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How to Keep Your Computer Cool
ThinSkin writes "ExtremeTech is featuring a how-to article on keeping your computer cool by adopting an efficient airflow strategy for your PC case. The article goes into detail on what types of fans are optimal for your computer and your needs, where you should place them, and how to make your own fan mounts. From the article: 'With an efficient cooling strategy, there's no reason a case should ever grow so warm. Good airflow is critical to keeping your PC operating and extending the life of the components. Keep the air flowing!'"
And for the serious overclockers, we have low powered cryogenics coming down the pipeline. It turns out that Intel is considering the possibility of using Pulse Tube Coolers for the next generation of thermal management. (Hey Intel, you think that over 100 watts might be just a *smidge* much for a processor?)
:-)
While there's something to be said for this step being rather extreme, it might lead to the development of cryogenic computers. These futuristic processors could utilize super-conducting transistors and wires to improve performance and eliminate waste heat.
Kind of a weird thought, but there you have it.
Personally, I'd like to see Stirling or Pulse Tube Coolers replacing existing phase-change air conditioners. In the name of "energy efficiency", you can't buy a decent apartment AC and are forced to deal with putting one in every room. Stirling engines could provide better cooling for less energy! Now if we could just get the buggers mass produced to bring down the cost...
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
____
~ |rip/\/\aster /\/\onkey
If you didn't overclock your computer to hell (in more ways than one) you wouldn't need so much cooling.
But I'm too lazy to RTFA =\ Woo, my AMD idles at 60C and peaks at 73C!
Don't run Windows.
Oh, you meant the other kind of cool. Nevermind.
Coder's Stone: The programming language quick ref for iPad
Really, shouldn't fans be obvious on /.?
Is any of this news to anyone? Everything in this article is obvious and anybody who has opened a computer case before knows the crap contained in this 6-page article.
Why is it six pages? Why, of course, so that the GIGANTIC ads are displayed that many times. Take a look at the URL pointed to by the link that is the author's name... no surprise
It seems to me that adding new holes to an existing case may not be the ideal solution for those looking for good cooling. Things like fans mounted directly in front of drives, and aligned with key mounting points are features of well designed cases and hacking holes into a case may lack a planned approach. The lack of filtration and dust control methods in the article is also worrying, as the dust can easily clog fans and block drive air holes, leading to increased internal component heat.
Business Voyeur
poor cooling should be considered an act of terrorism.
Earn a % of cash back from Newegg, Tiger Direct, Walmart.com, and more: http://www.mrrebates.com?refid=458505
In other news: sky still blue.
I should blow cool air into my computer and draw hot air out of it? Are you sure? There must be some other way!
There's 5 minutes I'll never see again.
Just leave the case open. Dissipation over such a large area will rid the case of heat faster than any number of mounted fans. It can also be more quiet, depending on what's actively cooled and how.
keeping your computer cool by adopting an efficient airflow strategy
They seem to have not gotten the weasel terms memo.
It should also be noted that the environemnt of the room should be the largest factor in determining your cooling needs. If you have a guaranteed 65 degF 24/7 you can get by with much lower airflow rates than a varying room with peaks 79 degF and possible lows to 70 degF (typical yearly household range, I'd venture a guess without the Google trudging)
Pair of sun glasses, a dark case, a divx rip of Pulp Fiction, Ubuntu and a seemingly infinite supply of of p0rn.
Now that is cool...
In the Slashdot moderating system, humourless based offenses are considered especially heinous.
My computer is so cool. The witty sticker on it says so. "This computer is so cool"
Or 50+ degrees celsius becomes an acceptable internal case temp.
this is stupid
Cooling is great - it prolongs the lifespan of your computer and even optimizes a bit BUT I have seen way to many articles on cooling your comp every hardware analysis site has an article on cooling and I ask what is so different about this one...nothing...Is it just me or do some of these H/W sites need to come up with more diverse articles? Alot of sites are great and do come up like Anandtech or Hardocp...It's kinda like those baseball/kids/hard-ass-turned-loving-coach movies - everbody has made one.
