Project: DIRTY BOMB (cheap and nasty)

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Originally Posted by jiggiwiddit

Ive reversed the PSU fan so that it takes air from the case and blows out the bottom

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I'd keep an eye on that if I were you - there's a chance you could have reduced the cooling substantially. Stock, the fan blows air directly onto the components and it then gets pushed out the vent by pressure. Reversed, there's a chance the air will just flow over (or under as the PSU is going to be mounted to the top of the shell) the components instead of directly onto the parts then out the bottom of the case. Hot air rising and all that, you might end up with a nasty hotspot right on the PSU main board where the air isn't getting....

Instead of the parts being actively cooled by cool direct air pressure from the outside of the case, you may have a stream of warm air passing over the tallest parts only, and barely affecting the parts furthest from the fan

I'll second that - fans create a region of high pressure on one side and low pressure on the other. There is substantially more air movement on the high pressure side than on the low pressure side, not to mention more air molecules, and thus the high pressure side has MUCH better cooling properties. Your setup would work if the airflow rates were the same on both sides of the fan, and logically you'd think that would be the case. The fan on its intake side only speeds up the air right before it goes into the blades; more than a few millimetes away and the flow rate drops off dramatically. I've experimented a LOT with fan placement in my build. :) As slave said, the high pressure air blown onto the PSU parts ensures that all parts have air flowing over them. I've dismantled my PSU too, although I have the boards sitting horizontally, with the fan mounted vertically. It doesn't blow all its air right on the parts, but some of the air flows over them, and heat rises and the higher parts of the fan keep that air moving.

I think what's going to happen with your current setup is the PSU fan will suck away air from the parts before it can really absorb any heat from them, and so the parts will just get hotter and hotter, since they can't give up nearly as much heat to a low pressure zone. Also, the PSU parts will impede clean airflow from the ventholes in the casing, which will worsen the problem (as opposed to the original fan orientation where there is no obstruction on the intake side). You'd be left with a hot PSU and a fan that isn't moving much air.

What I would recommend doing after looking at your pics, is leave the PSU in its current orientation, flip the fan back around to its original direction, but see if you can build a duct to funnel the warm air coming out of the vents to outside the case. Maybe to the side instead of the bottom to minimize the warm air getting sucked back into the fan intake.

Another alternative is cut off the side of the PSU case that the power cord goes into, or cut off part of the side, and mount a fan there blowing air in. You'd need to make sure, for optimal airflow, that it could push about the same amount of air as the main PSU fan, but even if it didn't, it would still be better than nothing.

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Originally Posted by slaveofconvention

I'd keep an eye on that if I were you - there's a chance you could have reduced the cooling substantially.

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Originally Posted by artoodeeto

What I would recommend doing after looking at your pics, is leave the PSU in its current orientation, flip the fan back around to its original direction, but see if you can build a duct to funnel the warm air coming out of the vents to outside the case. Maybe to the side instead of the bottom to minimize the warm air getting sucked back into the fan intake

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Thanks for the info guys. The initial idea was to prevent warm air from the PSU getting blown into the case.

Having taken both your suggestions onboard I'm going to put the fan back to stock and fit extraction fan/fans elsewhere on the case to exhaust the extra warm air from the PSU. I know the PSU is critical as I'm gona run 2 pumps and 2 fans for the watercooling as well as everything else.

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Originally Posted by slaveofconvention

Molex or ATX? I may have a spare or two if it'll help...

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ATX slave, I want to use black sleeving to hide the multi coloured rainbow at the side of my mobo. Do they look like this?

yup - the ones I have are very similar to that, although that looks like a higher quality tool than the ones I have.

I actually had to mod mine to make it work properly - I found the tips of the tool were a little too wide so I used some sandpaper to sharpen them - basically went from something like this...

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to something like this

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Excuse the rough n dirty ASCII art lol - I've been fighting with graphics for the last few hours for a couple websites I have to get done and I'm reluctant to reopen the image editing software :p

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Originally Posted by slaveofconvention

I actually had to mod mine to make it work properly - I found the tips of the tool were a little too wide so I used some sandpaper to sharpen them - basically went from something like this...

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to something like this

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Excuse the rough n dirty ASCII art lol - I've been fighting with graphics for the last few hours for a couple websites I have to get done and I'm reluctant to reopen the image editing software :p

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Thas ok I got the point :redface: ha

Seriously, the one I posted is £7.92 from scan. I'll order one and some sleeving at end o' month. Many thanks for offer tho :up:

Yeah so I can't do it lol - hopefully this will be a little clearer...

The one on the left, I sanded a little to create points, the one on the right is as it came from the supplier. I only have two because when I bought the tool, it fell on the floor and I genuinely thought it was missing from the packaging so reported it as such, and the supplier sent another one out free of charge - was the same day it arrived I found the first one under the desk...

Before I sanded the points onto the tool, I was having problems with the tool catching on the metal part of the ATX connector instead of sliding between it and the plastic - this fixed it perfectly...

Ok, took just under hour the change the fan around. glad you guys came in with advice rather than me learning by an expensive mistake :up:

+rep t'ya both

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Originally Posted by jiggiwiddit

Ok, took just under hour the change the fan around. glad you guys came in with advice rather than me learning by an expensive mistake :up:

+rep t'ya both

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Glad we could help! I've had a LOT of learning-by-expensive-mistakes experiences (my first attempt at building a computer back in 1995 was a $450 disaster), so I'm always happy to pass that knowledge on. :)

Ordered some black sleeving and an ATX tool to finish off the cables that are still visible. Also ordered some nice stainless allen screws for the side copper grills and the front panel. The screws on the window are M6 thread. Ive ordered some M3 and M4 of the same type to match them but on a smaller scale.

Ok this is the device with the internal framework and carry handle in place

Now the the graphics card is in, I dont have as much space to play with for all the watercooling bits

Ive not ordered radiators or pumps yet and I may need to rethink one of the custom reservoirs before I order the materials

I think there will be more cutting of the case to fit it all in....

Fire up the jigsaw :rolleyes: