suck or blow a radiator

[cack01]

I've searched the forms, and I haven't found any hard data on if blowing or sucking is the best way to cool a radiator. I would like to keep the radiator inside the case, while blowing fresh air onto it. I feel this will cool it better as opposed to sucking the air away which in my oppinion is too passive.

I am aware that this will end up blowing hot air into my case, so I think I will make a duct from the radiator directly to a fan blowing out. If I do it right It should keep any heat from the radiator from leaking into the rest of the case. I'm sure someone has done this before.

Is it worth it to do this, or should I just stick to sucking the air away from the radiator.

Just looking for input, thanks guys/gals.

 

[cack01]

One last thing, I just got one of those enermax PSU's with the two fans so it acts as a blow hole. I was thinking about using this as as the sucking part of the duct, or maybe just connecting the radiator to it directly. I would turn the psu's fans to high.

Just wanted to know if this is unsmart, or just brilliant b/c I won't have to drill another hole.
thanks

 

[technician]

I was debating this as well, since I have a BlackIce Extreme and wanted to stick it at the top of my Antec SX1030B. It's got dual 120mm fans on it, so I was wondering which would be best, pulling or pushing air?

My guess is that it would be best to have it pulling the cooler air from outside the case, then just have some good case air circulation pulling that air outside. I've got four 80mm fans (30+ CFM each) so I don't think keeping the case cool would be a problem. That's just my opinion on the matter

 

[cack01]

I ended up sandwhiching the radiator between one 128 and one 80 mm from the enermax intake. The 128 is blowing towards the radiator while the 80 sucks away. Under the 128 I have one 80mm fan blowing air from outside.

This seems like it should work well but I don't know till tonight.

 

[Iron Hawk]

Setting up a radiator in a Push-Pull setup seems to work best. This can be done by having a fan on one side blow air into the radiator, and a fan on the other side pull air thru the radiator. If this is not possable, i believe that pulling air through the radiator works best, because when air is pushed directly into the radiator much of it can be diflected by the fins. This can be avoided by putting a shroud over the radiator using it to duct the air from a fan placed 2-5cm from the radiator.

Conclusion: put a fan on either side one pushing the other pulling, do not place the fans directly on the radiator, instead, us a duct or shroud to set them appart from the radiator by a few cm.