Not sure how well known this is, but in order to keep your harddrives cool, don't worry about the top of the drive having airflow, be more concerned withthe bottom (where the logic board is)
If you do an experiment, notice how much cooler the HD temp is when doing so.
Keep the air flowing! I use oil you insesitive clod!
the hard part is keeping the room your computer is in cool.. My bonus room where my server
(compaq proliant something or other with dual PIII 733Mhz CUPs) is seems to keep my bonus room about 5 degrees hotter than the rest of the floor.
Jesus, am i getting smarter or are these articles getting stupider? I think if you need that kind of help, you shouldn't be using power tools. So my serious point is, who do these articles serve? And then on page 4 it just ends. "use Motherboard Monitor".
I don't like it when it gets up to 60 degrees
This is my Sig, this is my Gun. One is for Slashdot and one is for Fun.
Air is essential for the Guild navigators to pilot their bitTorrents from one node to another.
If the Air does not Flow, bitTorrents will be impacted.
The Air must Flow!
-
oh, and besides, those dust bunnies can get quite unruly at times, rabid almost, vorpal in their natures, if you will.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Thanks guys good timing.
$ spent since 4th of July to replace melted motherboard and provide coherent cooling strategy: $210.
Finish date: 7/10/05
--AC
"This photograph shows a 120mm fan mount in the front of a case." http://common.ziffdavisinternet.com/util_get_image /10/0,1425,i=109182,00.jpg
I can understand typos but come on. Doesn't look like the front of any case I've ever seen.
Yes, I have a friend or two.. .000000001 degree.
I told him I was a little concerned with my p4 running around 60C and hee tells me that when they test out the chips, they test them at like 100C.
Im not suggesting to run your CPU at 100C, but I don't think 60-70 is a problem.
There is, however, a segment of modders who will spend tons of money because they heard that brand x of thermal grease will lower the CPU temp
How hot is too hot? I've built a new P4-2.4GHz box arround a Shuttle Zen (quieter than a laptop), the processor runs arorund 65 degrees C, the case arround 50. How hot is dangerous?
Before you add a fan, you have to buy one... Fans come in sizes measured in millimeters..
They also are measured in Watts for power consumption.
More Watts is better, provided you don't cover the intake with paper, thick dust, or plastic shrinkwrap from all those DVDs you ripped.
Keep your fans clean - and powerful.
While we all place our boxen on the floor, it's amazing how much less dust you get if you put them at least four inches above rug/floor level - I use an old table that has slats about four inches above my hardwood floors, which helps both cool the computers and keep dust out of them and their fans.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
I usually have something to drink when I'm at my computer. A big 32 oz. glass of something with extra ice.
I just sit it on top of my case. On really hot days, lots of condensation probably helps even more...
...you might also want/need a nice pair of isolation earphones. Though sitting beside a wind tunnel might not be so bad if you have noisy neighbours.
The pursuit of absolute tolerance leads to the most rigorous and ludicrous intolerance. - REX MURPHY
I told him I was a little concerned with my p4 running around 60C and hee tells me that when they test out the chips, they test them at like 100C.
...
Im not suggesting to run your CPU at 100C, but I don't think 60-70 is a problem.
Or you could move to the US, where 60-70 is really cool, unlike the rest of the world where it's very very hot.
Just don't try this in a cold lab - they use Kelvin and that's gonna make your metal very brittle, cause it's way too cold
As to the thermal grease - your mileage may vary. Whatever you do, don't use butter - even the very best butter plays havoc with CPUs. Although it does have a pleasant aroma. Butter in watches - questionable. Butter in digital watches - ok, but not great. Butter on CPUs or Fan housings - sounds like a good idea, but even a low-fat organic butter can really throw it out of whack.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
The best way to get better airflow is to cut out restrictive fan grilles, but people who buy expensive cases don't want to do that, instead spend way more on bigger heatsinks, water cooling, ect. honestly, nobody sees the fans anyway in most examples. If PC won't run because of overheating then what good is that expensive case?.... "Yea well, if it would stay on long enough, this LCD screen here would tell you that all nine fans are maxed out but it is still overheating..."
