Nice discovery for ThermalTake Volcano 12!

[BlackMountainCow]

Hi!

I just had an idea. Why not turn the Fan of the TT Volcano 12 upside down and with that also get the hot air from the chipset as it is sucked into the HS and then blown right up into my sidewindow fan and then sucked out of the case. Well, so I did that and guess what ... it worked like a charm!!

I get 3 °C lower on full Prime95 load and 5 °C lower on idle.

I've got no idea if that just works with a sidewindow fan pointing outwards or even without, but it's a nice thing I guess. But then I don't know why TT hasn't discovered that and mounted the fan upside down as default setting. And especially for the TT V 12, which is loud as a huricane if turned all the way up. I can run it at 2/5 of full speed now (2300 rpm) and get a full load temp of just 43°C according to MBM and AIDA32 on my Shuttle AN35N-U board. (I know the Shuttle board reads temps a bit lower than they are but still, I guess that' not bad!)

Cheers!

 

[hytek369]

nice idea, especially if it works

 

[Creig]

I did this to 2 of my comps already. Turned the fan around, cut a hole in the side panel directly over the CPU and installed a shortened subwoofer tube in the hole that was cut so that it was just short of the top of the fan when installed. Although it may not be quite as thermally efficient having the fan sucking the air through the heatsink rather than blowing into it, overall temps are MUCH lower since I'm exiting the hot air to outside the case rather than recirculating it throughout the case. Plus it increases the overall case airflow since the air is going outside so it has to draw in that much more air.

If people could feel just how WARM the air is coming out of the side of my case they'd perform the same mod in a second. And it's even more impressive when you stop to consider how much warm air would otherwise get recirculated throughout the case without the mod.

 

[beenlurkingforyears]

Creig

After your mod with the hole and the tube, have you also tried it with the fan blowing the cooler air from outside of your case onto your CPU? It would be interesting if you had some actual temps both ways as a comparison.

My prefference is to have positive pressure inside the case to help air flow through the powersupply and not pull air in through the DVD/CD drive(s) etc., but I don't have any data that would show which way is best for CPU temps.

 

[Creig]

I tried both ways and although the CPU temp was slightly lower with the fan sucking air in, I decided to keep the air flowing OUT of the case. As I stated above, the volume of warm air coming OUT of the subwoofer tube is impressive. Rather than pushing all that warm air into the case where it can heat up my video card, northbridge, hard drives, power supply, etc... I'm keeping the airflow going out. I also have an 80mm fan at the front sucking air into the case so overall airflow isn't too bad. 80mm in (front), 60mm out (CPU), 80mm out (Power supply).

 

[tracerbullet]

Nice job.

(However) I think it may be user-to-user dependent. That is, the rest of any fans you may have in your system and what direction they are all pointed, as well as what open spots you may have for air to escape.

In my HTPC setup, I have the power supply and case fans both blowing air out of the case. I made a small vent / tube thing with some cardboard so that the CPU and it's heatsink / fan would have a direct shot at the outside air. So not only does the fan over the CPU pull that air in and over the heatsink, but the powersupply and single case fan also blow the air out, which helps it along. It works pretty well since the rest of the case is pretty well sealed up - except of course for a few holes and gaps and whatnot. Now, if I was to turn my CPU fan around like you have done, which would make it the third fan trying to blow air out of an otherwise closed system, then I doubt it would work very well. The three would all fight each other and very little air would move at all.

Seems pretty obvious, yes - but I guess where I'm going is - before anyone rushes out and tries this, make sure it makes sense for how you have things set up in your own system... it may be a lot different. For me, this would be a bad idea.

 

[Abzstrak]

agree, its completely dependent upon the rest of your case and air flow...