Which direction should my CPU cooler intake fan be facing.

[Kyleb20]

Hi everyone, I have just ordered a new CPU Cooler from Amazon UK because the stock AMD Cooler was loud and when I put the cooler on I messed up a bit and I was getting temps of 60 degrees when idle. The CPU Cooler can be mounted in any direction on Intel CPU's but with AMD you can only position the fan facing up or facing down. Because the fan is an intake fan and pulls cool air towards the heatsink I do not know whether I should position the fan facing up or down. If it is facing down it pulls in hot air from my GPU and if it is facing up it will be exhausting hot air onto my GPU! It's kind of a pick your poison situation and I would love too get some advice from you guys! Thanks!

 

[Sammyjo20]

25c is OK mate - that's how much room you have left temp wise before the chip hits thermal limits & throttles.
Amd overdrive works backwards compared to normal readings 😉

That's like having to read Manga backwards... :O

 

[Kyleb20]

25c is OK mate - that's how much room you have left temp wise before the chip hits thermal limits & throttles.
Amd overdrive works backwards compared to normal readings 😉

Noob question but what do you actually mean by throttle? Also, so 60 degrees thermal margin is not bad then?

 

[madmatt30]

^ I dunno - it works well once you realise what it does - it saves you having to think about what the max safe temp of your CPU is as it does the work for you.

You honestly cant really trust idle temps on any CPU - your 860k I know is rated at 80c max.
60c thermal margin means your chip is at 20c at idle which is unlikely.

Under prime if thermal margin is 25c then it means its actually 55c at the core.

Dont worry about idle temps ,just temps under load .

 

[Sammyjo20]

25c is OK mate - that's how much room you have left temp wise before the chip hits thermal limits & throttles.
Amd overdrive works backwards compared to normal readings 😉

Noob question but what do you actually mean by throttle? Also, so 60 degrees thermal margin is not bad then?

Thermal throttling is when your CPU is forced to turn down it's voltage to try and reduce temperatures to try and reduce it killing itself.

 

[madmatt30]

^ yup

 

[Sammyjo20]

^ yup

God. This is unnecessary but before 2015 I was using a laptop with a 1.3 ghz processor and was happy. Now I feel like a pro. haha

- Sam

 

[Kyleb20]

i just checked my amazon now and it has already been dispatched but i could return it but im not going too because it is too much work

 

[Sammyjo20]

i just checked my amazon now and it has already been dispatched but i could return it but im not going too because it is too much work

We're too much alike haha. You can always upgrade it mate if you need to.

 

[Kyleb20]

so to sum up this post i am going to stay with the cooler i have already ordered and what orientation do you guys think i should put the fan (the fan is intake)

 

[madmatt30]

It'll do the job mate - don't worry about it - I used one on my 6300 for 2 years & it was a solid solid performer - even did fairly well over clocking.

& fan at bottom mate between CPU/GPU.

 

[Sammyjo20]

so to sum up this post i am going to stay with the cooler i have already ordered and what orientation do you guys think i should put the fan (the fan is intake)

Put it facing the front

- Sam

 

[Kyleb20]

i just ran the stress test for a while and had a thermal margin of 20 degrees. I should be safe for now right? Thanks anyway guys for the fast and helpfull answers!

 

[Sammyjo20]

i just ran the stress test for a while and had a thermal margin of 20 degrees. I should be safe for now right? Thanks anyway guys for the fast and helpfull answers!

You should be fine mate. Anytime! I enjoyed helping out on this threat.

Have a lovely, fantastic day, this weather won't keep up knowing Britain 😉
- Sam

 

[madmatt30]

Home now & enjoying a beer on the back garden 😉

Kyleb 20 - a couple of little pointers.

1. The way the paste is preapplied on the stock fan you're using means it creates a lot of suction.

To remove it unlock the clip & twist it gently a few degrees left & right until it loosens before pulling it away from the CPU- dont just try & yank it straight off in one go.

2. To get the paste off the CPU surface - hold a piece of tissue underneath the socket - get a bank card or similar & scrape downwards on the CPU surface onto the tissue .
This will remove 95% of the existing paste - the CPU surface will end up a dull pinkish colour - this is fine - don't go to the lengths of cleaning with alcohol or anything else - you don't need to.

3. It has thermal compound Pre applied so is easy to fit.unclip the fan before you fit it - clip it back on once its fastened down

You'll lose between 5-10c temp wise - the main difference is all you get noise rise is a gentle whooshing of air under load instead of the whiney little bitch amd cooler.

 

[Kyleb20]

Home now & enjoying a beer on the back garden 😉

Kyleb 20 - a couple of little pointers.

1. The way the paste is preapplied on the stock fan you're using means it creates a lot of suction.

To remove it unlock the clip & twist it gently a few degrees left & right until it loosens before pulling it away from the CPU- dont just try & yank it straight off in one go.

2. To get the paste off the CPU surface - hold a piece of tissue underneath the socket - get a bank card or similar & scrape downwards on the CPU surface onto the tissue .
This will remove 95% of the existing paste - the CPU surface will end up a dull pinkish colour - this is fine - don't go to the lengths of cleaning with alcohol or anything else - you don't need to.

3. It has thermal compound Pre applied so is easy to fit.unclip the fan before you fit it - clip it back on once its fastened down

You'll lose between 5-10c temp wise - the main difference is all you get noise rise is a gentle whooshing of air under load instead of the whiney little bitch amd cooler.

Once again thanks for the help! I will post a picture of my pc with the cooler in it tommorow! 😉

 

[Kyleb20]

Just a quick update for any future readers. Ive been using this cooler for about 2 weeks now and like i previously said, i have the fan facing down and exhausting out the top of the case. The temps have been fine and the cooler has remained quiet. When playing on a game like BF4, the fan never exceeds 50%. (If you was using this on an intel socket the fan would most likely be a lot more quieter.)
Anyway, my rig now has 3 case fans: 2 Intake 1 Top Exhaust so the CPU cooler is kinda running in a push/pull configuration. If you are in the same situation as me then i would definetly recomend buying 2 Corsair fans. I got the 2 pack of the red AF fans because my case already came with 1 static pressure fan which i lowered so it is pushing air through the hard drive cage. I put an AF fan at the front and 1 on top. When gaming i raise them to 50% and 40% whilst web browsing. They arent silent but they are quiet enough for me. Once again i would recomend having the case fans at 50% because it gives more cool air to the CPU cooler and because the fan is facing down you need the fans running reasonably fast for cool air to get to the CPU fan.

To sum up, i am happy with the cooling performance of this cooler but if you are thinking about buying the arctic freezer Pro Rev 2 7 cooler for an AMD CPU, i would not because of how you are limited to the mounting options of this cooler and to maximize airflow, you would have to buy more fans for your case and have the fans spin a bit faster. With the 15£ spent of the fans you could get a hyper 212 evo or something like that.