Good, but not that good!!

Ok, this is my first post so cut me a bit of slack if I got things wrong?

How I see it!!
These tower cpu type coolers, the Tunic Tower, Freezer Pro, etc, are great for cooling the cpu itself, but the biggest downfall in my eyes is no motherboard cooling (

Now this bothers me a lot, the idea of front & rear exit fans (wind tunnel effect) seems a waste of time, if it whips past the motherboard without touching it.

And the thought of a side fan blowing right into the suction of a 120rear also seems pointless.

This is why I prefer OEM/flower type coolers.

See my expanation here...[/img]pic1

Would building some kind of deflector plate inprove on this?
plate

And if all video cards were made like this, we wouldn't have to worry about the heat from these being added inside the case.
coolcard

Rant over!!!

whats your thoughts?

Coolcard????
Try the Vantec Icberq 6,it will install on 60 different gpu's..

As to your "wind tunnel" effect that is excatly why for years AMD did not sanction front fans in their systems,instead they recommended two fans on the PSU,I suppose they were considering the effect of convection,,ie: heat rises?? Plus the pull of two fans...
Of course this was before today's monster GPU's and their insane power requirements.

Cooler Master has an interesting freezer pro clone that addresses this issue, the RR-DCH-S9U1-GP 92mm CPU Cooler

<--clickage

It is a shroud that directs exhaust air downward to cool the voltage regulators.

I think tool's case looks better, but a nice option nonetheless

AMD not "sanctioning" front fans is not as you imply. They merely recommended that the 1st addt'l fan you add besides the PSU exhaust, be directly behind the heatsink as a case exhaust. This went along with OEM's needs and does make sense because it allows a less careful consideration of airflow patterns by causing all case openings (besides those with the exhaust fans) to be intakes.

That doesn't mean someone couldn't improve upon it, by considering their particular case but such things a CPU manufacturer can't speculate on, they know that ultimately it is up to the system integrator to design the cooling as needed. "Usually" this still means the 2nd fan in a system should be that rear exhaust, only adding a front fan (if warranted) as another addt'l fan. It could tend to be a bad PR move too if AMD (or Intel, anyone really) spec'd that you use more and more fans, and thanks to some of the lazy cheaply designed cases out there, all those fans would be running at medium to high RPM instead of scaled back so it was really noisey.

Motherboards are now more often having additional stages of switching for CPU VRM, it spreads the heat out more. They're also often using higher quality capacitors than previously, which helps a lot but on the other hand the current has gone up a lot too.

I always put a barebones board, CPU, etc together outside of the case first and check the resultant VRM area temps while stress testing. Sometimes there are no heat issues even with a tower or otherwise low airflow sink installed, or one that had the bios (or software) set to throttle down fan speeds when CPU temp is low, but this makes sense as low CPU temp means either low ambient or lower CPU utilization, either of which will mean lower VRM area heating too.

I pretty much ignore the northbridge because a decent 'sink will be large enough (or wearing a fan) that any of the CPU 'sinks will suffice. They may not put the same volume of air through the sink but due to (typically) larger fans, they circulate air better in the region so what air makes it to the NB 'sink is cooler, and if the CPU 'sink is mated well with the system case, there is a more direct removal of heated air. In general I mean a sink and board and case all work together, some combos are more effective than others but hopefully the ambient environment is mild enough it doesn't take multiple attempts to get a satisfactory result without undue noise.

Some of the tower 'sinks do move significant air over the motherboard VRM area, or you could try a director or duct if you like, just do a crude one out of cardboard and tape it down to see if it helps then if it does, it justifies the time and material to make something better. I like sheet aluminum, or sometimes plastic when I have some scraps of it but I tend to buy aluminum for other uses but seldom plastic, so inevitably have more Al to use.

If you want a flower cooler, good thing they exist, it may be a good choice to address your concerns but I like to rely most on direct evidence, to appreciate it mattered you have to know what the temp difference of the parts in question were and if it was too hot either way, which you might know but didn't mention any specifics.

That's pretty cool. I've thought about doing something like that, but I've never actaully seen a setup like that. Now I would like to try to install my pc to my coffee table. From the comfort of my sofa, I'll be able to surf the net, and watch MythBusters on tv, simultaneously.

