wow someone failed fluid dynamics class.
what an airflow nightmare
Yep, no doubt there is a huge airflow price being paid for increasing cpu density by using the 1u form factor.
While I was looking up information on this topic I saw some interesting power figures being quoted for cooling. In some cases having a 1U case with the maximum number of fans can chew up quite a bit of energy.
This little 40mm fan by itself uses 13 watts.
But then I thought to myself, "how bad would the airflow situation be if the limitations of stacking 1u cases were removed for a gamer case?" Couldn't individual air intakes/ducts ( drawing in ambient air) for both CPU/Video card be added to the flat sides of the enclosure?
That being said, it appears relative lack of PWN/variable speed 1u HSFs is a major problem if the goal is to decrease noise. Nidec Servo makes some 100mm blowers that supermicro uses to cool 1u height passive heatsinks (in an arrangement similar to a video card's), but
these are only available in very high fixed speeds.
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