Installing Xigmatec 1283 on Gigagbye EP45-UD3P in P182 - Best direction to point fan?

[moro310]

First of all I'm not sure if the heatsink/fan should be facing up/down in the case, or left or right. So basically I can have it facing the top exhaust fan, the rear exhaust fan, or into my ram (to the right of the cpu socket) or down at my video card.

Anyone familiar with this case/motherboard layout, which way would you do it? Is there a right/wrong way for it to be facing (ie only left or right, or only up or down)? Sorry if this is confusing, hope it makes sense.

 

[moro310]

anyone?

 

[Hyonie]

I have a UD3P and the dark knight but my case is an antec 1200.

Having the fan pushing the air towards the back of the case resulted in slightly lower temps than pointing upwards. But, of course your results may vary since we have different Antec cases.

 

[FerrelGeek]

I'd definitely recommend blowing the air out the back. Please post your results. I'm toying with buying this cooler and have the same MB and case as you.

 

[moro310]

I'm doing up right now, but will switch it to back. Speedfan is currently reading 31 degrees c at idle. Q9400 at 2.66 (stock). Will play with some overclocking later.

 

[moro310]

24 rather, I'm gonna overclock in a few minutes.

Is there any problem with mounting the fan facing up? I assumed heat travels up/fan will blow it to the exhaust fan which is an inch above it, and out of the case?

 

[Zap]

Up or out back, doesn't matter. You probably have enough airflow that you can flip the case upside down and your hot air will go down.

 

[moro310]

To the poster who said he's getting a similar setup:
I have the back and top fans on low (very quiet), the xigmatek fan blowing up directly under the top exhaust fan, and added a cooler master 120mm fan in the middle spot on the front. I have my hard drives on the bottom rack (there's a middle and bottom). The system is very quiet, and running very cool. I have my Q9400 at 450x8, with very modest bumps in vcore and vtt (less than 1.3). CPU temp got up to 40 max at 3.6 on prime95 (whatever the default test is).

Temps taken using speedfan

 

[speedfreak]

i think it's best if you installed it the conventional way, but it'll be on how your case ventilation is designed.

 

[moro310]

I guess my original question then was what the conventional way is. I've never had a hsf that wasn't the normal stock fan parallel to cpu cube.

There's no advantage to having the fan blowing back into the case is there (over back or top)?

 

[Hyonie]

I think most people have their fans going front to back, where the hot air is usually blown out of the case. You wouldn't want the hot air staying inside the case any longer than it has to.

Positioning the fan towards the back or to the top depends on your particular setup, but as I mentioned earlier it didn't make much difference in my case.

 

[moro310]

I'm talking about just the cpu fan - sounds like you're talking about the case fans? I have all of my case fans blowing front to back or out of the case, but the cpu fan (which is mounted on the side not the top of the heatsink) can be aimed at the back case fan an inch away from it, or at the top case fan which is also about an inch away. I have mine facing the top fan right now.

 

[scruffypup]

Typically most will have blowing out the back,.. but that is due to most cases having psu at top,...

Without a psu on top and both having exhaust,.. it makes little difference for cooling in reality (though a couple of suspect reviews I have seen show with a quad chip in that situation and heatpipe tower hsf, you should point to the top since the heatpipes will cross the cores better - though it is minimal if true),...

Now,... some still would prefer it going out the back due to less semi-directional noise to the user,... This can be minimal on the noise as well,... but like the cooling part,... people sometimes care more about the unconcious psychological gain than the real gain (in my opinion)

Edit- I elaborated,.... but basically I am reitterating what Zap said,.. it really won't matter!!!

 

[Nafets]

I had the same questions, a number of months ago, when I first installed my HR-01 Plus in my Antec P182 case.

Test #1
Scythe S-Flex SFF21Fs (both ~1000RPM) in both the top and rear spots, exhausting air out of the case.

Scythe S-Flex SFF21F (~1000RPM) pushing air through the HR-01 Plus.

Seating the HR-01 Plus in a south-north or the usual east-west direction resulted in the same CPU temperatures, with my E8400 @ 3.8GHz.

Test #2
Scythe S-Flex SFF21F (~1000RPM) in just the top spot, exhausting air out of the case. Rear spot closed.

Same CPU heatsink/fan setup.

Seating the HR-01 Plus in a south-north direction resulted in slightly higher system temperature (~2C) than in Test #1. CPU temperature was the same as in Test #1.

Test #3
Scythe S-Flex SFF21F (~1000RPM) in just the rear spot, exhausting air out of the case. Top spot closed.

Same CPU heatsink/fan setup.

Seating the HR-01 Plus in the usual east-west direction results in slightly higher system temperature (~2C) than in Test #1, and equal to Test #2. Cpu temperature was the same as in both Tests #1 and #2.

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Cooling differences: I was expecting slightly better CPU temperatures with two exhaust fans, but that wasn't the case. The only benefit was a lower system temperature. I would expect increasing the speed of the CPU fan would be the only thing that would lower CPU temperature (Duh!). Orientation of the CPU heatsink didn't matter in my case.

Noise differences: Test #1 was the noisiest, with Test #3 being the quietest. The case is on the desk next to me, with the top exhaust fan being at ear level.

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Since the increase in system temperature was minimal with just one exhaust fan, I decided to stick with the complete setup of Test #3. Just one exhaust fan in the rear spot, the top spot closed, and the CPU heatsink/fan in an east-west orientation.

I'd expect results can differ based on your choice of CPU heatsink, amount of case fans and their speeds, and other components you have in your PC (like a video card that doesn't exhaust air out of the case)...