Cooling Fans to blow up or down (Mobo not CPU)

Hi All,

Just a quick question on cooling chipsets. If I get a fan to go over a passive northbridge heat sink (hypothetically speaking, I haven't got the board yet). What is it better to do, arrange the fan to blow down onto the heat sink, or have it pulling air over the heat sink and blowing away from said heatsink?

I'm a little confused over which would be best.

Andy

 

I would think blowing down onto the sink.

 

Down into the sink would be best as the chipset fans are tiny with low CFM so trying to suck the air out of the sink would be less effective, I think

 

Ideally you'd blow across the sink in the direction of all other air in the case, whatever than may be.

 

Exactly, get everything going in one uniform direction (towards the back end of the case, unless your case is somewhat unusual).

 

Ah! So I shouldn't install as fan on the chipset heatsink then? The case allows for a straight through airflow, so I'll see how that goes.

Thanks

Andy

 

Just out of curiosity, is there a reason you're concerned about the cooling and want to add more? If the board ships with a passive heatsink, then the manufacturer isn't asking you to add a fan - they're stating that they are comfortable with just the airflow already present in the case.

If you have a specific reason to add a fan to the cooler, then if it's a vertical chipset cooler like a Noctua NC-U6, then put the fan in blowing with the rest of the air in the case. If it's a horizontal cooler like most, then blow the fan in towards the chip...But neither fan is necessary in most situations if the manufacturer didn't put one there.

 

He may be overclocking the system. upping the northbridge voltage alone can increase the heat.