Is it a good idea to seal any miscellaneous holes in the case to make it airtight (excluding the fans)?

Can the results be evaluated only with careful testing?

Ok, but unless something is overheating there is no reason for this. If it is all cool enough, that is a sign you should instead reduce the airflow IF it wasn't really cooling anything, but I suspect it is to an extent, just not as much as you hoped.

So what is really the problem? If there isn't one, there is nothing you need to do. Extremely complex cooling that it hypothetically better but that didn't really matter in the end, is just wasted time. Details matter, exactly what the system is doing and go from there, it cannot be generalized as something that needs to be done, let alone being useful, without a need and demonstrated benefit.

This doesn't quite make sense, you want more fans and more effective use of flow, but no reason to believe you need either. Past a certain point, if you redirect airflow too much you decrease the rate but at increase in noise level. At that point, you might as well have just used slightly higher RPM fans if we are only going to generalize instead of the applied analysis of a specific area and needed rate of heat removal.

Like the idea of fresh cool air directed onto the cpu, as anybody tried this sort of setup with corrugated tubing? http://img174.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ductts2.jpg[/quote]

Completely unnecessary for stock speeds and can worsen cooling elsewhere. An overclocker might have more benefit, but it is more of a shortcut, a cheat to getting the CPU cooler instead of looking at entire case cooling, flow rate.

This is within the context of low noise, where maximum effectiveness is from a lower front intake and rear exhaust. You seemed to want a similar effectiveness but would need lower effectiveness by adding front fan or higher flow from an existing fan for otherwise similar result (besides CPU).

CPUs have giant 'sinks on them, should be picked appropriately such that the complimentary chassis airflow aids in keeping correct temp, at the same flow rate as needed to cool the other parts.

When you put in the alternate intake, it reduces airflow elsewhere, like your hard drive rack. You can put a fan in front or increase it's RPM to compensate, but then you have more noise too, and could've as easily just used the front fan w/o side intake.

Consider this- "fresh" air you would take in from the side, how is it fresh, what is the difference? The difference is that the otherwise non-fresh air had warmed a little from flowing past parts. That was exactly what the goal was, to have those part that heated the air a little, cooled by that air. By introducing the side intake you reduce the airflow rate flowing past those parts.

There is only one legitimate reason why these side intakes exist. Cheap heatsinks unfit for the job, and a certain CPU manufacturer who had a heat problem with certain family of CPU. There is a second reason that some case manufacturers added one just to be a feature line-item that kids thought looked cool, if it was dressed up nicely.

You may think I'm going OTT with his (& you would probably be right) but my reasons are , a year back I did have heating probs, causing reboots & such. This was down to playing 3d games in a badly designed case more then anything else, plus, not enough cooling, so can imagine . I do not want same probs in my new system.

And the other reason, like you said!! It has become a hobby too.

So, my next upgrade: Antec Solo case (good reviews on noise/air flow) 90mm front fan (like the idea of cooling the h/drive) 120mm rear fan (standard), GPU fan (i think I sorted that out in the first post) cpu fan ( not decided yet) psu fan. thats 5 fans in total.

Over clocking! maybe, which we all know produces more heat.
New vid card ready for next new batch of 3d games (bio-shock & cysis, come to mind )

And even if people don't have problems with heating issues, I'm sure they would still prefer their system running cooler, given the choice.

So I got 90mm inlet & 120mm plus PSU outlet, that would give me negative pressure? is that correct?

But what I really need to know is this!!!

Do I go for a Freezer pro 7 (good cpu cooling) or reuse my zalman7000 (cost nothing and cools some of the board as well?) I suppose I should have just asked this question to begin with

Hey "I", thanks for the well explained reply you gave (sorry it took so long to get back, I’ve been away for a few days).

I'm going to imply a few of your ideas you mentioned into my new system.

The one last thing I ask?
You quote: the Solo Case does have several potential issues that degrade the cooling subsystem effectiveness"

Can you, or anybody else, recommend an alternative to this, whilst still keeping the values (clean looking, cool & quite) of the Solo?

Cheers all