fan shroud question

i had a dead vol.7 fan and a new tt smartfan II lying around so last night i gutted the dead fan and cable tied it to the smartfan as a shroud or short duct.i then cable tied it to the horizontal
crossbar of my antec pp 660 midtower case with the shroud against the bar and the fan more or less centered over my zalman 7000 cu hsf.
i set the fan to max and while it didn't lower my idle temps much it made a nice improvement in my load temps!i like that a lot.i noticed in mbm5 that my zalman fan is now at 3245 rpm and without the mod it never went over 2650 or thereabouts.so the zalman fan gets a boost from the smartfan II and the heatsink benefits too.
i have enough room to add another shroud(bought a crappy fan to gut just to get the shroud,lol).this would bring the whole "duct" to within 1/4" or less of the zalman hsf.so now i'm wondering how i should assemble this sandwich,shroud-fan-shroud or shroud-shroud-fan.
any thoughts on this?

no, i dont think that extra gutted fan will be needed, but im pretty sure that blowing all this air directly over ur zalman fan is gonna make it last shorter right? i mean, ur making the fan spin faster with some blowing air, it will be putting some pressure on the bearings and maybe even on the internal circuitry (but i may be wrong) ...

PICS?

thanks for your reply daliman
i went with the shroud-fan-shroud idea but there was less room than i thought.not a millimetre to spare,lol!. the innermost shroud is in contact with the heatsink fins but not imposing any pressure on them.running prime95 right now with temps =case27,diode 41,socket 40c.about the same as before i added the second shroud but not higher.but it is strange that mbm5 noe reports clock speed as 2261 instead of 2258 it read before.
i'm going to gut this piggy tomorrow to install an antec true control 550 and cut a blowhole in the roof.bought a tt 5000 rpm for this but thinking maybe i should put the antec 3500 rpm back fan in the roof and the 5000 rpm in the back. will take some pics then.

neglected to address the extra load on zalman fan bearings issue,sorry.the zalman 7000 cu looks like an engineering marvel but in practice,for overclocking it is a proven turd! great for anyone who demands a quiet hsf at stock cpu levels though.i will get the best thermalright for this cpu when i can,likely about 5 weeks from now so as long as the zalman fan lasts that long i'm fine.after i get a thermalright the zalman will make an interesting yard art piece i think.lol

btw my zalman fanspeed is now 3444! and my idle temps are case 23,diode30 and socket33.not so bad for a 2500 barton @205x11x1.75 vcore and 2.8 vdimm on a zalman.at least WAY better than before my mod.

mattmolson said:

btw my zalman fanspeed is now 3444! and my idle temps are case 23,diode30 and socket33.not so bad for a 2500 barton @205x11x1.75 vcore and 2.8 vdimm on a zalman.at least WAY better than before my mod.

Click to expand...

I have the feeling that those huge Zalman heatsinks would be contenders with the best of them - if you gave them a 5000 RPM fan.

You ever thought about replacing the fan? Does it come out easy and can you put a new one in?

10C above ambient with a 3500 RPM fan is already impressive, though!

the wesson

thanks wesson
actually the shroud/fan/shoud i mentioned is running at 4800 rpm(full tilt) and directly above the zalman and boosting the zal. fan to 3444 rpm from it's original max of 2650 or so.but that 4800 rpm fan is still pushing its 75.7 cfm onto the heatsink i believe.
yesterday i emptied the case in order to install an antec 550 truepower psu and cut a blowhole in the roof and finally get around to cutting out the antec case grilles front and back.all went well in that respect but the computer wouldn't start when reassembled.
i tried for hours to get it to start and no go.just as i was about to throw the whole s**t and shebang through the window i hit the power one last time and it started.lol.today i cut some aluminum 1/2x1/8 bar stock so tomorrow i should be able to bolt the fan shroud to the crossbar and that would let me mount it top dead center over the zalman i hope.maybe a few more rpm's too!

today i ran prime 95 for 40 min. or so and my temps were,case22,diode37 to 44,socket38 so my case cooling mods seemed to have helped a lot.best temps i have had since i got the zalman anyway so i'm pleased with that for now.
btw way as the diode temps are somewhat instantaneous the high of 44 was for a few seconds only.

here's my second attempt to post the pic.lol

oh damn!!! didn't work again

here

nice pic.

shroud,fan,shroud, then the hapless Zalman.

...

might as well remove the original Zalman fan outright?

it can't be doing much good any more and might even be standing in the way of the blast of air

the wesson

nah, i don't think so because it is doing 1000 rpm more than it did before right? i should just disconnect the pwer to it and see if any change to the temps though.just to know.lol

i got rid of the cable ties in the fan shroud arrangement as they limited my placement of the fan shrouds so they weren't dead center over the zalman.they are now.

i used some bolts from piano pedals and cut some metal spacers from an acid brush,brought them through the bars and secured with lock washers and nuts. got another 100 rpm out of the zalman fan to boot.

Matt,I think it would kool alot better with the Zalman fan out of there too. Does the mounting technique cause any vibration thru the case? Clean mount job! THE FANMAN

ty arch
i can't say i notice any more vibration than was already there but that is possible of course.you may be right about removing the zalman fan too. wesson suggested that too but it is a real job to find out because i left the bolts a lil' long in order to have something to grip as i mounted them.without the nuts on them they want to drop down to the hs or mobo.need 4 hands!lol
i'm sure i will want to check into that though sooner or later.
clocker2 showed me a thread where bchur83(hope i got his nick right) cut the tt smfII out of the shroud and cable tied it to his zalman.

Yea,you got it right.You say you are going to get a Thermalright in the future.Are you curious to see what the Zalman will do without the stock fan,and your duct in place.To hold the bolts in place when the nuts are off.Use a small piece of hard clear plastic,(like things are packaged in) to make a flat nut to go above the fan.Cut a little square of the plastic and put a hole in the center of it to grab the threads on the bolts.Or make more threads on the bolt and use a nut. THE FANMAN

arch i will get the thermal right and i am curious about the zalman without it's original fan.i really wanna see what i can make this hs do before i replace it.when i'm done with it i give to the wife or one of my 3 boys if they want it.
great advice about the plastic use for temp. nuts,can also use another piece about 120x120mm lets say to slide between the shroud and the zalman to make absolute sure the bolts don't drop.THE FANMAN comes through again.thanks!
btw,can you reccomend any round ide cables that aren't too thick? mine are 1/2" dia.and somewhat stiff and too long for my case.i still need to address my rat's nest of wire since the case mods and psu install.

Where are those specs.We want specs! Can you get me a pic of your current setup.A pics worth a thousand words.Mainly focusing on your drives and wiring.I suspect your round cables are thick,because you have multi-drives! I bought mine from www.pctoys.com . I like the copper or silver cables personally.Shine a blue LED on those babby's..THE FANMAN

Specs in sig,please

EXPRESS LINKAGE

well here is the mess.mind you i made no attempt to clean it up yet because i'm still unsettled and i truly hate trying to clean up the wiring but know it's necessary

Yea thats going to be a bear.Tanks for the sig,now we can see all of your goodies. Does your back case panel come off? Mine was a big mess before I put the majority of the wiring back there.Take a look at the different stages my rig went thru.Heres a link to MOBYDICKS pics.My computer! THE FANMAN

MOBYS HOME

Notice the round cables,and the flat!!