Old timer at the swap meet told me to flip my PSU fan to intake instead of exhaust in a sleeper build

He said it’d drop temps by 5 degrees in my 2002 beige case, and after testing it with my 3080 in a 90F room last summer, he was dead on and now I’m wondering if I should flip the CPU cooler too, has anyone else tried this trick with older cases?

2 comments

2 Comments

quinn_nguyen22h ago

Flipping the CPU cooler would be a terrible idea. Most tower coolers are designed to exhaust hot air toward the rear fan, not pull hot case air into the fins. You'll just recycle that hot GPU exhaust straight through the CPU cooler and spike temps by 10 degrees or more. The PSU trick only works because it's isolated in its own chamber, CPU coolers don't get that luxury.

the_henry19h ago

lol yeah tried that once, instant regret and had to redo the whole setup.