- Joined
- Feb 13, 2001
- Location
- Twin Cities
I spent almost an hour typing this once already, but it disappeared while I was spellchecking/editing it <(
So, here we go again <(
As the title implies, this was not a good study. My HSF, the Swiftech MC-462A is not your typical unit. It is way overkill for a 50W Duron setup. Both the HS and Fan are suited for more severe duty. The HS alone, without a fan will hold my Duron at 600 Mhz to 42C. Yes, just convective cooling. Alright, i admit, the weenie fan on the Northbridge chip next to it does stir a little bit.
My interest in pursuing this came from an experience I had two nights ago running a 156W peltier and using the 462A to cool it. The 462A was up for the job, but being a blow type HSF, it was washing my mainboard with hot air. My two Sunon case assist fans tried to maintain a flow-through environment, but the 68 cfm fan on the 462A simply overwhelms their effort. this happens all the time, but normally, I'm not trying to remove so much heat and it is not a day-to-day concern. As a matter of fact I simply love this big brute and highly recommend it.
HSFs for socket A boards come in two flavors. Suck and Blow. Any HSF will yield about a 3-5 degree drop in core temperature when in the blow mode as opposed to suck, but at a price to the system circulation and subsequently, temperature. The 462A is no exception to this rule.
In setting up the 462A to suck, I kept in mind that it was not designed that way from the get-go, though a separate model variation should be. Are you reading this Swiftech?
In order to successfully suck, an HSF needs a shroud. Any fan when sucking air off the HS will try to get it from the shortest path of least resistance. This typically means it will try to pull air from the area of the fins/pins immediately below it, where they are the coolest, as opposed to deeper down near the baseplate, where the heat coalesces. By using a shroud that protrudes partway down the outsides of the HSF, you encourage the air to be drawn into it nearer to the baseplate and then it travels up the fins/pins to the fan intake.
As a secondary function, the fan that sucks air from the HS and exhausts it upward, will actually work better in mid and full tower cases where there are two assist fans. These fans are typically deployed on the lower front and upper rear, with the lower front blowing air into the case and the upper rear sucking it out. On my KT7 mainboard, the location of the CPU socket is such that the HS fan is only an inch or two from the upper rear exhaust fan. When the HS fan sucks air off the HS, it exhausts it right next to the intake of the rear fan, which is more than happy to take that air and blow it out of the case, as opposed to both of them fighting one another for the air when the HS fan is blowing down into the HS. The result is actually synergistic. My rear case fan actually sped up a little when the HS fan was sucking.
So, now I hope I have given you a good mental picture ow what's going on in there. If you are fighting, trying to get your mid or full tower case temperature and subsequently system temperature down, consider either purchasing a HSF that sucks or modding the one you already own to suck. Fashioning a shroud is not difficult sheet-metal work. Materials are readily available from the junk box or the local hardware store. A ruler, tin-snip and drill are just about all the tools you need. Give it a try and see what happens. There are worse ways to spend an evening.
I wish to apologize for not having some fun playing with the terms suck and blow during the course of this rather lengthy exposition. ;-)
Hoot
So, here we go again <(
As the title implies, this was not a good study. My HSF, the Swiftech MC-462A is not your typical unit. It is way overkill for a 50W Duron setup. Both the HS and Fan are suited for more severe duty. The HS alone, without a fan will hold my Duron at 600 Mhz to 42C. Yes, just convective cooling. Alright, i admit, the weenie fan on the Northbridge chip next to it does stir a little bit.
My interest in pursuing this came from an experience I had two nights ago running a 156W peltier and using the 462A to cool it. The 462A was up for the job, but being a blow type HSF, it was washing my mainboard with hot air. My two Sunon case assist fans tried to maintain a flow-through environment, but the 68 cfm fan on the 462A simply overwhelms their effort. this happens all the time, but normally, I'm not trying to remove so much heat and it is not a day-to-day concern. As a matter of fact I simply love this big brute and highly recommend it.
HSFs for socket A boards come in two flavors. Suck and Blow. Any HSF will yield about a 3-5 degree drop in core temperature when in the blow mode as opposed to suck, but at a price to the system circulation and subsequently, temperature. The 462A is no exception to this rule.
In setting up the 462A to suck, I kept in mind that it was not designed that way from the get-go, though a separate model variation should be. Are you reading this Swiftech?
In order to successfully suck, an HSF needs a shroud. Any fan when sucking air off the HS will try to get it from the shortest path of least resistance. This typically means it will try to pull air from the area of the fins/pins immediately below it, where they are the coolest, as opposed to deeper down near the baseplate, where the heat coalesces. By using a shroud that protrudes partway down the outsides of the HSF, you encourage the air to be drawn into it nearer to the baseplate and then it travels up the fins/pins to the fan intake.
As a secondary function, the fan that sucks air from the HS and exhausts it upward, will actually work better in mid and full tower cases where there are two assist fans. These fans are typically deployed on the lower front and upper rear, with the lower front blowing air into the case and the upper rear sucking it out. On my KT7 mainboard, the location of the CPU socket is such that the HS fan is only an inch or two from the upper rear exhaust fan. When the HS fan sucks air off the HS, it exhausts it right next to the intake of the rear fan, which is more than happy to take that air and blow it out of the case, as opposed to both of them fighting one another for the air when the HS fan is blowing down into the HS. The result is actually synergistic. My rear case fan actually sped up a little when the HS fan was sucking.
So, now I hope I have given you a good mental picture ow what's going on in there. If you are fighting, trying to get your mid or full tower case temperature and subsequently system temperature down, consider either purchasing a HSF that sucks or modding the one you already own to suck. Fashioning a shroud is not difficult sheet-metal work. Materials are readily available from the junk box or the local hardware store. A ruler, tin-snip and drill are just about all the tools you need. Give it a try and see what happens. There are worse ways to spend an evening.
I wish to apologize for not having some fun playing with the terms suck and blow during the course of this rather lengthy exposition. ;-)
Hoot
