Maximum PC

I always thought that you orient a fan on the heatsink so that it pulls the hot air away. But, on my Thermalright SK8U instructions, it says to orient it so that it is blowing towards the processor. Any thoughts?

Follow the instructions

I have never seen a heatsink fan that blows toward the processor. That is why I posted. Surely you don't believe that instructions never have typos.

iv heard that most of the time, unless the heatsink is specially designed for it, you push towards it.

haven't seen many heatsinks, have ya?

yeah, go ahead and have the fan blow towards instead of sucking away - it's pretty rare these days to have a sink that has the fan sucking.

Nothing beats real world testing. Try it each way and see which favors a lower temp in your build.

Apparently not. I went ahead and set it up to blow. The last heatsink I had was a Volcano 7+, but all the ones I've used before that sucked air out.

I think the only brand that does that method is a Alpha heatsink. And they cost a pretty penny!

Post it the way it says in the instructions.

Many heatsinks will perform better with the fan blowing a certain way.

If you dont believe them, you can always try it both ways and see which works best.

Some blow into the heatsink, but all of the Alpha heatsinks I have used have the fan sucking the air through, hence the shroud...

Depends on the design, so I would follow the directions.

WOW

why WOW? that is pretty normal

He's just spamming...ignore him.

fair enough

all thermalright heatsinks are designed to have the fan push air over the heatsink.

as far as i know, only the Alpha ones are supposed to pull...

I think I have seen a few others, but not many. Alot of times it doesnt really even make a difference.

Actually this has been a discussion I had with phalanx.

You want to measure the temps before and after and try both ways. Everyones ssytem is set up differently. I had a alpha and went with sucking the air out because it gave me lower temps by 1-2 degrees

I agree with Snake (and others that mentioned it) Try it both ways, under load and watch the temps of both the processor & the ambient air in the case.

For some reason, all of my PC's run cooler with the fan pulling air up through the heatsink. I do always have at least two good exhaust fans, and I've put blowholes in all my cases. YMMV.

well, on thermalright's website it says that all of their heatsinks are designed for the fan to push air over them, i dont think thermalright would lie.