Q? Why do all video cards have heatsink and fan on the bottom?

[Speckler]

I am curious. To the best of my knowledge heat rises? I know that metal transfers heat as well but do no know why the pcb is not manufactured with the chips on the top. Wouldn't mounting the heatsinks and fan accordingly in the same way that a CPU is designed be a better design?

More recently somebody had a lightbulb installed in their cranum and realized it might be a good idea to reverse the flow of air on heatsinks and fans to flow out of the case rather than in. DUH!!!

Anyhow, not that this will change anytime soon, if ever... I just wanted to know why and the possible explanation of technologies used if the process is correctly implemented and is the most efficient?

 

[MadHacker]

don't blame the video card manufacturer if you mount your motherboard upside down.

if you really want it the other way get a case that mounts the motherboard on the opposite side of the case.
there are a few around.

 

[Speckler]

LOL. Then ALL the other cards are upside down. I am asking why that one card is upside down in relation to all the others and also as a matter of heat dissipation?

 

[turboflame]

I would guess it's more for compatibility purposes, not all motherboards have free space above the PCI-E slot, while it's pretty much guaranteed that there is room under the card since the PCI-slots are there.

 

[Speckler]

There is a definite possibility. If they made MBs with inverted PCI-E slots you would loose at least one PCI. Boards with 3 PCI-E 32x even more so. MB manufacturers could overcome the logistics issues by a redesign but then that would require communicaton between all the pcb manufacturers. I wonder why they didn't get it out of the way in the very beginning?

 

[pogsnet]

Simple... So it wont absorb the heat dissipated by chipset or the processor. ^_^

Generally there are no heat generating parts below unlike above.

 

[Speckler]

Ahhhh!!!! there we go! That makes sense too. So, the CPU and NB are both heat sources and come to think of it, in the way. Also, the loss of PCI slots is another. Both space constraints. Moving the CPU and NB controller before producing the next gen pcb boards still seems like a good idea no. A MB design that would see all graphics ports now and future with chipsets, heatsinks and fans facing up, CPU and NB controller moved as well as RAM and redesign all pcbs for the best cooling possibilities.

Thanks for the input guys. The current system works. The future is fun to speculate on.

 

[chunkymonster]

This actually goes all the way back to when motherboards were originally layed out and designed. I doubt that Steve Wozniak or the engineers at IBM gave any thought to how gpu's and other add in cards were or were not going to be oriented. Before the desktop computer, motherboards were mainly used in mainframes and servers and arranged in a horizontal drawer like arrangement, the conecpt of the "blade" server wasn't even imagined. Heck it wasn't until the mid 1980's that add in cards started to catch on, let alone be standard operating practice. Truth is, mobos were originally layed flat on the desktop (IBM design and the AT form factor) and it wasn't until Intel introduced the ATX form factor in 1995 that mobos started to be mounted vertically rather than being layed flat. But by then, the industry had become so accustomed to the original mobo layout popularized by IBM that they just "improved" on the existing design. Intel attempted to change the overall layout of the mobo by introducing the BTX form factor which re-arranged components on the mobo to move the heat producing components and provide a better "straight-through" airflow. The BTX design also incorporated "inverted" expansion slots which would have put the gpu heatsink and fan on the top rather than underneath towards the bottom of the case, ala ATX.

 

[rsetter1]

Speckler, so now you've done it. LOL!

 

[Guest]

because of the cpu heatsink... that simple

 

[TheDraac]

Chunkymonster has it right..... but also.... remember the old ISA cards, they were all designed with their components on top. As chunky said, MB's were normally used laying down so when computers went vertical, card components ended up on the top side. That was until the PCI bus started to get used. Now with the change, components started to get mounted on the underside of the cards. This change probably came about to keep dust from collecting on the component side. Usually not much is mounted on the backside of a card. And I'm sure we all know how heat holding dust bunnies like to multiply inside some computer cases.

 

[Wicked1]

Chunkymonster is partially correct. He is only thinking of ISA cards. He has not considered MicroChannel Architecture which the PS/2 carried. Specifically the model 60's and model 80's carried the mobo vertically to make room for many additional cards, primarily network cards (token ring), memory cards to allow for 16Mb of memory (my personal PS/2 80 ran 64Mb of memory when the published limit was 16Mb by using a modified memory manager out of Austin. The primary reason MCA died was IBM tried to license it to vendors whereas ISA was free and the cost of making such a mother board license costs aside was much more than an ISA board. Quantity won out over quality. Like the majority of the PC world with the exception of a few industrial strength servers PC's are the lowest common denominator. Cost is the overriding concern, quality and capability is last in such considerations.