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PSU position in ATX case.

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macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 16, 2013
143
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It's been over a decade since I have overclocked/watercooled/etc.

I was just looking at what is available today and noticed that just about every ATX computer case now has the power supply position at the bottom. In the past they were always at the top.

I was just curious if there was a reason for this change. Thanks.
 
I would think to keep its weight down low and it doesn't make much difference as far as transferring its heat. Opting for liquid cooling usually puts the radiator top center or top back considering the mobo is higher in many ATX cases. I have an insanely large, high air flow case which is overkill so I'm going to try something more compact and I definitely would not locate my 1000w psu (super heavy) at the top of a case; trying to keep the CG down low.
 
With the PSU being low, it can draw fresh (cool) air in. Most PSU's these days have their own fans and exhaust out the back of the case, causing minimal impact on the overall heat inside the case.
 
hallux said:
With the PSU being low, it can draw fresh (cool) air in. Most PSU's these days have their own fans and exhaust out the back of the case, causing minimal impact on the overall heat inside the case.
Click to expand...

That's the way it always was back when I was overclocking my Pentium 4 Northwood 150% :D The PSU was at the top of the case and had a fan that exhausted outwards.

Maybe it was sucking in too much hot air from the top of the case so they put it at the bottom and gave it it's own intake too.
 
PSUs on the bottom of cases tend to bring in cool air from outside and expel the now hot air through the back.

There are several cases with PSUs on the top still, but I would advise using one of those if your main usage is boring office/home stuff. All gaming or overlocking needs thermal efficiency which a top mounted PSU won't be good at.
 
Slightly cooler temps, I imagine. Having an intake fan made a noticeable difference on my end and keeping cables tied and neatly tucked away behind the motherboard helped with airflow.
 
Wow, I remember taking a razor blade and cutting each individually wire of a flat IDE cable off so that it could be taped together in order to get more airflow in the case. That was before they made round cables. The good old days :p
 
I have a tower case that has the power supply on the top - I forget the make of it. When I bought it, I loved the case and the cooling ability it had. The computer is largely unused as this point however
 
It's actually not just for the cooling efficiency of the entire system. The PSU is more efficient electrically if it's cooler. Pulling hot air from the rest of the system defeats that efficiency.
 
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