PSU Orientation - The Workshop

[nicklmg]

Amazon: http://geni.us/bBQB
NCIX: http://bit.ly/1NORGzq

 

Up or down? Do PSU basements matter? So many questions, and hopefully we'll be able to find some answers!!

 

 

[Moonzy]

i expect not much difference for open-air design, but i've seen one person had his blower style card run around 10c hotter when his case have negative air pressure on the inside

so... maybe the psu doesnt have much impact on air pressure here, but maybe the next workshop video?

 

also, maybe should've tried on cases with 1 or two stock fans, see if the psu really improves temps for systems with less air flows

[zMeul]

who has that vertical mounted case? Silverstone?

 

@nicklmg tell Luke to test that one

[dragoon20005]

test it with more budget cases where the PSU is top mounted

 

my CoolerMaster Elite 344 is a top mounted PSU setup and pointing fan downwards will let the PSU suck the hot gases from the CPU and GPU and vent it out the back and yes it really warm gases coming out of the PSU

[Mew]

Those AMD gpus throttle hard. 

[SpaceNugget]

@nicklmg

Due to the name, I feel like the workshop series should be less about numbers and testing and more about building/hacking together interesting things. Maybe rename the series "The Test Bench" and relaunch the "The Workshop" series as an experimental building type series.

 

P.S. If you don't agree, no worries. Just idle thoughts.

P.P.S. If you do agree, feel free to take and/or modify my naming scheme. I hereby declare my idea to be creative commons

[delta doom]

Great video, just one thing, the psu temp was hotter pointing down wasn't because the air in the case was cooler, it was because psu fan was off, which makes me think that it has better temps pointing down.

[sunlight10f]

My system behaves better with the PSU fan upwards cause it's simply never spinning. I had it facing downwards at first but then noticed the psu getting quite warm, not hot though. Reversed it and now it stays cool, which makes sense since it is able to vent the little heat it generates upwards. Might be worse for the GPU but I have yet to notice any difference in that ones temperature.

[captain cactus]

Nice and dandy of you to do this in a big ATX case, but what about mATX and ITX cases?

[Sir_Chinly]

Not entirely related, but I'd love to see a video on how different case designs affect airflow, and ultimately cooling and noise. It would be nice to see how Full tower vs mid tower vs mATX vs ITX compare in terms of temperature and how much of a difference direct vs indirect airflow makes in terms of noise production (answering the question whether you use a case with sound dampening or one that just stays cool) (and how severely choked do fans have to be before things become inefficient). Mostly because based on what we've seen, modern hardware and cases are much better and managing temperatures than was traditionally believed (and minor changes don't seem to make much difference) 

[gorillaman]

It would be interesting to test using the PSU as your only exhaust.

 

The setup in the video was never going to show a big difference, since both cases already had perfectly good airflow the PSU fan wouldn't make an impact.

[DXMember]

The PSU fan never exceeded 500RPM... this joke or what? might as well put a three year old there and make him blow on your case hoping the temperatures to be affected.

And if you did have a PSU fan actually running then the common sense dictate that in terms of blower GPU cooler - best case scenario it still wouldn't affect it or worst case scenario it would compete for the air with the blower GPU making a negative affect.

 

Why were there no top mounted power supplies featured in the workshop?

[Mr.Meerkat]

9 hours ago, kurahk7 said:

Those AMD gpus throttle hard. 

Reference cards, go look at the 1080 (apparently), 980ti and titan X, all throttle hard with the stock cooler unless the fans are spinning at 80%...

[Mew]

1 hour ago, Mr.Meerkat said:

Reference cards, go look at the 1080 (apparently), 980ti and titan X, all throttle hard with the stock cooler unless the fans are spinning at 80%...

The strix card also throttled.

[Mr.Meerkat]

2 minutes ago, kurahk7 said:

The strix card also throttled.

Hmmmm...would you like me to show you why it throttled? Asus is incapable in making coolers for Hawaii based cards...let's see...

 

ASUS 290x DC2 cooler

Spoiler

As you can see only 3 of the heatpipes touches the die...

(source: https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/R9_290X_Direct_Cu_II_OC/4.html )

 

ASUS Strix 390x

Spoiler

Same thing can be seen here with the ASUS strix 390x

(source: http://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/luke-hill/asus-r9-390x-strix-dc3-oc-8gb-review/2/ )

 

And I'm sure you can go compare the temps yourself  

 

[SirDoctorK]

1 hour ago, kurahk7 said:

The strix card also throttled.

Pretty sure they throttled because the fans were locked at 45%. Let the fan speed adjust automatically, and you can expect them to throttle a lot less.

[vanished]

I would have liked to also see a test using a case that's pressed flat against carpet.  I think the main reason people will turn their PSU around is if there is effectively no intake from the bottom, and in that case, I have to imagine taking in hot air from the case would be better than taking in nothing at all.