Controlling air movement

Muppetlol · July 21, 2013

Recently my Motherboard died and I'm gonna replace it with a new mobo and heatsink however which way does a fan blow and how should I set the air flow so It blows the hot air out to the back of my case. It's a silverstone HE01 cooler with a 140mm fan in the center and 1 extra fan near the back of the case. The thin side of the heat sink will be near the RAM so no fan would be needed. Theres also 1 extra fan at the back of the case ( default , it came with the case when I bought it).

I assume all the 3 fans should be facing the same way? so the center fan(in between the HE01) push air to through the thick side of the heatsink and the 2nd fan push the air to the fan behind the case then out of the case?

I also have a 200mm fan on top of my case. Its a Corsair HAF912 case

Kayn · July 21, 2013

That's what I would do. Set up the heatsink to exhaust the hot air out the back of the case. I would then add some intake fans to bring in fresh air.

Oseirus · July 22, 2013

For 99.9% of fans out on the market, the fan will spin in a way that draws air in through the open side, and pushes it out the side with the arms that support the motor and blades and such. A lot of high end fans will also have markings along the side that tell you both which direction the fan turns, and which way it pushes the air. If you're still not sure, look carefully at your fan. The convex side that curves inward is the leading edge of the blade. If you have an old fan, it's the edge that collects all the dust.

As for your CPU cooler, yes, all of the fans should be facing the same direction. If you have a two-fan setup, you generally want them to be in a push-pull configuration, where one fan blows INTO the cooler (the motor supports will be sandwiched in between the fan and cooler), and the other will suck air OUT of it on the opposite side (the motor supports will be visible). In a default case layout, air flows in from the front and bottom and exhausts out the top and back. Point your cooler so that it pushes air towards the BACK of your computer where your exhaust fan can suck it out of your case.