first build, first question, cooling fans

Dec 17, 2020
85
30
35
Visit site
I have seen case set up diagrams online lately that show the CPU NOT having a fan on top of it. But instead a flow diagram that shows the GPU pulling air through itself, and into the case .

No fan on the CPU at all, but a seperate fan mounted on the top of the case pulling air OUT of the case.

is that set up BETTER then a fan directly mounted on the CPU, or does the seperate fan do something special?
 
There are ways to cools with only a heatsink on the CPU and no fan. Its called passive cooling. Usually it would involve a very large heatsink on the CPU and potentially ducting to ensure that hot air from other parts of the system dont get pulled through the CPU cooler.

Is it better. No not at all. Its only something you would do as a project or if you were really obsessed with complete silence from your system.

I'm not sure what you mean by the graphics card pulling air in from outside the case. The graphics card is inside the case and is fed air by case fans. Unless you have some sort of open case or test bed. Anyway a passively cooled CPU with an actively cooled graphics card in a closed case is a bad idea. The graphics card will be throwing out anything from 150 watts to 300+ watts of heat under load that will go directly into the cpu heatsink. It won't do much cooling in those conditions, and your CPU would most likely begin to throttle (run slowly).
 
Dec 17, 2020
85
30
35
Visit site
The diagrams i saw showed the GPU fans pulling air from OUTSIDE of the case and discharging it into the case...

I know all about the heat throttling a processor down. Had a laptop years and years ago with a buggy cooling fan that was horridly prone to it until i put a good desk fan blowing into the air inlet.
 

TRENDING THREADS