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Which direction should one set of heatsink copper pipes be facing in the case?

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I have an x58A UD5 board, an i7960 processor and a Cooler Master Vortex Plus heatsink that isn't bad but I'm wondering if I can lower the temps a few degrees based on where I have the copper pipes facing.  If you're not familiar with the heatsink, it has one set of 4 copper pipes rising up into aluminum fins with a 92mm fan on top blowing air down.  Right now I have the pipes facing down toward the bottom of the case toward the graphics card and am not sure if that's a bad idea.  So my question is, leave the heatsink in the same position it's in, turn it around so the pipes are facing toward the back of the case or turn the heatsink so the pipes are facing the top of the case.  The instructions from Cooler Master are terrible and they do show the pipes facing downward toward the graphics card so that's the reason why I positioned my heatsink in that direction, but I was reading a bunch of reviews, and one review had the pipes facing toward the top of the case, another had the pipes facing the ram and another had the pipes facing the back of the case.  I hope I'm clear about this; right now my temps are in the high 30s at idle and would like to lower them a few degrees if changing pipe position can do that.  I'm using Arctic Silver 5 and I think I did a good job applying it, so these temps are either as good as it gets or I could possibly lower them a bit.  This isn't the best heatsink, but I'm not an overclocker and from what I've read, it's better at keeping the processor cool than stock and quieter.  Thanks for any guidance.  Here's a link with a good view of the heatsink:  http://www.frostytech.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=2522

Dark Mantis

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    • Dark Mantis
Hi and welcome.

It won't make the slightest difference which way the heatpipes are facing at all. With your fan facing downwards towards the motherboard it wont affect the other components around the CPU in the way a vertical fan would. Your fan will cool all the surrounding devices as well as the CPU so it should be quite efficient overall.  ;)
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