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Crazy ducting idea

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Good news: fan has arrived via UPS. It's huge.

Bad news: System faillure on the old comp is getting in the way of testing. Will try later today.
 
Okay. Did some early testing on the device. Please keep in mind that all the CPU temps are way too high because my board can not handle Brisbane temp readings properly. My core temps are all far too low because no program in existence can get an accurate core temperature reading from a Brisbane. I only show temps to show increases or decreases in temperature, that's all.


Here's what I did:

Opened up the side of the case.
Cleared out all the dust with canned air.
Ran Orthos on the X2 @ stock (1.9 ghz) for 15 minutes with the standard FM-121 on there.
This was the result.

Then I took the FM-121 off plus the exhaust fan, and set up the uber fan, and ran it on high (4750 cfm, or so I'm told). After one minute of Orthos is became clear that the airstream was just not focused enough to do the same work as my FM-121, and while it was fairly loud at top speed, it was not a high-pitched whine or anything . . . just a lot of air man.
The Lasko 3300 turned in this results.

No damage came to the harddrive from EMF (yet) and the monitor is not freaking out on me, so my guess is it isn't being too bitchy or anything.

The interesting things to note are that PWM and system temps went down with the big fan, and the core temps didn't swing as far as the CPU temps. Of course, considering the fact that both my temps are inaccurate, that may not mean much.

For what it's worth, the big fan is about 2 feet away from the computer.

What I plan to do next is outfit the fan with some mounts so I can bolt a duct onto it and try to force air over the hsf in a greater concentration. This should improve the air pressure of air blowing down on the HSF, or so it is hoped, and it should improve the total amount of air flowing over it as well. As things stand, the air fans out in a cone from the edges of the fan blades so it's hard to get good air blowing down on the HSF. Don't get me wrong, it ain't bad, but it is not as good as the FM-121 running naked.

edit: for giggles, I let it run Orthos for about 15 minutes to see what the PWM (I think it's AUX in speedfan on my system) and system temps would be, and while the CPU got up to 68C, the PWM temp was 2C lower and the system temp was about 2C lower as well. Imagine that).
 
So sad. I'm still working on this. Two roadblocks:

1). Mechanical/crafts ineptitude.
2). Turns out most circulator fans (such as the one I bought) typically do not produce enough static pressure to be stepped down. If attempting to step down a fan is anything like trying to filter one, there's a risk the motor might burn out during operation.

Of course, point 2 may be overstated. I grant that an impeller-based fan would work much better, but such a thing would be more expensive than the $25+shipping I dropped on the Lasko 3300. Also, if my rinky-dink 120mm fans that use blades to move air can produce some measurable static pressure, I'm sure the Lasko 3300 can do the same (though how much, I do not know). In light of this fact, I have decided to proceed using cheap materials to produce a test duct instead of going whole-hog on something that might actually work well in the long-term. And, by "cheap materials", I mean poster board, duct tape, and super glue. My little hobby project hasn't proceeded well but I'm one protracter away from making an actual cone so that I can get this show on the road. Urk.

Had I just taken this thing to a sheet metal shop and said "put a cone on it!" this would be done with. Sorry for the relative non-update, but i figured I should post something. There will be pictures of the finished product, even if it ends in relative failure (which is a possibility).
 
Originally posted by: BlueAcolyte
Considering that has enough airflow to knock your case over, do you really need a duct?

I think the "need" aspect of this project was thrown out the window a while ago🙂
 
Originally posted by: Nathelion


I think the "need" aspect of this project was thrown out the window a while ago🙂

Oh, definitely. If I wanted a better fan for the HSF I'd throw an Ultra Kaze on there and call it a day.
 
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