New PSUs seem to have a different fan position

[PeterTaps]

Folks,

It has been a couple of years I built my last computer. While researching for my new computer parts, I noticed that most PSUs now have the fan facing the motherboard. Older PSUs had fans on the face that had the power switch.

Is the new design supposed to provide better airflow?

All my old pc cases have a small plate that helps secure the PSU. However, with the newer PSU, the plate now blocks a little bit of the fan:-(. Will this be a problem?

Thank you in advance for your help.

Regards,
Peter

 

[nna2]

do you mean a second fan?
on my gigabyte pc, it has 1 facing outwards (as ususal)
on my personal build (case is from 2003ish) i have 2 fans facing down and out
it wont be a problem (in my eyes) it would be a bit like installing a sound card that covers a bit of your gfx card fan, it really dosent make a difference

 

[hunter315]

The 120-140mm fan on top is just a different cooling technique, it doesn't have any real advantage or disadvantage over an 80mm fan in the front or back except it frees up some of the depth in the PSU. In the end, it really wont affect you, the larger fans can be quieter, but there are some examples of them being louder too so thats a somewhat moot point.

Blocking a small part of the fan isn't going to be an issue, if you look you might even see a plastic baffle in there towards the back of the PSU(away from the plug side) that blocks some of the airflow to aim it forward. The PSU fan speed is automatically controlled by the PSU to keep the innards cool, if you block the fan a bit it might cause it to spin a little faster but i doubt you will even notice.