Q for my fellow Mac users

[LethalWolfe]

I need to get better cooling inside my QuickSilver dual ghz G4. Or ideas (or links) on how to accomplish this?


Lethal

 

[Darien]

I'm not a mac user, but I'm rather curious....



why do you need better cooling? I always thought the cooling on macs were adequate for the normal environment.



Have you tried to install an additional fan or get a better hsf? Good, modern HSFs are better than the huge heatsink Apple puts in. Also, IIRC, I believe in the enclosure there's a fan to extract the hot air in the case -- you can try to swap that out and put in a better fan too.



I've also read a few times of people using water cooling...if I find a good link, I'll get back to you on this one.



GL.



Darien

 

[LethalWolfe]

Originally posted by: Darien
I'm not a mac user, but I'm rather curious....



why do you need better cooling? I always thought the cooling on macs were adequate for the normal environment.



Have you tried to install an additional fan or get a better hsf? Good, modern HSFs are better than the huge heatsink Apple puts in. Also, IIRC, I believe in the enclosure there's a fan to extract the hot air in the case -- you can try to swap that out and put in a better fan too.



I've also read a few times of people using water cooling...if I find a good link, I'll get back to you on this one.



GL.



Darien

I have 4 internal HDDs that add to the heat, but the real problem is the poor case design. Their is a 120mm (I think) fan that is the main exhaust fan (both the PS and the CPU's have their own fans, although the CPU fan is small then the one that came on my stock PIII 800 but it supposed to help cool 2 G4 procs
:confused, but the fan is right above the HDDs and directly across from the PC slots (the HDDs are on the "floor" of the case and the mobo is mounted on the right hand side and folds out). So when I installed my an IDE controller card guess where both ribbon cables had to go? Yup, right in front of the exhaust fan. So the only case fan is probably 50% blocked by the ribbon cables. There is no way to install a 2nd case fan w/o modding the case, and I haven't looked, but I'd be surprised if there were 3rd party HSF. The HS on this thing is huge. It's probably 4 or 5 times the size a stock intel/AMD HSF.

I've removed the speaker from the front of the machine and removed one metal PCI slot cover from the back so hopefully I can get a "draft" going. I'm gonna look at those coolers that fit in PCI slots and also see if I can find one that would fit in the G4's 3.5" bay. If nothing else works I'll mod the speaker hole in the front to except an 80mm fan.


Lethal

 

[Darien]

Sounds like apple needs to make the case larger whenever they release their latest powermacs.

I'm with you on the slot cooler idea -- A pci slot coolermight help quite a bit. using rounded cables should also help alleviate the problem a bit.

I'll take it a card cooler from these guys might not fit. on the bottom where your hard disks are at.

You can try applying some arctic silver on your hsf. Since you say you already have a small fan on that massive heatsink, how 'bout using an 80mm one?

IIRC, you can't fit much in a mac case because of the limited amount of space you have. (I haven't dealt with macs much in the past, but it was one of those things that got me wondering how hot the interior must be) In the end, you probably will end up modding your case. Add a small fan where the speaker once was, maybe drill a hole on the bottom for exhaust. (if you do, pics!)


GL

Darien



EDIT:

Alright, I found a picof an open quicksilver enclosure with lotsa ribbon and HDs. The RAID card on the bottom seems like a good spot. Instead of rounded cables as I mentioned earlier, smaller IDE ribbon and lots of folding would probably help even more.

Looking at the massive HSF on the G4, you can try to add a fan parallel to the exhaust one. Since you mentioned you added a smaller fan, would a 60mm panaflo fit? adding a fan (intake) where the speaker is/was seems like a good idea.

The idea of modding the bottom and adding a fan (or 2) -- the picture makes me doubt that there's enough area to do this, and I am unaware of the exact height of the powermac from the bottom case handles to where the drives sit. Would also probably be a bit difficult to mod the bottom...case being plastic and all.



With all this talk, I think the final product would wind up being:
1. Cool air from outside goes into the case via speaker/fan mod
2. card cooler on top of hard disks cool hard drives and the exhaust on the bottom removes that air
3. slot fan removes much of the remaining hot air and cools nearby pci cards
4. fan parallel to heatsink exhaust fan would push more air through, cooling the cpu more



That'd be one crazy mod job.