bottom-mounted PSUs...

~Darkseeker~

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Evening/afternoon all

I keep seeing people mounting their bottom-mounted PSUs with the fans facing downward. I've always thought this was odd since the fan is then less than an inch from the floor/desk and that can't be good for it.

However recently i've noticed a lot of the guys who are building and benchmarking on youtube are doing the same.

I've got my V650 mounted fan-up in the bottom of my Silencio 352 - am I missing something here or does it really not matter much? Really the only reason i'd flip it over would be to improve cable management a bit.
 
Mine will go both ways, I have a grille with dustguard and such on the bottom, but the V650 is evidently designed to go fan-up since the design on the casing is the right way up when the fan is up

but ive just watched a respected PC builder/benchmarker/gamer mount the exact PSU I have the other way up
 
With the fan at the bottom it'd be drawing fresh cool air instead of heated air inside the case.
 
I have an Antec P280 case. There a vent in the bottom under the PSU with a removable filter. The PSU is mounted fan down in this case. Although the feet on the case aren't all that tall you can feel the air being drawn in when I'm putting the spurs to it.
I have built systems where there was not a vent in the bottom forcing the PSU to be mounted fan up. As was stated it drew warm air in from the case. But it did serve as an extra vent. If the air flow in your case is good and keeps the inside relatively cool, there isn't any harm mounting the PSU fan up.
 
I go psu fan down. Intaking cool air is better than drawing in hot air from the case. But like seti said if you have good airflow it doesn't matter either way. Fans need very little air for intake actually. I had a fan running in the bottom of my old case sitting against the metal to cool my gfx card and it actually got enough air to reduce temps
 
You see more often high end cases with only a bottom mount option.
There must be something to it. I have mine fan down on the bottom of the case.
 
Really the only reason i'd flip it over would be to improve cable management a bit.

That, and it does really help actually, plus what we studied in school in basic physics that cold air is heavier than hot air so the lower the PSU the colder air it gets. The case I use also has puller fans on top of it. It pulls the air out.

:confused:

Am I making any sense?
 
The only times I really see bottom mounted PSUs are on large tower cases, I'd personally suspect that it's more a case of keeping the centre of gravity in the case a little lower to maintain stability!
 
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