Better airflow by plugging side hole?

[BernardP]

I have an Antec SLK1650B case with the "thermally advanced" side hole...for those high-temp Pentium IV's.

As I have a micro-ATX motheboard with A64 processor, the side hole and attached interior shroud doesn't line up at all with the processor. So I have removed the shroud.

I am wondering if there would be better overall airflow through the case if I plugged the side hole altogether. As is is now, I think a lot of air might be directly aspirated from the side hole by the rear exhaust fan. Thus, this would reduce the volume of air being drawn in from the lower front air intakes.

Of course, I have no problem whatsoever with processor temp. Getting more air circulation from the lower front to upper rear of the case could improve cooling of the 3 hard drives and of the PCI-E video card I am soon adding (still on integrated graphics).

What do you think? Has anyobody experienced with closing the side hole on a computer case when this hole is not fulfilling its theorical function of cooling a processor through a correctly lined-up shroud?

Thanks

 

[GeeFizzleDizzle]

I'd like an opinion on this as well.

 

[imported_Lucent]

Originally posted by: BernardP
Getting more air circulation from the lower front to upper rear of the case could improve cooling of the 3 hard drives and of the PCI-E video card I am soon adding (still on integrated graphics).

Intel's "thermally advantaged chassis" was designed for their OEM heatsinks that are made to face the airflow from the shroud. In your case, assuming you will add fans that will get "more air circulation from the lower front to upper rear of the case" it will be advantagous to cover the hole since with the hole and no shroud the majority of the airflow does not flow across your components. Air flow is very important in electronics cooling and there is a lot of theoretical work done on air flow bypassing heatsinks and parts within enclosures.

 

[BernardP]

Originally posted by: Lucent
In your case, assuming you will add fans that will get "more air circulation from the lower front to upper rear of the case" it will be advantagous to cover the hole.

I don't intend to add a front fan.

since with the hole and no shroud the majority of the airflow does not flow across your components.

Exactly what I am thinking and why I asked the question...

Air flow is very important in electronics cooling and there is a lot of theoretical work done on air flow bypassing high resistance heatsinks and parts within enclosures.

Do you have more on this? Up to now, you are confirming my doubts.

What would be the easiest/cheapest/safest way to cover the side hole?

I am going to do a test with Saran Wrap applied to the outside of the case. See if it has a negative incidence on processor temperature

 

[JEDIYoda]

Originally posted by: Lucent

Originally posted by: BernardP
Getting more air circulation from the lower front to upper rear of the case could improve cooling of the 3 hard drives and of the PCI-E video card I am soon adding (still on integrated graphics).

Intel's "thermally advantaged chassis" was designed for their OEM heatsinks that are made to face the airflow from the shroud. In your case, assuming you will add fans that will get "more air circulation from the lower front to upper rear of the case" it will be advantagous to cover the hole since with the hole and no shroud the majority of the airflow does not flow across your components. Air flow is very important in electronics cooling and there is a lot of theoretical work done on air flow bypassing heatsinks and parts within enclosures.

sounds good in thoerie...but actually alot of cases are manufactured with side panel fans and NO shroud.

It you have an intake fan or 2 in the front and you have a exhaust fan in the rear sy 120mm or possibly 2 - 80mm you should be just fine!

 

[imported_Lucent]

Adding the front fan and covering the hole would be the optimal cooling situation. There are too many variables to asertain whether the covered hole without front fan is better than uncovered hole without a front fan. If you want to know the performance without the front fan, is plugging the side hole so hard to do? Just get a piece of cardboard and tape, for Retarded Pete's Sake.:disgust:

And JEDIyoda, please tell me a case I can check at coompusa or beest buy which don't have the shroud. I am very interested if it said it meets Intel's "Thermally advantaged chassis" specs.

For your entertainment, please read Chassis Air Guide by Intel.

 

[furballi]

For optimum cooling performance, the intake air temperature of the CPU cooler should be as close as possible to room temperature. The use of a side duct will direct room temperature air to the CPU cooler.

The air coming from the front of the case will be heated by the HDD and other components on the MB. By the time this air reaches the CPU cooler, it will probably be 5 to 10C hotter than the room air. Translation...your CPU will run hotter.

 

[RallyMaster]

If you plug the side hole, I suggest you get a Scythe Kama Bay in the bottom 3 5.25" bays to provide airflow for the upper part of your system. You also SHOULD get front fans. You don't want the CPU's intake air to be the air that got heated up by the hard drives.

 

[dunkster]

Traditional front-to-back airflow is still the best for balanced cooling of all system components.

Side vents create a side-to-vent airflow path which reduces front intake air flow. Since your hard drives are usually mounted in the front of the case, the hard drives run hotter due to poor air low across them. 30C CPU-idle temp is nice, but hard drive idle temps of 50C or more isn't something to strive for. Side-vents also create a leak path for the noise created by fans and drives. My side-vent is taped off for these reasons.

Best cooling efficiency is provided with flow-rate-balanced front intake and rear vent fans, to provide neutral internal case pressure. If only one fan is used, it should be mounted at the front intake for positive internal case pressure, aiding air flow through your PS.

