Which Fan/Shroud setup? Vote!

[V12|V12]

I'm once again debating if I'm going to revert to my old shrouds or make 2 new ones?

1) The old 120mm
*Pro's: Quiet | adds air flow | mobo cooling | don't have to make new shroud | Other case fans aid in pulling in more air with less RPM from main 120mm | can use fan bus

-Con's: Adds extra heat from HC into case |

2)The old 172mm
*Pro's: Same as 120mm just MUCH MORE air and completely silent!

-Con's: Same as 120mm | Takes up more space |Can't be controlled with standard fan controller(25W!) (I just direct wire it to PSU for 5-7v)

3)The New 120mm Triangle
*Pro's: Quiet | adds NO extra heat to case | Best case temps so far | can use fan bus

-Con's: Potentially louder at higher speeds- since air is directed outside case bottom (Fan closer to me since it's near case front) |Takes up space very close to mobo | Have to make new shroud

4)The New 120+80mm Box
*Pro's: Same as triangle | +More air flow than triangle | Would take up less space

-Con's: Same as triangle

Please tell me what you think! All set ups are super quiet and case temps are great... the 120mm Triangular setup I have in now is a Card board prototype and isolates Heater core temps from raising case temps, as I'm going to either rivet or braze together a tin metal one for this current triangle or proposed BOX.... Here's some MS-Paint's of the setups and proposed... THanks!

[V12|V12]

Here's the old 172mm

[V12|V12]

New Triangle

[V12|V12]

New Box! 120+80mm

[modtheplanet]

i plan on doing something like your triangle design. i think that would be best, because you are drawing "cool" air from the outside and exhausting it out the case.
the last one (box) set up, i think would cause some air turbulance with the 120 mm fans blowing into a wall. in other words "dead air" or air trying to blow back into the 120mm fans.

take a fan and blow it towards a wall, the air bounces off and rides along the wall.

just my 2 cents

[V12|V12]

Hey, thanks for the reply... yeah I'm debating the Triangle or the box seriously... With the box, I wouldn't have the 120mm that close to the wall, and the 2 80mm's at the bottom would dispell any dead air that might occur... I'm still debating on even making a metal shroud for the triangle, since the cardboard+nylon reinforced tape'd contraption works quite well for now

I'll wait till I see more votes, then decide... thanks all!

:shrug:

[rocketmanx]

It looks to me like the old 120 with the shroud combined with either the triangle with a 120 (bottom exit) or the box with the 120 (bottom exit).

Simply put, the shroud combined with a way to exhaust the air externally with a loke sized fan as the rads. Don't drop the shroud, that'd be a step backwards.

Here's a qucik scratch to show what I mean-

[Boli]

Woot something I know something about and can quote things, and show pictures.


I would go the "triangle" approach but put the rad at the bottom with a fan pulling air through it. only one fan needed though you can put a secondary fan to help.

I have a similar "trinagle" setup on mine vainly called a "boli tube" ;P and it seems to work very well.
http://forums.procooling.com/vbb/sho...&threadid=8445

~ Boli

[superart]

The triangle implimentation seems like it would partially obstruct the intake to the fan.

[V12|V12]

Rocketmanx:

yeah I was thinking about doing something like that, but it just means 2x the amout of cutting and work, which isn't really anything more than a good 30min of cutting, brazing/riveting and deburring... But still, The box is the simplest of the 2 options, but either way the triangle isn't hard to make.

Okay, here is a pic, I've worked out some more possible, space saving solutions...

[Boli]

May seem a unusual thing - but if you can make a "rounded" one it will improve the airflow as appased to an angled approach. You are trying to move the air with as little rescrition as possible. If it is within your skills(or more importantly matrial) limit I would round the thing off

~ Boli

[superart]

v12v12, i like your idea in the upper right corner. It combines the best of both the triangle and box ideas.

[fhorst]

Might be a bit "off topic" as this is for space saving only...

But, your nice little mobo will get hot if it doesn't have any fresh air coming in.......

you PSU might die as it is struggeling to get any air, and needs to fight with the other fan who wants to blow air out also.... ;-)

just my 2 cents...

[V12|V12]

Originally posted by fhorst
Might be a bit "off topic" as this is for space saving only...

But, your nice little mobo will get hot if it doesn't have any fresh air coming in.......

you PSU might die as it is struggeling to get any air, and needs to fight with the other fan who wants to blow air out also.... ;-)

just my 2 cents...

I'm running a negative air flow setup on purpose. From testing differing configs of fans, the one with the 92mm in the bottom intaking on the PCI/mobo and the 92+80+PSU's 92mm exhausting works to lower the case temp at least 2C lower than any of the other configs. And the psu's air exhaust is not anywhere near "warm" at all. Since My case temps are 28C right now, the air going into the psu isn't too warm at all. Thanks for the advice/warning though.


Boli:

Yeah I though about adding a curve, which wouldn't be hard to do, just some drawing and compass curves etc... I'll keep that in mind too! Thanks, plz vote everyone for the sake of voting! haha Thanks all! Keep it coming!

[Aardil]

Just a thought I might add If the coldest air is at floor level then it seems cooler air in would be best. Pull the air from the floor and exit out front ( or rear) of case.

This is what I did on my new set up, No I dont know if its better as it isnt finished yet but in theory, it should be.

