Okay, wow. Lots of feedback to address. I'll attempt to reply to it all and clear up some confusion.
First things first. Some of you may not know what my case actually looks like. There's only one place with decent pictures on the web, as far as my googles have searched, and
that's right here.
Obviously, this is not my computer, but it's the same case. Currently, I'm running the 92mm fans that came with the system, one in the upper rear exhaust, one in the lower front as an intake. My hard drives are mounted in the top and 3rd from top 5 1/4 bay positions, and Evercool 3-fan bay coolers are blowing over them. I had a spare bay cooler laying around, and mounted those fans over the CPU area, in the same place as the Sanyo fans in my initial diagram.
With the stock Athlon heatsink, and a 60mm 40 CFM fan mounted on it, my CPU temps (at stock clock settings) are 47 degrees C, my system around 52. This simply will not do. The failure in the current setup is not so much how much airflow I'm getting, but where.
The exhaust from the 92mm fan "feels" lower than room temperature, which, since its moving, means it's actually at room temp or slightly above it. However, the exhaust from the power supply is warm, and the exhaust from the 40mm Evercools by the CPU is even warmer.
This tells me 3 things:
1. The hard drives are on freaking ice. They are being cooled as much as could possibly be.
2. The power supply fans, despite being capable of moving 4 times as much air as the Evercools, are being restricted by the components inside the powersupply (duh), and are thus a negligible factor in the heating of the system.
3. The 40mm Evercools are doing a damn fine job of evacuating air, but if they could evacuate more air, all the better.
Now, the revision I posted above was basically taking the layout of my current fans, and improving it without much modification. With the fans I had listed, the only change I'd need to make to the case itself is drilling some holes to mount the 120mm fan where the 92mm intake fan currently is, and drilling some holes there as well to allow for better airflow. However, after reading over the feedback, and reflecting on this setup some more, I have begun to see several inadequacies in this setup.
1. The only reason the Evercools are in the bays is to cool the hard drives. Based on the exhaust from the 92mm fan, I've got that covered - Almost too well. I could keep them there, remove one of them, or remove them both. The problem is, I'm anal with my cooling, and I've had hard drives die. Sure, it was mechanically related, but the heat of a hard drive goes into how much wear and tear occurs on the parts. Every little bit helps, and if I get one more week out of a drive because I cooled its ass off, I'll be happy enough.
So, back to those baycoolers. Where they're positioned doesn't help the overall temp of the case or the CPU, that's obvious. What would be better is if I could cool the hard drives with other case fans and remove them altogether.
So theoretically, if I could construct a mounting device for them DIRECTLY behind the planned 120mm intake fan, I could definitely remove the baycoolers, and reduce noice by at the very least 20%.
2. My case uses a "straight across" method of cooling. While efficient, it's not as efficient as the "bottom to top" method. If I reposition the 92mm fan and create a blowhole, position it directly above the channel between the power supply and the 5 1/4 bays, then I would create a good deal of suction across from the lower part of my case and help the air come from the CPU/Memory area, up, and out. I could then seal off the fan hole in the upper rear of the case, and I'd be golden.
3. As I've stated, the 40mm Evercools placed by the CPU are doing a damn good job of evacuating air. However, with a blowhole setup, I will not need to move as much out. If anything, in the spirit of positive case pressure (good point Politik), I would want to use them to suck more air in.
This would mean fresh cold air would be flowing directly over the CPU, joining with the cold air being blasted in from the Sunon, meeting right around the area over the memory, and then being sucked straight out by the blowhole. This flow scheme would be leaps and bounds better than what I have now.
4. Finally, we come to the power supply. As aforementioned, it isn't doing much good for me on the exhaust side. And if I reverse the Evercools (or replace them with the Sanyos), they may even steal cold air being sucked in from there.
The best solution would be to flip the power supply upside down, and reverse the fans that are inside it. This would cool the PS with cold outside air, instead of air that was just heated up by the heatsink, giving longer life to my PS. In addition, it would blow air - Golly - Right towards the all-purpose blowhole!
So, with all that digested, here's the schematic I worked out. This time around, I added in the 5 1/4 bay area to give you an idea of its position in the scheme of things, as well as added airflow arrows.
Case airflow - Beta 1
Case airflow - Beta 2
I'm liking that alot better. The downside, unfortunately, is it will require a great deal more work. My materials list went from a portable drill to a dremel, portable drill, tin snips, sanding paper, and other miscellaneous stuff. Oh well. Good cooling is worth the hard work.
Oh, and Shimmy - I can't stand Arctic Silver. Anything that stains, bleeds, and loses contact with the CPU after 3 months isn't up my alley. Type 44 is the only stuff I'll use.
Thanks again guys! And don't be afraid to post more feedback about how I'm a cooling nazi!
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