Which way should a fan blow on a CPU HS?

Hey there,

I have an SK6 with a YS Tech 26 CFM Fan on it. As per the directions that came with the HSF, i installed the fan so it was sucking air off the heatsink. This morning, i read this page:
http://www.plycon.com/tright.htm
It suggests that the fan should be blowing *on* the heatsink.

Which is it?

I have a 1.4Tbird and i'm getting 45-47C at idle, and 50C at load. I have at least one game (Operation Flashpoint) that i think crashes to desktop because of heat issues. I would like to know if reorienting my fan will fix this, or if I just have to bite the bullet and go buy a Delta 38 and watch my ears bleed.

What do you all think?

ThX
Steph

I thought that most of or all of the time a fan is going to be blowing air onto the heatsink. I could be wrong of course, but mine have always been. The reason I know this is when I put my hand in the case with it turned on I end up smacking the fan.

Flip the fan over and see if you get better temps?

get your self a sunon or delta fan with a higher CFM and make it blow air TO the heatsink, this should lower the temps "hopefully"

Good luck and ... keep it KOOL!

Thanks for the posts...i'll flip the fan and see what i get. If it's substantial enough so that OpFlash wont crash anymore, i'll stick with what i've got, otherwise, here comes the DELTA.

Thx
Steph

50°C shouldn't be too high for a none overclocked cpu

I've got a Thermoengine ducted to the outside of my case and I actually get a few degrees better by exhausting than by blowing in. I don't think it's *supposed* to sork that way. But in my case it did.

nihili

well i flipped the fan...here what I got:

before

idle=46-47C

now

idle=45C

load now = 52C (prime95)

I tried running Prime95 initially and it was failing out quickly. I went into my BIOS and clocked back my ram latency settings and it seems to be working now. I haven't tried OpFlash yet, but hopefully that will solve the problem.

Cheers
Steph

PS...i still might like to get that Delta fan to keep this thing a little cooler though.

Only alpha HSF, are designed to SUCK rather than BLOW, unless anyone else knows diferent. And the new Alpha 8045 kicks some serious arse.

This discussion of sucking vs. blowing (hmm, sounds obscene) has been posted numerous times in the past. Some setups work better with the fan blowing, others work better sucking. I have both an Alpha PAL and a GlobalWin FOP. The Alpha ran cooler with the fan sucking heat off the sink, but the GlobalWin cooled best with the fan blowing air onto the sink. Before you resort to the Delta fan (which will drive you crazy with the noise), try adapting an 80mm Sunon high output fan onto the sink like I did. Not only does it flow more air (42 CFM vs. 38 CFM), but it's much more quieter than the Deltas.