Airflow question

I've probably asked this before, and it's probably been answered; so bear with me.. I suck at finding old threads.

I'm fixing to build a box (actually have it all drawn out this time) to house some Water Cooling equipment.

In the forward compartment, I am looking to seal it up completely, and use it as a "cooling chamber". Cold air goes in one opening, hot air goes out another. etc.

Since you fan cooling guys probably know more about airflow than I do I thought I'd ask here. My radiator has a shroud on it, and I was wondering if I simply sealed the chamber up, if that shroud would impact performance.

i.e. The radiator is fixed to the opening of the intake (also sealed good around the edges) - exhaust fan sucks/blows/whatever air out of the exhaust hole. Is the force of the air being pulled through enough to keep a good supply going over the radiator ?

The other alternative is to leave the shroud in place with the fan still mounted on it, resulting in 2 fans.

I'm simply looking for efficiency, and I'd rather not waste a fan where it's not needed.


If dimensions play into it, the box itself is going to be about 17 inches long, about 8 inches wide, and probably 7 - 8 inches tall. An internal devider will seperate the cooling chamber from everything else. I am guestimating I will have room to allocate at least half of the length for the chamber (8.5in) , and possibly more if needed.

Thanks in advance.

I'd say to post this is the Water Cooling section.

Actually this seems to be more of an airflow question, which would be better off here. But I'm not entirely sure what it is you want to do Neco, can you put up a diagram or two of what you're thinking of doing?

check out the nebulous cube in the watercooling section of the OC main page. the guy did pretty much exactly what you want to do, and found that one fan, on the opposite side of the enclosure, did MORE than enough (with a huge OC, he had 32C load temps)...as long as your enclosure is sealed from the top.

http://www.overclockers.com/tips1067/

also, one fan should be enough, and as you'll read, it performs better if it is pulling heat away from the rad than if it is pushing it away

anyway, the nebulous cube article is a good read, i'm doing mine right now (just waiting on the rest of the parts)...

-peter

Thanks for that. Good info there.

That's basically what I want to do except, I don't have the option of running air straight back. I'm building my box to the dimensions of the case that is going to sit ontop of it, so I have to have a place to put the pump, that is out of the way.

(thus the need for two internal compartments). My exhaust will end up behing on the side, so I'm not really sure how it will affect things, even in a sealed compartment.

what are you making your box out of? i was thinking about doing the same for mine, but i have a lian li pc6083, so i'd have to have the box made out of some brushed metal, whether Al or stainless steel (problem being that welding Al is just about impossible)...

i also realized that shop costs would be outrageous for a box like this, so i'm just going with a filing tub. boo hoo.

just make sure that the box is structurally stabile enough to support the weight (ie- the top and sides are extremely important)

-peter

if you want to have fun, you can use Acrylic... i am thinking about doing this similar project with a water resevoir built into the acrylic casing for a radiator... hard to say... but when you have strong, cheao acrylic, and acrylic cement that will literally bond/ melt pieces of acrylic together (it lasts forever and is water tight) this gives me thoughts nobody had dared to dream!!

use acrylic =)

I'll be using wood. Most likely solid 1/2" thick boards. Either that or I'll build a ladder frame and then slap some thin but sturdy wood on for panels.

Then it's just a matter of painting it nicely.

Cheap and effective.