Also, dust filters are bad, in that typical ones are restrictive; they clog quickly and the airflow drops off fast. My in-progress case has a centrifugal type; it is much larger physically (about as big as large coffee can) but I ended up with extra room inside the case anyway, and it can accumulate far more dust and can go much longer between cleanings.
I want a better PC.
I don't want leaky water cooling, I don't want to underclock everything and use passive heatsinks, I want a quiet air-cooled PC that keeps dust out with a filter that I need to empty once, maybe twice a year at most.....
Bigger fans produce less noise for a given CFM. For around $25, you can buy a box fan capable of moving several thousand CFM. A typical 120mm fan will provide you with around 100 CFM at the same price. If your box fan is capable of running at slow speeds, it will provide more airflow than you will ever need. Mounting something like this would be similar to mounting an extra case fan, except with a much larger hole. You can even use a 12v relay attached to a power connector in your case to safely turn it on and off with your system power. You could even speed control it with a cheap ac thermostat if you desired. Filtration can be easily provided via a $1 furnace filter from your local hardware store.
The DC brushless fans typically used in PCs are far too expensive, unreliable, nedlessly use up power supply capacity, and are very noisy.
I know this is much of a logical leap, but why not use two very large fans on each side of the case and no small fans inside the case. There is a lower probability of failure because of the fewer components and also an improvement in noise since large fans don't have to spin as fast to move the same amount of air. This system would also likely help keep everything cool including your hard drive(s) and power supply.
So my question is, why haven't we taken this next logical leep?
Just bought a new 3.0 GHz AMD laptop and it's - well - a bit warm. In fact, the air intake/fan seems to be where my left knee would be if I use it on my lap, which is almost comfortable.
But, after using it for more than about 20 minutes, it gets a tad warm.
Any mods that might work for this situation? I'd think a gel pac underneath would only put off the heat for a few minutes, and then I'd have really hot gel pac to cope with.
One idea I've thought of is a reflective mat. Thermal pad, if you will - or a spare placemat that's the corded type but heat resistant - or maybe a set of oven gloves/mitts would be best.
Putting a drink on top would be kind of dangerous, and the ice cubes might cause condensation which would then drip into the laptop, so I think that's out.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
What's always troubled me about my system's cooling is that the temperature LCD's show a temperature quite different from motherboard monitor... My LCD's show around 55 degrees celsius under a full load, where as motherboard monitor sometimes shows as high as 70 degrees celsius. I don't know which one I should trust. The system is a Monarch Hornet Pro, so I expect it to run a bit toasty because of the form factor, but 50 sounds kind of low for AMD Athlon XP 2500+ (Barton) with such little cooling and space fpr air to circulate, yet 70 seems pretty warm.
well, since summer hit here my solution to keeping my processor cool has been to take off the side of the case and point a box fan on high at it, knocks 15-20 degrees off its temp.
"I'm not high, just stupid" --JY
You don't want them all pointed IN...I get it now. No wonder my last box went kaput, it was simply too damn hot.
"How like you to drag your keyboard to a gun fight." - Aaron Bedard (BANE)
Keep the oil flowing? I use Greek salad dressing you inseNsitive clod!
Use mineral oil and a fish tank.
I caught the Mountain Wumpus! He gave me his treasure chest ($100) to let him go free again.
i have an fx-53 that runs full load at 42c and idles at 39c with some good cooling, and some well places cereal box duct work. from one fan in front through the slideout hd cage, to proc and out back, and then another little duct from the back fan, to northbridge to gpu out side panel. 3 fans in the whole case, and one is in the power supply. not to mention it stays really quiet thanks to the rubber grommets on the fans. used 2 large cereal boxes and some silicone the seal with after lots of measuring and precise cuts.
my ex-girlfriends heart although that might be too cold as we're shooting for cool.
I say we just grow up, be adults and die.
