Hello all,

This is the first of many questions I will have regarding my upcoming build. I haven't built since around 2002, so please bear with me and my questions!


My case is a Rosewill Blackhawk ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147107 ) and my CPU cooler is the Coolermaster Hyper 212 Plus
( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103065 ).

I am curious about the fan placements, fan directions and potential additional fans (if needed). The case has 2 front fans, 1 rear fan, 1 top fan and 1 side fan. It has the possibility to have an additional smaller fan behind the CPU (see the case), as well as additional fans on the bottom.

The two fans in the front are drawing in air and blowing it into the case. I understand the CPU cooler should have the fan positioned in such a way that it is pushing air across the heatsink and blowing out the backside of the case.


Q: What about the top and side fans? Which way are they supposed to be blowing air?

Q: Is it worth getting a smaller fan to add to the backside of the CPU? If so, which direction should the fan be blowing air?

Q: How can I tell which direction the fan will blow? Is it clearly labeled on the fans themselves?

Q: Should I purchase fans to go along the bottom to push the air towards the top?


Thank you!

EDIT:

Damn it, I just found out that the Coolermaster fan will NOT fit inside this case unless I take off the side panel fan. The order has been placed through Newegg....now what do I do??

"The Rosewill BLACKHAWK is pre-installed with
front 2x 120mm blue LED fan, rear 1x 120mm fan, top 1x 140mm blue LED
fan (or optional 2x 120/140mm), and side 1x 120mm fan. It also supports
1x 120/140mm fan at the bottom and 1x 120mm fan (18mm thickness only)
behind the motherboard to increase airflow.
"

In other words, don't worry about it. For what you have in it, it is already over kill as far as I am concerned. If I had that case, I would probably take out the top and side fans and just leave the front and back fans going in order to cut down noise. Obviously, I would run some quick tests to see what the temperature is and compare it before and after.

As for the other questions:

-the side fans are already placed for you
-no on the fan for the backside of the cpu.
-The "grill" side of a fan (the little arms that hold the motor) is where the air comes out. Google or youtube search for videos, I am sure there are some out there. As well, a lot of fans are marked with an arrow.
-No.


Like the original 900W PSU you wanted to use, that case is over kill for your needs. It is for extreme over clocking and the use of high heat producing equipment. Think big PSU, high over clock, 2 GPU's, bunch of drives, etc, etc.

Basically, dont worry about the cooling. What you have is more than enough. Just focus on getting the proper amount of thermal paste on the Core i5 when you get it. There are video's for that too.

 

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Thank you for the reply. I found out a bit too late that the Coolermaster Hyper 212 Plus will not fit in my case unless I remove the side fan.

Should I:

1) Return the Coolermaster Hyper 212 Plus and use the factory fan & heatsink packaged with the Intel i5 processor

2) Remove the side fan and install the Coolermaster product. I can use the side fan and install it on the bottom (I think this case has that ability).


Thanks again!

Depends if you over clock or not. If you are going to over clock, get the Coolermaster 212 and remove the side fan.

Personally, I wouldn't waste time over clocking it unless you are going to go extreme (4.5ghz+) but that is just me. I don't overclock my own Core i5 2500k yet, not because I cant (I have the Hyper and 1600mhz ram and the K chip) but it just doesn't gain me anything in todays games, which are so processor unintensive thanks to being designed around 7 year old console architectures.

 

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Option#2 in my opinion.

Thank you for the replies!

The coolermaster cost $30. My concern for returning it is that I do not know how much Newegg would charge to "re-shelve" it, plus my own S&H charges to get it to them.

It may just be worth keeping it and doing option 2. Anyone have any experience with this kind of thing through Newegg?

Keep the CoolerMaster. It's one of the best air cooling you can get, and it's easier to put it on right from the get go (than change your mind and do it later, having to remove stock fan/sink etc).

The missing side fan can be replaced by an additional intake fan elsewhere.

If you aren't overclocking and running two graphics cards, you aren't going to miss that side fan at all. Later down the road, if you did overclock and needed the additional intake, you could always rig up the fan to the outside face of the case side instead of the inside face. If you didn't care about aesthetics.

I should have said, best air cooling you can get at that price range. Which is all I'll spend on air cooling since it's overkill on anything less than pushing the bounds of top-edge overclocking.

I'd also like to back Mithan in saying don't bother overclocking at this stage of time related to video games. The i7 and even i5 are more than capable of brutalizing any game out there right now, at stock speed. Leaving it stock will extend it's life, as OC will require upping power to the chip. Later, when it's gotten longer in the tooth and new games are outmatching it, then you can OC to extend it's life. That could be years down the road.

 

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Love the 212 - but it was BYATCH to install the first time. Suggest watching a YouTube video on how to do it - much easier than trying to figure out the instructions.

 

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Tomorrow is build day, and after reading the replies here as well as forums across the web, I still cannot get a definitive answer about the stock heatsink for this processor.

Is it, or is it not, worth using the Coolermaster Hyper 212 Plus that I ordered? Doing so will mean I have to remove the side fan and find a fitting place for it.

If someone can let me know how the i5 2500k does on a Stock Heatsink, I would appreciate it. All I will be doing is gaming- ALOT of gaming.

I do not plan on overclocking right now, but I probably will down the road before the next upgrade.