Does orientation matter?

[douirc]

Hi. I watched a recent LTT video on a new air cooler technology and in the video he explains how current heat pipe air coolers work. From his explanation it made me wonder if orientation matters.

 

https://youtu.be/M13dWRL9qkc

 

I don’t run my system in a case. I have an acrylic mounting board and then hang it upside down from the bottom of my desk. This means the cooler is upside down too. Does that matter? Most people using a tower case means the cooler has a horizontal orientation. Some use a desktop case like mATX or ITX with a vertical orientation.
 

So, does orientation matter? If my cooler is upside down, will it perform the same as one that’s right side up or on its side?

 

Thanks. 

[Sakkura]

No. The liquid is drawn back to the coldplate by capillary action, not gravity.

[douirc]

Awesome! Thank you for the answer. 

[Godlygamer23]

42 minutes ago, douirc said:

Awesome! Thank you for the answer. 

A good video from GamersNexus about this subject:

 

[douirc]

Great video. This guy is thorough! Am I reading this wrong or did the NH-D15 perform better upside down?! That’s the cooler I was planning to purchase for my 9700k. 

[Godlygamer23]

16 minutes ago, douirc said:

Great video. This guy is thorough! Am I reading this wrong or did the NH-D15 perform better upside down?! That’s the cooler I was planning to purchase for my 9700k. 

Yeah, I just went to that part of the video, and it looks like it does. GamersNexus is a great source of information of objective content.

[Sakkura]

30 minutes ago, douirc said:

Great video. This guy is thorough! Am I reading this wrong or did the NH-D15 perform better upside down?! That’s the cooler I was planning to purchase for my 9700k. 

It's within the margin of error. As he says, they didn't find any significant difference in performance.

[IcarusLSC]

Sweet, I'm mounting my computer on the ceiling... no dust too lol...

 

[douirc]

All said and done, temps on my 9700k with the NH-D15 are around 30 at idle and 60 at full load.  Will try some cc'ing when I have time.  From what I've read, 80 should be my target on load with oc.