Hi, am considering buying myself an Arc to replace my coolermaster wave. now, in my wave, the PCU sits at the top and pulls air out of the case, i notice in the Arc the PSU sits at the bottom. Does it pull air out of the case, or is it pulling in external air just to cool itself? the reason i ask is that my PC sits on a chair with a vinyl covering, so i'm a bit worried that if its trying to pull air in from outside its not going to be able to do so and possibly do itself some damage. can anyone advise please?
It does pull the air from the outside into the psu. It is no problem on a flat surface but on a chair it could be a problem. Maybe you could put the case on a piece of wood to make sure it gets enough air or turning the psu upside down
yeah, will have to do something to keep the air flow there then. if keeping a gap isnt possible, can you mount the PSU upside down?
Almost all modern cases allow for the PSU to be mounted upside down for precisely the problem you are having, this way it will also act as another fan to pull out hot air from your computer. Also, you might want to look at another placement for your computer - having them near loads of textiles makes them more susceptible to dust and fibers which in turn decreases cooling potential and makes it hotter and therefore noisier.
In most cases it is possible to mount the PSU upside down, the only downside to this is that the PSU then draws warm air in from the case. If you have a good low case temp, then this shouldnt be a problem, but if you can, try and isolate the PSU cooling from the rest of the case
Will probably mount it upside down then. its a corsair hx620 psu, so its pretty understressed at the mo (q6600@3.2, radeon 4870, 4gb ram)