Thread: Cooling solution

Originally Posted by digital79

Fans are not good at pushing air trough pipes, you would need a small blower.

You could tap into an air duct to get some cool air to the trunk.

Don't Speak of which you don't know!
Googled leaf blower and picked a random one
http://westtexasmercantile.ecrater.c...hp?pid=4337513
it happens to have 100cfm..
newegg 30$ this fan has 240 cfm.. 140% more than a leaf blower..
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835213001

Fan:1 Leaf Blower:0

and yes im sure you can find a gas powered blower that can smoke this fan, wouldn't think that would be to practical though

And then theres ALWAYS water cooling =D not the cheapest but NOTHING will beat it/ will ever look any cooler!!3
installing one in my friends beamer next month, Its going to look AMAZING! can't wait will run you a solid 150-300 Buckurooneyys though.. in my opinion totally worth it

A few points on "blowers" and fans:

Blowers, as in leaf blowers, HVAC blowers and the fan used in automotive heat/AC systems are a specific TYPE of fan sometimes referred to as "squirrel cage" fans due to the design on the fan vanes and cage.

The fans generally used in computers, window fans and home air conditioners are another type of fan.

Both fans have different strengths and weaknesses:
*by design, squirrel cage fans generally make more noise but can actually put out an impressive amount of pressure. This is why they are used in car ventilation systems and industrial HVAC: they can really PUSH air through convoluted ducts.
Squirrel cage fans- blowers- work well for leaf blowers for the same reason.
(Note that these fans are considerably different in exact configuration but loosely belong to the same "family" of fans because they take intake air at the center and use the rotational force of the spinning fan to pressurize the air in the exhaust on the outside edge of the fan.)

*Pancake (also called "muffin") fans, as generally used in computers, window fans and so on tend to be smaller, quieter and still move a good volume of air- AS LONG AS THERE IS LITTLE TO RESTRICT FLOW. They work well in free-flow situations but are rarely found in any sort of duct because they just do not work well when flow is restricted. (Tubeaxial fans are similar in ways but much DEEPER and used where restrictions to airflow exist.)

Both designs ARE fans.
One is more suitable for low-noise, open environments
One is more suitable for being remotely located due to high noise and its ability to push air through restricted areas.

The point is-
CFM alone is not an indicator of how well a fan will perform in a ducted situation.
Try building a leaf blower with the 240cfm fan linked above: it will not work anywhere near as well as the 100cfm blower.

With that point straightened out:
it really should not be required to force ducted air to a carpc all that often, but if it IS then do yourself a favor and do not use a high cfm pancake fan.
Check into squirrel cage/blower type fans instead- there are fairly small, quiet ones that put out enough pressure to deal with a convoluted duct and still move a decent amount of air.

Some links to visually show different fans:
http://www.surplussales.com/Fans-Blo...ansBlow-1.html
http://www.surplussales.com/Fans-Blo...ansBlow-3.html

Another type which is generally not available in 12v versions: tube axial fans
http://www.surplussales.com/Fans-Blo...ansBlow-4.html

These are round fans (similar to pancake/muffin fans) but very DEEP and high speed- they can put out some real pressure too.

Condensation is always an issue when temperatures have a great deal of difference in a small area. The moisture removed in dehumidified air ahs to go SOMEWHERE, for one thing... it doesn't just disappear.

If you ran refrigerated air into a sealed case 24/7 you would have no issues, or at least very few. But in a car you will shut the car and AC off at times, and even under ideal conditions, water WILL condense on any warmed but cooling computer components.
This water will be 100$ pure and not conduct electricity... until it condenses on computer components when it will pick up impurities and possibly short something out as well. So corrosion and short circuits are now the two problems faced. (This is why computer server rooms are generally cooled as a ROOM and not just in the server cabinet.)

As for water cooling: very effective (I use it on almost all my computers) but it still uses air to actually remove the heat from the water.
If your radiator is in the same airspace as the motherboard you will see very little improvement in temperatures. It will likely take a little bit longer to get warmed up, but the max temp will probably be the same.
The two advantages are:
* that you can move all of the hot air to a remote location not near the computer
* you can use a large radiator: surface area is the KING when it comes to achieveing low temperatures when cooling a computer

There is a diminishing return with this though: a radiator twice as big will not drop your temps to half as much. They will be BETTER, but not that much better, given the same ambient air.

Moving the radiator to a remote location also has caveats too: longer tubing and more bends kill flowrate and reduce efficiency.

At this point, my car computer is one of the few computers I have that is NOT water cooled, although I may make a block this summer and see how it does.
With a Dual Core Intel Atom system it just is not as critical as it is with a desktop chip.

Originally Posted by malcom2073

At a hotter ambient temperature water cooling with be able to get the CPU closer to ambient than fan/heatsink cooling, and therefore is better.

I would have to disagree, once you add a cpu, gpu, ram, and maybe a chipset block or two theres is no better/efficient way to cool. The radiator fans would help circulate the air thats coming off the mobo. So your board, and all the main sources of heat would be taken care of.. silently or very close to silent too

Edit: Whoa didn't even see the second page was here lol