Heatsink installation options
Especially on Intel's basics, there the anchor points to the mother board they are all in the same range, it is possible to place the heatsink (we are talking about heatsinks with air) in several positions, so that we can place it so that the hot air goes out from behind the box, or so that it passes through its roof. On AMD heatsinks most of the time we don't have this option, and we should only install it in a place that allows it, because The AMD socket is not square but rectangular.
Therefore, as a general rule, AMD heatsinks will always look back, which is where most of the market boxes feature as standard fan fan
It's probably always best to steer the heatsink back
We will think of a standard PC, under normal circumstances. Fresh air from outside enters the front of the box, passes through the heatsink and exits behind, drawn by a fan installed there. Air flow is effective, but is it not hot air? You are right the breeze blows and as a result it will easily come out of the roof box.
The problem is that we usually never have fans on the roof unless we intentionally install it, the difference between having a box follower to take out the hot air without having it on again. the temperature difference can be quite large. To this we must add that if we have a heatsink facing up, it will be pulling the hot air out of the graphics card, and in this case the temperature difference will be much greater. We will be literally burning the processor heatsink with pictures.
Thermal performance test
But it's very easy to talk about, so let's continue to prove it. In this case, we have used standard equipment with intermediate components, including a Intel Core i5-6600K with no overuls, it has a Scythe Mugen 5 heatsink in the Cooler Master Cosmos SE box with its series on the back and nothing on the roof. As a graphics card, we have the AMD Radeon Vega 64.
This was as a result of the test, the heatsink looking back and forth. The data shown is delta delta, that is, the temperature measures the approximate heat capacity, so that the latter does not affect the rate.
We can clearly see what we will add the rear-facing heatsink gives us the best air performance, the difference is about 5 ° C. However, this happens in the loading case, with the graphics card pulling the heat, and on the other hand at rest, with drawings other than the heat on the heatsink, we have the best temperatures with the heatsink facing up. A little, but better.
The conclusion we come to is that as a general rule it is always best to follow the heatsink back, except that on the roof we have a follower (or more) to vent the hot air there, or else we do not have a dedicated image. If possible we could work better with the heat by showing the heatsink on the roof of the box.
