Main > Main Forum
Cabinet getting hot
RandyT:
--- Quote from: FrizzleFried on June 30, 2007, 12:30:06 pm ---Personally, I install an INTAKE fan (120MM) toward the bottom and an EXHAUST fan (120MM) toward the top...
--- End quote ---
Usually it's done the other way around. If you look at the way a computer case does it, you see that there are openings in certain places for air enter, usually at the bottom front, and that creates a cooling path on the way to the power supply which exhausts the heated air. Sometimes additional fans are used to force air inside and increase the volume, but these should at least have a grate or filter to prevent forcing a ton of dust or other matter into the cabinet.
RandyT
Hoopz:
--- Quote from: RandyT on June 30, 2007, 01:44:07 pm ---
--- Quote from: FrizzleFried on June 30, 2007, 12:30:06 pm ---Personally, I install an INTAKE fan (120MM) toward the bottom and an EXHAUST fan (120MM) toward the top...
--- End quote ---
Usually it's done the other way around. If you look at the way a computer case does it, you see that there are openings in certain places for air enter, usually at the bottom front, and that creates a cooling path on the way to the power supply which exhausts the heated air. Sometimes additional fans are used to force air inside and increase the volume, but these should at least have a grate or filter to prevent forcing a ton of dust or other matter into the cabinet.
RandyT
--- End quote ---
I took FF's post to mean that he brings in air at the bottom and moves air out at the top. That's the way my pc cases have always done it. Are you reading that differently than I am Randy?
FrizzleFried:
--- Quote from: HooPZ on June 30, 2007, 02:09:48 pm ---
--- Quote from: RandyT on June 30, 2007, 01:44:07 pm ---
--- Quote from: FrizzleFried on June 30, 2007, 12:30:06 pm ---Personally, I install an INTAKE fan (120MM) toward the bottom and an EXHAUST fan (120MM) toward the top...
--- End quote ---
Usually it's done the other way around. If you look at the way a computer case does it, you see that there are openings in certain places for air enter, usually at the bottom front, and that creates a cooling path on the way to the power supply which exhausts the heated air. Sometimes additional fans are used to force air inside and increase the volume, but these should at least have a grate or filter to prevent forcing a ton of dust or other matter into the cabinet.
RandyT
--- End quote ---
I took FF's post to mean that he brings in air at the bottom and moves air out at the top. That's the way my pc cases have always done it. Are you reading that differently than I am Randy?
--- End quote ---
Exactly Hoopz...the INTAKE at the bottom brings air in and the EXHAUST at the top forces air out. Also, if you are going to go with a single fan, an intake fan at the the bottom is better to have than just an exhaust fan at the top. If you only have the exhaust fan at the top, a lot of cabinets have no holes at the bottom of them so the air down there becomes dead air as the negative pressure created by the exhaust fan sucks the air from the path of least resistance which would be the "vents" at the top of the cabinet preventing proper cooling at the bottom of the case. The INTAKE fan at the bottom would create positive pressure throughout the cabinet forcing air out the top vents and replacing the air in the cabinet more evenly.
RandyT:
it will work either way, and I didn't say that it wouldn't. But pressurizing the cab from a low point is probably not the most efficient for a couple of reasons. Fans down low have a higher tendency to pick up dust and debris at floor level (gravity puts debris down low) and inject it into your cabinet. A few well placed vents down low will bring cool air in over a distributed area and not have the same vacuum cleaner effect as a concentrated force down low. The turbulence caused by forcing the air in may also completely screw up the natural convention cooling and would make the system rely completely on pressure to expel the heat, which might require a larger fan. These are just theories based on some simple physics. I haven't actually built a clear cabinet and injected smoke into it to watch what happens :)
Your computer case works exactly as I said. The fan on the power supply exhausts the heat at the top back of the box, while strategically placed vent holes in the case create a path of cooler air over components that need it. Extra fans in the cases are usually optional, but are used in addition to the heat exhaust arrangement. I have never seen it used any other way.
RandyT
danny_galaga:
--- Quote from: neil324 on June 30, 2007, 09:34:01 am ---problem. I can always tell when it getting hot you can smell it inside the the room
--- End quote ---
:o
um, if its getting so hot you can smell it i think youve answered your own question about whether you need more cooling