I have a Titan Fenrir which doesn't want to let my RAM fit on in dual channel so I have decided (possibly foolishly) to have the fan on the left of the heat sink REVERSED so that it will be sucking air through and blowing air towards the exhaust. How stupid is this? Is this dangerous? The only way I could get it to fit normally obstructed 2 of my RAM slots. I have Gigabyte P55-UD3R in an Antec 902.
Foolish is never trying. Trying is how we learn. Download CoreTemp, it's free and good app with small footprint. Check your CPU temps and see. If it's high then maybe try memory with lower heatsinks. I'm assuming yours are tall.
I had the same problem and reversed the fan on my Fenrir too. I've been running my i5 at 4Ghz for 3 months and the temps are fine even under Prime95.
Since the topic of whether fans work better in push or pull and various push/pull configurations on heatsinks and WC radiators is an almost endlessly debated one there's no reason not to try it and see, as the others have said. I'd imagine the designers of the Fenrir tested and concluded that the fan works best in its standard configuration, but I suspect that the difference is going to be as small as a few degrees here or there, just as it usually is with changes in fan configuration on radiators!
Same fan = same CFM, right? I don't see why this would have any functional effect on temps, push or pull. I'd say the only reason the designers put the fan where they did was to coop the effect of the front fans a little.
I don't see any reason why it would be stupid either - if the Heatsink has holes on both sides then its clearly designed to accommodate them there, air will still be pulled through so I don't see why there would be any major difference
I had this discussion with my dad about the radiator on our classic car. Which is the same principle. I think that with the fan pulling air, it means that the air should be flowing through the heatsink, and won't get stuck or anything. basically there's always air flowing through it. So, as said before, probably won't make a blind bit of difference.
I went ahead and tried it and the temps are fine. I was just having "first build jitters" which prevented me from thinking logically about anything. Really happy with everything so far. My wires are a bloody mess though...
Typically when a fan has to 'pull' air through the heatsink some of the pressure is lost due to the turbulence the heatsink causes... Ideally fans are set up in a push configuration because it's easier for the fan to push air when it's pulling from an open air source. That being said there's usually very little difference in temperature between a push setup and a pull setup and you should be perfectly fine running the fan either way. Congrats on the first build! It only gets easier from here. As for the cable management, I think I've redone my current setup about 10 times in the past two weeks trying to get everything how I like it!
Well done on the build. My own first build has used the Fenrir on a GA-P55A-UD3 MoBo and it is working just fine pulling rather than pushing. Pushing is inherently somewhat more efficient but the Fenrir is a very effective cooler. I found that not only did I have to reverse the fan in order to get it to fit but the socket 1156 fitting clip that came with the Fenrir fouled the first memory slot, so would not fit unaltered, regardless of what memory was used. I had to file down two "bumps" on the edge of the fitting clip to clear the slot. Others do not seem to have had the same problem and I am a bit bemused about why this is.. the clip looks standard and there is no obvious alternative way of fitting it..
Yeah same here. One of the main reasons I bought the UD3R instead of the cheaper UD2 was because I wanted to fit the Fenrir and the RAM comfortably, and this was indeed thwarted because of the exact reasons you just mentioned. But despite this, the cooler still rocks. Oh and thanks! The idea of building a computer scared the hell out of me, but a friend pointed me towards this website (he is a bit of a regular on here...) and helped me out when I got bewildered. He deliberately tried not to help me too much though, so that I was forced to learn along the way and in turn receive the satisfaction at the end of it all. Wise move indeed. I'm itching to build my girlfriend one now! At least this time I won't be terrified of static for 3 days.
