Keeping it Cool

Graphic cards are getting faster and faster by the day and seem to run hotter as well. You'll notice that most of the high-end graphic cards produce a lot of heat. Although PCI cards alone rarely get warm enough to even make a noticeable difference, AGP Graphic Adapters heat your PCI cards nice and toasty. They produce so much heat, they tend to heat up whatever's around it such as PCI cards. When these PCB boards heat up, so does your case interior which causes higher processor temperatures.

For this very reason, many people run aftermarket heatsink/fan, monster sized heatsinks, and some people even run 60mm up to 80mm high speed fans modified on to their graphic adapters. This will keep your card running cooler without a doubt.

However, where does all the hot air blown off the video card go to. It goes straight to the processor(s) heatsink which will
definitely cause your processor temperatures to rise.

Here is the conclusion I've come to after trying various fan placements and airflow direction.

Rather than having the two rear case fans blowing hot air out of the case, try having them blowing cool air in to the case, straight to your processor. Because these fan mounts are closest to the processor, you'll most likely get better results. Cooling solutions most people recommend is to have a fan located at the front of the case blow in to the case and have the rear case fans blow air out.

By theory, this would be the correct. However, let's not forget all the hot air it accumulates in the process of getting to the CPU and then to the rear case fan(s). It needs to pass the hard drive which is located just above the front case fan on most cases, then it needs to pass through the PCI cards and AGP card (if it can even get there). Basically, you're blowing hot air on your processor!



Sure you can make blow holes on the side panel which will blow air directly on to the processor, but if you have the two rear fans blowing air out, this would only cause the cool air that just entered through the side panel to exit directly out the rear fans.



Here is my solution. Take a look at the illustration below..

As you can see above, the 2 rear case fans are blowing cool air in to the case over the processors and exiting out the 120mm case-top exhaust fan. As for the 80mm Side Panel fan, it's moving the hot air produced by the AGP card & the PCI cards out of the case and awaaay from the upper area of the case where you want to keep cool air flowing.

I connected an 80mm fan housing to the actual 80mm fan that is active
creating a funnel so it wouldn't interrupt the airflow of the two rear case fans
which are blowing cool air in to the case and providing cool air to the
processors. If I hadn't created this funnel, the side panel exhaust fan would
pull the two top fan airflow down to the side panel exhaust fan which would
defeat the purpose. This was the very case before adding this funnel. The side
panel fan is only for the purpose of preventing hot air from rising and blowing
in to the processor fans.



The fan used for this for this project is a ThermalTake Smart Case Fan II with an adjustable dial to increase and decrease airflow. When the fan is maxed out, it's capable of producing 75CFM which is very strong. It would be unnecessary to crank the fan up that high. I have it set to about 2900rpm which would produce about 37CFM without having to effect the noise level too much.

Conclusion

After a few days of trying different ideas and purchasing cooling solutions such as the Vantec Super Slot Cooler, Cyber Cooler SC-080 & SC-180, The Card Cooler, and various other cooling solutions, this has been far the most effective way of cooling my AGP Graphic Adapter, PCI cards, and processor temperatures
simultaneously. Placing the side-panel exhaust fan decreased between 4~7 Celsius which is quite a difference. The processors used to max out at 53~55c when testing with CPU intensive applications such as Dnet, FaD. Now the max temperature is around 43~47c and around 37~47C in an un air-conditioned room despite the hot weather we have here in California during the summer seasons.

Sure I can run with the system with the side panel removed, but I didn't want to. I want my PC enclosed which will lower the noise level, less dust accumulation, and my PC doesn't look like I've just gotten finished putting it back together after tearing it apart! LOL

I could've also gone with a Full Tower Server case which would've significant lowered the temperatures. When I was running a Dual Intel Pentium III 1Ghz, swapping out the system from a Full Tower to a Mid-Tower made a difference of about 8C is I remember correctly. However, I just didn't want a huge case which would take up too much space and too heavy to transport if I ever needed to...

The reason I wrote this article was because one thing in common that all PC enthusiasts seem to have is "How can I get my processor running cooler without spending wads of money?" To accomplish this, there are many things that lead to another. You need to lower the case temperature. To lower the case temperature, you need to cool off the internal devices. To cool off the internal devices, you need to place fans. Then you need to figure out how and where to place the fans. Sounds too time consuming land a hassle and want to get your system running cooler? Just go out and buy a $400 water cooling kit and you'll be one happy camper.. For those of you who are up to it, give my idea a shot for yourself and you'll
definitely see a difference without a doubt.