Pentium D and fan shroud

[jmwpom3]

Here's the situation:

I have an old Pentium D 820 in a system where the case came with the fan shroud. However, whoever put the thing together added an aftermarket cpu cooler (CM of some sort) that has a downward blowing fan. There's obviously a fan on the side panel at hte top of the shroud. So, here's the question:

Since the fan is pulling are thru the heatsink and not upward towards the side panel, what's the best setup for the side panel fan/fan shroud? The original builder left the side panel fan as an intake fan blowing down the shroud towards the cpu hsf. Is this even a good idea? My understanding on those was they were originally intended to vent the cpu heat out and not for pulling cool air in, right?

So, should I leave the shroud off and just use the side fan as a case intake and leave more room for air to circulate inside? Or would there be any advantage to leaving it the original config so it's pulling in fresh air to go down and thru the cpu hsf? The only other option I see is turning the fans around and using the shroud, hsf, and case fan as exhaust.

I'm torn. Does anyone have any suggestions?

It's a mid tower case, but there's a decent amount of room. I've got a 120 mm intake on the front panel, 2 x 40mm exhaust on the rear + the psu fan blowing that way on an Antec psu. I had pretty much come to the conclusion that it would be best to just ditch the shroud and get that fan blowing in and let the cpu hsf do it's own work.


Any help greatly appreciated.

 

[PeteRoy]

I think I'd keep the "shroud"

Why not test the tempratures with the shroud on and off? Download realtemps, do sensor test with prime 95 and try it in both ways, whatever gives you lower temps for the cpu wins

 

[zagood]

In general, I'd say if you don't have any other components that create a lot of heat (GPU etc) then keep the shroud on. You should test both ways though.

 

[bloodugly]

Yes, I agree with the last 2 posters, test and see for yourself which works best.

 

[jmwpom3]

Thanks guys. I just got a bigger& better hsf so I cant use the shroud any more anyway.
Thanks for the input.

 

[jmwpom3]

From another thread. Here's what I ended up doing if anyone wished to know.

So, here's what I ended up with after $150 total upgrade cost along with a few more grey hairs and a few less all the way around:

1- gigabyte p43-ud3l MB
1- coolermaster hyper tx3 cooler w/ push/pull 92mm fans
1- new intake 120mm fan on the front
1- cardslot fan by thermaltake that did a decent job for 14.99
+ some arctic silver 5 and cable ties.
- Rerouted all the cabling to allow for some airflow and make hte case appear that the person who assembled it actually gave a $h!t.

End result:

GB P43-UD3L MB w/ that pentium D 820 2.8ghz perfectly stable in prime95 at 3.333 ghz (moderate OC), w/ just the 1G of patriot ram @ 5-5-5-15-1t, the 3 new fans, and DITCHED the shroud alltogether but left the side fan as an intake blowing directly down on the TX3. Front fan blowing in, 2 60mm case fans blowing out hte back along with the T1 from Thermaltake and the PSU.
And perhaps most importantly, we're now fully upgradable to a C2D or Q in the future and up to 8G of ddr2 1200.

Game runs stable. Machine now idles at ~38-40C and under full load between 55C-59C.

I still don't like how quickly that dumb game is to push everything to high 50's,, but no more BSOD or artifacts in the graphics even at 1440 x 900.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I think it's more likely a bad idea to reverse a side-panel fan from intake to exhaust.

I recommend mildly pressurizing the case. If that's the case (my pun) -- then any shroud or duct that restricts airflow to more narrow apertures over the motherboard or CPU components will actually enhance cooling.