And told me if the paste is still fresh, you don't need to replace or add once you finish cleaning.
If you take the heatsink off the processor, you should clean off any paste from both the heatsink and the processor and reapply. It doesn't matter if the past was applied 10 minutes or 10 years before.
So same direction OK, but when an auxiliary fan is blowing directly on a CPU fan (same direction), would you consider this fighting or assisting?
depends if the "outer" fan moves air faster then the CPU fan. For the most part it's rather pointless, though. You can get better CPU fan heat dissipation by replacing the CPU fan rather then shoot air at it using some other fan.
What are your thoughts about one fan assisting another,as I described earlier?.
Any and all air movement is good...
However, consider for a moment that having one fan exclusively "assisting" another is a waste. you could have that fan set to cool, say, the hard drives or some other component. if the CPU fan isn't doing it's job- simply replace it with a better one. using an "assist" fan is more a band-aid solution.
Oh and yes, I really do appreciate your HO. And with ADR, IANS, so I do not require a KISS. An informed, respectful answer (TMQ), will suffice. overthehill
Is it just me or is this meant as some sort of abrasive comment because patio was "foolish" enough to use a acronym? after a few minutes of trying to decipher it I have come up with this possible expansion:
Oh and yes, I really do appreciate your HO. (Humble Opinion) And with ADR (A Deep Respect), IANS (I Am Not Stupid... (or maybe I Am Not Sam)), so I do not require a KISS. An informed, respectful answer (TMQ (absolutely no clue what this means)), will suffice.
Couldn't figure out the "TMQ" part.
I hope I'm reading it wrong or totally misreading the tone here but it really seems like you're implying that Patio is being less then helpful. Although I equally suspect I may be reading too many of Marvin's postings.
Anyway, there are two ways you use fans to cool a PC:
the traditional method, which has Air Exhausted through the back (via the power supply and maybe a CPU fan). Air intake is either done through baffles at the front/bottom of the case (thereby encouraging airflow from front to back, bottom to top) or simply sucked through cracks (cheaper cases). Generally speaking it's important to make sure the case is as "sealed" as possible, except for those intake-output areas. Inside, fans are placed in an ideal arrangement to maximize cooling. Often times a fan is placed near the front of the system which blows air over the expansion cards, as well as any chipset heatsinks that happen to be there. Of course in any semi-modern machine there is a fan exclusively used for cooling the CPU. traditionally this is mounted directly onto the heatsink, and it usually blows air down onto the heatsink (but there are some I've seen that blow up, and thereby "suck" the air through the sides of the heatsink, but these are usually less effective). Another method uses the more passive technique of mounting a large cowling that creates a "exclusive" channel of air that is sucked out the rear of the PC and used to cool the CPU. Also, Most systems also have a system fan that really just makes sure that air is properly circulated. Generally, you don't have fans that "assist" each other, strictly speaking, it's redundant.
Another issue that sometimes arises is people will sometimes mount two fans on opposite sides of the case (say one sucking air into the case from the rear and another blowing air onto the hard drives from the front) Aside from changingthe basic concept whereby you have colder air come in one side and hot air out the other, the two fans are "fighting" in a sense, and their hot air will essentially remain pooled where they meet.
You can think of it sort of like a radiator the radiator is able to cool the care because the heat is transferred from components to the collant, and then the air flowing through the grill (and probably the radiator fan) cools that coolant and it goes for another pass. In a similar fashion, the idea of arranging fans is not necessarily to say, make Component X cooler, but rather the provide optimal airflow so that cold air is quickly delivered to hot components and that hot air is quickly expelled out the case.
Another, less common method that got some attention in the late 90's and early 2000's was reversing everything- basically, have the power supply suck cold air into the case- that is, create a positive pressure within the case. This technique has the obvious flaw in that the Power Supply is often as hot if not hotter then the CPU in many cases, and trying to bring cool air to the CPU through it is like trying to cook a turkey using an Easy-bake oven; basically, while the technique has it's advantages, using the power supply as a conduit to bring air in simply results in a lot of warm air circulating around and not a lot of heat dissipation on the part of the components- also, it reduces the effectiveness of any other fans, such as CPU fans or chipset fans, since they now have to try to cool the component using a warmer "base" air temperature. The only real advantage of this solution is that the Positive pressure means that dust is not sucked into the case, but rather the opposite.
The difference is, the one that I currently have is only drawing air through rather small slots and exhausted by a small fan out the back. The one that I'm considering, draws air through a large fan and then also exhausted out the back. What I'm thinking and hoping is, instead of having an enclosed heated, (PSU) directly above my CPU, I could have a 4 3/4" fan drawing air from that area.
ACtually, there is a very good reason that the PSU is mounted at the top of all PCs (well, excepting laptops who have rather unique layouts). The answer is the same reason why it's a bad idea to try to use them as a conduit through which to inject cool air into the system. They are very hot. They put it at the top simply because heat rises- so the heat given off by the power supply generally doesn't affect the other components that are lower down in the system, and usually this heat is sucked out immediately anyway (if you're using the same (shoot air out through the power supply) method). from what I can gather the PSU your considering has a fan built in that will allow you to attempt to get the hot air from the CPU out of the case as fast as possible.
Also (And I apologize if this has been mentioned before) if you haven't done so, since your problem appears to be entirely CPU oriented you might want to try a better thermal paste and even maybe a different CPU Fan assembly.
