Just got a new case that has an air duct for the cpu. What I wanted to know was is it better to have the fan drawing air out of the case or into it on the cpu? Or not use it at all. The case has already got a 140mm fan drawing air in the front and a 120mm drawing air out of the back. Thanks if anyone can help.
My understanding is its always better to pull air through a heatsink & away from it. Kinda makes sense, cause even with two other fans, if it was the other way, you'd be sucking in air, over the cpu, & heating up the ambient inside your case. Better to always be pulling cool air in & venting right at the hottest areas. EDIT: I'd leave the vent. The CPU is probably the hottest (though the GPU may give some good competition) single item in your pc. Having that single heat source vented directly & immediately will help your ambient temp quite a bit, & provide a cooler area for your GPU. Depending on how your case is rigged, a slot fan either above or below your GPU could help quite a bit as well. I have two fans in the side wall of my case, just above & below my video to push cool air in & pull it out. I've hated video cards since AGP when they started mounting them upside-down. Even my 6800 has quite a heat bubble stuck under it, hence the 2nd case fan right below it.
The best I experienced in therm of cooling, is 1 120mm fan in the side case pushing air directly on the CPU heatsink, with a Tower time heatsink. Add to that 2 120mm. One to Pull, one to push. So you will have Cool air+power to get the air thrue the heatsink fins. Edit: something like this (+ I have another 120mm in the front and another in the back of the case)
You had the lap your E4400 to achieve those overclocks with a reasonable heat? With that cooler none the less...gah.
No, dont lap your CPU nor heatsink. It does nothing. It would work IF one of them, or both, got uneven surfaces. But considering todays machining precision it's unlikely on med/high end products. Lapping them manually can greatly reduce the flatness of a surface. The very best would be to use a grinding machine. Something like this: So youll get a mirror like finish.
