So are we to deduct that a ducted cooler is better for CPU temps? What about the VRMs? Make some baby ducts?
Ducting the tower heatpipe -- if it doesn't come bundled with its own duct(s) like the Macho Zero -- is good for about 5C at something around 110W of thermal power -- maybe more. Depends on the cooler, but that's what I get with the D14.
In these tests I'd posted here, I wanted to test the ACX cooler's Hardware Secrets review conclusion that ACX was 6C cooler than D14. Both coolers are ducted the same way -- essentially identical. There is actually more intake fin area for the D14 to pull in extra air. But I still get about 5C improvement in temperatures with the ducted ACX and the ducted D14.
so we're talking about two types of improvements: 5C approximately for ducting the rear side of a heatpipe-tower to a strong exhaust fan, and 5C +/- give or take for the difference between the ACX and D14, whether they're both ducted or "unducted."
Now you bring up a point I'd been thinking about and actually had some epiphanies about it today. How to cool the VRMs? And while we're at it, how about the RAM?
To provide a little inspiration, I've just been through the happy acquisition of a perfect Sabertooth Z77 motherboard, and the painful loss of the board because I had two successive accidents with it -- one which crush a socket pin, and the other which broke off the nipple on the pin after I'd straightened it and tried to make it "more perfect."
If you've looked at the various Sabertooth boards, you should've concluded that they put the "TUF Armor" plastic plate on the board to provide enhanced cooling. It's not there to "protect" anything. There are two 40mm fans which push air into the crevice between the board and the duct-plate, forcing air out the hole around the Northbridge heatsink and the bottom of the plate.
Now I'm waiting to hear from a company that "acquires" IT assets and sells them in turn to consumers. They do repairs that include replacement of soldered chips on PCB boards. So I asked them if they can repair my socket pin, because ASUS just wants me to pay for a new motherboard. Surely I digress, but shall continue.
If the Sabertooth is now cyber-junk, It may be possible to simply modify the duct-plate to fit another ATX motherboard. But if you can't do that -- if I can't do it -- it should be the easiest thing in the world to cut an ATX-sized rectangle of black foam art-board and literally build the same duct to approximately same dimensions as the Sabertooth.
I have this idea of forcing airflow from a Sunon 40mm Mag-Lev fan at the top of the mobo and next to the I/O plate, which then travels through a duct that passes over the top of the heatpipe-cooler base, continues toward the front of the board over the top of the RAM, with a box fitted at right angles to the duct-plate directing the airflow into the intake stream of the heatpipe cooler.
I have a diagram of the airflow, which I can post as soon as a scan and upload it (and I'll try and remember). I'll append it to this particular post.
I think you could make these assemblies in pieces so they simply slide together and mate up around the heatpipes of the CPU cooler. That is the only obstruction that presents a problem, but such an approach to fashioning art-board might be fairly simple.
In the meantime, I'm fairly confident that MY OWN rig isn't suffering from VRM heatstroke, because the intake fans force enough air through the case, there's enough turbulence inside the case as well, so there isn't a problem in VRM cooling at the moment.
But there are a lot of things you can do to address that. And adding a ducting strategy would reduce the number of fans and simply work better.
With the Sunon (15,000 RPM top-end), it only requires attention to more thermal fan-control. And you could use a slightly larger fan, or modify the airflow across the board so that it has essentially the same effect.
To replicate the Sabertooth Armor, you'd just get a 1:1 schematic of your motherboard, cut rectangles in it for the PCI/-E slots, and make sure the top of the plate is low enough so that it wouldn't interfere with your add-in cards. the rest would be attention to the VRM, CPU HSF base, RAM and other ducting aspects.
But it's like anything else. I can say "Yes, we can! Yes, we can!" If your system will last about three years, it may seem worth it. Then you can sell it to someone: "Comes with custom-built motherboard duct and fan strategy for typical heatpipe tower cooler!!"
JUST AN AFTERTHOUGHT: I had worried about VRM cooling when I was using a TRUE rubber-ductie as a solution for a 212 or TRUE. I cut a rectangle out of one side of the accordion folds, so that the exhaust would draw air off the VRMs while it pulled air from the CPU cooler with a little less force. Since I'm using that rubber-ductie at the moment, I plugged the hole in it with some vinyl packing foam and secured it with dabs of Pit Crew adhesive. You can't see it, but who cares if you could? It's sealed.
I can think there's a better way to do it than that. Yes, I do.
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