quick fan placement question

C

Chris583

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jul 17, 2006
Messages
240
well im upgrading motherboard, psu, video card, etc. and was thinking of making this change to a cpu fan.

i have an nzxt lexa case which has a side window fan that blows in air to the computer, the e6400 cpu has a xp-90c (copper) heatsink with a fan ontop the heatsink which blows air out.
Considering the closeness in space of the case side fan blowing air in and the cpu fan taking out air from the cpu it does not seem as effective as it could be if both these fans were going the same direction and pulling air the same way instead of blowing against each other.

I cannot reverse the case fan which is bolted down really good, if i reversed the cpu fan to blow cool air into the copper heatsink and cpu would this be effective cooling or create problems? I usually assumed that cpu fans should pull air out but because the case fan is blowing fan right at the cpu fan i would think cpu being hit with cooler air and heatsink being hit with cooler air would make more sense than the two fans blowing towards each other.

thanks
 
is it fine to have a cpu fan mounted on a heatsink blowing air towards CPU? Instead of pulling air out.
 
I'd suggest carefully removing the screws that hold the case fan in the side window and flipping it to be an exhaust fan.


But if you don't want to do that, then I'd suggest a cooler such as the Scythe Ninja, Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme, or Thermalright Ultima 90 that you can have the fan blowing through the heatsink and then the rear exhaust fan can be sucking that warm air out.


That way you have cool air intake on the side panel, the air then flows from the front of the CPU cooler to the back, and is exhausted by the rear fan pointed outward.
 
Good luck.


With most things in the PC world...if you just go slow and take your time to be careful...things work out.
 
youre right about 2 fans blowing into each other decreases its effectiveness.... but its not correct to assume that you should have your cpu fan removing heat out of the case. air currents are complex things. the XP-90c overhangs and if you blow air down into it, you create vortexes near the base of it which is the hottest part. This effectively gets at the source of the heat in addition to cooling whatever is underneath the overhang, like ram or a chipset. You can supplement it with your case side fan blowing fresh new ambient air into the cpu fan. Just a few thoughts. The NZXT case fan came pointing that way because nearly everybody's CPU fan blows down through the heatsink into the board with the case side fan feeding it new air. The rear exhaust fan and the PSU fan removes whatever heat is conducted up.
 
mrlithium said:
youre right about 2 fans blowing into each other decreases its effectiveness.... but its not correct to assume that you should have your cpu fan removing heat out of the case. air currents are complex things. the XP-90c overhangs and if you blow air down into it, you create vortexes near the base of it which is the hottest part. This effectively gets at the source of the heat in addition to cooling whatever is underneath the overhang, like ram or a chipset. You can supplement it with your case side fan blowing fresh new ambient air into the cpu fan. Just a few thoughts. The NZXT case fan came pointing that way because nearly everybody's CPU fan blows down through the heatsink into the board with the case side fan feeding it new air. The rear exhaust fan and the PSU fan removes whatever heat is conducted up.
Click to expand...

Theres nothing complex about air currents. When setting up your fans remember one thing if nothing else. Air takes the path of least resistance! If you remember that one thing, you wont have trouble configuring your fans.
 
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