Rate my Idea

[Mante]

I have a hot GPU and CPU, and so I've been thinking...

I read that article about effective ducting (making best use of the air you move) and considered it...

But what if instead of silly yet effective ducting, I cut a few holes in my case and mounted fans like so:
-One or two 120mm fans blowing inward from the middle of my case door (side facing the motherboard)
-Two 80mm case fans in front, two 80mm case fans in back, one case fan in top of case, and regular PSU fans, all blowing outward
**Does it seem like this method would work?
**What if I reversed the proposed fan orientations and put the case on the side?

My reasoning for such an idea is to blow cool air into the system centrally, and force the heat out radially--stopping the compounding heat problem (Warm air gets hotter as it flows from front to back in traditional setups, like my current one.)

Let me know what you think.

 

[kamranziadar]

Well it looks like a good idea but i think it should work also if you do cross ventilation, but you can see the temperature difference by your self. Do the way you are saying and do the way i just said and give me the results.

 

[pretzelb]

I have seen good results with only negative pressure. One recent example had just a single 120mm fan pulling air up and out of the case. Not sure if anyone will object to the post to another site but here goes:

Single fan duct mod

 

[Tiamat]

i have read that 1 120mm fan in the back works wonders esp if you have a vent on the top, and vents in the front.

Personally, i use a very very low rpm 120mm for cooling my harddrives in the front, and a medium low rpm 120mm for exhaust. I removed the second to top 5.25" bay door and put a harddrive there on Zalman heatpipe cooling. The rear fan sucks air from this bay, cooling my harddrive significantly, and granting my cpu's hsf cooler air.


For GPU, i think an artic cooling thing would help you most because it actually takes the gpu heat and shoots it out of the case.

 

[shilala]

Hi Guys,
Fans all have a cfm rating. CFM stands for cubic feet per minute. The rating applies to how much air the fan can move with the fan running at full speed. If you slow the fan down 50%, it doesn't mean the cfm rating will drop 50%. It may be less, may be more, depending on the design of the fan.
When you set up fans, you want to add up the cfm ratings of the fans blowing air in, and add up how many cfm's you are blowing out.
In construction, a positive pressure inside a building is what you want. It keeps doors from sucking shut and hitting you in the back of the head. It also keeps air from infiltrating in cracks.
In a computer, a lot of the same things happen. If you keep a slight positive pressure inside the case, and are filtering the air going in, you can avoid dust sucking in every crack around the case. Keeps the system clean. Why the talk of the benefits of a negative pressure case exist, I'll never know. It's crap.
If you are using filters, it will effectively cut down the cfm rating of your fans. You'll need to counteract that by adding more fan cfm's blowing in than blowing out.
120 mm fans push about 100 cfm. 80 mm fans push about 35 cfm.
If you want to move heat away from your components, you want a good amount of air flow through the system. There's a point where it does not matter how much more air you move, you can't effectively move any more heat. If the air going in is 70 degrees and the air going out is 100 degrees, you're not moving enough air. If it's 70 degrees going in, and 85 going out, you're doing a good job, and moving a good amount of air.
Fan placement is important, too. If your air is going out the back, it's good to have air coming in on the front and side. If you want an exhaust fan in the top, you should bring air in the front and side. You'll also be exhausting out the back through your PSU.
There's a lot of tricks to move air properly, but it's mainly just common sense.
Mante, the situation you proposed is perfect, especially if you place the 120 mm side case fans in front of your cpu and gpu.

 

[prometheusxls]

Originally posted by: Mante
I have a hot GPU and CPU, and so I've been thinking...

I read that article about effective ducting (making best use of the air you move) and considered it...

But what if instead of silly yet effective ducting, I cut a few holes in my case and mounted fans like so:
-One or two 120mm fans blowing inward from the middle of my case door (side facing the motherboard)
-Two 80mm case fans in front, two 80mm case fans in back, one case fan in top of case, and regular PSU fans, all blowing outward
**Does it seem like this method would work?
**What if I reversed the proposed fan orientations and put the case on the side?

My reasoning for such an idea is to blow cool air into the system centrally, and force the heat out radially--stopping the compounding heat problem (Warm air gets hotter as it flows from front to back in traditional setups, like my current one.)

Let me know what you think.

I used to have the same setup with a Large 120mm side fan blowing righ tdown on the CPU. fans blowing out in all other directions. It worked ok... Even though the intake was near the vid card it didnt quite work right becuase the GPU chipset is on the other side of the card so the GPU was actually pretty hot as well. the main problem of the setup was that it required many fans with suction and was therefore pretty loud. Especially with all the turbulence in the 120mm fan intake. (I tried to do it ducted but there are similar problems at the intake and the cooling was worse.)

I think the classical ATX method is actually better and quieter overall. In my next case ended up adding big blow hole on top, along with cleaning and filtering the front intake and enlarging the rear exhaust. I can run all the fans slower and still get great cooling. It is quieter and cools all the components better over all, vid card HDD and Chipset, not just CPU. (my $.02)