Upgrading cpu from 2.6 to 3E GHz Northwood and want to make sure I have enough cooling, currently using Silverston NT03 and thinking about going to the Shuriken... but wondering if this type of cooler might work as the airflow of this case is inverted :

mobo/cpu is on the top ceiling of case facing down, fresh air come from bottom and front to exit from the side. In most case, hot air from cpu goes up, but in this case, standard fan rotation will flow the hot air down

should I try reversing the fan rotation direction ? anyone tried this type setup ?

intake :
http://hothardware.com/image_popup.aspx ... id=638&t=a

exhaust :
http://hothardware.com/image_popup.aspx ... id=638&t=a

If you're still interested in putting a shuriken inside a LC11, i've just installed one but it's not working as well as I planned.
I think the problem is that the fluid inside the heatpipes doesn't transfer down to the finned area of the shuriken when it's installed upside down, not that the air flow is inverted (as you suggested). It's designed so that the fluid in the heatpipes heat near the cpu and flows *up* the heat pipe to the finned area by natural convection, then cools by the air flow, and goes back down the pipe to the cpu. But when it's upside down, the hot fluid just stays near the cpu and doesn't flow to the finned area.
as part of my install, i removed the exhaust from the side of the case - it was a major source of noise because of its rigid fixture to the case. I think i'm going to have to put it back in, or look for a silent alternative (maybe some ducting from the cpu?)
I also noticed the psu was getting very warm too - the air flow through it was not working too well.

So, while the LC11 is sitting upside down, the shuriken did work pretty well, even without the exhaust fan beside it. but, as soon as you put it up-side-up, the whole system starts to cook.

It's not a true fluid system. There is mainly just water (or alcohol) vapor and very, very, very small amount of condensed liquid.

The heatpipe should have no problem working upside down as the vapor phase should migrate readily from hot-end to cold-end and condense there. Normal convection rules of hot air rising only work in relation to the system. It's more than likely that the cause is what the OP guesses, that the system is trapping hot air, or that both of you got bum HSFs.

The type of heatpipes used does affect performance in different orientations. Our NT03 used powder heatpipes so performence does not change much in any orientations.

I did some uber scientific testing to check:
turn pc on, allow temp to stabilise, shutdown, turn pc over and turn it back on again.
This was done with no exhaust fan on the side of the case, and some cereal-box-cardboard ducting so the cpu fan would blow straight out the side.
PC is an A3700+ on an Asus A8N VM-CSM


Idle PC test


CPU Burn test

There's your proof. Without any exposure to the CPU heat, the entire system temp is rising, due to being inverted. This will raise the temp of the HSF as it's getting warmer air to cool itself.

Just something to be aware of when running a LC11: don't put anything too powerful in there. But I don't really think your temps are horrifically high, even during burn. As long as your HDD is staying somewhat cool.