Thread: 1993 Toyota Calica... First Car PC

Yeah I was thinking about where t put the drives. I was thinking the hard drive was going to sit just to the left of the mobo in the front view and I might put the disc drive just above the screen. I'm still thinking about it tho. I'm open to suggestions!

One other thing to consider is where you'll put the fan -- that spot will get a lot of sun, so you may want to look at giving it extra cooling. It's a good idea to keep the hard drive in a cooler area, too.

By the way, the car looks well cared for. Nice ride.

Originally Posted by rdholtz

One other thing to consider is where you'll put the fan -- that spot will get a lot of sun, so you may want to look at giving it extra cooling. It's a good idea to keep the hard drive in a cooler area, too.

By the way, the car looks well cared for. Nice ride.

I agree, with rdholtz..... cooling is one of the harder areas of Car pc builds.

Originally Posted by rdholtz

By the way, the car looks well cared for. Nice ride.

TYVM

Originally Posted by rdholtz

One other thing to consider is where you'll put the fan -- that spot will get a lot of sun, so you may want to look at giving it extra cooling. It's a good idea to keep the hard drive in a cooler area, too.

Yeah I was thinking id put 2 fans in this (Other than the CPU fan. 1 intake and 1 exhaust)
I am thinking that they will go on the top sides where it slopes down towards the dash. Intake right above the HDD and exhaust on the opposite side pulling out all the hot air.

I'm not sure where the myth got started that you need fans blowing both in and out. Better to have them go in the same direction -- probably blowing out -- and leave openings where you want airflow into the system. Then you can pretty much calculate where the air will come from and what path it will take to the exhaust fans.

The one fan in, one out fan setup might be good if you have a heat source right in front of the fan blowing in, but, on commercial PCs, almost all case and power supply fans blow out. You've pretty much taken care of the primary heat source with the CPU fan. Depending on the graphics processor you use, you may want a fan on that, too. Otherwise, let ambient air get into the case at points you want, and let the fans blow it out.

Be sure your inlet openings are as large as the fan outlets, and you should have good balance.

One other thing -- don't set the outlet openings near the exhaust openings, or your system may just recirculate hot air. You want to draw cool air into the system if possible, though sometimes -- as on my system -- that's a tough trick. I'm blowing hot air out into the cabin, and depending on the PC fans to cool the dash area.

Confession: my system hasn't been fully tested with the dash closed, so I may be doing some revamping, too.

Originally Posted by rdholtz

I'm not sure where the myth got started that you need fans blowing both in and out. Better to have them go in the same direction -- probably blowing out -- and leave openings where you want airflow into the system. Then you can pretty much calculate where the air will come from and what path it will take to the exhaust fans.

I was planning on the 1 intake 1 exhaust setup mainly because its going to be a mostly closed case. The only opening besides for the fans I'm planning on are going to be:
1. LCD opening (Hopefully going to be flush with the LCD so not much air will be able to get in through there)
2. I'm going to remove my clock and make that an opening for wires to run through (Again, I don't think much air is going to be getting through there)

Originally Posted by rdholtz

The one fan in, one out fan setup might be good if you have a heat source right in front of the fan blowing in, but, on commercial PCs, almost all case and power supply fans blow out. You've pretty much taken care of the primary heat source with the CPU fan. Depending on the graphics processor you use, you may want a fan on that, too. Otherwise, let ambient air get into the case at points you want, and let the fans blow it out.

Be sure your inlet openings are as large as the fan outlets, and you should have good balance.

My Hard drive gets HOT so the intake directly above it should help with that.

Originally Posted by rdholtz

One other thing -- don't set the outlet openings near the exhaust openings, or your system may just recirculate hot air.

What do you mean by outlet openings?
Where the air is being pulled in from?

Originally Posted by cjrokke

What do you mean by outlet openings? Where the air is being pulled in from?

In a system using outlet fans only, and plain intake openings, it's good to make sure the inlets can flow enough air to let the fans work easily. On your system, "outlet fan" and the "inlet fan" would be the proper terms. You'll want to make sure the fans are equal, so one isn't trying to overpower the other. If one is working too hard, it wastes power and generates more heat.

To get the best airflow, keep your fans on opposite sides of the system.

And make sure the air being pulled in is as cool as possible. Recirculating hot air doesn't help much; we have to get the heat out of the system.

Yeah my fans are the same exact model, they are on opposite sides and I almost drive with my windows open, so what I though would be happening is that the intake bring in the air through my driver side window, blow on the HDD, flow behind the LCD/over the mobo, and then go ou the exhaust fan and flow back out my passenger side window.

Originally Posted by cjrokke

Yeah my fans are the same exact model, they are on opposite sides and I almost drive with my windows open, so what I though would be happening is that the intake bring in the air through my driver side window, blow on the HDD, flow behind the LCD/over the mobo, and then go ou the exhaust fan and flow back out my passenger side window.

That sounds like an excellent plan. I'll be tracking your progress.