Question Which way around should I mount my top down cooler? Just curious

[RAIDGoblin]

I now have my new cooler! (kind of, I won't be mounting it until Christmas when I get my new PSU, but I am test fitting it to check my math was right). I feel a tiny bit cheated because the brackets that are supplied for AMD only let me mount it in two orientations, but the intel brackets let you mount it in 4, I had wanted it the way around I can't mount it, but ow well

Looks like I have a choice between two ways to mount it (test fit only so no fan in photo's, fan will be mounted to underneath of heat-sink blowing downward),

with the fan overhanging the chip set:

or with the fan overhanging the RAM:

mobo without cooler:

I don't think it will affect the case air flow either way, I plan to cut an intake hole in the case directly above whichever position I pick anyway (it basically touches the top of the case). It could potentially fill the PSU with warm air more if it is over the chip set but IDK if that would be an issue? (I could put a divider in so the PSU takes fresh air from outside if that turns out to be a problem) Aesthetically I like it more over the chip set, instead of over the RAM where all the wires and backs of the drives are in the way and squished up etc...

But before I make my decision based solely off of eye candy, I wondered if any of you had an opinion, if it is important which way around I pick. What gets hotter/would benefit more from the cooler fan, RAM or chip-set? feel free to share opposing opinions, I am interested and if it really doesn't matter that's fine too

thx for any input

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When I'm using this cooler, my system specs will be:

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 2700X and Be-quiet Dark Rock TF2 (with only one fan) - GPU: Radion HD7770
Motherboard: Gigabyte B450M Gaming, Micro-ATX
RAM: 2x16GB Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 3000MHz
Storage: 240GB Corsair MP510, M.2 (boot drive for Debian 10), 2x 1TB Seagate BarraCuda (RAID 1)
PSU: Corsair SF Series (2024) 750W SFX, OS: Debian 11, Use: Minecraft, Video/photo editing, Digital art

 

[Ralston18]

My input:

1) Forget any considerations regarding "eye candy" - that should not be a consideration at all. If it works out - fine.

2) What instructions and guidance does the case User Guide/Manual suggest?

3) What instructions and guidance does the cooler User Guide/Manual suggest?

4) Not sure about the location of other fan(s). Overall you need to consider the locations, sizes, and airflows any other fans that will be installed. Remember that hot/warm air rises and the airflow directions should take advantage of that.

Plus you do not want more intake than exhaust or internal airflow directions that effectively result in air not really moving at all. Or flowing as to miss some areas all together.

Wondering about that fan next to the PSU....

It may be that you are limited to two orientations versus the 4 orientations you would like to have had.

However, consider (when thinking about the overall build) that perhaps neither of the two available orientations may be workable.

You are certainly on the right track and asking questions is a good thing.

Sketch out the cooler, fan, airflow directions etc. for the configurations that are being considered.

You can scan and post sketches as well.

Very likely that you or someone one will spot a potential problem beforehand.

No harm in planning and delving into the details.

 

[RAIDGoblin]

Thank you for your reply (@Ralston18 quotes in bold italic)

1) Forget any considerations regarding "eye candy" - that should not be a consideration at all. If it works out - fine.
I guess I just thought if it didn't matter that would be the only choosing factor, it will still deliver the same cooling to the CPU either way

2) What instructions and guidance does the case User Guide/Manual suggest?
it's a sleeper build, the case might as well be home made at this point, it's so far modified from what it was originally, and it was never designed for a PC like this anyway. It's an early 2000's desktop small form factor case that was built for something older than intel Pentium, with one fan and originally a passive cooler. I've added 4 case fans so far, and changed the layout of the inside

For this question it might just be better to assume the case will be left open air, and air flow is my problem

3) What instructions and guidance does the cooler User Guide/Manual suggest?
It doesn't, it just tells you it can be mounted in two possible orientations using the AMD brackets, then tells you (in bold text) not to eat the thermal paste provided , then to mount the cooler using the two screws, with no mention of which way you should pick. Hence I just assumed it didn't matter but thought I would ask anyway

4) Not sure about the location of other fan(s). Overall you need to consider the locations, sizes, and airflows any other fans that will be installed. Remember that hot/warm air rises and the airflow directions should take advantage of that.

Plus you do not want more intake than exhaust or internal airflow directions that effectively result in air not really moving at all. Or flowing as to miss some areas all together.

Wondering about that fan next to the PSU....

the case is desktop, not a tower, so hot air rises isn't really a consideration. here's the diagram fro airflow from when I did this version of the build:

it's an old picture, I now have another fan that comes in between the HDD's, and a GPU, but it's essentially the same. This layout takes advantage of the PSU as an extract, it's worked fine with my Ryzen 3 3200 G, but it's not ideal with a hotter CPU, so I might add a second small fan, or just a mesh panel, in the back and screen off the PSU so it takes fresh air from outside thorough the gap, but that's not really related to my question, air flow is my problem since it's my choice to use this case LOL

It may be that you are limited to two orientations versus the 4 orientations you would like to have had

However, consider (when thinking about the overall build) that perhaps neither of the two available orientations may be workable.

I wanted it with the heat pipes facing the GPU, and providing equal cooling to chipset and RAM, and leaning towards my extracts. But that decision in it's self was partly made for looks anyway, because I wanted the hole in the top for the coolers intake to look deliberately off center instead of like I tried to cut it in the middle and missed. Essentially what I've done is picked the biggest cooler that will fit in the case, and even if it means more modifications, I will make it work, I just can't decide which way around to make it work

 

[Ralston18]

Nicely presented.

Overall, you are somewhat into what I would consider as "experimental" territory.

Especially with the stated case mods etc..

I would be wary of a cooler held in place by only two screws: expansion/contraction, vibrations etc. will loosen things up.

Air flow: yes you can force air flows to flow contrary to normal convection flows ( warm air rising). There will still be places where air will be trying to rise and thus inhibit air flows and cooling. May be some "dead air" spot with no directional flow.

Continue thinking about it and continue looking for other ways and means.

Keep in mind the trade-offs between costs and risks. Hopefully the worst that would happen is some component hits an out of spec temperature and allows time enough for the problem to be noted and the system shutdown.

Be careful of doing things that may void warranties.

There may be other comments and suggestions - I have no problem with that.

---- And I agree: do not eat the thermal paste.

 

[RAIDGoblin]

Nicely presented.

Overall, you are somewhat into what I would consider as "experimental" territory.

Especially with the stated case mods etc..

Thanks and definitely experimental, I've just discovered www.reddit.com/r/sleeperbattlestations , there are some awesome builds with similar ideas over there, and people have managed to get much hotter CPU's to run OK in old cases with limited air flow, so I might ask over there, a crowd of people with experience in this territory

I would be wary of a cooler held in place by only two screws: expansion/contraction, vibrations etc. will loosen things up.

I have a friend who's been running a bigger be-quiet cooler that has pretty much the exact same bracket for three years, he hasn't had any problems, and they get generally good reviews so I guess I should be fine, only time will tell

I will continue to think about it, and wait for other's input, and thank you for yours

at least half of my system is too old to have warranty, or is second hand, the only thing that has a warranty is the PSU, technically also the cooler but I don't see what can go wrong with an air cooler? maybe fans could break, but I've never seen that other than with really really cheap ones

so long as I monitor temperatures when I test it I should be safe, I had to make minor alterations last time


...and don't worry, thermal paste doesn't look that tasty LOL

 

[Ralston18]