Rear case fan suck in or blow out?

[Octoman]

I just built a 1.2 Duron for my Beloved and I noticed that the temps where a little high. This is all according to MBM, the temp was 27C in the case and idle temps were around 47C. I used Hotpotatoe to stress the CPU for a little while and got the CPU temp up to 52C. Now the temp in my room is about 21C according to my other PC which has no case panels on. Her concern is noise and mine is the temps. I am using the retail HSF on it to keep noise down. Should I:

A. Add an additional case fan to the rear of the case?(already has
mounting place and grill) If so should it suck air in or blow out?
This would be in addition to the case fan already in the front
sucking air in.

B. Should I not add the additional case fan and instead get a
better HSF? Any suggestions for good cooling, low noise?

C. All the above? Add additional case fan and find better HSF?

 

[Crazy Jayhawk]

What kind of heatsink are you using? What kind of thermal paste? If you're not using Arctic Silver, switching over to that should cool the CPU a few degrees.

If its fan blows onto the heatsink, use the additional fan as an intake. That way the HSF gets a steady supply of fresh outside air.

If it blows off, use the fan as an exhaust. That way the hot air coming off the heatsink has a way to get out of the case instead of heating up everything else.

 

[jkos]

idle temps were around 47C. I used Hotpotatoe to stress the CPU for a little while and got the CPU temp up to 52C.

Personally, I wouldn't worry about 52 C. My Duron 650 has been running at 800 and hovering around 54 C for over a year now. It has a pretty cheap HS on it and is 100% stable.

A. Add an additional case fan to the rear of the case?(already has
mounting place and grill) If so should it suck air in or blow out?
This would be in addition to the case fan already in the front
sucking air in.

The standard answer is blowing out. However, try both ways just for kicks. My friend got a 4 C drop in CPU temp by going against the grain and trying the rear fan blowing in. We tried it both ways again and got the same results.

B. Should I not add the additional case fan and instead get a better HSF? Any suggestions for good cooling, low noise?

Zalman makes some excellent heatsinks which can work with low noise. Check out www.zalmantech.com.

- John

 

[JimmyG]

Experimentation is the best route. Try it blowing out first.
The reverse it. Pick the best temp.

The best HSF is the Swiftech 462X. Use a rheostat with the fan to quiet it down when idling. Speed it up when gaming or other heavy CPU intensive computing.

 

[Neco]

Rear fan - sucking out.

I can't imagine why you'd want a rear and front both blowing in though, unless you had a blowhole. Cause you'd basically end up with a pocket of hot air after a while.

 

[stool]

First get an additional fan exhausting from the rear. This should lower your case temps enough to bring down the CPU temp a little. If noise is a concern, opt for a 92mm. Fans are cheap enough that you should be able to afford both

Next, check here for info on HSF combos. Running over 50C for any length of time is definitely not good for your CPU. Make sure you use a quality thermal interface.

 

[Octoman]

Well I got a rear fan blowing out a Thermaltake 6Cu with 4500RPM fan(fan actually @ 4900). I replaced the stock AMD HSF with the 6Cu and had the rear fan blowing in. The temps went dow alot, however I decided to have the fan blow out and my case temps. went down further as well as my CPU temps. Thnx guys for the help