Moronic question about fans

[tuffgong]

I'm having cooling problems. I turned every fan in the case the other way andd the temps are IDENTICAL.

Are the fins supposed to be turned to the left when blowing air out? I'm stumped...ya ya i know i can just put my hand in front of the fan, but with 4 fans in the case i wont be able to tell.

 

[imported_Kensai]

There's usually an arrow on the fan. Usually it's label out too.

 

[JEDIYoda]

Some fans have no arrow!!

When thast happens usually one side of ther fan has a round sticker and the other side shows the inards of the fan!!

Usually the side with the sticker blows the air in whatever direction the sticker side is!!

In other ords if the sticker side is facing the inside of the computer it will blow air into thew computer..etc

Hope that helps!!

 

[BigCoolJesus]

the best way thats never failed

one side is completely exposed (ie, nothing in front of the blades)
the other side has (usually) 4 plastic pieces running from the center, this is the side the air blows towards (meaning if these plastic pieces are facing the inside, they will be pushing air into the case, and vica versa)

 

[swtethan]

fans spin counter clockwise when you see the sticker side of your fan (nothing in front of your blades)

 

[tuffgong]

hmmm....the stock amd cpu fan in my athlon xp 2600+ has the AMD sticker on the side facing away from the CPU, but the 4 plastic pieces are on the other side. thats why i am puzzled....and the cpu is idling at 48c even after i applied AS5.

 

[swtethan]

cleaned out your heatsink lately?

 

[tuffgong]

yep i cleaned it out yesterday...and took it off today and cleaned it and then applied Arctic Silver 5...same results...maybe the stock hsf just sucks.

 

[NotquiteanooB]

If you're a smoker, put your cig in front of the fan and see if the smoke goes into it or away from it; if not a smoker, use a piece of thread; just don't let it get caught getting sucked into the blades. I set my fans ( and I expect most people do) to suck in at the front of the case and blow out the rear of the case.

 

[fireontheway]

Originally posted by: tuffgong
hmmm....the stock amd cpu fan in my athlon xp 2600+ has the AMD sticker on the side facing away from the CPU, but the 4 plastic pieces are on the other side. thats why i am puzzled....and the cpu is idling at 48c even after i applied AS5.

If that's the case then your fan is blowing into the heatsink,this orientation is typical on the majority of HSFs.Try reinstalling the heatsink and don't overdo the AS5 or whatever thermal goop you plan on using.And if that does not change anything,48c is well within spec

 

[Zepper]

HSF makers add their own labels to the "wrong" side of the fans for their own purposes - if you take the fan off of the heatsink, you will likely see the fan mfr's label on the correct side. The air flows toward the FAN mfr's label. And there almost always are a pair of arrows somewhere on the fan frame: one shows the direction of rotation and the other shows the direction of air flow. Sometimes they aren't very well defined (on one of my fans the dopes covered the arrows with a sticker and even when the sticker was removed, the arrows were barely legible), so you need to get just the right light on them.
. Computergate has a duct that you can use to bring cool outside air directly to your CPU and it's on sale right now for like $6.00. Depending on your HSF fan size you may also need an adapter to connect them as the duct mounts to just 70/80/92mm fan mount holes. You might want to put an 80mm filtered fan on the outside end of the duct. This will reduce your CPU temp quite a bit and even the case temp too.

.bh.

 

[Safeway]

The plastic connectors from the casing to the fan are on the blowing side of the fan. Always.

 

[Navid]

The fan blades are like spoons. The blade spoons the air!
The air moves away from the side that is the inside of the spoon (concave side)!

 

[dingnecros]

I just use a paper napkin in front of it. If it sucks in the paper napkin then its takin in air from that port otherwise it blows out. Dont forget to mark the direction of air flow after that test

 

[imported_ShadowFlare]

Originally posted by: Navid
The fan blades are like spoons. The blade spoons the air!
The air moves away from the side that is the inside of the spoon (concave side)!

That's basically the kind of thing I was about to say before seeing your post. That's probably the most reliable way of finding which way the air is going to move.