airflow direction

[Aaron Brick]

my power supply has two fans which blow so that air from inside the case
is directed through it and out. unfortunately, my processor fan, which
blows down onto the cpu, is immediately adjacent and so doesn't get enough
air. would reversing either the processor's or power supply's fans, so
that they work together rather than in oppostiion, be practical in terms
of cooling? i'm very tempted to try reversing the one on the processor.

thanks,
aaron.

 

[philo]

my power supply has two fans which blow so that air from inside the case
is directed through it and out. unfortunately, my processor fan, which
blows down onto the cpu, is immediately adjacent and so doesn't get enough
air. would reversing either the processor's or power supply's fans, so
that they work together rather than in oppostiion, be practical in terms
of cooling? i'm very tempted to try reversing the one on the processor.

I don't think that would be a good idea...
however you might want to mount an add'l fan inside your case and have it
blow as directly as possible on the cpu

 

[Phisherman]

my power supply has two fans which blow so that air from inside the case
is directed through it and out. unfortunately, my processor fan, which
blows down onto the cpu, is immediately adjacent and so doesn't get enough
air. would reversing either the processor's or power supply's fans, so
that they work together rather than in oppostiion, be practical in terms
of cooling? i'm very tempted to try reversing the one on the processor.

thanks,
aaron.

No. The CPU fan should blow onto the processor for maximum cooling.
There are a few articles I've read that mention this issue, backed up
with tests.

 

[Steve Murphree]

The only way to know for sure is to try it. In most instances, the fan
should blow onto the heatsink. A few, including mine, perform best with the
fan sucking air from the heatsink. I'm using a high volume 80 mm fan (50
cfm) in conjunction with a 60-80mm aluminum adapter on an OCZ gladiator. My
XP2100 is overclocked to XP2600 and my present motherboard temp is 28C and
my cpu temp is 32C.

 

[Julius Ceaser]

Antec had a Scoop Mod that worked great with 8cm fan models of CPU coolers.
It is just like a curved tube to direct the air in a different direction.

One thing to be careful about is to make sure the case does not have more
exhaust than intake. If it does the air will strain to get through the
front of the case and cause dust to collect.

 

[jeffc]

my power supply has two fans which blow so that air from inside the case
is directed through it and out. unfortunately, my processor fan, which
blows down onto the cpu, is immediately adjacent and so doesn't get enough
air.

Huh??? That doesn't make sense. The processor fan blows toward the CPU over
the heatsink. The power supply fan blows out the case. That's the way it's
supposed to work.

 

[Robert]

Antec had a Scoop Mod that worked great with 8cm fan models of CPU coolers.
It is just like a curved tube to direct the air in a different direction.

One thing to be careful about is to make sure the case does not have more
exhaust than intake. If it does the air will strain to get through the
front of the case and cause dust to collect.

However, not having more exhaust than intake does not necessarily mean
that there should be similar capacity exhaust and intake fans - provided
that the air inlet is of sufficient size to handle the inflow of air
produced by the exhaust fan(s), intake fan(s) may not be necessary to
achieve the required airflow/cooling. Unfortunately few cases seem to
be designed to allow adequate filtered air intake without modification
or the use of intake fans. Where good filtered intake is possible and
more than one fan is necessary it is more efficient to use any
additional unit in parallel with the exhaust.