Dual Blower Case Cooling

Yesterday I had some rare and unexpected free time.

Well, I have been wanting to try out an idea that I got after reading John “Hoot” Hill’s cohesive cooling posts in the Forum and his Blower article.

Dual Blower

I have an old, free standing, natural gas fire place that is no longer in use (stored in my shop). It had a dual AC blower in it that put out like an M16 and is fairly quiet (est. 35 to 40 dBA), so I pulled it out, cleaned it up, plugged it in and tested it to make sure it still worked.

I went to Coast to Coast and bought two 4in. x 8ft. lengths of flexible ducting. I went to work:

First, I cut off a small length and attached it to the Delta on my Thermalright SK6. Then I attached the other end to the 80MM Sunon case fan (after turning it around to be an intake). I put a filter kit on it and then attached the remaining length of ducting to the filter enclosure and ran it to the left side of the dual blower assembly.

I then ran the second length from the right side of the dual blower assembly to the filter enclosure of the side intake blow hole to cool the case. I have two fans in my PSU and an 80mm Sunon 40 cfm for exhaust on top of my case, as well as 2 80mm Sunon intakes in the lower front.

I plugged the dual blower assembly into a switched surge protector and turned it on before I turned on my PC. I could feel cool air coming out of the top blow hole and the PSU exhaust as well as the lower front. I turned the PC on and let it run for a few minutes.

Right off the bat, I saw my system and CPU temps were way cooler than before this mod; after running it a couple of hours and running Sandra Burn In Wizard in loop mode for an hour, this is what I came up with:

  • Previous system temp: 78F @ 72F ambient
  • Previous CPU temps: Idle 37C, Load 45C @ 1.54 MHz,
    1.9 Vcore

  • Current system temp: 71F @ 72F ambient
  • Current CPU temps: Idle 32C, Load 38C

Total out of pocket expense: $7.95 for the two lengths of flexible ducting.

I was was real happy with the results for the amount of time spent (maybe an hour), and now I have my rig off the floor and back in the cabinet in my PC desk. I don’t know where anyone could buy this type of dual blower unit, but I’m sure they’re still available.

System Specs:

  • AXIA 1 Ghz 266 @ 1.56Ghz (142×11), 1.9Vcore
  • Iwill KK266
  • WD 20 gig HD
  • ATI Rage Fury Pro
  • Enermax eg365p dual fan PSU
  • SK6 with Delta 38cfm
  • Modded Lian Li PC60 case
  • 512 MB Kingston PC133 RAM
  • All wires loomed and cables rounded

Randy Barnes

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