[ATB]

Hello all,
My PSU is located at the front of my case, which offers very little ventilation. The fan is pointing forwards, with only very small gaps for the air to get through the case. Because of this, the power supply tends to get very warm over time.

Below are some pictures:





My question is whether it is worth me buying a new PSU with a fan on the side rather than on the front, as my case supports ventilation for side fans.

Thanks

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If you are not having any problems with the power supply i would not worry about how warm it gets. if you can feel air coming out the front of the case at all it is probably working as it should. I can barely feel any air coming out of any of my computers(8 of them)PS fans, yet not seem to run hot at all.

SRX660

[SRX660]

If you are not having any problems with the power supply i would not worry about how warm it gets. if you can feel air coming out the front of the case at all it is probably working as it should. I can barely feel any air coming out of any of my computers(8 of them)PS fans, yet not seem to run hot at all.

SRX660

[Digerati]

Curious - what is the model number of that case?

[ATB]

It's the Elite 360 (http://www.coolermas...product_id=6056)

[Digerati]

I've not seen one with the PSU mounted in that way. Interesting. The only concern I would have then is cooling through the case for the rest of the computer. While one should never rely on the PSU's fan to cool the case interior, with a traditional PSU placement, the PSU does draw air from the interior of the case. That means in a traditional setup cool air is pulled into the case which does help provide cool air for the rest of the computer.

With this setup, the PSU pulls air in directly from the exterior, and then exhausts it directly out. That is great for the PSU because it has a constant supply of cool air. But it does not help the rest of the computer (which may be contrary to Cooler Master's claim, "Front panel PSU vent provides superior ventilation to maintain constant cooling"). Yes, superior ventilation for the PSU, but not for the rest of the computer where the heat sensitive components live.

To compensate CM provides the following fan "optional" support,

Bottom: 80 x 20 mm fan x 1 (optional)
Rear: 80 x 20 mm fan x 2 (optional)
Side: 120 / 90 / 80 mm fan x 1 (optional)
Top: 120 mm fan x 1 or 90 / 80 mm fan x 1 (optional)

I think I would take advantage of all of them. Note you want good front to back (and/or bottom to top) flow so you would need to orient your optional fans to support that.

I would also note that pulling air directly from the exterior would also mean pulling in heat trapping dust as well. Therefore, a PSU in this case may require cleaning a little more often than with traditional case designs.

BTW, Cooler Master is well known for making quality stuff - including cases. While this configuration may be unusual, I suspect with a good complement of optional case fans, it would work well at keeping the rest of the computer cool.