"Air Blast" Case cooling theory?

[Zerileous]

While most people like to have air flowing through the case from the bottom front to the tomp rear. The credit of this idea should partially go to RetroUO as he thought of doing this. At first i told him it was a silly idea and if it was any good other people would be doing it.
The Idea: Mount 2 or 4 12cm case fans to the side of the computer, these fans dont need to put out alot of airflow. These would be positioned so that the fans are hitting the CPU HSF, Mosfets, Video Card, ram, NB, and SB and the majority of the mobo. All other fan holes (front and back) would be used as exhaust. Now as i understand it, turbulance, or air striking the surface is important. Thats why a fan goes on the CPU, the air strikes the metal and somehow absorbs more heat. So why not have air striking the entire motherboard. Then the exhaust fans would get the air out. The case would have somewhat pressure and moderate noise if i designed it in a manner that would have quiet intake fans at about 40-50 CFM and moderate 30 DB exhaust fans which would hit about 30 CFM each. The case would have more exhaust fans because of a top blow hole (probly 120mm) and the PSU even if it were a dragon like mine and had 2 80mm ins and 2 80mm outs.

How would this work? The fans on the side would have to be low rotational speed or else the panel would turn into a big speaker vibrating. Rubber grommets would also be used since the structure would be so much reduced and prone to vibration.

 

[chasingapple]

Hmm, interesting...but I have sorta tried this like others....just grab a room floor fan and set it on the side of your computer with the computers side off. Same effect and yes it cools well

 

[CCW]

What happens with a heatsink is the heatsink conducts the heat then the heat is transferred from the heatsink to the air, fans just take more air to the heatsink so that this process can happen faster. Here is a link to an Article I wrote a while ago now on procesor heat dissipation, It explains how a heatsink works.

Craig

 

[Rocko[DPC]]

Hmm, interesting...but I have sorta tried this like others....just grab a room floor fan and set it on the side of your computer with the computers side off. Same effect and yes it cools well

My computer was overheating in the summer and I did this for a few months. Worked great! I thought it would get really dusty, but it didnt get dusty at all. I think the air was moving so fast the dust had no time to stick to anything.

 

[Zerileous]

would a lower level of CFM have a similar effect. Remember the idea here is to be not silent but hopefully reasonably quiet. i realize that with that CFM there will be an air-woosh effect but other than that... Also would there be any reservations against scrapping exhaust fans for pure positive pressure (otehr than CPU) and just leaving the holes open as "exhaust ports"

 

[johan851]

Sounds like a good idea - that's why a lot of people have a side blowhole type fan. I have a 120mm fan over the video card, and it works pretty well.

 

[05virulosity50]

or you could just put a leaf blower inside your case...

 

[05virulosity50]

gas powered of course

 

[itizme]

gas powered of course

Thank god your attention to detail came back to you

Would that be a two of four stroke?? Jap. or North American made?

 

[Caffinehog]

American made, of course. And not gas, but diesel.


Anyways, this whole thing about a side pannel with lots of fans is a fantastic idea. People have been leaving the side off and blowing onto the whole system with a fan for a long time. In fact, this is probably the best new idea I've seen on here for a long time.

 

[itizme]

""If I give my floppy drive viagra, will it become a hard drive?""

<-=Not if you load it with software!!=->

 

[craneage2001]

There's a local scrapyard by me that has rediculously low prices on their stuff (I can get heater core for $2 or so...). I was planning to pick one of these off of a suitable vehicle and see how noisy it would be at lower voltages (5-7v)...I figure a 12-14" would be about right to put on the side panel...check out the cfm at 12v!

http://www.absoluteradiator.com/FanStore.asp

 

[Caffinehog]

Watch the AMPS on those fans!

The 11.2 amps on that 14" fan means it pulls 134 watts! Even at 5V, it would pull serious amperage. And with that many amps, it would casue big problems if you tried to do a 7V mod on it. (You wouldn't want to be pumping that many amps into the 5V line!)
I'd strongly suggest a second power supply for this.

 

[Zerileous]

Looking at my case, it seems to me like 2 120 mm fans would more than give adiquate airflow and coverage. I would think that an optimal choice would be to duct them so that the deadspot dies (like the TT ducting mods except for the outside of the case) Now what if you assembled a fan box that would be eavily insulated to kill noise and that would send the air, via duts, to the side pannel (this box would sit on top or something). Hrm, all the possibilities. How many CFM would be required to make this a reall cool job. Perhaps a couple of vantec stealths would provide adiquate airflow. Even if a duct was not used i think this would work pretty well. I have a spare case to hack up. If i had somehting to hack it with i would try this.

 

[rogerdugans]

Cardboard.
Especially just after the holidays I am sure you can dig some up somewhere....

Cardboard is an airflow improvement modding junkies BEST friend, man:

Cheap
Cuts with knife or scissors
Can be made to into variuos shapes easily
Can mount fans using screws or cable ties
Can be mounted to a case many different ways
And finally:
It can be used as a template for modding your case when you finally decide where to put things.

As far as the original idea:

It might work pretty well. I have done similar things at times with my Distributed Computing Farm rigs- sometimes very ghetto, but similar nonetheless.

I found that while it does work ok, it tends to be no better than a well executed cooling scheme in a closed case, except it makes more noise.

Your results may be different of course!

 

[lclark2074]

There's a local scrapyard by me that has rediculously low prices on their stuff (I can get heater core for $2 or so...). I was planning to pick one of these off of a suitable vehicle and see how noisy it would be at lower voltages (5-7v)...I figure a 12-14" would be about right to put on the side panel...check out the cfm at 12v!

http://www.absoluteradiator.com/FanStore.asp

just get a car raidiator you will probly will not nead fans at all just put it on the side of case that dose not come off most of the time