...just add lots of fans
;)
like this: http://www.peteredge.orcon.net.nz/casepics.htm
For me, one of the most important aspects of the design is making it so that the two cats in our house cannot block the fans, who for some reason love to lay up against the fans if they are accessible (such as where there are two fans on the side) or otherwise interfere or they can push other things off the rack to make them accessible.
They have been the cause of much hardware failure if there is any way they can stretch or squeeze into an opening that has a fan, often after I believed that the configuration now was catproof after reacting to a previous incident.
When it comes to rackmountable servers, I know that you need to get specialized cooling... When I got my 1U case, I put the system in (AXP 2400+), got a 1U fan and some silver heatsink compound for it, and tried it out, yet it overheats like mad.
It works completely fine with the top of the case off, but I'm probably missing some info someone more experienced would know. Of course, it may be either a design issue with the case or maybe the AXP just runs too hot for something like a 1U. Does anyone here have some tips for cooling systems like this? If necessary, I can provide details when I get home.
Get a 48" or better industrial fan, mount it horizontally, mount all your PCs caseless over it. For increased effect, build a chimney around it to a height of fifty feet.
Beware of birds building nests in your Beowulf though...
If my grammar and spelling are off, I am [distracted/tired/careless] (take your pick)
This is the case I made my new system around. Yeah, it's a big ugly chunk of metal...but it's SO cool. Especially with it's big CrossFlow fan that blows across the entire motherboard. Plus the 90mm fans front and back. The 80mm on top. This baby ain't gettin hot. And since it's under the table, the noise isn't bad at all.
The CrossFlow is really nice and quiet anyway.
"Leo Fender was in a 'state of grace' when he designed the Stratocaster." -- Paul Reed Smith
I haven't read anything recently about Peltier cooling in regards to CPU cooling. I know there can be issues regarding condensation, but assuming that's accounted for, is this a bad way to go?
I guess you'd still have to worry about the heat coming off the cooler, but that's no different than a regular air-cooler.
Anyone use a Peltier device?
Free Programming BookLearn to program
It doesn't matter if you're an overclocker. If you have a system that runs anything relatively new, you need to consider the heating.
I had an Athlon 2000+ that ran great for a year. I kept it clean by cleaning out the dust once every couple months or so. I made sure that there was a good exhaust fan on there, and that everything had some good airflow.
I left the system on over a weekend, came home and found it turned off. It wouldn't turn on.
Eventually, I took the thing apart, and found where some capacitors fried (we're talking charcoal). My exhaust fan siezed up, and that left my PSU fan left to do all the work.
I cleaned it out, replaced the exhaust fan, and learned a couple lessons the hard way.
I immediately installed a new intake fan, and set my new system to shutdown once it hit 70C. I now have balanced airflow, and a much bigger PSU (since I may have also pushed that to its limit). And it's been running happily for 18 months. I had to replace one of the fans since then, but with the balanced airflow it hasn't caused any trouble.
But it's important to note, that I never overclocked anything. I never cared to. I was happy with my system running at spec. So just saying that it's a problem for overclockers is... well... ignorant.
You still need to keep an eye on temps.
With 3 80mm fans and a 50mm active heatsink fan, it sounds like something out of Black Hawk Down.
I'm sure with all that wind and dust blowing around in there I can take out some fans and still be fine as far as cooling goes. I don't think I've ever seen the system board or CPU temperatures get anywhere close to their limits.
I've got 3 computers all crammed in a small office. Sometimes when I'm working on clients PCs I'll have as many as 6. Room gets very hot. I don't have a window that I can open to put in a room air conditioner. What can I do to cool down the room?
Slashdot, home of supporters of free software, free music, and free speech.Except for Moderators that disagree with you.
1. Place PC components in large garbage bag.
2. Stab that parts of the bag that stick out the farthest until a happy thermal equilibrium is reached.
Basically a boring read about putting fans in filled with little content per page and high ad count.
In other words, yet another article spammer...
Tom
Someday, I'll have a real sig.
I just built a Pentium D system yesterday.
It's running really hot and I need to find a way to cool it.
One of the big issues with computers is dust, etc. You can use a filter but then it will get plugged regularly and block-off airflow.
