Shuriken fan orientation

[djp952]

Hi there. A bought a pair of SCSK-1000s a couple months ago, and they came in with different fan orientations. One had the fan's open side pointing up, the other was face down. As it turns out, the one that came face-up was defective and I had to send it back, it wouldn't spin up at all. The face-down one has been working fine, but it's also only cooling a little 4850e.

I now have 2 Rev B SCSK-1100s in hand, one to replace the DOA one and a spare, and both have the fan face-up like in the pictures. I'm assuming that face-up is indeed the proper fan orientation for this unit.

This system (Antec NSK1380) only has one big 120mm fan behind the power supply that vents out. The Shuriken is currently blowing air up and generally towards the intake for the power supply fan. Flipping it right-side up would of course slightly change the dynamics there, but I also want to be getting the most benefit I can from the cooler here.

Thoughts? Flip it over or leave it alone? Anyone else have one of these come with the fan upside-down?

[sumo]

Hello djp952,

the right fan position you see here: Scythe EU GmbH : Shuriken Rev. B

So the airflow is directed to the Mainboard. All other positions are wrong, maybe you got one with a "factory error".

The best position for the Shuriken is that the Heatpipes are horizontal, so one side looks to the left, the other to the right.

I hope this will help you a little bit.

Kind regards
chris

[djp952]

Thanks! It sucked to have that PC all apart again, but it went well. I like how the fan attaches with those clips, if not for being such a cramped case that would have taken all of 45 seconds to unhook it and flip it over.

As expected, it's cooling better this way too - lol.

One thing I noticed is that the fan itself actually works better upside down. On this machine (Gigabyte 780G AMD) with PWM enabled, the fan won't spin up properly until the CPU heats up a little providing enough voltage on that circuit to get it going. It just sputters around a bit for a few seconds. I tried all 3 that I have in hand, they all behave exactly the same way.

Not sure if that's due to the motherboard not providing the proper output voltage when the system is at room temperature or a limitation of the fan itself, but it does look like the fan assembly could use a bit less drag on the spindle, or perform better at extremely low voltages.

I'm happy with it, I don't mind if it a cold CPU runs sans-fan for a few seconds, as long as this isn't damaging the fan. I'm looking forward to getting the second one finally installed in my main living room PC this coming weekend .. can't wait for silence in there again.

Commentary aside, I do have one follow-up question ... this fan had been running upside down for about 45 days, 4-5 hours a day. Would this have caused any undue wear on the bearings/spindle, or can I still expect a few good years out of that thing?

[sumo]

Hi,

i'm wondering that it works much better if the is sucking the air through the cooler instead of blowing. But if you experienced this, than its ok. There should be also no effect for the fans lifetime.

About PWM: i think your core is to cold in idle for PWM. if you run some load the fan spins up?

Kind Regards
Chris

[djp952]

Originally Posted by sumo

About PWM: i think your core is to cold in idle for PWM. if you run some load the fan spins up?

Yup. Once the CPU warms up a little bit, everything's great. I timed it from a 70F (21C) room temperature and it took about 5 seconds for it to get going. It's really not a problem, the fan is up and running before it's even done with POST.

All good here Thank you very much for the quick responses, and more importantly for making a "quiet" CPU cooler that's actually quiet!

[sumo]

Hi,

no problem, thats our passion.

Kind Regards
Chris

[Baloo]

Hi,

I plan to have the Big Shuriken instead of the factory cooler on my AMD Athlon II X4 645.
I use it as a HTPC in a slim, horizontal desktop case.

Cool air can come into the case trough side inlets (supported by a case-fan) and warm air can exit through a big outlet just above the CPU.

I have the "feeling" that flipping the CPU cooler fan by 180° - having it to blow air just upward trough the air outlet - will result an overall cooler system.

What is you opinion?