heatsink fan

  • Thread starter Thread starter Tony P
  • Start date Start date
T

Tony P

I've got XP home edition when I fitted more memory I noticed how clogged up
with dust the heatsink was on the Athlon 1.4Ghz. The heatsink fan seems to
be blowing air onto the heatsink rather than blowing off the heatsink & into
the casing. Which way round should it be as the Athlon according to BIOS is
running at 65c!

Tony P
 
Tony said:
I've got XP home edition when I fitted more memory I noticed how clogged up
with dust the heatsink was on the Athlon 1.4Ghz. The heatsink fan seems to
be blowing air onto the heatsink rather than blowing off the heatsink & into
the casing. Which way round should it be as the Athlon according to BIOS is
running at 65c!

Tony P
Click to expand...

I always build my systems with the air blowing down onto the heatsink
and have never had a problem. Do you have enough case fans? A good CPU
fan needs plenty of case ventilation in order to work properly otherwise
it's just recirculating hot air. And as always KEEP YOUR SYSTEM AS DUST
FREE AS POSSIBLE!
--
Servo
"Go, Dustmites!"
tservo100 at
ameritech dot net
Slow, fiery death to all spammers!!!
 
The fan should blow into the heat-sink. Clean the fan and heat-sink with a
compressed cleaner that is meant for electronic equipment and use a small
soft bristled brush if needed, i.e., acid or paint brush, be careful! Go to
BIOS and see if the fan is spinning at the correct speed. If not, replace
the fan.

HTH, JAX
 
Thanks Servo. I might leave as it is blowing onto the heatsink then. As
regards case fans there arent any. Just the PSU fan & the heatsink fan. Do
you think it needs a case fan then?Dont have a mega fancy graphics card so
only the CPU and HDD generating heat.

Tony P
 
Oh ok thanks Jax. You prefer fan to blow onto heatsink & servo prefers to
blow away from heatsink is just a matter of horses for courses then? I'll
leave it as it is but how do I know if fan is spinning at correct speed?
BIOS says CPU 62C & fan speed changes between 4500 & 4800rpm.

Tony P
 
OOps! misread Servos reply both you guys reckon fan should blow onto
heatsink,thanks guys my eyes are going!

TonyP
 
Tony said:
OOps! misread Servos reply both you guys reckon fan should blow onto
heatsink,thanks guys my eyes are going!

TonyP
Click to expand...

Tony,
I'd strongly recommend getting at least 2 case fans...1 in front
blowing in and 1 in back blowing out. The 2 full-tower machines I
recently built have no less that 5 case fans each, 2 in front blowing
in, 2 in back blowing out, one on the side panel blowing out, and one
has one fan on top blowing out. Case & CPU heat have never been a
problem for me. You can get good case fans at newegg.com or a good local
computer store for about $10 a piece. Well worth it.

--
Servo
"Go, Dustmites!"
tservo100 at
ameritech dot net
Slow, fiery death to all spammers!!!
 
Your fan speed sounds correct. As Servo mentioned, you may want to consider
installing a case fan. AMD's run pretty hot anyway and the added ventilation
may help. You may also want to take a look at other heat-sinks that are
available. Some are aluminum and others are copper, or at least have a
copper core. The copper ones are more efficient.

LOL, JAX
 
And actually, the direction of the fan is dependent sometimes on the
heatsink. There are times when it is beneficial to blow into or away
from. When you blow away from, it will create a backdraft (kind of
circles around and under and back through). I would say it works either
way, but the main reason some prefer blowing at is because you get a
dead spot in the middle where the fan is turning that is sometimes
missed when it is blowing away.

For the processor you have, even passive cooling would work, so I doubt
you really have to worry about overheating. They can handle up to about
80C without sustaining damage and even if ambient temps in your case
reach 60C (which would surprise me), you are still probably not going to
overheat. I don't know about 2 case fans, but 1 blowing out the back
near the CPU HSF is a good idea. Blowing in isn't as critical as the air
pressure being generated by the air blowing out will pull air in from
the front or another opening ;)

Nathan McNulty
 
The instructions for the heatsink will tell you which way the fan is
supposed to blow for that particular heatsink.

--
Regards:

Richard Urban

aka Crusty (-: Old B@stard :-)
 
Back
Top