Perhaps something akin to a dust-collector and a fan to such the dust *away* from the other components (a-la-vaccuum).
The last computer I built (and the one I am typing on) has a problem with heat, even though the inside of my case has good airflow. The problem is that this is a frankenstein box, and I was too cheap to buy good fans. So what I did was take both side panels off, and put a 20" Galaxy fan (about $11 at walmart) on the side, pumping air into the case. The air then flows out where the right side panel used to be.
I get temps between 100 and 120 fahrenheit, depending on whether I'm playing a 3D accelerated game or not.
Recently, due to a very dusty nightmare (I spend hours cleaning the dust out) I now have an air-conditioner filter duct taped to the front of the galaxy fan. I change it every few months.
Thats the gayest, most boner-tastic article I have ever read. Common now...isnt all of that common sense? I thought /. catered to enthusiasts - guess not anymore...
"When I was a newbie modder, I happily cut a fan hole into the top of an ancient beige case. I mounted the fan, only to discover that the power supply overlapped the area where the fan would have been."
^...not even gonna comment...
and have never built my own box, just had a bunch of apples over the years, my question is: how often do components really fail due to overheating? Ive had a linksys wrt54g in my attic for 6months and havent even had to restart it. it's like 120 up there on a sunny day.....I do need to vent my attic better, but it seems these computers, under normal circumstances just keep running....
My comp runs fine, but what about my ROOM?! I have central air cond, but my bedroom is the only room in the house that is boiling hot in the summer. As a power user who doesn't like turning off his comp, that sucks :P
...I am proof that intelligent beings are not always intelligent...
Somebody beat me to it, but it's true. Peltiers are better at heating than they are at cooling--the condensation is not the problem, you could regulate them to avoid that. Ive not used them cooling PC's but have seen them in other equipment.
...Peltier coolers end up adding a lot of heat to what you need to dissipate. A Peltier junction is rated in "temperature difference", in simple terms--the cold side will get a maximum of X degrees colder than the hot side, but you need to consider the ambient temperature to understand how well the Pentier is really working. The "hot" side always rises more above the ambient temperature than the "cold" side cools, because the Peltier itself consumes electricity to work, and that also gets translated into heat that comes off the "hot" side. A 50F-"spread" Peltier used in a room that is 70F might cool its cold side to -20 of 70, but the "hot" side will heat up to +30 above 70. The temperature difference is always slanted towards the hotter-side. This is the reason that still, no major appliance companies build regular refrigeration or air-conditioning/climate-control systems with Peltiers. Peltiers heat stuff better than they cool stuff, and we have better ways of heating stuff anyway.
....If you want to stack Peltiers the best way is to "pyramid" them. Such as, you would have one mounted on your CPU, and a metal bar on the hot side of that, and then two more side-by-side, and a metal bar on their hot sides, and then that metal bar is big enough to add three (or more) Peltiers, and so on, until you had your final radiant heat sink. If you stack Peltiers one-in-a-row you can't stack very many, because the total heat output of the preceeding junctions running 100% overwhelms what a single junction can handle after only a few layers.
Peltiers are a good idea, but still need some serious work.
Two things:
sorry, I listed seven things when I started with two.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
...I own a mac, so my computer is already cool! ...oh, I think they meant how do I control the thermal build up...my bad.
a polar bear is a rectangular bear after a coordinate change.
When you have a nice cool running ARM chip?
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Well no. What happened is that you overpressurized your box, like a balloon and it just...POPPED![1]
Turn them all around, and you'll see the opposite effect. Your computer will look like a grape with the juice sucked out of it.[2]
[1]If you just did this? A slashdotting could take out the neighbourhood.
[2]If you decide to try this? A slashdotting is a good counter-agent.
Turn it off.
Step 2:
There is no step 2.
Giant 80s sunglasses are the epitome of cool!
