Help needed - fan/heatsink setup (new PC)- airflow/fan direction quest

Forum Overclocking : Heatsinks & Air Cooling Help needed - fan/heatsink setup (new PC)- airflow/fan direction quest

Hello,

Ok, so building a new system (have all the parts) although there was an issue with the Scythe mugen 2 heatsink and the mobo I have (rampage III)...where scythe suggested a Noctua brace should also work for it, so get that tonight.

Anyways, after reading about fan flow, i am very confused as what I should do.

My case is the Thermaltake Xaser VI black (apparently special/limited edition) version...
Here is a rough pic (very badly drawn in MS paint) of case and fans I have.

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y [...] irflow.jpg

1) The basic setup as the case came, front 12 cm fan blowing in towards HD cage.
2) Rear fan blowing out towards the back (12 cm i believe)
3) top 14 cm fan blowing up/out of case)

I have 3 extra fans. I mounted them:

1) on the motherboard tray, towards the pci card area (14 cm)
2 & 3) both 14 cm, bottom of case, pointing uptowards the PCI cards/cpu area

Question...With the scythe mugen2 rev B, trying tofigure out which way I should point the 2 fans Ihave for it. Both towards teh heatsink, 1 towards, and 1 away, etc.

What I have read, some say fans should point towards the heatsink, some say away.

I was wondering if I should do 1 towards the heatsink (the one closer to teh front of teh case), and the 2nd fan drawing air away from the heatsink towards the rear fan.

Anyways, please let me know. (this assumes of course, the Noctua brace bracket works)

The colour arrows around the CPU indicate options for airflow I have thought of.

Also, the pic is very bad, maybe looking at the direct link would be clearer...

Regards,

Sanjay

Message edited by starfyreXXX on 08-20-2010 at 07:29:54 PM

Reply to starfyreXXX

Optimal set-up is the red arrow air-flow whether that works for your ram/dimms without interference is unknown to me.
If it does cause issues no worries just mount the fans in the same red airflow pattern exhausting/pointing upwards towards your top exhaust fan.

Message edited by davcon on 08-22-2010 at 05:55:57 AM

Reply to davcon

realized the fans cause problems with the DIMMS, so what does fit is a fan on the top facing down towards the bottom of the case and blowing air in that direction of the heatsink (not length wise, its on the shorter side of the heatsink, but hopefully it should work). Then at the rear of the case, the fan will blow out to the rear as the diagram shows.

Hope that works.

Sanjay

Reply to starfyreXXX

If you can't mount your fans vertically because of dimm interference mount them horizontally with the airflow on both fans directed towards the top exhaust fan.

Reply to davcon

Sigh....I can't make the fans point up either (i tried). The power supply bridge (ie. the bars that hold up the power supply) are in the way and they can't be moved).

The case is BIG, but standard sized motherboards fit at the top part of the mobo, while extended mobos would extend farther to the front and down...

So my only options are...if facing the case as in the rough diagram above...is a 7 shape.

So fan on bottom, pointing up, and fan on the left side pointing towards heatsink or away towards rear exhaust fan.

Not sure. Kinda worried; not sure if pointing the length wise fan away from the heatsink will be good since instructions indicate to put fan on the length wise direction first (but if I do that, I can't put the fan on the bottom towards the pci slots, since it will blow right into the asus eah5970 (which gets hot enough already, don't want to make it worse/damage it).

So either both towards the heatsink in a 7 shape or up and then towards the rear.

What do ya think?

Sanjay

Message quoted 1 times

Reply to starfyreXXX

starfyreXXX wrote :

So fan on bottom, pointing up, and fan on the left side pointing towards heatsink or away towards rear exhaust fan.
That's probably your best option under your circumstances.
My question is don't you have any wiggle room for your fan vertically on the right /dimm side?
They do design the fan clips to allow you to slide up 2-3mm if dimm clearance is an issue.
Have the ram seated first before cooler install.
Otherwise fan on bottom, pointing up, and fan on the left side pointing towards heatsink is a suitable arrangement/best option.

Message edited by davcon on 08-31-2010 at 01:43:30 PM

Reply to davcon

Yes and No. I tried raising the fan via the metal slider clips but could not get them high enough BUT i can try again tonight. the screws i needed to attach the heatsink properly (the box came with incorrect ones) arrived yesterday from Scythe california office

Will see if i can do it the best way.

The way it's set right now is both fans towards the heatsink, 1 facing up, one facing towards the heatsink and thus towards the ram (ie. from the left side)...

Will advise. Thanks for replying

Sanjay

Reply to starfyreXXX

There is an issue with the fans pointing to the DIMMs? Since DDR2, RAM rarely even gets warm to the touch, and remember, being hot to touch doesn't necessarily mean its 'hot' electronically or mechanically. ...Or are you meaning that the cooler doesn't work because of the DIMMs physically blocking a mounting option?

You want to follow the airflow of the red arrows in most cases, unless you prefer to have the CPU cooler blow air up.

Reply to rubix_1011

I can't do the red arrows since the ram comes up too high and the heatsink fans are just too low even at the highest point. Also I can't have them both upwards since the 2nd fan will then hit he power supply area. Essentially the only places I can put them is on the 'bottom' near the PCI slot area, and on the side of the heatsink (close to the rear of the mobo area where the USB slots, etc are that stick out the back).

So from that, I put both of them facing towards the heatsink. Only change I can think of, is making the one at the back face towards the rear exhaust... here is a better pic (i rememberd i have visio on my work PC hehehe

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y [...] /newpc.jpg

(I hope one of these links works).

So the blue are fans with the arrows showing flow direction. The video card is preetty much to scale (yes, it's longer than the mobo itself). The case is afull tower so very large.

The heatsink is also around that size (well, actually, it's a bit bigger than that even).

THe yellow are the heatsink fans..and those locations are teh only places they fit so I just have to choose which direction to flow the air.

Sanjay

Reply to starfyreXXX

Ya bud bottom cooler fan directing air up and the other one exhausting out thru the back exhaust it will work fine under the circumstances.
So to make myself clear just install the vertical fan on the left side directing air/pulling out the back.
You have everything else fan wise set-up perfectly which will assist in cooling all your components.

Message edited by davcon on 09-01-2010 at 03:46:53 PM

Reply to davcon

Which direction is the fan on the 'back' of the CPU heatsink blowing? Into the heatsink or out? Hopefully out...the back.

Reply to rubix_1011

right now, the fan facing up (towards power supply) is blowin towards the heatsink. The other fan, is also facing towards. I will take it off tonight and make it face the back of the case (ie. blowing away from heatsink).

I was worried since the up down facing sides are smaller than the front/back facing sides,but that side interferes with the ram. THe instructions say to put the fans on the longer sides first (basically)...but I can't. Only the rear fan can go there.

I will change it's direction to away
I hope it works.

I have another thread in the mobo forum asking about temp sensors and not sure how to use/mount them.

Want to use those to monitor cpu temp

Sanjay

Reply to starfyreXXX

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