way...so I'll see if I can turn it around (damn, more thermal compund) and then I'll reattach the side fan to be intake.

With that CPU cooler, there's no reason why I shouldn't be seeing lower temps, so it's obviously PEBKAC.

 

[toddincabo]

Wrong Direction

I have that same cpu cooler..Freezer 64 Pro. You should have it mounted (if possible) so that the fan is blowing through the fins toward the back exhaust fan.

These instructions are in the install guide, so I take it you did not install it, or it is not possible because of clearance issues with ram or whatever.

I have mine installed as suggested and added a small intake fan in the front of my case in two empty adjacent bays that let air flow directly into the Freezer 64 fan and my temps dropped by an easy 8c from the already low the Freezer gave. My temps are around 30c running my Athlon 64x2 5600+ doing regular stuff.

Spin that baby 90 degrees and pump that air to the back. The Freezer 64 Pros' are great coolers and I recommend them to anyone.

 

[Norwood]

I have that same cpu cooler..Freezer 64 Pro. You should have it mounted (if possible) so that the fan is blowing through the fins toward the back exhaust fan.

These instructions are in the install guide, so I take it you did not install it, or it is not possible because of clearance issues with ram or whatever.

Spin that baby 80 degrees and pump that air to the back. The Freezer 64 Pros' are great coolers and I recommend them to anyone.

I most certainly did install it...

It appeared - to me - that the diagram in the instructions showed the fan blowing towards the slots.

Perhaps I misread it, and had taken the suggestion from the previous poster.

But thanks.

 

[stormy13]

toddincabo, Norwood has the Rev2 of the AC Freezer Pro and it only goes on that way,



unless the mounting bracket on the motherboard is turned 90° (and on most AM2/AM2+/AM3 boards the bracket is the same, it is very rare to get one that is rotated). On an AMD based board if you want a AC Freezer Pro and have the fan facing front to back, you need to find (if you can seeing as they have been discontinued) the older one like this,

Newegg.com - Open Box: ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 64 Pro 92mm Ceramic CPU Cooler

P.S. Seeing as no one mentioned it,

So, as you can see the CPU fan is blowing downwards, towards the video card which itself has a fan blowing downwards. Both of these are blowing towards the side fan, which I have configured as intake.

both of those fans are in fact blowing upwards, not down. They may be oriented to the bottom of the case, but they are not blowing that way.

 

[toddincabo]

toddincabo, Norwood has the Rev2 of the AC Freezer Pro and it only goes on that way,


Wow , that sucks

 

[Norwood]

Ok, that was a mistake.

Turning the heatsink around caused the temp to skyrocket simply browsing with Firefox. I must have had it on correctly to begin with...just as the pictures in the directions showed.

Which brings me back to my original question...if stormy13 is saying that the video card and CPU coolers fans are, in fact, blowing this way:

Pic

Then it would make sense for that side fan to be an intake...but I don't see how the video card fan is blowing air through the card, as opposed to away from it.

 

[Norwood]

toddincabo, Norwood has the Rev2 of the AC Freezer Pro and it only goes on that way,


Wow , that sucks

It does? How so?

Maybe you haven't built many custom machines, and that would bring about your shock...but...what I'm experiencing is the difference between AMD and Intel - but finding an Arctic Cooler heatsink that faces the other direction is extremely rare (as was already pointed out)...and not needed unless one has a strange, or very specific board.

The Rev 2 Arctic Cooler 7 is one of the better coolers out there.

I suggest building a machine or two before you tell someone else that their gear sucks.

Your post is proof of the saying that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

 

[linnemeyerhere]

OK so side fan should be an intake, front fan is intake, rear fan is exhaust. CPU is a non issue. I would get the best fans you can afford like Noctua's for the front and rear placements, they move excellent volume with very low noise. What size fan goes in side opening?

 

[stormy13]

Norwood you need to work on your quoting skills.

And he wasn't saying the cooler sucks, but the fact that with the way AC made the new one that it only goes on AMD motherboards in an up/down configuration. And from I can see that is only because they went from separate coolers for AMD and Intel, and made it a once-size-fits-all. Other than that rather significant change, the only other real difference between the old and new is the new has a slightly better fan on it,

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Productcompare.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100008000&IsNodeId=1&bop=And&ActiveSearchResult=True&CompareItemList=574|35-186-134^35-186-134-TS%2C35-185-125R^35-185-125-01%23

Ok, that was a mistake.

