CPU airflow direction on mini-ITX Cooler master elitte 110 build

[jolurove]

Hello everybody. I have a question to which I wasn't able to find a real answer browsing through the interwebs, so I appeal to your knowledge.

So I have the parts of my living room media/gaming build coming in a few days, and I was wondering which direction (pushing or pulling) is better for this system.

The relevant components for this questions are the Cooler master elite 110 case, the corsair VS 550 PSU and the Noctua NH-9Li cooler.

This case is very compact and has very little room for cable management and airflow. It is has cubic form factor and the PSU goes directly over the motherboard, leaving only 70 mm or about 3" for a cooling solution. That really cripples down the options for cpu cooling to basically water cooling (which is not an option for this system as it goes way over my budget) and a low profile air cooling solution. I opted for the latter with the noctua NH-L9i cooler which is only 37 mm tall with the fan included.

Now cooler master recommends to put the intake of the PSU facing upwards so it takes air directly outside of the case, but this approach doesn't help with the airflow and cooling of the rest of the components. Furthermore the hardrive actually goes over the PSU, and this one not being a modular one, I really can't think of another place to putting the unused cables over it as well, thus completely blocking airflow on the top of the case. So I looked it up and found a couple of reviews that actually put the PSU intake facing downwards with good results. Not only does this help cooling the rest of the components but it helps with the airflow within the case because it removes the air from the intake fan in the front panel.

All of this looks great on paper and by now you are probably thinking why do I even bother in starting this thread. But here's the thing. The cpu fan is placed horizontally, so the cpu heatsink airflow is vertical, and the fan actually blows air on to the heatsink, that being the opposite of the case airflow and being so close to the PSU intake fan I think it could actually affect the performance of the cpu fan and the one on the PSU.

So finally here's my question. Wouldn't it be better to flip cpu fan to actually push air outside of the heatsink, giving a much more streamlined airflow and in theory better cooling?

Here are pictures of the case and the cpu cooler for you guys to have an idea of what I'm talking about.

Thank you very much, and sorry for the long post!

 

[markwp]

Even if your cables interfere with the psu, you are still better off not directing any warm air at the cpu. Leave the direction of the cpu fan alone - the purpose of that fan is to push air across the fins of the cooler which is the actual heat dissapation device - if you remove that airflow, you WILL have cpu heat issues. If you really want to make sure you have the best airflow, make sure your exhaust fan is a high volume fan. Look for one that is also low rpm to reduce noise, and be sure to set up the bios to control both the cpu and exhaust fans via pwm and temp.

 

[jolurove]

well. the fan od f the psu actually sucks hot air from within the case, not the other way around. and this being such a small case it doesn't really have room for an exaust fan. This is why I'm thinking of using the PSU cooling system as a sort of exhaust fan for the build.

 

[Rammy]

Yeah I agree with the previous comments - leave the PSU the right way up so it's totally isolated, and don't touch the cooler fan - I don't think it'll give you good results.

If you do want to tinker with some things I'd suggest flipping the front fan around and giving that a go as a comparison. It's widely accepted that on the Elite 130 (which is similarly flawed in airflow) gets better overall results from exhausting from the front.

If you had more flexibility on components then there would be other options. A cooler like the C14 or L12 might be able to do what you want it to, but these are likely to be prohibitively expensive (tbh it's a bit odd if you are on a budget to spend on CPU cooling at all). There is also then the issue of pumping a lot of extra heat into the PSU, which will only serve to reduce it's lifespan and efficiency - especially if you are running a cheap unit like a Corsair VS.

 

[jolurove]

Actually I haven't thought of that, i'll give it a try. As for the other fan options you suggested, they're too tall and won't really fit in this build. And as for the comment regarding why i'm getting an aftermarket fan, it being such a small enviroment i'd like it to stay as cool as possible within certain limits. Being a Haswell system, and knowing they do tend to go rather hot i opted for that solution, I don't really think is such a crazy idea.

 

[Rammy]

Both of the coolers I mentioned won't fit, strictly speaking (you might be able to mod something) but it's only really that type of cooler which would be suitable for what you are talking about, that was my point. Something like the Sythe Kozuti would have been a more relevant example. As I mentioned - poor quality PSU+extra heat through it makes this a no-go for me, and I'd advise against it.

The reason I made the point about getting the NH9 is that they explicitly state it's not really suitable for some Haswell CPUs - it's main advantage over the Intel stock cooler is likely to be in noise levels. Tbh this is likely to be a pretty conservative guide though and perhaps to persuade you to buy a more expensive model, though Noctua generally seem like a decent company. If you have it and are intending on running a 65W+ CPU (or end up out width their guide specs) then I wouldn't worry too much, but it might not get the results you intended.