Some Air Experiments

[VashTheStampede]

Before the new XP1800 decided to take a dive for the worse, I did some experiments with airflow on this T-bird 900. Most of the experiments concerned case placement with airflow.

At the bottom is the layout of my room. Average room temp is 74 degrees Farenheit.

Temps before:

Idle CPU: 38
Idle Case: 34
Full CPU: 45
Full Case: 37

Then I cracked her open and proceeded to blow the dust out. The difference was miraclous:

Idle CPU: 26
Idle Case: 26
Full CPU: 34
Full Case: 30

Now on to the experiments. I pushed the case back closer to the wall. There was exactly 4 inches between the back of the case and the wall.

Idle CPU: 28
Idle Case: 26
Full CPU: 37
Full Case: 29

Pulled it back out to 2 feet from the wall and then slid it to the left, leaving about 2 inches between the side of the hutch and side panel, with 120mm blowhole.

Idle CPU: 31
Idle Case: 31
Full CPU: 39
Full Case: 35

Then I put it under the hutch, which required dropping the wheels because of the Enermax's enormous height. The right panel was smack up against the hutch's right leg, no blowholes on that side. There was about 6 inches between the back of the case and the wall and about 1 and a half feet from the right panel of the case to the other hutch leg.

Idle CPU: 34
Idle Case: 32
Full CPU: 42
Full Case: 37

The conclusion here, besides dust your system once your temps starting increasing, is it is better to keep your system out in the open. I see alot of people here, stuffing their systems under their desks and as I demonstrated, that's a good way to increase your temps. So you want a quick, free way to drop your temps? Move your system out into the open.

~Vash~

[Trieber]

Sounds interesting. I'm kinda confused on the second one when there was 2 inches from the back to the wall, how were case temps lower and CPU higher, usually when CPU goes up, the case goes up a bit too..

Oh well. Good thinking.

[VashTheStampede]

I should of explained my case fan layout a little better. In the rear of the case I have 2 60mm intakes and one 60mm exhaust fans. On the left panel, is the 120mm blowhole and up front (besides the BayCoolers) I have a 60mm and 120mm intake fans.

~Vash~

[Trieber]

That explains it, thanks for clearing that up.

[nohoy]

when you say you cracked it open did you just mean that you left it whereever it was before just with the side open or you put it in the middle of the room? im confused. and where did the computer start at?

[VashTheStampede]

I took both side panels off and took a can of compressed air and blew out all the dust, then put the side panels back on and put the PC back where it is in the layout picture.

~Vash~