PSU position for best airflow

Zolltane

New member
Hello,

I have one of these Silverstone Raven cases (RV01) which have the motherboard tray rotated at 90 degrees with the goal to improve natural heat conduction. All of the PCI cards are vertical and so is the CPU cooler.

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I am really wondering how to position my Power Supply unit though (with the fan upwards or downwards?)

1. Clearly you can see there are holes and dust filter on the very bottom as well as rubberized bumps for the PSU - a design saying
"Put me with the fan downwards so I can suck cold air through the dust filter".

2. On the other hand if I put the PSU with the fan pointing upwards, then it might prove very beneficial for the whole vertical airflow model.
This will create more way for the 180mm fan above the PSU to suck fresh air through the PSU itself (when the PSU fan is not running). Unfortunately when the PSU fan is running it will obstruct the airflow as PSU fans are positioned to suck air and not exhaust it (although nothing stops me from opening the PSU and reversing the fan).

I've heard people like Tiny Tom Logan say "I always try to put the PSU with the fan upwards". Never understood why. (Although he wasn't talking for a 90 degrees case though).

Any suggestions?
 
We like to mount PSUs with the fan up simply because we think a fan+grill looks a lot better than the stickers on the other side of the unit.

In your case, just mount it with the fan down as intended by the case manufacturer :)
 
I mount fan down so it gets cool air from outside the case.
i also know of people (well a person) who mounted fan up and had after marker ram sinks on gpu and one fell off in to the psu. not a good thing to happen. suffice to say it would not have fallen in to the psu if it was not mounted fan up.
 
I mount fan down so it gets cool air from outside the case.
i also know of people (well a person) who mounted fan up and had after marker ram sinks on gpu and one fell off in to the psu
. not a good thing to happen. suffice to say it would not have fallen in to the psu if it was not mounted fan up.
I think the bigger issue is that they used aftermarket ram heatsinks that then fell off.
 
well some people will insist on using dbl sided thermal tape instead of a real 2 part thermal compound lol.
i guess its one of the dangers of NOT water cooling.
 
makes little/no difference. It's purely aesthetic these days.

Personally, fan UP so you can see it. :)
 
Face up, face down, thermally it matters not, we tend to have the fan, face up but that is more aesthetic preference and you don't see the Specs label through the window.
 
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