question for the overclockers!

DinoGucci

Senior member
Mar 13, 2002
709
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Do you guys put the fan to blow towards the heatsink or to suck from it?
it seems the way it was designed is to suck the air out and blow it away not to blow on to the heatsink.
thanks !
 

Insane3D

Elite Member
May 24, 2000
19,446
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Aluminum sinks tend to work better with the fan blowing on them while copper seems to work better with air being pulled through the fins/pins and away. Also, when using a fan adapter, a 60mm ---> 80mm one for example, you will want to have it set to blow air away from unit otherwise the pressure of pushing air though the adapter will cause the larger fan to work worse. These are just general guidelines and each heatsink design is different. Test both ways on your cooler and see which works better. :)
 

smp

Diamond Member
Dec 6, 2000
5,215
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Test both ways on your cooler and see which works better

ditto! :)
 

John

Moderator Emeritus<br>Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
33,944
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<< well i am talkin about an sk-6 heatsink >>



I got the best results with the fan blowing air on the heatsink.
 

sharkeeper

Lifer
Jan 13, 2001
10,886
2
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It really depends on several things.

The airflow patterns in your case.

The heatsink design itself.

The metric used to determine performance.

Number three is a bit touchy. Many mainboard in socket sensors will indicate a lower temperature when the fan is blowing on the sink due to secondary cooling! The core could actually be hotter.

You could always set up one way and overclock until you reach the limit of stability and back off a little. Once you find it running stable, try flipping the fan around. If it crashes without changing anything you know the way you had it before was better and vice versa.

Without actually monitoring the on die thermal diode directly, there is no proven metric to show which way is superior in your situation. Well, except for the time consuming method I just outlined! :)

Cheers!
 

Dan

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
5,080
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As I recall, the specific recommendation for an SK-6 is that the fan be blowing down onto it.