Orientation won´t matter?

[jamart821]

Do copper pipe HSFs work the same regardless of orientation?. Those are always depicted standing erect on their base but the vast majority will be working horizontally, perpendicular to the vertical MOBO.

 

[davcon]

The best hsf orientation is east/west this takes advantage of front intake fan and rear exhaust fan.
North/south set-ups are generally used if some installation issues(dimm/ram) have prevented an east/west mounting.

 

[jamart821]

Thank you, Davcon. I realize that my question was wrong: Orientation means East-West, North-South, of course. Sorry, what I had in mind was a Vertical-Horizontal POSITION. As I have read those copper pipes have inside some inert gas under pressure so it is liquid. When the cooler is standing erect the liquefied gas is at the bottom, contacting the base; heated by the CPU, it turns into hot gas which rises up and is cooled down at the Fin section of the cooler, liquefies and returns by gravity. That´s the normal cycle, now would a horizontal position degrade the coolers performance significantly, or what?. Again, Thanks! jamart821

 

[wolfram23]

It shouldn't matter. The vast majority of PC cases are standing, so the heat sink is always horizontal. It would be logical that they design them accordingly.

 

[jamart821]

Thank you, Wolfram23, I guess you are right and the fact that they do work in that position suggests it. I am being curious now: Do you know if anybody has taken this into consideration when testing HSFs?

 

[wolfram23]

No, I don't know for sure. I do know that most test platforms are not in a CPU case, so the mobo is generally horizontal meaning the heat sinks are vertical. The thing is, results between those and what people experience are usually very close so I'm pretty sure it's fine either way.

 

[jamart821]

Thank You. I think that last sentence settles it. jamart821