I've got a decent mid-tower case running right now. Two 80mm fans exhausting air out the rear, and one 80mm fan pushing air into the case from the front. Got 3 drives in it, a moderate GeForce FX card, and an Athlon64 3500+. Damn thing runs at 50C almost consistantly. The PSU also has 2 fans in it, one to lift air out of the case, and the 2nd to push it out the back. I'm not sure what I can do to cool it any more. There is no more room for fans in the case. There are no wires or cables obstructing the airflow, as they're kept quite tidy. I've been fighting trying to figure out a good solution for a bit now. Anyone here have a suggestion?
Try actually thinking for yourself. It's quite refreshing.
I was playing UT2K4 this morning, when my alarm on my intel board started beeping.
Before I could exit the game the alarm chirp had gone from beeping slowly to screaming at me, and I was presented with a zone2 temp of almost 180F, and 3 fan speed alarms. (30f above alarm status.. in 3 minutes)
Upon opening the case, there was no mystery as to why.
Our water heater gained "pining for the fjords" status last week, and being that it is right behind me, the carpet in here needed replacing after the new water heater was installed as the old one had cracked its tank, and dumped about 10 gallons of silty water into the carpet before I could purge it.
Apparently, when maint replaced the carpet in here they really threw things around. 3 of my fans were totally bound up with shed carpet fibers... and the intake shrouds were completely opaque.
2 of the fans were dead, but I absolutely needed to be online for an interview this afternoon.
I remembered that I had about 1.5 pounds of dry ice left in the super freezer from an impulse buy on Friday. (My grocery store now carries dry ice.. at $.28 per lb.!!!) I just *had* to buy some to show my daughter the neat stuff it could do.
I pulled the dead fans, moved the best working one to the top vent, and reversed it to intake, and sat the dry ice right in strips right over the vent hole!
Desk looked very cool for awhile, but man! I forgot how much that stuff stinks!
Compy stayed below 130F for 3 hours, interview was a success, and the new fans are now installed.
(I know, its goofy.. but since it happened today, as was semi-on topic, I *had* to share)
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order- Ed Howdershelt Via Tass
I'd like to see a picture of this... Seriously.
Put in a split aircon. Better than the window box type anyway.
"I don't want leaky water cooling"
Neither do I. That's why I built my water rig myself, out of components and fittings I sourced and tested.
So far, we're looking at two years - no leaks. I've changed out the tubing maybe 3 times, and it's probably due for a fourth in the coming month.
For those who think, "tearing down and rebuilding your machine every 6-8 months? Intolerable!" I've got a few words for ya...
First of all, it's not *necessary* to perform this maintenance on the water system, it just ensures good and proper function. Second, you really should strip your machine on a regular schedule, if only to vacuum out the dust bunnies and check for busted fans (bad bearings). Unplug things, clean everything, vacuum out the dead bugs, check for leaking capacitors, etc.
I know many people get a chubby thinking about total uptime (argh, pun), and could never *think* of having their timer reset by taking down their machine for maintenance. These are the same people who love to see how far their car's engine can run without changing the oil, and insist that their one pair of underwear is "still good" after a week without washing it...then again, I guess it could be, if they weren't wearing it in the first place.
The point of all this? There is no reason to expect a water cooling system to be anything but reliable and very capable. Build it yourself, or at least buy from a reputable manufacturer, and you should have no problems.
IBM today unveiled a chilled water cooling system to manage heat loads for high-density cabinets using its eServer cluster products. It's been dubbed "Cool Blue." The debate about water cooling in the data center is a heated one (for a conversation about cooling) and has been discussed here before. Amid all the other strategies mentioned here, it's interesting to see Big Blue touting water cooling.
RichM
Data Center Knowledge
Hell, I don't know about you, but I tape put a pair of sunglasses on mine, it keeps it cool 24 hours a DAY...
MoM++ - A Classic Expanded - [Master of Magic 1.5]
http://mompp.sourceforge.net/
The latest AMD chips all come with cool&quiet support. If your mobo also supports it then you can have your chip idle at 30% voltage, kicking up to 100% the instant demand comes.
For me it means the difference between feeling the temp rise in my room 5degrees before i configured it.
