No case + House fan - why not?

[Foppy]

It seems to me that a better cooling solution than having a bunch of case fans and cutting through your case would be to have a house fan blowing at the inside of your computer. Most of the air would blow through from one side to the other, so positive/negative air would be minimized. The only qualm I could see would be the increased risk of static electricity frying something, so maybe an ESD mat would be a good investment on top of it. I have seen this recommended as a temporary solution - why not make it permanent? If you have any pros or cons to this idea, please let me know.
I'm sure that some of you more experienced OCers were thinking "Idiot!" The instant you saw the subject line of this message - please keep in mind I'm a newbie @_@, and that any advice you can give me will be a step toward ridding the forums of the newbie "nuisance"

 

[batboy]

The only down side to this idea that I can think of is that AC motors create a big electromagnetic field. This is not a problem if the fan is located a couple feet away, but if you have it mounted right next to the computer case, it "could" potentially cause long term problems. But maybe it won't.

 

[Ridenow]

My brother runs his with an 8" clip fan attached to a strut of the case.

 

[Staz]

Ben there, Done that

12" fan setting about 2' away blowing on motherboard

pro's: way cool and way cheap

con's: way loud and always having to worry about kids or dogs getting into open case

 

[Colin]

I think most of us have done this once, It's a dusty but cheap and effective cooing solution.

 

[Breadfan]

Hmmm, how about instead of a house fan, mounting like a 16" 12V car radiator fan. You can buy em from Summit Racing and Jegs to name a few...they probably need their own P/S (no doubt), but that could be a solution if you wanted to run a really large fan.

For instance, Summit has a Permacool 16" 2950cfm(!!!!) electric fan for 88 bucks.

Any auto perfomance place will have em if your interested.

Mike

 

[Fjeld]

Breadfan (Jul 13, 2001 11:10 a.m.):
Hmmm, how about instead of a house fan, mounting like a 16" 12V car radiator fan. You can buy em from Summit Racing and Jegs to name a few...they probably need their own P/S (no doubt), but that could be a solution if you wanted to run a really large fan.

For instance, Summit has a Permacool 16" 2950cfm(!!!!) electric fan for 88 bucks.

Any auto perfomance place will have em if your interested.

Mike

Take care! The whole thing may lift off
Fjeld

 

[Foppy]

Staz (Jul 13, 2001 10:40 a.m.):
[snip]con's: way loud and always having to worry about kids or dogs getting into open case

There are some really quiet house fans out there - I have a 12" one that's quieter than my current computer on "low" setting.
For keeping your kids/pets out of your computer, I bet you could get a couple pieces of metal grating and duct-tape them to the openings where your side panels once were. This may be a silly method, but a viable one nonetheless.

 

[cjtune]

Lots of my couldn't-care-less overclocking friends back at the varsity used this easy way of casing ventilation.