Cooling CPU fan. push or pull?

So I'm using a mATX motherboard with an after market cooler that, unfortunately, when the fan is placed to push air across the cooler it blocks a RAM slot. Now there's plenty of room on the other side of my heatsink where I can reposition the fan to have it pull air across the cooler and push it out the back of the case. It'd almost be bumping heads with my rear case fan, but there would be plenty of room between the two.

Here's a picture to illustrate my situation:



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Would I see a loss in cooling if I were to put it on the back of the heat sink vs the front? If I ever decide to get more RAM I'm gonna need to figure something out.

 

Pushings better than pulling but both together is even better

 

That was exactly the issue I had mate. I laid out exactly what I did here, HTH.

 

Push is usually seen as preferable, but I doubt the difference between push / pull will be any more than 2-4 °C...

From looking at your photo, I would say that it should be fine in the pull config, I would even suspect that a push config would shield the first RAM stick from airflow?!

BTW: Not sure if it's the compression of the photo, but the PSU fan looks like it's pretty clogged with dust... May just be JPG artifacts tho'

Thanks,

SouperAndy

 

I had this same problem. I had to make the fan pull instead, but I face the fan up towards the roof fan of my case.

My temps are fine on my overclocked chip. Max out at around 70 degrees or so on load.

 

Thanks for the input everyone. I have it set pushing at the moment. Right now it's not an immediate issue. However, after re-seating the cooler I forgot to close the CPU bracket so I had to carefully peel my $200 CPU off of the seemingly super glued base of my cooler! Close call. And I'm gonna have to do it all over again because I'm getting a 4-5c temp difference between core 1 and 4, getting cooler as it goes (wasn't doing that before). Anyone out there using a corsair hydro h50? I might spring for one of those soonish.

 

Would one of these (or similar) help? http://www.quietpc.com/gb-en-gbp/products/casefans/slipstream-120-slim-1200

Only 12mm thick...

EDIT: Just spotted your location, here is a more relevant link http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835185136

 

Balls of steel for using super glue as thermal paste

 

I was using push and was quiet pleased but when adding a second fan I had spare (diff brand/lower speed/non-PWM), I notice a nice ~4'C drop. Not a huge amount but every little bit helps. ; )

So...go push and pull. Fans are reasonably cheap.

 

using an h50 here on my media center i7-920 @ 4ghz, keeps the system running sweet. it's a great piece of kit for a pre-made water cooler.

i found best performance for the h50 was 2 fans in a push and pull sequence.

 

I would have said a Corsair H50 is ideal in your situation. I have two Apaches push/pull configuration extracting air out of the case at the rear (contrary to Corsair recomendations) as I have excellent air throughput in my case. (Coolermaster C690)

 

pull is absolutely fine as long as the fan has the power. it isnt just about the amount of air a fan can move it is about its power when pushing/pulling through tightly packed fins. the air pressure is apparently more important than the cfm

 

I agree with the guys the temp is going to be negligible at best I've always preferred to have fans pushing rather than pulling but I have no actual reason as to why other than that's how I've always done it.

 

as someone stated above, if you have or could install a roof fan you could turn the cooler 90 degrees and have the push config that way. that is how i have it. if not the pull config will be very close to the same temps.