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To Blow, or To Suck?

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DaOld Man:
One advantage I can see in blowing cool air in would be that the fan's motor would probably run cooler.
Plus it is probably easier to add a filter to catch dust.

Xiaou2:
 Besides the CPU, the greatest heat generators are the Hard Drives.  Whats
really bad about that... is that they usually are not well spaced, and the bottom drives
"Cook" the upper drives.

 After losing several Top drives... Ive took a angle grinder to the case... and cut off most of
the front metal.   Ive mounted 2 Industrial fans ( 4.5 inch diameter? )  in front.

 I made my own custom drive mounting rail system, which permits about 1 cm
distance between each drive.  The drives are mounted width wise, so that the cables
are easily accessed on the side, and that also keeps them from screwing up the
airflow.

 The airflow is so strong, that you can feel it at the rear of the case like a hurricane. 
The drives are almost Cold to the touch... and since the CPU is in the pathway, it too
cooled even better.   It of course cools Every component in the system, including the
video card and motherboard chipsets.

 My CPU temp is currently 91f in a pretty hot room... which is darn awesome for
the core2duo setup. Im using one of those monster heatsinks that has a 4" fan
mounted to it.  Considering my intake fans power, I probably could remove the
cpu fan... but its always better to have redundancy anyways.

 The dust flies round..  but its easy enough to blow out with compressed air
every once a year.  Heck, dust can hardly settle considering the airflow I
have workin   ;D

 Heat cant make it to the top of the my case!  And what little might, would get sucked
out by the powersupply fans.

 Only drawback is the noise levels.  I will replace the main intake fans soon with
some of the new quiet tech fans.  They push the same kinda air.. but are half
as loud.


 Air flowing across components hot surfaces tends to do a much better job of cooling
than trying to suck air out.  Air is very fluid, and not easy to suck out in a consistent
stream.. thus more times than not... you end up sucking the warm to cool air out..and
the heat remains dense in certain areas.

 A good example would be to imagine sitting on a stool hovering above an electric
heater.  A fan about your head isnt going to do much to keep your butt cooler.  More
than likely, you will fry.. and the fan above you will pull the cooler air out.

 Pointing the fan directly at you, will force cooler air over your entire surface area,
and even at the heat source, making the overall temp lower.

protokatie:
OK, maybe I should be more lucid on what the wants of this case are:

1. The case is simply to make it so I CANT hear the computers.

2. It needs to be quiet.

3. It need to just make the air inside be at about ambient temp.

Other than these things being in an enclosure, the computers will still be cased, and the external Hdds will be spaced a few inches apart from each other. IE there will be PLENTY of open air inside this case. Also, I never do Hdd stacking, for the same basic reason Tigger pointed out. I have divorced myself of the idea of using internal Hdds for archival/fileserver applications.

Although I am hearing a lot of "push air in" advice, I am still unconvinced that it is a better move than a single low RPM exhaust fan. Remember my primary reason for this is to eliminate noise.

EDIT: Oh and this is my 1200th post, so: GO AMIGA 1200!

hypernova:

--- Quote from: Xiaou2 on December 21, 2009, 05:35:31 pm ---A good example would be to imagine sitting on a stool hovering above an electric
heater.  A fan about your head isnt going to do much to keep your butt cooler.  More
than likely, you will fry.. and the fan above you will pull the cooler air out.

 Pointing the fan directly at you, will force cooler air over your entire surface area,
and even at the heat source, making the overall temp lower.
--- End quote ---

You may be forcing air over the components, but as I mentioned earlier, you aren't necessarily getting rid of the heat that begins to build at the top.  Eventually that heat is going to have no place to go but down.  Your analogy doesn't seem quite apt to this situation.  His heat source and object he's trying to protect are one and the same.  As well, those objects are designed to dissipate the heat as best as possible as it is to avoid damage.  Our rumps, notsomuch.  Also, in your analogy, the heat will eventually dissipate around the rest of your body as well, with nowhere to go.  The temps going to rise, so even if you did have a fan to cool your bottom, the rest of you is going to be sweating bullets, and soon bake yourself.

Of course, I'm willing to admit I'm mistaken, but I am rather certain I've read when presented with only one or the other as the choice, the exhaust is the best choice-assuming it is placed wherever the heat gathers the most.

BobA:
Prefer a large fan or fans at the top to push out the hot air.    Room temp air comes in the bottom and should be filtered as there is always alot of dust and hair on the floor.   The only real requirement of the enclosure is to allow the air a pathway thru the box so that heat can rise on its own and with a bit of fan help.

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