Case Fan Help

[jo_795]

ok i really need help with my build.. i recently bought a ZEROtherm ZEN FZ120 120mm CPU Cooler - Retail
and used artic silver 5 compound with it. i have a phenom x4 955 3.2 ghz

the 2 front 80mm fans are sucking air in . my top 80 mm fan is blowing air out. and my back fan is blowing out air. but my cpu fan is blowing air in towards the heatsink but its placed right across my back fan is that a problem!?? my cpu temps are at 41 C which i think its pretty high because with my stock fan i was getting around 41-44 c ......

i had to take off my side air duct because the heatsink was too big so thers nothing there except the air filter

 

[jo_795]

these pics are before the aftermarket fan but where my back fan is my cpu fan is right across it

 

[JohnnyLucky]

The answer to your question is no, it is not a problem. You have two fans at the front blowing cool air into the case. You have two fans at the rear blowing hot air out of the case. You have a cpu heatsink with a fan that blows air toward the cpu. That is a fairly typical configuration. Both AMD and Intel have stock heatsinks with fans that blow air toward the cpu. You probably have a video card with a heatsink and fan that blows toward the gpu. Although you didn't mention what you used to measure cpu temperature with, 44C is acceptable. Don't worry! Be happy!

 

[jo_795]

i only have 1 back fan blowing air out.. and right across it is my cpu fan im talking about both fans facing each other like condradicting because cpu fan is basically sucking air to blow air towards the heatsink and the back fan is suckin air to blow it out and i wanted to OC and my stock fan had the same temps so what was the point of gettin a aftermarket fan?,..,.

 

[geofelt]

What you want is good airflow through the case to expel hot air as quickly as possible. Two 80mm intake fans are quite weak, not as good as a single 120mm fan. Can you mount the fan on the cooler so that it sends the hot cooler air directly towards the rear exhaust fan? I would mount it to push the cool air through the cooler, and the rear fan will get the warmed air out of the case.

If the cooler fan must remain where it is, then flip it around so that it draws air through the heat sink, and the rear fan still gets it out of the case.

It does not look to be a very good cooling case. You might want to look for a sale on the Antec 300.

 

[jo_795]

ill post a pic of what i mean but i could move the fan on the otherside but i wont be able to fit my ram.....

 

[jo_795]

is it possible that i dindt put enough thermal grease? i used artic 5 and used a plastic bag to spread it over the cpu enough to cover a smaller box and placed the heatsink on top of it

 

[JohnnyLucky]

Thanks for posting the photo. Your cpu heatsink fan is blowing air in the wrong direction. It should be blowing air toward the case fan on the back panel. Also, it would help if the cpu heatsink fan was mounted on the right side of the heatsink so that it blows air across the heatsink toward the rear case fan.

 

[geofelt]

ill post a pic of what i mean but i could move the fan on the otherside but i wont be able to fit my ram.....

It is OK to mount the fan a bit high so that it clears the ram stcks. You want the airflow to be directed towards the rear exit fan.

If is hard to put too little grease. Too much is a more common problem. The grease acts as an insulator. It's purpose is to fill in those microscopic pits in the cpu and heat sink so that there is no air trapped. Air is an even worse insulator.

 

[jo_795]

the problem is that i cant put it on the other side because i wont be able to fit all my ram im waiting for 2 more sticks to come thru the mail and i got the ocz reaper big old thing with fins but ill move the cpu fan direction to suck air from the heatsink right?

 

[JohnnyLucky]

Correct. Reverse the cpu heatsink fan so that it blows air toward the exhaust fan on the rear panel. That should help.

I never bothered with those memory modules with tall heat spreaders because I knew they could get in the way of those large tower style cpu heatsinks.

 

[jo_795]

well its in the recommended list for my mb

 

[jo_795]

i flipped it around and it seems like more heat comes out from the back my idle temps are around 42-44 and 46-50 under gaming is that okay??... but wat if i wanted to overclock...

 

[JohnnyLucky]

What software utility did you use to measure cpu temperatures?

 

[jo_795]

i have different things i use these drivers that came with my asus md called pc probe. temp for cpu mb and fan speed. i use speed fan for my temps and bios. and also my case has a temp gauge and all 4 are pretty close to each other