Isolated air cooling system...

Altheus

Righty ho... Just tossing around an idea in my head to try create a more efficently cooling system for my PC... The basic concept is isolated the heat sources of the PC, and to air condition them seperately, in essential windtunnels.

I can use mount the fans in a putty like gum so as they wont vibrate anything, and perforate the plexi in case of fan failure. The hope is that the overall internal ambient will be quite low and there will be a ready supply of cooler ambient air being forced through causing overall better cooling. The push/pull effect should allow for lower 7v fan speeds and quieter overall system.

The CPU would be in a vent, using a standard heatsink fan, a 120mm fan will be pushing in cool ambient air, and a 40mm fan should push out the hot air which will be naturally rising, creating a sort of vacuum, meaning the ambient air in the CPU isolator wont get too hot. The exhaust will push the air up the PSU, which can then use it's exhaust to push the air out again.

As for the GFX unit, the 6800GT is equipped with an exhaust but the back side of this card pushes alot of heat upward, the hope is that the 40 mm fan will push enough cool ambient air through and out of the case.

This I'm sure is a reasonably flawed concept, but it's based on the Dell CPU vent idea, but taking it on a little bit further.

conzy

You have 2 120mm fans blowing in but only i tiny 40 mm fan extracting air in the diagram, If you put another 120mm fan at the top it would work much better imo

Altheus

Hmm, well the 6800GT has it's own exhaust, so it's a 40mm intake for that.

The CPU will have it's own fan too, so I'm guessing that the 40mm exhaust will be enough due to the fact the air will naturally be pushed out by the intake.

The other 120mm fan is to keep the case cool, and provide cooler air for the 6800GT intake.

conzy

But then the cpu duct is still exhausting into the case, why not duct it so that the air passes from outside the case, through the cpu duct, and straight out so that it never has to make a 90 degree turn in the case and build up.

Altheus

Hmm, well for one, the hot air will rise up, so naturally it's will be rising up to the exhaust. There's no point in removing heat unless your replacing it with cool air, given the memory and hard drives are beside the CPU, the air there is unsuitable, below it will be warm from the GPU, and above it's the PSU.

masteroftherealm

One thing 40mm fans shift NO air!! Youll have massive heat build up.
Nice idea though so keep working on it bot dont even consider anything smallewr than a 80mm fan.

BadCharlie

I find the smaller the fan size the more sound it gives off. I love some 120mm fans as they spin slowly but seem to move lots of air and create little to no sound in doing so.

masteroftherealm

Yup the larger and deeper the fan the quiter and more air it pushes

sionnach

ok first things first just forget about 40mm fans, if it's efficient, quiet cooling you're after stick to 120mm.

Secondly, mounting the fans on putty like gum will barely reduce vibrations transferred to the case if at all, use foam blocks and zip ties to mount the fans. If you want to reduce case vibration the main mod you need to do is suspend your hard drive with elastic.

That 120mm fan beside the cpu should be an exhaust fan, if you're worried about your processor overheating perforate the plexi above the cpu and have a duct leading down onto the cpu. The cpu fan will pull fresh air down onto it and the exhaust fan will take the hot air away. Also, if it's a quiet system you're after, invest in a proper cpu heatsink and fan by thermalright, scythe or zalman.

Altheus

There is no benefit on using the fan beside the cpu as an exhaust, after rigourous testing at home, the CPU remains 5 degrees cooler when cold air is pushed on to it. There is no cool air in the isolator unless it's pushed in, and ideally the coolest air comes from outside the case, not inside. The CPU fan will push the air around the cpu fan but if it's not dissapating throughout the case it will in turn heat up the air within the isolator.

I've attached a profile view of the concept, note the tilted fan to ensure the angle of the air coming in is blowing straight into the cpu fan.

SouperComputer

sod you for keeping me up BTW!

A cold air feed to the CPU is always a good idea. Perhaps get a PSU with a 120MM and create a compartment that draws air from the side of the case via an 80mm ven, (ideally you want to keep the pressure positve in the chamber so Id start with an 80MM hole. This comparment could cover the northbridge, RAM and CPU, the air can be extracted though the PSU. Naturally this will raise the PSU temps a little, but I dont think it will be by too much.

The other sources of heat are the HD's, ideally it would be good to take air in the front and duct it either out the side or back, bypassing the PCI slots, and more importantly the graphics card.

Lastly, we want a clean air feed for the graphics card, from the side will probably be best.


I think this is a good starting point, only thing I dont like is the amount of 90deg bends.

Another theory I just pulled out of my head is to use 3 or 4 120MM fans on the bottom of the case and duct through the case as needed.

masteroftherealm

Only ptob with that is youd need really powerful fans to direct the air from its natural course (UP)

SouperComputer

masteroftherealm wrote:

Only ptob with that is youd need really powerful fans to direct the air from its natural course (UP)

The flow isnt ideal, but I think it would work well with a bit of effort. As the fans are creating a partial vacuum in the CPU and GPU area, the chamber HAS to draw air from the cold vent at the side. The HD section, it would be ideal to vent out the rear, but of course this may take up PCI slots.


Hmm hopefully someone will drop in a G5 for repair so I can have a gander inside!