Blow or suck, That is the question!

[Jugernot]

I just got a Alpha PAL6035MHC hs with black label delta fan and so far It seems like I wasted my money. I had a Globalwin FOP32 with a YS Tech 60mm and it kept my Tbird 1GHz at 1.35GHZ right at 39-40F idle. The Alpha is only 1-2C cooler!

My case temp sits right at 70F all the time. I know that Alpha don?t generally work as well when blowing as they do sucking, but what do you think? Is my case temp cool enough that it might help?

Thanks,
Jugs

 

[Electric Amish]

I've always set my Alpha's up for sucking.

amish

 

[BrunoPuntzJones]

it's megamaid! she's gone from suck to blow!

 

[Jugernot]

Well I went ahead and switched it around. It dropped my temp by 1C, but the noise went up drastically. I put a YS Tech fan sucking on it and my temp went up to around 42-43C...

What's the deal? It's looking like my FOP32 could kick this thing's ass!

 

[sped]

I think the answer to that question is "it depends" For the most part if you can try it each way. I just got a new sk6 which I used my volcano II fan. It works really well, but I had the idea of trying it on "suck". For me it works better (1-2 degC) It is a little louder but I think its just the sound of the air pulling through the sink rather than pushing over it. I think it works better this way only because of the layout of my board and case. I have two 80mm exhaust fans fairly close to the cpu and my memory blocks some of the airflow from my intake fans. Because of this I get a "hot spot" next to my northbridge and memory. On "suck" its not as bad so for me it'll stay that way.

 

[Muerto]

"I had a Globalwin FOP32 with a YS Tech 60mm and it kept my Tbird 1GHz at 1.35GHZ right at 39-40F idle. The Alpha is only 1-2C cooler!"

That shouldn't be surprising. The difference between most HSFs these days is pretty small. But 1-2C is still a fairly big difference, to reduce the temperature that much a significantly greater amount of heat needs to be moved.