Amazing Test of Fan Configurations

http://www.short-media.com/review.php?r=230

They tested everything from no case fans to 5 case fans, and the winner was
the rear fan(s) only. Just amazing.


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"Ed Light" wrote in message
news:A6RGf.32239$jR.4323@fed1read01...
http://www.short-media.com/review.php?r=230

They tested everything from no case fans to 5 case fans, and the winner
was the rear fan(s) only. Just amazing.

I beat them. 2 minutes to idle from burn. Winchester at 2.4, 1.45v. I have
an Arctic Freezer 64 cooler with the fan removed and an aluminum tape duct
to the panaflo 80mm case fan running at 2200 rpm, blowing out. The other fan
is the 120mm in the Coolmax psu running on high. I'll soon be putting in a
quiet Yate Loon (from coolerguys) into the psu and attaching it to the
Zalman fan controller in a cd bay.

This setup can actually take care of the cpu with the psu on low and the
80mm at 1200 rpm. But not running 3d on a hot day. And it lets the hard
drives up into the high 30's.

But if you want to take your motherboard out and in you have to deal with
removing the tape and building it up again. I'll have to do it when I put my
Zalman passive heatsink on the nforce3 chip. I'll have an 80mm blowing over
it onto the video card, and on the controller at a low rpm. It won't be in
the front panel, but free-standing, actually strapped on a piece of foam to
the bottom of the hd bay. I have a weird slow speed silencer fan there now,
not on the controller, that's quiet except it ticks.

Only thing is I don't know what sort of circulation I'm getting over the
motherboard power regulator thingies. And my board doesn't give the sytem
temperature -- strange Gigabyte oversight. But it's not eating the cpu hot
air, only whatever heat radiates from the cpu's heatsink and beneath it, and
from the video card when it heats up in 3D.
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But they are only measuring board temp. I would also be concerned with hard
drive temp. For that reason I like to put a fan in front of the drive
blowing in.

DaveL


"Ed Light" wrote in message
news:A6RGf.32239$jR.4323@fed1read01...
http://www.short-media.com/review.php?r=230

They tested everything from no case fans to 5 case fans, and the winner
was the rear fan(s) only. Just amazing.


--
Ed Light

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Finally someone tested this. I've always thought that more fans just
make for more noise and dust. It would be nice if they had a noise
rating for each configuration too.

-Dylan

Ed Light wrote:
http://www.short-media.com/review.php?r=230

They tested everything from no case fans to 5 case fans, and the winner was
the rear fan(s) only. Just amazing.

"DaveL" Top Poster Extraordinaire wrote in message
. ..
But they are only measuring board temp. I would also be concerned with
hard drive temp. For that reason I like to put a fan in front of the
drive blowing in.

I have mine in the 5 1/4" area and I've been drilling small holes in the bay
cover. I have foam on the inside of the bay cover to keep the sound in.

The Barracuda IV is at 30C but can go into the mid-30's.


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I don't like putting my hard drive up in the 5 1/4 slots. The reason is
those bays are up higher in the case where the hotter air can accumulate. I
like to keep the hard drive low. Try mounting your Barracuda low and see
the difference.

DaveL


"Ed Light" wrote in message
news:iMSGf.32252$jR.1870@fed1read01...

"DaveL" Top Poster Extraordinaire wrote in message
. ..
But they are only measuring board temp. I would also be concerned with
hard drive temp. For that reason I like to put a fan in front of the
drive blowing in.

I have mine in the 5 1/4" area and I've been drilling small holes in the
bay cover. I have foam on the inside of the bay cover to keep the sound
in.

The Barracuda IV is at 30C but can go into the mid-30's.


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"DaveL" Top Poster Extraordinaire wrote in message
...
I don't like putting my hard drive up in the 5 1/4 slots. The reason is
those bays are up higher in the case where the hotter air can accumulate.
I like to keep the hard drive low. Try mounting your Barracuda low and see
the difference.

