CPU cooler fan, push or pull?

AleksiDj73 · February 4, 2021

Hello lads, my English is not my mother tongue so i hope you understand what i say. So let me get straight to what i wanna say. I recently bought a new CPU cooler and i have put my heatsink ofc in a vertical position so as not to interfere with the RAM sticks. I have put my fan in the left side of the heatsink so that means that the fan is pulling air from the fins and exhausting them to the back of the case, is that how it should be? I am currently watching JayzTwoCents' video about common mistakes when building a computer and he says that the fan should be in the right side (next to the RAM) and it should be in a push config and not as a pull one. Basically push config is the fan takes cool air from the case and blows it straight to the fins and the hot air is on the other side? is that how it is? (don't know how to explain it better). If i have understood it correctly, my fan right now is in a pull config meaning that it takes the hot air from the heatsink and throws it next to the case fan and the case fan exhausts it out of the case, so have i done it wrong? is Jay correct with that he said? If so, then i have to put the fan in the other side (not sure if my fan will fit cuz i have 4 RAM sticks but will look later). I want a small detailed explanation on which side should the fan be and what should it be, either push or pull. Also sorry if i have messed everything up lol, this is quite confusing for me. Thank you!

Edit: The CPU cooler i bought is the Alpenfohn CPU Cooler SELLA and this one specifically as i look at some photos, the fan is placed in the left side

Tristerin · February 4, 2021

Doesnt matter, heat soak will happen and the temperature will level out regardless. I mean, maybe a 1-2c difference but Im not saying either way is better (until I personally test it). Personally I put things in push config if I have 1 fan. If I have ram clearance issues I put it in pull position, and do not give it a second thought. If I can I always push/pull.

AleksiDj73 · February 4, 2021

2 minutes ago, Tristerin said:

Doesnt matter, heat soak will happen and the temperature will level out regardless. I mean, maybe a 1-2c difference but Im not saying either way is better (until I personally test it). Personally I put things in push config if I have 1 fan. If I have ram clearance issues I put it in pull position, and do not give it a second thought. If I can I always push/pull.

If so then i will try it personally and see if there is any difference but first i have to see if i have space to put the fan lol cuz of the RAM, ah well, appreciate your help!

Tristerin · February 4, 2021

1 minute ago, AleksiDj73 said:

If so then i will try it personally and see if there is any difference but first i have to see if i have space to put the fan lol cuz of the RAM, ah well, appreciate your help!

What mobo, if you have 4 dimm slots, and 2 dimms they should be in the 2nd and 4th slot away from the CPU - just looked up the cooler, there should be plenty of room based on my experience (unless this is a 2 DIMM mobo perhaps)

AleksiDj73 · February 4, 2021

1 minute ago, Tristerin said:

What mobo, if you have 4 dimm slots, and 2 dimms they should be in the 2nd and 4th slot away from the CPU - just looked up the cooler, there should be plenty of room based on my experience (unless this is a 2 DIMM mobo perhaps)

My mobo is a GA-P55M-UD2 and i have indeed 4 DIMM slots and i have 4 RAM sticks installed but pretty sure there should be enough space for it cuz the fan is quite small so yea. I should've listed my PC specs before but i thought no one would need them lol but here we are you asking me what mobo i have lol.

Tristerin · February 4, 2021

12 minutes ago, AleksiDj73 said:

My mobo is a GA-P55M-UD2 and i have indeed 4 DIMM slots and i have 4 RAM sticks installed but pretty sure there should be enough space for it cuz the fan is quite small so yea. I should've listed my PC specs before but i thought no one would need them lol but here we are you asking me what mobo i have lol.

No worries! For me I wouldnt worry about the fan position on a single mount - you could offset this temp difference (IF there is one, Im not convinced there is due to heat soak) with good thermal paste, like Kryonaut (drops temps by 2-5c in most applications)

AleksiDj73 · February 4, 2021

17 minutes ago, Tristerin said:

No worries! For me I wouldnt worry about the fan position on a single mount - you could offset this temp difference (IF there is one, Im not convinced there is due to heat soak) with good thermal paste, like Kryonaut (drops temps by 2-5c in most applications)

Gotcha gotcha. I mean, i will try putting the fan in the other side one day and see if there is a difference at all, if not, then i will put it to where it was but i am very happy with that CPU cooler cuz i OCed my i5-750 from 2.8 to 3.6 and i get max 62c when gaming and 32c when idling which is crazy because before that i had the Intel stock cooler and you know what it was like with that cooler lol. I tested the new cooler ofc without the CPU being OCed and i got 50c max when stress tested and 28c or so when idling which is very impressive for a 27 euros cooler. With the Intel cooler I got 80c in WINTER times lol and in summer, 99c without a doubt but hey, it was not OCed, imagine. Anyways, i will put the fan in the other side and if doesn't make a difference, i will put it to where it was.

Oh also, i used the included thermal paste that the cooler had and it's really good, it's not liquidy so it has like a nice consistency. Fun thing is that the leftover thermal paste has still like 2-3 more uses which i'm really happy.