Evercool Personal Computer Air Conditioner (PCAC)

[Captain Slug]

I'm working on a new project with rather limited space and I came upon this odd little thing.

Evercool PCAC

This is the type of fan you would normally come across when entering a warehouse or Sam's Club. The one that hits you from above with a massive wall of air. This is one of only 3 cross-flow fans made for use in PCs. The other two are a small unit from Dynatron, and a HUGE 13-inch Cooler Master model made specifically for the CM-Stacker.

The meager above pictured fan has some unbelievable stats
Air Flow : 53.2 ~ 100 CFM
Noise: Lo< 21 , HI<23dBA

My new project calls for a compact cooling solution, and I'm in an adventurous mood. I will be picking up one of these and installing it in the case, but in reverse so that the fan (hopefully) exhausts onto the CPU heatsink strong enough to keep it at a reasonable temperature.


I'll post results here when I have them. So far all of the reviews I've seen online have only used the "normal" application of this unit. I'll be working on changing that.

[ShaftedTwice]

Woah, looks awesome! Please hurry it up and post results, sir!!

[JKrepps]

Look forward to seeing how this works out. If it really is that powerful AND quiet, may be a good option for a top exaust fan in current project.

Thanks for sharing.

[yeha]

100 cfm at 23 dba

the sound of 100 cfm of air moving by itself will create 30 or so dba of noise, let alone with computer parts creating turbulence (35+), so i'd take those noise ratings with a thermaltake/silenx sized grain of salt

that said, those cross-flow fans have quite a bit of potential which hasn't been explored much, due to the overwhleming popularity of axial fans in computers.

[I.M.O.G.]

Looks pretty cheap, but you might find higher quality models which push even more air at very similar noise levels. I wonder if there may be a whine or something from an inexpensive model like that.

Here's one example for you, and there are many others out there also:
http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/pro...769297&ccitem=

[Ven0m]

I heard it's much more noisy and that moves much less air than in specs. It also sticks out from case a bit and moves air in rather opposite direction to which one might potentially want, so modding may take time. However, it's pretty cheap and you might give it a try.

My alternative idea - find some potential air intakes in one place, possibly make more and duct them to 120mm fan (or 92mm if that doesn't fit), which can be eventually ducted farther. Blowers may work too.

[Electron Chaser]

Looking forward to the results and seeing if that thing actually puts out 100 CFM.

[Captain Slug]

My alternative idea - find some potential air intakes in one place, possibly make more and duct them to 120mm fan (or 92mm if that doesn't fit), which can be eventually ducted farther.

Which is what I was going to do first. This machine is acting as a file server and won't need and optical drive, so I'm converting that space into an intake duct.
I'll be testing the PCAC outside of the case with a paper mock-up duct to prevent it from circulating it's own exhaust. If I get reasonable temperatures with low noise then I'll make a full-size working duct for the case. This is the only cross-flow fan small enough to actually be usable inside my case.

My original plan was to simply use a 120mm Delta WFB1212M, but I wanted to give this a try just for kicks.

[jcw122]

Captain, i found that blower a few months back also. I posted about it (cause of the awesome specs) and people were real sceptical. But just now, i realized that at the time I had forgotten blowers are usually quieter than "normal" fans, so yeah good luck BTW!

[ludeboy12]

looks interesting none the less.....cant wait to see how this turns out

[IrishAssassin]

That thing is pretty big, 103 CFM, that's alot of air moved.

[Navig]

Here's my PCAC in action...okay its been modified a little.



Before I hacked it up, I found that it had a good strong flow, but probably not up to the 103cfm, maybe 90s. At full speed its got a mechanical whine, but is definitely quieter than any 92mm fan I know push >90cfm.

There are a number of reviews about it out there--apparently it works quite well but can really have a big effect/screw with general case air flow.

navig

[Ven0m]

That looks interesting. How does it work on heatsink?

[Captain Slug]

That looks interesting. How does it work on heatsink?

His setup works like a wind-tunnel in that the airflow is moving parallel to the fins and exhausting out the opposite end.

I've used a similar configuration for space-constrained socket 370 machines.

[Ven0m]

His setup works like a wind-tunnel in that the airflow is moving parallel to the fins and exhausting out the opposite end.

I've used a similar configuration for space-constrained socket 370 machines.

Yeah, method is pretty obvious, but I was curious about airflow under restricion and overall performance

[Tekko]

I'm also very interested on how it works with higher restricted flow, I got this heatercore where I could slap 4 of then without any mods except for for the exaust, which would be easier then to try and get a 172mm fan...

[Navig]

I feel that it works very well. This getup is certainly my best video card cooling getup, and I've tried lots. To compare it to something y'all might know, it just blows away the performance I got from the stock Intel Prescott cooler.

Here's the thread.

I don't how to measure how it performs against pressure, all I have to say is that it is a very hardy stream of air is pushing out the other end of the sink. I'd say to my hand it feels like the air movement of a good 40x20mm fan (this is the subjective movement on the FAR side of the sink). In comparison, this is many more times the air flow compared to my vga silencer.

navig

[Ven0m]

Oh, great - thanks for link and explaination.
However I have one question - is it possible to run this blower VERY silent?
There's possibility that I'll have dual 6600 by Gigabyte, and when I hear my comp, it's too noisy. So your blower mod might be great.

[Captain Slug]

It arrived today and my results seem to confirm Navig's results. Even without running numeric tests I can tactilly feel that the airflow output from my heatsink I'm using a (Dynatron DC1207BM-X) is directly comparable to the stock fan which is rated at 40cfm. The Evercool output it much more concentrated so the airflow is hitting the exact center of the heatsink, but I don't have RAM for this machine so I can't monitor temperatures at present.

The one thing I can confirm is that the sound measurements ARE QUITE ACCURATE. Despite moving what seems to be 35-45CFM of air at full power, this makes the same amount of noise as a 25dBa rated 80mm fan. However, its airflow output could not be considered 100CFM in my opinion since the static pressure feels too low.
First impressions aside, this seems to be a capable enough fan for the usage I have in mind for it. It would make an ideal fan for any custom video card or space-limited cooling concerns.
As with most fans performance seems to be effected by proximited to the heatsink. This fan doesn't have the most remarkable static pressure imaginable, but at the same spacing as the stop fan for my heatsink it's accomplishing the same result at a FAR LOWER noise level.

Further testing is needed so don't take my initial judgements as proof. This is just the input I have at present. More qualitative work will be conducted in the near future. (Once my classes are over)

[Electron Chaser]

Though I really didn't think it would put out the kind of airflow they were saying it would. I will be watching this one closely to see how you make out with it, and see if it is something I may want to pick up for myself.