Does heatfin direction matter?

[stratuh]

I have a Noctua NH-C14S, it's a "blow down" cooler. I have the choice of installing it with the heatpipes going down-to-up, or left-to-right or vice versa. I know heatpipes work via capillary action so it's irrelevant which way, but it does impact the heatfin direction.

 

 

On the top I have heatfins going horizontally. Does this mean air can flow through them from the sides, thus it's superior to vertically oriented heatfins?

[Eastman51]

I'm not 100% sure what exactly you're asking here.

Do you mean that the tower is oriented with the fan/fins facing front to back? Or you could have it with fan/fins facing top to bottom? (of case, for direction)

[Chaftalie]

I think he is asking the same thing as the video from Bitwit:

results: Minute 5:50

 

I think it is in margin of Error.

You would need to do many tests in an entirely controlled system with an heat source that has exact heat generation etc.

[W-L]

10 minutes ago, stratuh said:

I have a Noctua NH-C14S, it's a "blow down" cooler. I have the choice of installing it with the heatpipes going down-to-up, or left-to-right or vice versa. I know heatpipes work via capillary action so it's irrelevant which way, but it does impact the heatfin direction.

On the top I have heatfins going horizontally. Does this mean air can flow through them from the sides, thus it's superior to vertically oriented heatfins?

If you are talking about the airflow through the fins since it is top down it makes no difference just the direction the hot air will exhaust. Same with the heapipe orientation they make little to no difference. 

[Eastman51]

1 minute ago, Chaftalie said:

I think he is asking the same thing as the video from Bitwit:

oh, ok; thats kind of what I figured.

 

Typically I would say mount with the fan facing front to back of the case, you would theoretically have better overall airflow if you did it this way. Though if you have the time and thermal paste, you can test both configs and see which yields better results

[stratuh]

To clarify, here's a photo:

 

 

Note the airflow comes from the right of photo (front of case) and the heatfins are oriented vertically. I wonder if they were oriented horizontally (so the airflow isn't hitting a flat surface, it's hitting/going through the fins) would it cool better.

[LogicalDrm]

13 hours ago, stratuh said:

Note the airflow comes from the right of photo (front of case) and the heatfins are oriented vertically. I wonder if they were oriented horizontally (so the airflow isn't hitting a flat surface, it's hitting/going through the fins) would it cool better.

Not likely. The fan on the cooler will be overriding any other airflow at that point (since that air movement is very little there). Generally air is moving inside the case fan to fan. You want it so that there isn't any caps or dead air to linger.

 

Looking at pic, air is already coming through rad, meaning its "hot". That angle isn't showing much, so next comes guessing. I would guess that 10-25% or air coming from rad will move directly towards CPU socket area or heatsink, where its again moved by active airflow from CPU cooler's fan. Rest of the air is moved over CPU cooler where fan sucks them into heatsink.