Turning the heatsink around caused the temp to skyrocket

Not surprised as that made the fan pull hot air from the top of the case down through the heatsink.

And yes the fan on your video card is blowing into the heatsink on the card, unless for some strange reason you got one where they wired it up backwards causing the fan to blow out. The fan is pulling cooler air from the bottom/front/ side (if a fan or vent is there) and blowing it through the heatsink. You can test this by holding small piece of paper up to the fan and it will get sucked up against the fan.

 

[Phone Man]

Fans can be misleading on which way they blow. A lot of fans have markings on the outer rim to show direction. If you look at the curve of the fan blades it looks like the CPU fan is blowing cool air into the heatsink which is the most common direction. A lot of video cards will also blow cool air into the card and the exit may be at the rear out of the case. Most fan blades are cupped so they scoop the air and push it along. If you look at your case fans you can see the shape of the blades and which way they blow.


Jim

 

[Norwood]

First off, I apologize for my tone and behavior.

I'm getting very frustrated with this chip. I've been having temperature issues since day one. I bought it because of its overclocking potential yet I'm struggling with getting it to run within normal ranges when simply idling.

As you can see, my setup is fine. At first I was seeing crashes every day...Once I moved the sound card one slot away from the video card that stopped...even though the air is going the opposite way...who knows...it stopped.

Then I wanted to tackle the temperatures and forget about OCing the thing...I know that half of what people post is BS, but I constantly hear people saying "Mine's running at 33C - running CAD, Photoshop, Gears of War and SuperPi at 8 billion iterations - oh, and I'm running 4 different grid computing programs for my favorite causes".

Meanwhile, I open FF and I go to 43C. Even after buying the Arctic Cooler. This is my case, it's built for cooling...

Anyway, not an excuse but this is very, very frustrating - I apologize.

 

[linnemeyerhere]

I have this in my case and it helped me direct air flow. Not saying this is a cure all but it's cheap and does a good job and even looks nice in blue led's.
Antec.com - Product: Spot Cool

 

[dsperber]

Fans can be misleading on which way they blow. A lot of fans have markings on the outer rim to show direction. If you look at the curve of the fan blades it looks like the CPU fan is blowing cool air into the heatsink which is the most common direction. Most fan blades are cupped so they scoop the air and push it along. If you look at your case fans you can see the shape of the blades and which way they blow.

While the blades are often cupped on better case fans, sometimes they're not.

And about which side is "in" and which side is "out" the confusion is generally that often the rotational direction of the blades (clockwise or counter-clockwise) isn't obvious when it's in your hands and you're trying to decide which side to secure to the case with screws or rubber mounting feet.

I believe, however, that the unspoken agreed-upon convention for manufacturers of fans is to have the side which has the decal/logo on the axle hub is the side that implies the airflow direction. The air is pulled through the blades FROM the other non-decal side of the fan, through the blades and TO the side with the decal on the hub.

So, on the upper-rear case exhaust fan, the decal would be facing out, up against the holes in the case for hot air to be blown out through. Hot air comes from inside the case through that fan from the non-decal side (facing inside the case) and out through the decal side (facing against the back holes of the case).

And reverse on the lower-front intake fan, where the decal side of the fan should be facing inward inside the case, with the non-decal side flush up against the front of the case. This causes cool air to be pulled in from the outside, across the blades, toward the decal side and into the case.

If there's any ambiguity or confusion, I will mount the fan as I think it should go and then power up the case (it doesn't really have to be complete, but for this situation obviously should be well enough along to at least be usable for power on/off tests) and light a match and hold it in front of the front or rear of the case. The flame should obviously be blown or sucked in the direction of the airflow. You can also hold the match inside the case (be careful, of course) to double-check or eliminate ambiguity and make a correction if you've mounted a fan backwards.

You can also use the match test to check on the CPU fan mounting direction. In my cases I use a Zalman CNPS9700NT CPU cooler, which also has a ring of blades and a fan. As you can see from their installation instruction diagrams, the mounting orientation is exactly as others have stated earlier... the direction should be with the fan furthest into the case, blowing hot air across the blades from the interior of the case toward the back of the case where presumably there is an exhaust fan mounted which will then suck that interior hot air out through the holes in the back of the case. So the blades go oriented closest to the back of the case, and the fan is oriented into the case so that it "pushes" air across the blades and out the back.

Now granted, the above Zalman diagram is for a socket LGA775 Intel CPU, but the principle of mounting orientation and airflow from the fan side across the blades and out the other side, opposite the fan, is generic.