I bought a Seasonic X series 660W PSU. Made like a tank and looks like awesome quality. It has one large fan at the bottom. My Cooler Master case has mounting for bottom of the case which has holes at the bottom. So I installed the PSU right side up (fan facing down) and seems to run just fine. Is this fine to do? Is the fan blowing air or sucking air in?

 

 

I bought a Seasonic X series 660W PSU. Made like a tank and looks like awesome quality. It has one large fan at the bottom. My Cooler Master case has mounting for bottom of the case which has holes at the bottom. So I installed the PSU right side up (fan facing down) and seems to run just fine. Is this fine to do? Is the fan blowing air or sucking air in?

 

Generally a PSU exhausts air out of the case.  The PSU generates some serious heat - you want the hot air to go out and not get recirculated into the case.  Some PSUs have one fan to pull air into the PSU and another fan to exhaust the air to the outside of the case.

 

Typically the PSU screw holes in the case are arranged in such a way that you can't really mount the PSU contrary to the case design - not by accident anyways.

I mounted my PSU so ut wasn't "bottom feeding" off the floor and sucking in extra dirt. Also, if I temporarily move the server to the living room floor for some kind of maintenance the carpet won't block the PSU fan.

 

Peter

 

You normally do not want the air intake to come from outside the case. A lot of computers rely on the PSU as the sole means of cooling. So the intake (whether with or without a fan) should always face into the case. As I said before, the screw holes to mount the PSU should help you install it in the right orientation.

Is there a gap at all between the intake fan (the large fan that should be inside the case) and the case?  If so you should be ok.  It is not a good idea to block airflow to the PSU fan as it can cause drops in voltages and will but unneeded stress on your PSU and components.

I have my fan sucking from the floor thru the case. I however have mine sitting on a piece of 3/4 inch wood that used to be the top of a Oak TV Tray. Maybe some day I'll extend the legs, but even when I laid my case on the side opposed to standing I didn't notice any differences in CPU temp, but then again maybe my PSU was running color. Not sure thou.

 

 

Normally I would install my PSU so it sucks air from inside the case, but since I have a rear fan and my drives produce hardly any heat with (3) Cool Master fans blowing air across them and in I'm not really worried about it.

FYI for anyone else. The Coolermaster case has the PSU mount in the bottom with the PSU inlet facing the floor of the case. The floor of the case will have a hole or grill to allow the PSU to suck in air from under the case.

 

As I posted before, I turned mine over. There's no reason it won't work the other way, I just didn't want the PSU vacuuming dust and dirt off the floor in my unfinished basement. I also don't have to use a piece of wood like in kizer's pic to allow it to work on carpet. It's a personal choice because either way will work. I think either 2 or 3 out of 4 screws line up when the PSU is reversed.

 

Peter

I only use the piece of wood in my room honestly because it only made sense to me to allow for more room to suck air in and out and I normally use that piece of wood to tinker on things opposed to sitting them directly on the carpet so it was luck I had it sitting there. I've tilted my machine over a few times and blown air through, but not much realy has come out the rear. Most of the time the front has more on the screen of the Cooler Master filters.

 

Like said personal preference. It had a fan grill and I figured hey it must go that way. 

kiser - I bet the most important part of the build was putting the Lime-Tech label on the front of the case.

 

 

I've got wood from this thread.

 

lionelhutz - Yeah its one of my favorite addons to the case.

 

neilt0 - I've got wood too. Oak to be exact. LOL

I do have a space from the case bottom, enough for air to get sucked in. All 4 screws lined up just fine when installing it right side up, so I'm just going to keep it there. With 7 Black drives running the PSU fan doesn't even kick in yet.