Radiator blowing IN or OUT

[cmcquistion]

I've got a dilemna. Currently, I have a 120 mm fan at the bottom of my case blowing cool air in. Another 80 mm in the middle blowing in. The power supply blowing out and above it a 120 mm fan blowing air through the radiator and out.

Problem is, I want to put another power supply in the case and don't have the room on top, unless I put the radiator in the bottom of the case with a 120 mm fan blowing fresh air in the case through the radiator and then have the two power supplies blowing air out of the top of the case.

Will this adversely affect my case and CPU temperatures? Will the radiator heat up the air coming into the case significantly?

I could use some advice. I'm thinking of maybe just building a completely new case, if I have to. This one's a full tower and it's not really big enough, unless I can resituate some things.

[YMAN]

Hmm...
It would seem ok, but YES it will effect case tempratures.
What about reversing the power supply fans to blow in
and reversing the fan(s) on the bottom to blow air out.
Seems a bit funny, but the power supplys will produce
far less heat then the radiator.

[ptcg]

majorly bad idea...

First off, PSU produce way more heat than any radiator will..
Second, heat rises.. Blowing hot air in the top & trying to pull it out the bottom will never work..

What you should have is this.. Put the radiator at the bottom, in the front of the case with the fan behind it, pulling air from outside, through the radiator, into the case...

The other fan blowing in is fine, then the rest of the fans (including PSU fans) should be blowing out.. you won't notice any major temp increase in the case.

[YMAN]

Originally posted by ptcg
majorly bad idea...

First off, PSU produce way more heat than any radiator will..
Second, heat rises.. Blowing hot air in the top & trying to pull it out the bottom will never work..

What you should have is this.. Put the radiator at the bottom, in the front of the case with the fan behind it, pulling air from outside, through the radiator, into the case...

The other fan blowing in is fine, then the rest of the fans (including PSU fans) should be blowing out.. you won't notice any major temp increase in the case.

Oups, I am getting mixed up with me quad 1400s HeHeHe!

You are proboably right, unless you have a terribly powerfull
comp/radiator load :rolleyes:

[cmcquistion]

I just had another idea. If I took the second power supply and took the top off and stuck it under the drive cage with it's belly exposed in front of the intake fan.

That would keep it cool and I wouldn't have to move my radiator or anything. On the other hand, there is the factor of heat coming off that power supply.

BTW, I'm going to use the second power supply to power most of my 12 V stuff like fans, DVD, CDRW, etc. The original power supply will be used just to power the motherboard and primary hard drive.

[YMAN]

Originally posted by cmcquistion
I just had another idea. If I took the second power supply and took the top off and stuck it under the drive cage with it's belly exposed in front of the intake fan.

That would keep it cool and I wouldn't have to move my radiator or anything. On the other hand, there is the factor of heat coming off that power supply.

BTW, I'm going to use the second power supply to power most of my 12 V stuff like fans, DVD, CDRW, etc. The original power supply will be used just to power the motherboard and primary hard drive.

This Idea is more overclocker-like,
However there may be some electrical noise or whatever
they call it but you should be fine.
Maybe even a duct of some type?

- Make sure you have good 5v load. Or the 12v line will be 10v :eek:
If you decide to not run CD-ROMs etc. that use 5v power, I
reccomend a "5v 1amp Load Resistor"

[cmcquistion]

YMAN,

Could you elaborate on the 5V issue. I'm planning on hooking up some hard drives, a floppy drive, a SoundBlaster LiveDrive, a DVD drive, and a CDRW to the second power supply. Do they use 5V power? Will everything work ok?

[YMAN]

Originally posted by cmcquistion
YMAN,

Could you elaborate on the 5V issue. I'm planning on hooking up some hard drives, a floppy drive, a SoundBlaster LiveDrive, a DVD drive, and a CDRW to the second power supply. Do they use 5V power? Will everything work ok?

Yes, In that case everything will be ok.
If you use all those devices there will be no doubt that there
will be enough power draw on the 5v line.
They do use 5v power such as the Hard Drive.

Let me clerify things a little,
On a computer power supply you have multiple power cables.
Some are 5v some 12v and on "ATX" power supplys you have a
3.3v line. On power supplies if you were to draw just power only
from the 12v line the regulators would need to work beyond
capacity thus this causes the 12v line to run at about 10v insted
of 12v. When you run some power off the 5v line as well, you
recieve much better regulation, this is because the MAIN power
voltage of a power supply is 5v, and thus the other regulators
will not have to work as hard. You normally want to draw atleat
.2 - .8 amps of the 5v line to improve the overall regulation.

[ptcg]

This might be kinda obvious, but why 'add' a PSU? Why not just replace the one you have with a better one? I've got a 400w PSU powering all my addon cards, a 12vdc relay, 5 fans, 3 CDs, 1 HD, a Digital Doc 5, a Zip100 and a floppy... haven't had trouble yet...

[nikhsub1]

Why not just get a 500+ watt PSU? Save alot of headaches but cost you some $$$!

[YMAN]

Both the posts on buying bigger power supplies instead do
have logical points.
However IF you have a spare power supply why not?
It would be a great adventure anyways as well as be lighter
on the pocket.

[Wicked Klown]

is it possible to put two fans on it one pushing the air then on the other side have it pulling the air.

[cmcquistion]

Money is the real reason I want to use two power supplies. I'm using a 430 Watt Enermax now and the 5V line is at 4.9V all the time, but I want to add some more stuff to my computer and maybe do a voltage mod to get more speed.

BTW, I've decided to just build a computer case, cause I can't find one that's big enough for a big radiator, two PSU's, pump & reservior, etc.

I'm thinking of building the whole thing out of 3/4" high density fiberboard. This stuff is great for sound isolation and cuts and shapes really well. It'll weigh a ton, but I never need to move my computer anyway. I'm thinking of a desktop design, as opposed to a tower; easier on the pump to move water if it doesn't have to pump it 3 ft up. I need something to set my dual monitors on anyway.