Negative internal case pressure (such as a single rear vent fan) should be avoided, since it tends to stall air flow through your PS. This can result in higher PS temps and/or the PS extraction fan ramping up to full speed to attempt to compensate for a warm PS.

Hope this helps!

 

[furballi]

The front intake fan should be able to cool the HDD. My SLK3000B case has no problem maintaining the HDD under 45C, even at very low fan speed (120mm fan @ 900 rpm).

People spend a huge amount of $ on fancy CPU cooler just to drop the CPU temp by 5C. A properly configured side duct should be able to lower the CPU temp by at least 4C. It's a cheap and efficient way to reduce noise level because the front and rear intake fans do not have to move a lot of air to cool the CPU.

 

[BernardP]

Originally posted by: dunkster
If only one fan is used, it should be mounted at the front intake for positive internal case pressure, aiding air flow through your PS. Negative internal case pressure (such as a single rear vent fan) should be avoided, since it tends to stall air flow through your PS. This can result in higher PS temps and/or the PS extraction fan ramping up to full speed to attempt to compensate for a warm PS.

Thanks for the comments. Now I will have to look inside my case to see if I could move the 120 mm rear fan to the front. I don't think it will fit.

EDIT: no need to look: Antec says that a 80 mm fan is required.

I see the logic of what you are saying, but then, why do (all? most?) case manufacturers that provide one fan mount it at the rear?

 

[JEDIYoda]

Originally posted by: Lucent
Adding the front fan and covering the hole would be the optimal cooling situation. There are too many variables to asertain whether the covered hole without front fan is better than uncovered hole without a front fan. If you want to know the performance without the front fan, is plugging the side hole so hard to do? Just get a piece of cardboard and tape, for Retarded Pete's Sake.:disgust:

And JEDIyoda, please tell me a case I can check at coompusa or beest buy which don't have the shroud. I am very interested if it said it meets Intel's "Thermally advantaged chassis" specs.

For your entertainment, please read Chassis Air Guide by Intel.

First of all if this is what you are talking about --
Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor
How to Recognize a Thermally Advantaged Chassis

Thermally advantaged chassis: A chassis that has been designed to meet the required thermal specification of a 38oC fan inlet temperature for the Intel® Pentium® 4 processor Extreme Edition, or Intel® Pentium® 4 processors based on 90nm.t

A thermally advantaged chassis can be recognized by a hollow tube attached to the side panel called a chassis air guide which has flared ends. This tube will funnel cool air towards the processor passively, without fans. It's reliance on the internal system fans to guide air across the processor and other system components is achieved through a ventilation hole within the side panel that is required in order to function properly.

To cut through the quick of things its a case that has a side mounted shroud that funnels air towards the CPU!!
the Intel Thermally Advantaged Chassis in my opinion is a term and concept that is highly debateable.

My experience with creating proper airflow using a shroud and not using a shroud says that if you have proper airflow in your case a shroud will not lower your temps anymore than if you don`t use a shroud!

I am running a p4 3.2EE and I am running the same temps with or without using an what Intel calls ahollow tube attached to the side panel called a chassis air guide which has flared ends. This tube will funnel cool air towards the processor passively, without fans.

Lucent I have been in many of these conversations before as well as posting my the temps which are much lower than anything I can run using Intel`s suggestions.

BTW-- all good advice from alot of different people!

 

[BernardP]

Patching side hole with Saran Wrap shows a processor temp increase of 0° C at idle (32°)and 3°C (36° to 39°) under gaming load. I can live with that. Now I have to check my HD's temps.

My mobo is still not supported in the latest version of SpeedFan. Is there any other free self-contained utility (running from the executable) to check HD temps?

 

[corsa]

Is there any other free self-contained utility (running from the executable) to check HD temps?
get Everest.. click on Computer, then Sensor.

 

[dunkster]

I can't read my HD temps via software either. I used a DVM with thermocouple probe, taping the junction to various locations on the drive and snaking the leads out so I could run the system with door closed. MY HD stays in the 30s under all conditions (Panaflo M1A 120mm at 7V front and back).

I did some testing using a high-flow fan (Panaflo M1A 120mm rear vent) and a low-flow fan (Nexus Real Silent 120mm front intake) in series flow. The system temps were the same as for running only the single Nexus low-flow fan. The low-flow fan was a serious flow-limiter. Removing the Nexus (Panaflo only), lowered temps by several degrees.

You might want to try:
- Remove the front-intake 80mm fan.
- Cut out the case fan grill to lower intake air restriction.
It will run cooler than with the front 80mm installed. Removing intake flow restrictions will lower the negative internal case air pressure. You may not notice any PS problems - just keep an eye on it. And keep your air filter clean.

Hope this helps!

 

[anthrax]

Originally posted by: dunkster
Traditional front-to-back airflow is still the best for balanced cooling of all system components.

Side vents create a side-to-vent airflow path which reduces front intake air flow. Since your hard drives are usually mounted in the front of the case, the hard drives run hotter due to poor air low across them. 30C CPU-idle temp is nice, but hard drive idle temps of 50C or more isn't something to strive for. Side-vents also create a leak path for the noise created by fans and drives. My side-vent is taped off for these reasons.

