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PSU with Front Intake

30Valve
By 30Valve
in Power Supplies
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I want to build into an old Alienware Predator 2 case that has the old, now unorthodox, power supply placement at the top of the case. Problem is that the top of the case is closed and directly beneath the PSU is the CPU cooler, so a typical power supply with a side intake would choke or overheat. The OE PSU is one of those that intakes air from the front. Are there modern power supplies with this layout? Is there some keyword I'm missing when searching for one?

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Nah, the PSU wont choke or overheat.  Bottom intake PSU's were pretty normal in the age of top mount PSUs.

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Just make the rear fan intake and there won't be any problems.

M.S.C.E. (M.Sc. Computer Engineering), IT specialist in a hospital, 30+ years of gaming, 20+ years of computer enthusiasm, Geek, Trekkie, anime fan

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13 hours ago, 191x7 said:

Just make the rear fan intake and there won't be any problems.

 

Would that cause an issue with heat soak? If the PSU is exhausting hot air, the rear intake would pull some of that air back into the case, reducing the efficiency of the CPU cooler and getting drawn back into the PSU, causing that air to cycle and continue to get hotter.

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11 minutes ago, 30Valve said:

 

Would that cause an issue with heat soak? If the PSU is exhausting hot air, the rear intake would pull some of that air back into the case, reducing the efficiency of the CPU cooler and getting drawn back into the PSU, causing that air to cycle and continue to get hotter.

Rear fan needs to be an exhaust, the PSU will just act as a second exhaust.

 

Just mount the PSU as normal an do not worry about it.  Air from the CPU heatsink will not be a problem for the PSU.  The PSU will run a little hotter, but that air will still be cooler than the PSU components and will still cool them.

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39 minutes ago, 30Valve said:

 

Would that cause an issue with heat soak? If the PSU is exhausting hot air, the rear intake would pull some of that air back into the case, reducing the efficiency of the CPU cooler and getting drawn back into the PSU, causing that air to cycle and continue to get hotter.

You forgot to take into account that warm air rises.

M.S.C.E. (M.Sc. Computer Engineering), IT specialist in a hospital, 30+ years of gaming, 20+ years of computer enthusiasm, Geek, Trekkie, anime fan

  • Main PC: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D - EK AIO 360 D-RGB - Arctic Cooling MX-4 - Asus Prime X570-P - 4x8GB DDR4 3200 HyperX Fury CL16 - Sapphire AMD Radeon 6950XT Nitro+ - 1TB Kingston Fury Renegade - 2TB Kingston Fury Renegade - 512GB ADATA SU800 - 960GB Kingston A400 - Seasonic PX-850 850W  - custom black ATX and EPS cables - Fractal Design Define R5 Blackout - Windows 11 x64 23H2 - 3 Arctic Cooling P14 PWM PST - 5 Arctic Cooling P12 PWM PST
  • Peripherals: LG 32GK650F - Dell P2319h - Logitech G Pro X Superlight with Tiger Ice - HyperX Alloy Origins Core (TKL) - EndGame Gear MPC890 - Genius HF 1250B - Akliam PD4 - Sennheiser HD 560s - Simgot EM6L - Truthear Zero - QKZ x HBB - 7Hz Salnotes Zero - Logitech C270 - Behringer PS400 - BM700  - Colormunki Smile - Speedlink Torid - Jysk Stenderup - LG 24x External DVD writer - Konig smart card reader
  • Laptop: Acer E5–575G-386R 15.6" 1080p (i3 6100U + 12GB DDR4 (4GB+8GB) + GeForce 940MX + 256GB nVME) Win 10 Pro x64 22H2 - Logitech G305 + AAA Lithium battery
  • Networking: Asus TUF Gaming AX6000 - Arcadyan ISP router - 35/5 Mbps vDSL
  • TV and gadgets: TCL 50EP680 50" 4K LED + Sharp HT-SB100 75W RMS soundbar - Samsung Galaxy Tab A8 10.1" - OnePlus 9 256GB - Olymous Cameda C-160 - GameBoy Color 
  • Streaming/Server/Storage PC: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 - LC-Power LC-CC-120 - MSI B450 Tomahawk Max - 2x4GB ADATA 2666 DDR4 - 120GB Kingston V300 - Toshiba DT01ACA100 1TB - Toshiba DT01ACA200 2TB - 2x WD Green 2TB - Sapphire Pulse AMD Radeon R9 380X - 550W EVGA G3 SuperNova - Chieftec Giga DF-01B - White Shark Spartan X keyboard - Roccat Kone Pure Military Desert strike - Logitech S-220 - Philips 226L
  • Livingroom PC (dad uses): AMD FX 8300 - Arctic Freezer 64 - Asus M5A97 R2.0 Evo - 2x4GB DDR3 1833 Kingston - MSI Radeon HD 7770 1GB OC - 120GB Adata SSD - 500W Fractal Design Essence - DVD-RW - Samsung SM 2253BW - Logitech G710+ - wireless vertical mouse - MS 2.0 speakers
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1 minute ago, 191x7 said:

You forgot to take into account that warm air rises.

Which makes less than a 1% impact when you introduce a fan.  Warm air rising is only worth mentioning when you are implementing a passively cooled PC.

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