fan inside pc case, is it useful?

arajigar · Jun 23, 2016

Hello!, I am planning to re build an old system composed of a K7V8363/K7T motherboard, an AMD Athlon 1,3 Ghz, 396 MB SDRAM 133 and a 3Dfx Vodoo3 2000 (16 MB). The problem with Athlons is that they tend to get really hot really fast even on idle, so I'm working to make this system as stable as possible making temperatures stay as low as I can.

I saw a bunch of reviews of pc cases just to see how is their fan setup and then try to make a clone, and the most curious thing I saw is a pc case on which there's a kind of orientable platform on which you can mount a 120 mm fan and make it blow fresh air taken from the front 120 mm intakes (2) to the cpu and to the the graphics card.

It seems do-able but my doubt is, is it worth the effort to make a fan platform like tat?, would it work making temps drop?, I have recorded temps of 56°C on idle for the elements I descrived above in the old pc case (the case only lets put a front intake and no exhausts even a single rear one).. oh, the new system I have mounted has 1x120 mm top exhaust, 2x120 mm front intakes, 1x120 mm + 2x80 mm side intakes, 2x80 mm rear exhaust and a 120 mm exhaust of the PSU, the heatsink is a modificadion, I have replaced the original Cooler Master 60 mm fan for another 90 mm Cooler Master fan.

Thanks in anticipation!!

nukemaster · Jun 23, 2016

Those old cpus had NO power management so they can not even clock down to save power.

Those temperatures, while hot are perfectly safe for such a cpu.

Your case has plenty of airflow.

The best you can do is get a larger cooler(Some AthlonXP coolers have more fins and should cool these cpus a bit better).

A note on the larger fan. For that to be the most effective you should have a shroud or an adapter to duct that flow down to the cpu coolers size. You have a rather large dead spot under the motor right now.

Adapters look like this, but they are hard to find since smaller fans are not used as much. If you have access to a 3d printer it is one of the better ways to get custom adapters like this now.
http://www.thermalfx.com/fans/FADPT/9260FAD.html

thundervore · Jun 23, 2016

the air outside the case will be cooler than the air inside the case. ideally you want cooler air coming into the case and pushing the hot air out.

geofelt · Jun 23, 2016

Unless you will use a hot graphics card, a single 120mm intake fan should be sufficient.
Think about it.
The purple fan on the cooler looks like 92mm, so 120mm intake should be able to supply enough cooling air.
Whatever comes in will exit someplace.
80mm fans are not much use; they need to spin at high rpm to move anything at all.
One or two at the rear as exhaust should be sufficient to direct the hot air out the back of the case.
I would not bother with 80mm side intakes, they are more likely to disrupt the natural in/front to rear/exhaust airflow.
If more airflow is really needed, use a higher rpm 120mm intake fan in front.

And... do not count on the psu fan for anything.
It's job is to cool the psu.

arajigar · Jun 23, 2016

And... do not count on the psu fan for anything.
It's job is to cool the psu

Ok!, I have put a 80 mm fan sucking hot air from the psu of another system I have, is this a right approach to mimic on the Athlon system?

And returning to the inner case's fan, should it be positioned in a special way to not disrupt airflow from the front and to the rear?

BTW, here's one of the cases of which I was talking about...

http://www.fudzilla.com/26243-nzxt-switch-810-full-tower-chassis-reviewed?showall=1

arajigar · Jun 28, 2016

Picked Geofelt´s solution.

Hi. I have finally mounted all except one of the 80 mm fans of the side panel. The PSU is killing the whole system because it gets REALLY hot, making the near CPU be constantly heated; anyway, the temps are way colder than before, even if temperatures have raised this last days (26ºC-30ºC inside my room!!). The system can keep temperatures on idle between 40 and 42ºC even with those ambient temps, on load they get up near 56ºC, but are quite far from the 65ºC I have obtained before the MOD. The system is very quiet even having 8 fans active, all fans are Tacens Anima BTW.

nukemaster · Jun 28, 2016

Glad you got it cooled off better.

When I had my Athlon XP system, I places it in a case with a single 120mm fan.

Newer power supplies are more efficient and thus let less heat into the air. Computer parts in general have come along way it those years.

arajigar · Jul 12, 2016

Sorry for not posting how the final system be done.

This is the original pc case, it has no place for an intake, although it has the frontal bottom grid done, but it only has room for atiny 80mm fan and it has the frontal audio panel, usb dock, etc. just in front of it, so no air could be extracted from outside.

This is how it looked finally. After getting rid og the frontal audio and usb dock (the MOBO has not any support for them), I have opened a big hole on which I place a 120 mm fan.

And because the case has 4 slots for optical drives, I have also get rid of three of them and put another 120 mm fan.

The rest of useable rear slots have been covered with 80mm fans (exhaust), also, I have finally put on a new PSU, of which I have removed the 4 pin 12v cable, and also all the SATA cables, because this is a Windows98 system, an they only used space. I have also added a 120mm fan(exhaust) on top of the case.

The whole system look like this. It is an old case from 2001, with no space to keep cables tidy.

Yes, I know that a 500 watt PSU is too much for such an old system, but I have this spare one to modify and, until now, I haven't had any problems with it.
The system is now waiting for two 120 mm new fans that will blow air from the inside, towards gpu and cpu respectively. I'll post new photos as I do it and also put how temps improve (or get worst).

arajigar · Jul 13, 2016

Well, I think that the photos are irrelevant now. I have done my testings on my other PC (P4 3.2 Ghz.) and I can say that the fans blowing air into the case are not so impressive in terms of temperature dropping; of course, in terms of airflow I can say that they work fairly well. Temperatures only drop 1ºC, fortunately the noise did not raise. So, as a conclusion, do this work?, yes, is it the last über method of PC cooling?, no.

nukemaster · Jul 13, 2016

You can only remove so much heat.

A larger cooler may help, but as long as your temperatures are within the operating specs for the cpu, I would not worry about it.

arajigar · Jul 13, 2016

Yes!. In fact I post the results for those who think that this little fans I discovered...

...served for anything but making maybe noise, maybe dropping temps about 1ºC if you´re lucky. (Photo source: https://hardforum.com)

After testing this afternoon in the Athlon system (I have made a detachable box of 135x135 mm which can be inserted in the optical drive bays) I can say that the temperature drop is almost the same, maybe 1ºC. And we are talking about 120 mm fans, not little tiny 60 mm fans.

BTW: I have replaced on my P4 system the rear 90mm fan for a Tacens AURA 90 mm fan, and even at 100% it doesen´t move a shit of air, of course they´re silent!, but their performance is not as I believe it´ll be.

nukemaster · Jul 13, 2016

I see an Antec Spotcool

arajigar · Jul 18, 2016

Yes, and they're not a solution either if I believe what people say :\

nukemaster · Jul 18, 2016

Your system can only be as cool as its internal case temperature and as cool as the heatsink can allow it to me. If you can get room temperature air in the case and the heatsink always runs XX degrees over ambient, That is as good as it gets.

The Spotcool may help reduce memory temperatures by giving the ram heatsinks some extra airflow. I have one in a box somewhere(It could also help over a voltage regulator. Passive devices with little airflow). Memory just does not tend to need cooling that much(even less with lower and lower voltage memory).

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