Is it OK to run a PS "upside down"?

[dainthomas]

So the PS on my qpack finally bit it. I was getting restarts whenever I fired up any games. Presumably because the combination of my vid card and hd were drawing too much current. Anyway, I pop in the above mentioned ps (which Frys had for $80 in the last ad) and now it runs like a champ.

My only issue is that I had to flip it over to get it to fit with both of my optical drives. Didn't have room to plug the modular cables in. So are the heatsinks in these designed to operate oriented in a certain direction, or will this be OK. It's running fine now, but I'm thinking long term.

 

[PurdueRy]

Seeing as I believe that is a 1 fan design..I don't see any reason not. The difference in heat rising away from the PCB would be minimal at most...

 

[Bobthelost]

No, it will give you cancer.

Alternatively, it's fine.

 

[SparkyJJO]

Actually upside-down might make it work a little better. Reason being is heat rises, and when mounted normally the PCB is on top of the PSU so the heat has a natural tendency to stay up at the top and near the base of the heatsinks therefore closer to the thing they are supposed to cool. Flipped the other way you now have the natural convection of heat rising away from the stuff plus the cooling fan.

Short answer if you don't want to read all that is yes it is fine no problem.

example

 

[dainthomas]

Originally posted by: Bobthelost
No, it will give you cancer.

Whew. As long as it's nothing serious, like system instability.

Originally posted by: SparkyJJO
Actually upside-down might make it work a little better. Reason being is heat rises, and when mounted normally the PCB is on top of the PSU so the heat has a natural tendency to stay up at the top and near the base of the heatsinks therefore closer to the thing they are supposed to cool. Flipped the other way you now have the natural convection of heat rising away from the stuff plus the cooling fan.

Short answer if you don't want to read all that is yes it is fine no problem.

example

I had no idea how those were laid out internally. Thanks for the pic!