PSU orientation

davidc100

Junior Member
Jan 17, 2013
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Can anyone tell me please what the correct orientation of my psu in my case should be? Fan up or fan down? I am fitting a new Corsair AX860 in an Obsdian 550D case. Neither the screw holes on the psu, nor the tiny manual, nor the text and labels on the psu itself, make this clear.

I have tried to get an answer from Corsair Tech support but with no success.

Thanks.
 

dma0991

Platinum Member
Mar 17, 2011
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Based on the pictures on Corsair's website, the Corsair 550D will support either way depending on your preference. You could go with the usual fan down method which sucks filtered air from below or the less common fan up method which does make the PSU fan act like an exhaust but I'd prefer to isolate the PSU from air inside the case.

One way is not better than the other but for me, the obvious choice would be to make it face down as the cables are the closest to the grommet below. Mounting it other way around doesn't make sense and I need every single inch of the cable length. You're using a modular PSU, doesn't really matter much.
 

Face2Face

Diamond Member
Jun 6, 2001
4,100
215
106
Most people would recommend you facing your PSU fan down. It will draw air from the bottom of your case and keep the PSU cooling separate from the rest of your components. Usually the PSU wiring is easier to route behind your mobo tray with the fan facing down as well.

If you did want to install the fan facing up, it's not gonna hurt anything - but may cause your PSU to run a little hotter depending on how your GPU expels hot air.
 

davidc100

Junior Member
Jan 17, 2013
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Thanks. Going with fan down seems to be the answer. But it's a little unsettling to find that the psu modular cable connectors are then upside down - along with their text labels.
 

Eureka

Diamond Member
Sep 6, 2005
3,822
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That's odd, most PSUs that I've used orient the labels to work with fan down. Fan down is the preferred way if you have the grill on the bottom so it sucks in clean air from outside the case. Otherwise fan up if you don't have such a grill.
 

ericloewe

Senior member
Dec 14, 2011
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That's odd, most PSUs that I've used orient the labels to work with fan down. Fan down is the preferred way if you have the grill on the bottom so it sucks in clean air from outside the case. Otherwise fan up if you don't have such a grill.

At least the Corsairs I've seen all had the label on the far side (fan facing down) upside-down, so that it'd be in the correct orientation if you turn it around.
 

tren001

Member
Feb 6, 2005
186
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My Corsair is also mounted "upside down." My case does have a filtered grill opening downwards, but I installed it upside down anyways. It just seemed more logical to me for several reasons.

The case is basically divided into halves by a big graphics card right down the middle.

In the top half, there is optical drive and SSD in the front, so minimal heat and plenty of space. The RAM with its heatsinks and the CPU with its cooler sits in the middle, and their heat is taken out of the case by a fan on the back of the case.

In the bottom half, there is an front panel fan drawing air in past the two 3.5" hard discs, and there is also the GPU fan blowing air DOWNwards. So both the front fan and the GPU fan are blowing air towards the PSU. There are no rear panel fan in this half of the case, although I guess you could install a PCI slot type fan which could draw air out of that half of the case.

Since I didn't put in a slot fan, it seemed more logical to me to mount the PSU upside down so the air coming from the front fan and GPU fan can go thru the PSU and out of the case.

I guess it might make the PSU overheat, although the airflow would be a mix of the cool air from the front fan with the warmer air from the GPU fan.

Maybe the next time I upgrad, I should flip the PSU, and install a PCI slot type fan?