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Chassis PSU: fan on top or bottom?

Axonn

Axonn

Senior member
For people who don't know the HAF-X: it has lots of openings & grills: including a large fan AT THE TOP.

Ok so my logic says that I should leave the fan on top because it sucks more air from the chassis and throws it out, improving case cooling. But if I do this, the PSU might not get ideal cooling.

If I install it with the fan down, then it will pull only SOME air from the case, but most air will come from outside the case, since the case has a grill on its bottom allowing for airflow.

So, what do you think? Should I install it with the fan up or down?
 
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If you draw air in under the case it will accumulate more dust in the psu than from inside the case. Like you said, from inside the case the psu might run a little warmer.

I run mine from under the case but the apartment i was in, previously had a smoker living there and the psu collected a large amount of dust. I cleaned it as best i can till the warranty runs out and cut a piece of screen remnant and hot glued it to the bottom of the case. This way dust gets caught on the outside and is easily cleaned off.

I have a CM690.
 
Depends upon your build. If you are running 4x 6990's in XFire and running 10x HDD's in RAID with a CPU overclocked to 5GHz, then you might have to carefully plan out your cooling.

My main PC is just a core i5-750 @ 3.8 GHz with a single oveclocked GTX 460, 3 hard drives including an SSD inside a Storm Scout chassis. My PSU is a first-gen Corsair TX-650.

I installed the PSU in fan up orientation because i didn't want to set the PC on something to keep the carpet from blocking the vents. I've been running this for 2 years with zero heat issues.

The only thing you need to do is toss something over the fan when you are unscrewing bits inside the PC. I toss a hand towel on top of the PSU to keep dropped screws from getting inside the PSU and utterly ruining my day.
 
Haha, yeah, that's a good advice ::- D. I heard lots of people giving that "dropping screws" reason. Nah, I'm running a very basic setup. I have an overclocked Radeon 6850 and only one SSD and one HDD. My case is practically empty, but I bought this one because I will probably add more stuff to it next year.

In the end, I mounted it with the fan facing down, since my computer sits on my desk and there is almost no dust. But the HAF X really has a "talent" of sucking a lot of dust, which kind of worries me. I think I'm going to slap some extra filters on it.
 
I had the option for the first time yesterday...

I still chose to have the fan pointing up, I just can't see the 1/2" (or less) of space between the floor and the bottom of the case being as good as pulling air from inside the case.
 
I have a HAF 932 and mounted my PSU in the "fan down" orientation. First, I want the PSU to draw the cooler air from outside the case, and second, I do not want to take the chance of an errant screw falling into the fan opening. I realize the odds of that are minimal, but with my luck...
I DID put the wheels on the case instead of the "button" feet for extra clearance, especially since the case sits on carpet...
 
BoomerD : on the carpet? How's inside your HAF? "Carpety"? ::- D. I'm asking you because even without a carpet and the HAF sitting at 1.5 m from the floor, on my desk, it still fills up with dust rather fast (which I hate).

HAF filters are not so good as my old case's (Lian LI PC 101B) which I passed on to my girlfriend.
 
Axonn said:
BoomerD : on the carpet? How's inside your HAF? "Carpety"? ::- D. I'm asking you because even without a carpet and the HAF sitting at 1.5 m from the floor, on my desk, it still fills up with dust rather fast (which I hate).

HAF filters are not so good as my old case's (Lian LI PC 101B) which I passed on to my girlfriend.
Click to expand...

I have to clean the dust out of the case monthly, but it's always been that way. It's a problem with living in California's farm country, not otherwise related to the case or PSU mount.
I have the wheels on the case to give a bit more clearance than would otherwise be provided from the case feet. There's about 1.5 inches of clearance to the carpet.
 
Wouldn't the decision matter on the efficiency of the PSU? The more efficient the less need for the Fan to be up as it would be running as hard to need to cooling?

I am not expert, just my two cents which are probably worth cent 🙂
 
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