Best cooling efficiency is provided with flow-rate-balanced front intake and rear vent fans, to provide neutral internal case pressure. If only one fan is used, it should be mounted at the front intake for positive internal case pressure, aiding air flow through your PS.

Negative internal case pressure (such as a single rear vent fan) should be avoided, since it tends to stall air flow through your PS. This can result in higher PS temps and/or the PS extraction fan ramping up to full speed to attempt to compensate for a warm PS.

Hope this helps!

I suspect its the other way round. If you have 1 fan, mount it at the rear fan mount near the CPU socket. Just look at your typical dell desktop PC.

You are correct that you should not put a 120mm fan PSU with a 120mm rear case fan as they will both be competing for airflow and the PSU will loose out. To be honest, 120mm fan PSU are abit over rated. 80mm PSU can be just as quiet and give just as much power.

Also, its extreamely difficult to have a flow balanced system. Normally its better to have negative pressure system where main exhaust fan is fitted near to the CPU heatsink unit.

 

[BernardP]

Thanks for the link to Everest, Corsa.

 

[Zepper]

I generally block all superfluous openings in my cases. I consider those uncontrolled pathways. You could run a flexible duct between the side hole and the top of your CPU fan. Makes that air stream controllable. Otherwise uncontrolled openings are just shortcuts for air to come in or go out without contributing much towards cooling the system.

.bh.

 

[JEDIYoda]

Originally posted by: Lucent
Adding the front fan and covering the hole would be the optimal cooling situation. There are too many variables to asertain whether the covered hole without front fan is better than uncovered hole without a front fan. If you want to know the performance without the front fan, is plugging the side hole so hard to do? Just get a piece of cardboard and tape, for Retarded Pete's Sake.:disgust:

And JEDIyoda, please tell me a case I can check at coompusa or beest buy which don't have the shroud. I am very interested if it said it meets Intel's "Thermally advantaged chassis" specs.

For your entertainment, please read Chassis Air Guide by Intel.

First of all I don`t use compusa or best buy.
Second you can go there and check it out for yourself.
Buying a case that is described or approved by Intel as having "thermally disadvantaged chassis" for 98% of the people here means little to nothing.
I am truly sorry that you think it is such a big deal....rofl...lol
Third of all your are attempting to make a super big deal out of a nothing....
by nothing I mean having a case with a side fan that is approved by Intel as having a "thermallly disadvantaged chassis".

Also that site that you just love to believe actually means anything to most people building a Computer actually means very little in the big scheme of things!

Its nice that you think a site that uses a fancy phrase such as "Thermally disadvantaged Chassis " is the authority on PC cooling for computers that have a side panel gan is just bogus and without any sort of merit.

I have read most sites that have to do with case cooling long before you became a member here.
What I will tell you is that those intel sites are old news. Also they are not the authority on case cooling!

So for your entertainment you can attempt to prove me wrong.
But mind you just because a Intel.com site says something - does not means diddly!
Most of us who have computers that are air cooled have already tried that and done that.
As I said earlier I found the side panel shroud to not be everything it was suppose be.
I have experimented with all kinds of configurations for my fans....to and including all intake..all exhaust....some intake some exhaust....in every concievable form.
On my case i have a side panel fan as well as a fan in the top of my case.
I use niether. In fact both are blocked!
I actually get better temps without using a shroud.

Its nice you found a site with a few fancy words but other than that the site means very little!

Have a nice day!

 

[nullpointerus]

I have an Antec SLK-3000B with two 120mm Tri-Cool fans on medium. The case has a side intake, but I removed the shroud, and there's no fan there. Also, there's a 120mm fan in the PSU running at a very low speed.

Plugging both the intake vents on the side panel increased my CPU idle temp. from 34C to 39C and my system idle temp. from 34C to 37C. Everest says my HDD temp. is 29C idle BTW. The room temp. is 22C.

Naturally, I ripped open the intakes. I should probably put a quiet 80mm fan there at some point although my upside-down PSU mod will likely improve airflow somewhat. (With the intake blocked, there was a lot of turbulence.)

The only thing that really bothers me about the side intakes is that the case noise seems to escape through them...

 

[Madwand1]

Originally posted by: nullpointerus
The only thing that really bothers me about the side intakes is that the case noise seems to escape through them...

I blocked my SLK1650B's side intake with an air filter (actually a vacuum cleaner filter mounted on the inside), which cuts most of the noise, and still allows a bit of air intake (which I can see with dust build-up). My temperatures are good and fans are tuned down. You're also well within safe margins, so might re-consider covering the intakes if sound's an issue.

 

[nullpointerus]

Originally posted by: Madwand1

Originally posted by: nullpointerus
The only thing that really bothers me about the side intakes is that the case noise seems to escape through them...

I blocked my SLK1650B's side intake with an air filter (actually a vacuum cleaner filter mounted on the inside), which cuts most of the noise, and still allows a bit of air intake (which I can see with dust build-up). My temperatures are good and fans are tuned down. You're also well within safe margins, so might re-consider covering the intakes if sound's an issue.

Thanks, I'll give that a shot.