I think this is way better than adding fans and water or whatever to cool a system that is running to fast anyway, also it helps your power bills!
Case and CPU run at just fine temps (especially now that I have an Antec P180 case, complete with seperate compartment for the power supply to maximize airflow and reduce radiant heat), but my video card, a Nvidia 6800GT, still gets way too hot. Around 70C idle, over 90C with heavy loads. I've even installed an optional 80mm fan on the side exhaust vent (with the air blowing onto the card, as the case manual recommends). I've also tried a PCI fan card, nothing seems to cool that sucker down. Anyone have advice on this?
STOP MISUSING APOSTROPHES, YOU MORONS!!!
Get some box fans, and apply the same logic as the guy in the article. You need an intake fan, and an exhaust fan. Since it sounds like you only have a door, things get a little tricky. But you can stack the fans, putting the intake fan on the bottom to blow in cool air, and the exhaust fan on top to blow out the hot air (remember hot air rises). I'm sure your coworkers will love you.
A heat pipe and a large radiator does passively via convenction what the stirling engine does forcefully for the extra 9W.
The overall cooling effect is still limited by the heat transfer ability of the hot side, which is always some kind of radiator.
I like using heat pipes and a single fan that forces ambient air through multiple radiators (oriented lowest to highest heat load for maximum heat transfer). Cheap and easy.
THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON
If the electric in the room can handle 6pc's and an air conditioner, you can buy a free standing air conditioner (if you can afford it).
Also, as someone else pointed out, you can stack box fans in the doorway. The best way to do this might be to build a wood frame like this
__
|__| -frame
|__|
* * -rollers
Placing the fans with the bottom fan blowing into the room, the upper fan being an exhaust fan. Place rollers on the bottom of the wood frame so that it can be moved easily to allow you to get in/out of the room.
How to tell if you're cool:
After the PC has been running for a few hours, open the case and touch your IDE hard drives. They should be cool to the touch. If they're warm (not hot, just warm) then your mad case modding skills are uncool. Also your drive will have an abbreviated lifespan, but why let that detail bother you?
It takes very little to keep a modern IDE hard drive cool. Just blow air at it. They only run warm if the air around them is stagnant. Stagnant air acts as an insulator, causing what little heat they generate to build up. You may as well wrap it in a blanket!
Bought the wrong case did you? No way to mount a fan so that it moves cool air across the drives? Here's a tip:
What works for CPUs works for hard drives too. Go out to your favorite hardware store and buy an aluminum bar. Mount the drive so that the rear-most screw hole is outside the drive bay inside the case. Drill a hole in the aluminum bar so you can attach it to the drive with a screw and then bend the bar so that one of the case fans blows air past the the thin edge. Attach the aluminum bar to the hard drive putting some thermal compound between the two. Congratulations: you just made a heat pipe that pulls heat away from the drive.
Moderating "-1, Disagree" is simple censorship. Have the guts to post your opinion.
You need a decent heatsink designed for 1U use, and a motherboard with 1U use in mind.
Motherboard considerations: The chip socket should be as recessed as possible considering the board standoffs, no large capacitors, as many right-angled cable connectors as possible, etc.
Also, the chip sockets have to be oriented so they are not obstructed by board components (such as filled RAM slots).
The heatsink has to be full of fins oriented front-to-back. Then you need to install an assload of 60mm fans, and some plastic or carboard airflow guides/hoods to force that air into and out of the CPU heatsink while bypassing everything else. A few of the remaining fans that don't funnel into the CPU cooling "tunnel" will be cooling the power supply on one side, and a few more for general MB/chipset cooling on the other.
You will absolutely need fans in the front and back, as close to the front and rear ventilation holes of the case as possible.
Also helpful are HSFs that are horizontally oriented designed for 1U mounting to various socket types... but they are rare.
THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot ....