Yes, I'd like to, but the lower bays are placed such that a hd fouls the
motherboard connections, and air circulation would just pass under it.
You've seen those cases where the air intake doesn't have drive bays in
front of it.

When I get my psu loaded with the Yate Loon quiet fan and on the fan
controller I'll find a compromise speed where the drive is happy but the
sound is quiet, I'm sure.

Actually, I'm removing the Barracuda, with it's totally wrapped up design,
and leaving the cooler-running Samsung, which will be quite happy with the
psu at medium speed, or even low speed if not a hot day. The Barracuda will
go in a usb external box.

But next time I'm using an Antec P180. *That* will chill the drive(s)!

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On Thu, 9 Feb 2006 16:28:26 -0800, "Ed Light"
wrote:

http://www.short-media.com/review.php?r=230

They tested everything from no case fans to 5 case fans, and the winner was
the rear fan(s) only. Just amazing.

sigh... you know there are people in labs who can actually do this
kind of testing right. They've been doing it for years. They're
called fan manufacturers.

Companies like AT&T, IBM, HP, etc bring in their R&D boxes and get all
the cooling info/testing done right.

Free too, if you're buying lots of fans.

They use lots of thermocouples, chart recorders, a big monster air
pressure chamber, and little helium bubbles. Real noise testing to
real standards available also.

Aha! This makes SOOO much sense!
If you have only a back fan (and of course your power supply fan(s)), that
back fan pulls a certain amount of air *from somewhere*, which is,
hopefully, the front/lower grill. And it exhales a certain amount of air out
the back. Well... if you add a fan to the front, it seems almost redundant
and might even cause air to circulate inside the case in ways you don't
want. That back fan is already doing it's job of pulling air in the front
and over the hard drives. We'll see... I've recorded all my temps. I'm going
to shut off my front fan and see how it affects temps.
--
Scotter
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-
"Ed Light" wrote in message
news:A6RGf.32239$jR.4323@fed1read01...
http://www.short-media.com/review.php?r=230

They tested everything from no case fans to 5 case fans, and the winner
was the rear fan(s) only. Just amazing.


--
Ed Light

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with front fan:
CPU1 49-51C (hovers mostly @ 50)
CPU2 49-51C (hovers mostly @ 50)
ambient 28-29C
HD0 30-32C (hard use 34)
HD1 29-31C

w/o front fan:
CPU1 49-51C (hovers mostly @ 50)
CPU2 49-51C (hovers mostly @ 50)
ambient 31C
HD0 34C
HD1 35C

note: both hard drives are bottom/front
--
Scotter
Tyan Thunder K8WE
Dual Opteron 252s (2.6ghz)
6 gig DDR400 RAM
XFX 7800 GTX 256 w/VGAsilencerV3
500 gig SATA2 Hitachi
Dual 24" Dell LCDs
550W power supply
-
"Scotter" wrote in message
...
Aha! This makes SOOO much sense!
If you have only a back fan (and of course your power supply fan(s)), that
back fan pulls a certain amount of air *from somewhere*, which is,
hopefully, the front/lower grill. And it exhales a certain amount of air
out the back. Well... if you add a fan to the front, it seems almost
redundant and might even cause air to circulate inside the case in ways
you don't want. That back fan is already doing it's job of pulling air in
the front and over the hard drives. We'll see... I've recorded all my
temps. I'm going to shut off my front fan and see how it affects temps.
--
Scotter
Tyan Thunder K8WE
Dual Opteron 252s (2.6ghz)
6 gig DDR400 RAM
XFX 7800 GTX 256 w/VGAsilencerV3
500 gig SATA2 Hitachi
Dual 24" Dell LCDs
550W power supply
-
"Ed Light" wrote in message
news:A6RGf.32239$jR.4323@fed1read01...
http://www.short-media.com/review.php?r=230

They tested everything from no case fans to 5 case fans, and the winner
was the rear fan(s) only. Just amazing.


--
Ed Light

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