Check this out!

[mozzartusm]

Ive always heard people talk about the heat that a fan can generate. Up unitl now I have never really taken this very seriously. Using an infrared temp gauge I measured the temps of 2 fans. The first was a ThermalTake 120mm and the second was a very small fan that fits onto a Northbridge. Both sides of the fans were measured for temp changes. Ill refer to the side of the fan that pushes the airflow as the inside and the other simply will be the outside. Both fans produced the most heat on the outside but only by a couple of degrees. Keep in mind that the center region of a fan produces very little airflow. The bulk of the airflow is produced the farther towards the ends of the fans blades and beyond. All temps are in Celsius.

ThermalTake 120mm
Inside of Fan
Room temp- 21.3
Hottest reading- 30.1

Outside of fan
Room temp- 21.3
Hottest reading- 32.0

Fan 2- Northbridge fan
Inside of fan
Room temp- 21.3
Hottest reading- 31.9

Outside of fan
Room temp- 21.3
Hottest reading- 34.0

The small Northbridge fan gets around 2C hotter than the big 120mm fan. The main problem with the small fan is that since it is basically the same size as the heatsink then most of the airflow is not even hitting the Northbridge. I still am shocked that the small fan generated the most heat.


<b>Ned Flanders said that im a BAD ASS</b> :lol:
Intel 550(3.4)@4.2
ASUS P5AD2-E-Prem
Ballistix PC5300@DDR2 780
ATI Radeon X800XL
TT 680W PSU

 

[mozzartusm]

I checked the temps again after I posted this just to make sure. They were the same. What did you think about the little Northbridge fan getting hotter than the 120mm.

<b>Ned Flanders said that im a BAD ASS</b> :lol:
Intel 550(3.4)@4.2
ASUS P5AD2-E-Prem
Ballistix PC5300@DDR2 780
ATI Radeon X800XL
TT 680W PSU

 

[Crashman]

A 100ma (.1A) 12v fan will produce 1.2W of heat. Some of the heat is lost through the motor, the rest of the heat is lost due to air friction across the blades. 1.2W seems fairly small considering the amount of heat a fan can REMOVE from the system.

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[Crashman]

A 100ma (.1A) 12v fan will produce 1.2W of heat. Some of the heat is lost through the motor, the rest of the heat is lost due to air friction across the blades. 1.2W seems fairly small considering the amount of heat a fan can REMOVE from the system.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[Crashman]

A 100ma (.1A) 12v fan will produce 1.2W of heat. Some of the heat is lost through the motor, the rest of the heat is lost due to air friction across the blades. 1.2W seems fairly small considering the amount of heat a fan can REMOVE from the system.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[mozzartusm]

The reason that I checked the temps in the first place was because I had heard so many people suggesting that a small fan attached directly to the Northbridge could cause the temps to rise. The questions that I am now left with arent about the circulation fans. I am rethinking the Northbridge fan because the one that I currently am using simply attaches to the factory heatsink. I never have felt like it was doing much good. Now I am thinking that it may have been doing more harm than good.

<b>Ned Flanders said that im a BAD ASS</b> :lol:
Intel 550(3.4)@4.2
ASUS P5AD2-E-Prem
Ballistix PC5300@DDR2 780
ATI Radeon X800XL
TT 680W PSU

 

[Slava]

Very, VERY interesting... Maybe it is a GOOD thing that my NB fan on Abit IS7 died. As I posted a couple of weeks ago, Newegg was kind enough to send me a new NB HS/F combo free of charge; But I have not had the time to replace it yet. I wonder now if I should even bother. The PC seems perfectly fine with just the heatsink (I removed the dead fan).

Thoughts?

Thanks )

<font color=green>"The creative powers of English morphology are pathetic compared to what we find in other languages." (Steven Pinker, The Language Instinct)</font color=green>

 

[Crashman]

Now I am thinking that it may have been doing more harm than good.

doubtfull.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[cleeve]

Maybe those cheap fanless zalman heatsinks are the way to go for chipset cooling?...

________________
<b>Radeon <font color=red>9700 PRO</b></font color=red> <i>(o/c 332/345)</i>
<b>AthlonXP <font color=red>3200+</b></font color=red> <i>(Barton 2500+ o/c 400 FSB)</i>
<b>3dMark03: <font color=red>5,354</b>

 

[mozzartusm]

Tell me what your thoughts are on this. Measuring the temps without the fan on the heatsink are easy. Just point the beam at the heatsink. When the fan is clipped on the Northbridge will the infrared gauge pick up the temps of the Northbridge or will it get the temps of the air and the fan. I found out that the only eay to measure the temps on the CPU was to get the beam over to the side of the heatsink so that the fan didnt interfere. One more question. The temp sensor that reads the Mobo temps; Is that measuring the Northbrige? If it helps, ive got an ASUS P5AD2-E-Premium.

<b>Ned Flanders said that im a BAD ASS</b> :lol:
Intel 550(3.4)@4.2
ASUS P5AD2-E-Prem
Ballistix PC5300@DDR2 780
ATI Radeon X800XL
TT 680W PSU

 

[mozzartusm]

If the heatsink has a good fan attached to it I would think that the fan would help. The one that I have is not really that great. The main thing that has me bothered is that when your heatsink is no larger than the diameter of the fan then you are getting very little air on the heatsink. One thing that this makes me lean towards is using a big side fan and running a tube or duct to the Northbridge.

<b>Ned Flanders said that im a BAD ASS</b> :lol:
Intel 550(3.4)@4.2
ASUS P5AD2-E-Prem
Ballistix PC5300@DDR2 780
ATI Radeon X800XL
TT 680W PSU

 

[Crashman]

When I went to water cooling the CPU, the lack of a CPU fan's side draft caused my passive Northbridge cooler to become insufficient. I ended up ADDING A FAN to the passive cooler, but this fan was a low speed unit to begin with, and I wired it for 7v so it only turns a few hundred RPM.

As you remove fans other parts can also require additional cooling, including the voltage regulator.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[Crashman]

Using an infrared pyrometer to measure heatsink temp could be problematic because you don't know if it's measuring the temps of the tips of the sink (the coolest part) or the base of the sink (the hottest part). Well anyway, I'm fairly certain that the motherboard temp sensor is for the northbridge on most boards.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>