Case modifications

[Himself]

Been monitoring my system temperatures with my new cpu, I generally get 36-37 degrees celcius with the side open, but I put the side back on and it rose to 40 degrees, not good. So, I tried a few fans inside, nothing made any difference, it only slowed the rate at which the system reached 40. I tried using cardboard to isolate potential airstreams, no difference to cpu temp but I did get the motherboard temp down a bit.

What I did get to work was this, carving a round hole in the case panel for a fan, and installing the fan so that air blows out of the case. I also put some foam over the air holes along the back, put in dummy plugs in all the plug holes, basically closed everything in so the only air intake is the bottom front vent behind the bevel. The main heat producer here is the video card, having a fan just above the PCI slots blowing all that hot air away from the cpu which is located directly above the video card works. The cpu temperature right now is 35 degrees and has been for the last hour all the while running seti. MB is at 31, ambiant is 24.

I think the important bit to get from this is to test the effectiveness of what you do in trying to cool your case.

[Still waiting for my order or arctic silver paste to arrive]

[The PIT]

I wouldn't block other ventilation holes rather add to them. A good place is to cut out a large hole on the top of the case if it's tower and put a big fan there. That lops off the temperature quiet well.
You can also buy cases like the coolcase tornado which has 3 intake fans and three output fans. This keeps the case nice and cool.

[Himself]

To each his own. I will try with the vents open to see if it makes a difference, I think the fan wouldn't be as effective without the suction effect. I am still trying to reduce noise at the same time as cool the case, that's the whole point of having the case closed for me.

edit:

As for a hole in the top of the case, that wouldn't be as good, it would draw the hot air from the video card through the cpu heatsink on it's way out and beside the power supply does that already. The point is to remove heat coming up from the slots before it reaches the cpu. I am thinking of buying a new case power supply:
http://www.bigfootcomputers.com/Merc...gory_Code=4000

It has in intake fan already.



[This message has been edited by Himself (edited 16 October 2000).]

[thecurse]

i toke an autoscrolling sabre saw and i cut holes in the sides of my case to mount fans on. i also mounted a small 50watt psu (from an old old external scsi tape drive)on the side of the case for powering the fans.

[Himself]

I used a hammer and screwdriver.

[The PIT]

Theres one thing I often backup when I'm going to the pub. If anyone broke in they'd think someones in with all the noise it makes.

[MultimediaMan]

Himself brings up a good point: To control the flow of air, you need to direct it, and give it a directed path to escape.

It only makes sense that the number of fans blowing into the case must at least equal the number evacuating the case if you really want the air inside to "move".

Most servers use paper or foam air ducts to direct cool air across the heatsinks of the CPU(s) in the most efficient manner. Same for hard disks and other high temperature areas of the case.

Moving as much air coherently (bottom to top, right to left, whatever) is key to removing waste heat in an air-cooled computer system.

Many overclockers are starting to pay attention to aerodynamic placement of fans and heatsinks. Just check out the photos at HardOCP at the last FragFest in Dallas.

I'm not an overclocker, but I do like to see my machines as cool as possible: cool machines are faster, more stable, and last longer.

Empirical measurements beat the snot out of theoretical models every time.

[Himself]

Running Seti 3.0 in the background while web browsing, I am measuring 34.5 degrees celcius for the cpu. (Duron @ 800MHz, 1.68V)
V3 2000 video card overclocked from 143 to 172MHz, no fan, just heatsink.

Two things I notice, with everything closed up there is more air coming out of the side of the case. Also, the air coming from my power supply is a lot cooler than before.

[DuRaNgO]

The problem with creating a "jetstream" is that some of the nooks and cranny in the case will become "weather cells" being cooler than others

The case I use has many little holes in both side panels and a "blo-hole" in the side pointing directly between the cpu, ram and vid card, also a fan in the rear under the power supply, I don't put one in the front as it seems to suck a lot of dust in

My case temp is within 5f of the ambient room temp, that with a large peltier in the case
jim

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P3-700e @ 1052! Check it here!
Abit BE6-2
TwinMos 128mb pc-133
G400 32mb DH
Maxtor 15.3gb 7,200rpm
SB Live!
Winblows 98se & DX7
and 384k DSL!

