CPU Cooler direction in case

[Nashsafc]

I've got a micro atx case and i have some pictures i want to show. I'm wanting to know whether the cooler should cool better if it is turned facing east to west or how it is currently on the picture. I thought it would be better now how it is facing currently because of how there is a larger gap inbetween the cpu cooler and graphics card than if i were to face it towards the hard drives; there is less of a gap. Also looking at my case layout does it look like there is anyting seriously flawing the performance of the zalman's cooler ability to cool efficiently? Should the cooler ultimately work better facing east to west if the hard drives weren't limitting the gap inbetween the cpu cooler and hdds. But there is a gap of over a couple of centimeters when i have the cpu cooler facing the hdds.

 

[SpidersWeb]

I don't think changing it will give a noticable improvement in temperatures.
It's either going to get hot air from the hard drives, hot air from the top of the case, or hot air from the back of the graphics card.
Personally I wouldn't change it.

Cooler looks like it's got good spacing on all sides, and looks like you've got a nice fan to extract heat as well.

 

[Nashsafc]

would the small gap inbetween the hdds and the cpu make much difference in cooling performance in general? It doesn't come any where near in proximity with the wires and it easilly slips in but there is not a siginificantly large gap if i were to turn it around. I'd say about 3cm nearer to the hdd power cords and 4 cm reaching the hdd itself. Should the cpu cooler still draw as much air in as possible as if there wasn't an object in the way in the first place? There's a front case fan as well, and that bottom air vent you can see bottom pic.

 

[Nashsafc]

o right so my matx build isn't a complete failure in terms of light overclocking. Currently i have my processor at 39 idle. It goes up to 54 degrees maximum at 3.2gh overclock. This is the phenom ii 720. This motherboard i have is untypical to most others, in the way that you can see it pushes the cpu cooler further to the side, if i had got an asus mobo, i would have been able to turn the zalman cooler facing east to west with no worries.