Seriously, WTF dude? It takes 2 pages to describe where you should mount your fan? We need another how-to on how to cut a fuckin hole in your case? "Have some fans in the front and some more in the back"... well, THERE'S a fuckin gem! Christ, I never would have thought of that!! I thought I should go out and buy 20 fuckin 200mm fans and duct-tape them all in a GIANT FUCKIN STACK right over my CPU, creating a giant VORTEX OF DOOM sticking out the side of my case, and THEN I would vent that GIANT VORTEX OF DOOM back INTO the front of my case, to make sure I made appropriate use of my airflow, and THEN to make sure I didn't have any leaks I'd duct-tape EVERY FUCKIN HOLE in my case shut, including those wussy holes on the back, they're not for anything, right? And THEN, when I have my GIANT VORTEX OF DOOM running at FULL BLAST, with my tower jitterbugging off the edge of my desk due to the MASSIVE VIBRATIONS, and my cats are running for their lives lest they be SUCKED IN to the one dime-sized hole I left open on the front of my case (for my wires to run for my most awesome LCD panel dude!), and THEN, I would have the GREATEST COOLING RIG EVAR!!!! Mwahahaha!!!
But now, thanks to this in-depth, insightful article, I now know that, if I want to cool my case, I have to put FUCKING FANS ON MY CASE... and if I want a fan where there isn't a hole, I can either CHANGE MY FUCKING MIND, or CUT A FUCKING HOLE.
HOLY SHIT DUDE, I NEVER THOUGHT OF THAT.
Thanks you Slashdot. I feel my intelligence being leeched out by the alien overlord editors as we speak. Your grand plan for DUMBING DOWN THE FUCKING WORLD is working great. Good job. I am a l33t h4ck3r now. Feer me, for I know the power of the FAN!!!
Please let me know when I can cast my vote for Kodos. Anything that queer slimy bastard can do to stop this story from being duped next week will make me very very happy.
If I knew the wedgies I gave you back in 6th grade would have resulted in this . . . I might have taken a moments pause.
in the side panel , cover it with a mesh and have a very low RPM 6-8" inblowing fan installed.Cool insides and low noise?
Wanted : A Signature.
Great article. I'm a big fan of adequate case cooling. Sorry
Nothing better than liquid nitrogen then >:>
Bonjour !
by putting a lot of stickers on it. It sure is one of the cooler laptops in the meetings I attend. 8-)
Yesterday was the time to do it right. Are we having a REVOLUTION yet?
Just buy a Mac :-P
But, really, all of those fan and water and air-conditioning based cooling options are just really good ways to make your office or computer area really friggin' loud.
And that's where you're dead wrong. The annoying high pitched whine from the ancient Radeon9700 was finally strangled by replacing CPU and GPU fans by a watercooling kit. Really big drop in fan noise. In fact the power supply fan came to completely dominate the PC hum, water pump or that 12cm radiator fan are undetectable.
I quess I should buy a "silent" PSU but of course in the world of web reviews, every damned hairdryer is "silent" if the reviewer gets 2 half-price movie tickets with the test unit.
I can recommend Bigwater kit without reserve WRT noise, thought.
At one point in time, I overclocked an old Pentium system, added two more drives than it should have held, and broke the fan. Now, with the average daytime temperature having been at 31C, the computer heated up fast. I used frozen water bottles to cool the system, until I left the thing on overnight to find the heat killed the motherboard, a CD-ROM drive, two sticks of RAM (32 Megs each), and my two glorious 1 GB HDs. Water does indeed help when used properly
I'm starting to think GNU is the problem with "GNU/Linux" these days.
That is a great example of a bad article parsed up into n parts made only to sell ads. There are 50 better cooling articles out there if you just look a bit.
I can't get my usb to work correctly under Slackware 10.1, so I can't get pictures off my (friend's) digital camera.
Here's one: make sure it blows outwards or perhaps even better remove it. A front fan sucking (already warm room temperature) air in can easily contribute to CPU/MB/HD heating.
There's enough holes and slits everywhere to get fresh air into the case. Don't think you're improving airflow (perhaps yes) and therefore heat reduction (certainly not) with a front fan blowing into the case. It also gets much more dust into your case BTW. It would work in a relatively sterile room that is cooled itself (a server room perhaps, but not a bedroom).