[ALBPM]

I found some great stuff for making air ducts. It's called "Funky Foam Sheets". I got mine at Hobby Lobby (don't know if it's a National chain) for .99 cents per sheet.
It's 3mm thick and the sheet is 35 X 40cm.


This is to direct the hot air from my pelt/heatsink combo to the vents in the back of my case.



It's nonconductive, insulating and very light. It's also rigid enough to hold it's shape.

I cut out the top, bottom and sides and tacked them together with super glue. I then used epoxy to glue them together.
I used small velcro pads to hold it to the frame.

Getting rid of the hot air from the peltier has really helped to lower my case temp. It's now 2-3 degC above room temp.

Also the foam duct which fits over the Delta 38 CFM fan has helped to deaden the sound from this very loud fan.

Paul

[Himself]

Well, I am using just one fan in the side of my case, the entire case is the duct, add one fan to the side of the case and close off all the air holes, that's all I've got done right now. The critcal components get cooled, that's all I care about. It is cooler than when I have the case open and I don't have to listen to the hard drive, so I'm happy.

All the large heat sources are pretty close together in my system, the video card, the cpu and the mb chip with the heatsink, it doesn't really matter what the temperature is like elsewhere if I get rid of the effects of those producers.

[MultimediaMan]

Durango also points out another inevitable problem: good airflow is well-nigh impossible in all areas of the case.

Ducting, on paper, is a good thing, but when the inside of your case starts to look more like a hamster habitrail setup than a crown jewel of microcircuitry, you know you've gone too far.

Dust is a major problem: pet owners and smokers are worst offenders here. I still end up blowing out my machines (into an anti-static wipe) once a month just to keep a semblance of control on ionized dust particles.

Slightly OT: I actually considered building a watertrap filter for an as-yet unbuilt computer desk. I thought of this after a high-end "filterless" vacuum cleaner demo I saw on HGTV. It used a water reservoir as a dust and dirt trap: after use, you poured the dirty water down the drain. A neat idea, I thought. But the idea of vaporizing water near my computers turned me off from the idea: maybe a plenum chamber with a light bulb in it to pre-dessicate the air before directing it to the computers...but I digress.

[DentyCracker]

OK so I woke up this morning feeling bored. So I took the fan off the copper ATTechCM25 and put it on the CoolerMaster. Well whadya know 2 degrees C cooler (I guess the 6750 rpm fan works well huh). So I take the fan that was on the Coolermaster and (yeah you got it) superglued it to the G400 HS hehehehe. Haven't pushed it over 135/180 with MGATweak 1.2 yet though, do that later.

[DentyCracker]

I had considered doing what Himself did but then my case is never on anyway as I'm always f-ing around with something or other, perhaps if I ever settle down ....

[birdy]

Noise

I have found the best way to get it cool and quiet is to cut out the holes in the vents.

I have a songcheer super wide case and the front and rear fans make a right din unless i remove the grills from the vents, it also increases the airflow.

I have no idea how hot or cold my CPU is but it works at 950 quite happily so thats all i care about :-)

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1st system

[b]Coppermine 650E @ 946mhz (145mhz FSB). Globalwin VOS32 HSF (the hooge one with the air duct set to blow cold air in)Abit Bf6. 256mb Winbond pc133, USR Message Modem external, SB Live!, Maxtor Diamond Max 30GB!!@ 7200rpm, Quantum 850mb HDD, Promise UDMA66, G400 @ max settings, generic 50*CD ROM, generic 24*CD ROM, 3Com 10/100 PCI NIC. Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer USB. Win98/w2k Dual boot. All wrapped up in Songcheer Super wide with loads of fans and 2 PSUs. Belinea 10 30 40 17" monitor, FPS100 sound system, Cyborg 2000 joystick, generic keyboard.


Crossover cable

2nd system

Celly 600 @ 810mhz, Abit BX133RAID @90mhz, 128mb pc133, 15GB Maxtor HDD, Adaptec 2940 SCSI card, Plextor 40 speed SCSI CD, Yamaha 8x4x24 SCSI CDRW, All In Wonder pro 32MB, SBLIVE, 3Com 10/100 PCI NIC, 15in Dell Monitor, epson 460 stylus printer, genius vivid pro 2 scanner. Generic keyboard, 3d program pad, Genius netmouse pro, Songcheer Desktop ATX Case ATX,3 00Watt PSU (original went bang)