Takes two to Tango?

[madd0ct0r]

I'm building a case at the moment, and I've the option to keep the PSU in a wind tunnel seperate to the main computer which would have an air intake over the ram, over the MOBO before being pulled out of the heatpipe fins.

OR have the air circulate through the PSU and then round over the ram, over the MOBO and pulled out through the heatpipe fins.

OR have them both pulling the same way with twice as much air pulled in over the RAM.




Two fans in series can only push as much air as the lower capacity one, they just require half the energy to do it (ie, slower and quieter)

Two fans in parallel can push twice the volume of air but run noisy.

The PSU's fan is beneficial either way, but the PSU adds a lot of heat to the computer, thereby reducing the effectiveness of it as an input.

Likewise, the third option sounds attractive, but I end up trying to cool both the PSU and the Heatpipe fins (the two hottest and most temperature sensitive parts) using pre-warmed air.
Hmm, it would perhaps lead to the best temperature gradients overall...
Cool warm parts (the ram, assorted Mobo bits) with cool air then cool hot parts with warm air.

hmmmm.
do we have a winner?

[cvitullo]

Hm, I was going to offer advice, but I really have no idea what the layout is. Can you make a sketch or something?

[madd0ct0r]

Sorry about the delay, I purchased an external hardrive in a fit of paranoia, so had to re do the layout to fit it in.

The orgional question still stands though.
All the windows in the box were cut for these layout photo's the box is currently solid. I will be making holes as and where they're required.

ok:

Partial view:

Direct front view:

The external HDD will be located in front of the MOBO.
There will then be an LCD monitor in front of that.
I figured I'd be able to get away with that as the hottest part of the MOBO is already sending all it's heat down the shuttle heatpipes.

left hand side view, showing where the PSU would be blowing out into the case. The grey box at the top is the DVD drive vertically mounted.

Right hand side view; showing location of intakes/ out vents, for the PSU and the Shuttle pipe cooler.

Top down view, showing the DVD drive and space between the MOBO and the external HDD (not pictured elsewhere)

[BuzzKillington]

why would you fit an external drive, internally?

[madd0ct0r]

Becuase I can.


It'll be on a quick release system of some sort - possibly a drawer. more likely just open the computer (it splits in half).

I'd prefer to keep it inside the computer where it's safe from getting knocked off / accidently coffeed.

Likewise I'm not actually using it (that often) as an external, but when it's cheaper then an inbuilt and that little bit more flexible then why not?

[Zeroignite]

Ever consider removing the external housing and just using it as another drive?