Aardil

[V12|V12]

I had thought about that originally... BUT the DUST factor is what scared me off! Yes the coldest air would be there, but the amount of dust I would have to battle would be huge here, AND, it's much easier to rid my HCore of dust the previous way, with a can of compressed air and letting the fan pull it all down and out etc... Thanks for the post

[Aardil]

Made a small mistake on my drawing this is what I should have posted.

Also I added a filter to the bottom of my case so that handles the dust bunny problem.
Aardil

[V12|V12]

Rocketman,
Well, buddy, I decided to go with your idea and after HOURS of much longer prototype making from cardboard and masses of tape, I came out with a design like yours and it's all shiney and metallical. BUT it's HUUUUGE! It takes up MORE space than the previous Triangle, haha! I didn't realise how much larger this 120x38mm Vs the previous 120x25! I think if I would stuck with the 20mm it wouldn't have been AS big, but still larger, Just based on my space and the height of the 38mm I couldn't really do the Triangle becase it sticks up so high that it block multiple HCore passes from air intake. Seems like the 38mm is the bottle neck in this equation... BUT it's ultra quiet, draws in a tons of air at lower Voltages and just a damn better fan. Looking a my temps, I'd say that are around the same as before. The fan shroud is just laughable HUGE compared to the other one haha! It looks cool though. I'm going to swap it out and try the older shrouds which draw air in...
I figure that I'll test to see just how much the increase in case temp effects CPU temps... But since I'm running extreme negative pressure, it might just offset the the case temp incease with much increased air flow... I also drilled about 30-40 fresh air vents on the back of my case panel right behind the CPU, so the more negative I run, the cooler the air behind the cpu mobo, which helps a little Thanks all for posting/voting!

[killernoodle]

Have you thought about ducting the radiator to the side panel of the case?

[V12|V12]

Killer,

Yes I had thought of that... and realized that since I have an ARCANE mobo (A7n266-c) Which is half ass designed for OC'ing, meaning it STILL HAS Vcore/Vddr JUMPERS (WTF?!) I HAVE to have some access to them, and currently, I now have actually LESS access to them with this new cooling shroud, though it looks cool and I'd HATE to scrap it for all the work that I put into it, I think I might have to go back to either the 172mm or a slightly revised triangle... I WANT and am going to find a way to get use out of this 120x38mm Fan, it's just TOO nice and too quiet running to not use....there has to be some solution that will not take up too much space, but allow me to us it, with out restricting my jumper access (how sad is that? Jumpers?!!!!)

Thanks for the reply! VOTE everyone! It's all about FAN DEMOCRACY!

[rocketmanx]

Cool
Glad to here it draws air well

Sorry to here it didn't help temps though
Must have way more radiator than you need for your water cooling components.

How 'bout some pics of this new "monster" shroud

[Gooserider]

I'm doing sort of a combo approach, you might be able to do a variant on it.

My rad is a Fedco 2-342 equivalent, single pass unit, approx. 6" X 9.5" on the cooling surface, big enough for two 120mm fans. Heated water enters from the bottom, and exits after cooling from the top. I realized that since it's a single pass unit, if I blew constant air through it, I would get a temperature gradient with most of the cooling occurring on the bottom half of the rad. I also have setup the rad to be the only planned air intake into the case, so blowing all the air out would leave the case interior starved for airflow.

So I split the difference, with a two part shroud. The bottom half is like your triangle, and runs from the center of the rad down to the 120mm x 38mm fan in the bottom of the case (which is mounted on casters) blowing the warmest air out the bottom. I'll be putting a skirt around the front bottom of the case to help with noise suppression and to prevent the warmed air from getting recirculated into the rad on the front of the case.

The top half is a parrallelogram shaped box angled to drop the fan a little bit down (in order to make more room for the plumbing coming off the top of the rad) with a second 120mm x 38mm blowing straight through into the case to cool anything that needs it and feed the PSU and the 2 120mm x 25mm exhaust fans. I will have a filter on the front side of the rad, and set the fans up to have positive pressure in the case so as to keep the dust bunnies out.

Also note that the whole question of 'blowing heated air from the rad through the case' is largely a non issue... The air coming off the rad is only going to be 2-3*C warmer than ambient, which isn't really going to make that much difference....

Gooserider

[V12|V12]

You know... I wonder if that idea about starting at the bottom would make a diff, makes logical sense.... I might have to try it out, Hey might you MS-Paint us some pics of your shroud? I'll MS-Paint this new one monster I'm about to dismantle.... It's just too big!

[Aardil]

If you were asking me about Ms paint, they say a picture is worth a thousand words:



From this thread:
http://forums.procooling.com/vbb/sho...5&pagenumber=2

[V12|V12]

OMFG! lol Now that's a tower! Wish I had some room like that... I've pretty much max'd out my case, so I need to find either another case (which I can't cause I've got vid card upgrades 1st) or make space changes... HEY what kind of pump is that, looks pretty beefy! I need to get a new pump since this VIA just vibrates too much on it's own, w/o suspension modding. I'd like to design a new way for my pump to be mounted, so I don't have to put so much stress on my resevior. I could make a new one, but I have to find a way to suspend this pump since the new shroud is taking up all the room.... I might just go back to the 172mm shroud and set the up... hell I'll MS-Paint a pic... talking doesn't describe it well enough!