Xigmatek- "pusher" fan or "sucking" fan?

[cadder]

Gigabyte P55-UD3R motherboard, i5-750, G.Skill Ram w/ heat spreaders, Xigmatek Balder cooler (basically their 1283 with a couple of minor changes).

This is the second machine I've built with this configuration. For the first one I had to settle for the 1284 cooler due to Newegg's inventory. The fan would not fit in its normal position because of the heat spreaders but I noticed that if I moved it up about 5mm or so then it would fit. I drilled 2 new holes in the fan for the rubber mounts so the fan could be raised and the mounts would still connect at the top of the fins. Testing the CPU at 3.9 GHz my temps got to 72. When I built that machine I noticed that there was plenty of room on the back side of the cooler to mount the fan there, and have it pull air through the cooler rather than pushing it through the cooler. So I'm wondering if anyone has tried this or if there is a reason why it would not work. It seems to me that it would work about the same either way.

I was working on another machine tonight, with the configuration listed above, but I haven't mounted the fan yet. The Balder cooler is very slightly thinner than the 1284, and if I shaved the bottom front edge of the fan I think I could probably put the fan in its prescribed location. But I can also easily mount it on the back of the cooler and let it suck air through the cooler.

 

[Conumdrum]

A pusher is always better with one fan. Won't get into the physics. Except to say, you want air pulled into the sides anfully not through ALL the fins? Or pushing air through all the fins? Think about it.

Don't matter if your temps are good for you. You decide. 72C is silly hot unless your overclocking and have crazy voltages.

These types of questions just mess me up. Temps are high. My HS doesn't fit due to my ram and case config. It sucks.

Buy a monster case or a tech stand, get a uber top cooler and get rid of the silly botiqe cooling on the ram, point a 120mm fan on standard heatspreader ram and your good.

We are hitting the max on PC cooling in many ways. Too many choices to cool and not enough research to make it fit. It's a sad day for the uniformed.

 

[cadder]

These machines are used in our work environment. They don't run at load for extended periods so temps under prime95 aren't representative of our use. OTOH we can't always control the temperatures in our office space. I test the machine to 4GHz, then when I'm sure it will handle that under good conditions, I set it to about 3.5GHz for everyday use.

I read a lot of reviews of the Balder and it got good reviews. I also read the big test that Toms did, and I've researched on frostytech.com. The thing is that the coolers that did well for Toms didn't do well for frostytech, and vice-versa, and on top of that some of the best ones are either hard to find when I'm trying to source parts on a short timeframe through newegg, or they are very much more expensive.

Right now I'm tempted to mod my fan a bit so it will fit where it's supposed to go. A couple of mm off of the lower edge would do it, I can do that real quick in my shop. I'm a bit leery of modding the ram during its warranty period.

Pushing, pulling, it still seems the same to me. You push air into the heatsink but some of it can escape out the sides/ you pull air into the heatsink and some enters through the sides, what's the difference. The Balder actually has the sides partially closed off unlike the previous versions of the 1283. Actually if I was wanting to go for more overclock I would just mount fans on both sides. The Balder has provisions for that. I like fans, I always buy 2 extras to mount in the front of the Antec case.

 

[OvrClkr]

Push is what you want, pull is only used when the cooler uses 2 fans.