Flipping 120mm fan in ATX PSU?

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  • shovenose
    Send Doge Memes
    • Aug 2010
    • 6575
    • USA

    #1

    Flipping 120mm fan in ATX PSU?

    I'm curious if anyone has any input on how bad it is for the power supply to flip the fan? My secondary system that I honestly rarely use has a 500W CWT 80Plus Bronze PSU that came out of some low-mid range prebuilt desktop at some point.

    Anyway, I replaced the stock Yate Loon 120mm fan for a Cooler Master RGB fan, but I decided to install it backwards so that it pushes air the same direction as the GPU fans right above it, as I have the PSU installed with the fan facing up. The GPU I'm going to end up putting in here is an XFX RX 6600 8GB, so it's not a super power intensive card.

    Long story short, is this going to lead to the actual components inside the power supply (capacitors, etc) running hotter since the airflow pattern is different, is it going to lead to better cooling since it's sucking in cold air vs warm air from inside the case, or is it going to make pretty much no difference whatsoever? I did retain the little plastic cover they had on the bottom of the fan that blocks off about 1/4 of the fan closest to the outside of the PC.
  • stj
    Great Sage 齊天大聖
    • Dec 2009
    • 31001
    • Albion

    #2
    Re: Flipping 120mm fan in ATX PSU?

    in your case you have no choice,
    either you keep the flow from gpu to outside via the psu, or you have them blowing at each other and reducing the flow and causing turbulance that creates noise.
    i would bypass any fanspeed crap though - have it sucking the air out of the case at top speed.

    Comment

    • CapLeaker
      Leaking Member
      • Dec 2014
      • 8133
      • Canada

      #3
      Re: Flipping 120mm fan in ATX PSU?

      I did the same thing a few times in airflow restricted cases to maximize airflow vs fans pushing each other. Never had a problem.

      Comment

      • shovenose
        Send Doge Memes
        • Aug 2010
        • 6575
        • USA

        #4
        Re: Flipping 120mm fan in ATX PSU?

        Originally posted by stj
        in your case you have no choice,
        either you keep the flow from gpu to outside via the psu, or you have them blowing at each other and reducing the flow and causing turbulance that creates noise.
        i would bypass any fanspeed crap though - have it sucking the air out of the case at top speed.
        The fan curve is pretty aggressive as I’m using a 115W CPU with a 92mm generic eBay tower cooler and since my motherboard only has a single fan header I’m using a splitter so the PSU fan ramps up with CPU.

        I’m honestly not sure what you mean about me not having a choice. I could simply have left it alone and have the fans fight each other like most builds. My GPU does have the through section for air to flow on the part of the cooler after the PCB so I think it will work nicely. Cool air comes in through the PSU, the GPU takes it and blows it upward, the CPU fan catches it, and it goes out the back and top of the case. I don’t have any case fans, really no need in this case, no pun intended.

        Comment

        • shovenose
          Send Doge Memes
          • Aug 2010
          • 6575
          • USA

          #5
          Re: Flipping 120mm fan in ATX PSU?

          Originally posted by CapLeaker
          I did the same thing a few times in airflow restricted cases to maximize airflow vs fans pushing each other. Never had a problem.
          Good to know. I don’t anticipate any issues just overthinking stuff like always.

          My hope and dream is that under light gaming load the GPU fans will stay off as this card as the idle fan-stop function and I rather not have the fans starting and stopping all the time.

          Comment

          • stj
            Great Sage 齊天大聖
            • Dec 2009
            • 31001
            • Albion

            #6
            Re: Flipping 120mm fan in ATX PSU?

            Originally posted by shovenose
            The fan curve is pretty aggressive as I’m using a 115W CPU with a 92mm generic eBay tower cooler and since my motherboard only has a single fan header I’m using a splitter so the PSU fan ramps up with CPU.
            i would be carefull, some games idle the cpu and use the gpu for the heavy processing.
            if your psu controls fan speed based on air temperature then o.k. but if it's based on heatsink temperature or output load i would bypass it.

            Comment

            • shovenose
              Send Doge Memes
              • Aug 2010
              • 6575
              • USA

              #7
              Re: Flipping 120mm fan in ATX PSU?

              Originally posted by stj
              i would be carefull, some games idle the cpu and use the gpu for the heavy processing.
              if your psu controls fan speed based on air temperature then o.k. but if it's based on heatsink temperature or output load i would bypass it.
              Alright, so I compromised and reinstalled the original fan that the PSU controls however it wants, but I did put it in flipped so the airflow pattern is how I want it. And I put in a different CPU/mobo combo and put my other 120mm fan at the top of the case so now it's perfectly bottom to top

              Comment

              • stj
                Great Sage 齊天大聖
                • Dec 2009
                • 31001
                • Albion

                #8
                Re: Flipping 120mm fan in ATX PSU?

                assisted convection cooling

                Comment

                • shovenose
                  Send Doge Memes
                  • Aug 2010
                  • 6575
                  • USA

                  #9
                  Re: Flipping 120mm fan in ATX PSU?

                  Originally posted by stj
                  assisted convection cooling
                  Ha, yes!

                  Comment

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