Airflow questions

[tkpenalty]

Here is an airflow diagram I quickly sketched up, I have a free slot above my graphics card and I ask, would adding a 40CFM system blower help the cooling performance of my northbridge? This problem arose after I swapped back to stock cooling; the CNPS7700CU I previously used was too much for this generic case.

I have a system blower under my GPU btw.

Here it is:

 

[Namslas90]

Usualy increasing the air intake will help cooling, but in your climate the negative pressure may be doing a better job. Usualy I would say to ensure that the intake volume is greater then the exhaust, but down under with the heat IDK/NS.

Do you have a fan on the Northbridge now? is it blowing in or out.
On my gamer, just by reversing the northbridge fan(blowing into the northbridge vs. out away) I managed to cool my GPU core temp down by 13'F.
Turns out the hot air comming off the CPU cooler was being pushed into the GPU fan intake, By reversing the Northbridge fan it kept that hot air away by pulling it into the mobo and sending it out the exhaust thus cooling the GPU.

 

[tkpenalty]

No fan on northbridge, just cheap aluminium heatsink with fins (38mm tall). I was going to change to the Zalman (+CNPS7700CU = better cooling performance), but the hooks were the wrong way T_T; I needed mirrored ones.

Thus, I ask you, will adding the fox-1 improve it? Living in Australia... our weather is unpredictable in autum, there was a huge cold snap.

However, do you think I should just switch back to the CNPS7700CU? I changed to stock in fears of it breaking my whole motherboard. The Northrbidge issue would be solved (10*C Temperature difference :shock if I switch back, but I don't want to be liek:

"oh noes cpu fan fell off!" (And since its not a freezer 64-much heavier, it would probably break everything existing under it..)

 

[Namslas90]

Increasing the ammount of intake air can help, Don't realy know what a fox 1 is, tried searching for it on I-net and got nothing but FOX Sports(LOL). Use the bigest, most CFM fan you can fit into the front of the case!!

also;
You can attatch a 30mm or 40mm fan to northbridge using two short screws and two "BLADE type female crimp on wire connectors". Test the crimp connectors for fit and tightness by sliding onto heatsink fin, adjust with needlenose plyers to fit tight. Place crimp connector wire end into fan mounting hole of fan and use a short screw from the other end to compress connector into hole by turning the screw, is should tighten up well. Adjust the position of the crimp connectors to slide over two fins on heatsink(bend with needlenose plyers to fit). DO NOT bend the heatsink only the crimp connectors. Hook up power and DONE!!

Also, before connecting Northbridge fan, remove the heatsink and redo the thermal paste with something good(unless you allready did)!

This is what I did on my Gateway Gamer, works great!!(looks like shit though)
But, it's a good cheap way to test the performance of adding a Northbridge fan!!

You can probably use a car stereo mounting strap(Metal strip with holes for mounting car stereos)to re-enforce the cooler mount by attatching it to the top edge of case and to the cooler.

 

[tkpenalty]

Nah... i tried it before and it didn't heed any performance differences... like maybe 1*C~2*C, on hot days it might make it worse.

FOX-1 is a system blower that sucks 40 CFM of air. Intakes it vertically and projects the air horizontally.

 

[Component187]

Get an Antec Nine Hundred case. 2 x 120mm fans in front, 1 x 120mm in rear, 1 x 200mm exhaust port at top. This will solve all your cooling problems. This case is heavy, but it's the best case I've owned. It also gives you the option to put another 120mm fan inside the case and one in the side window if you really wanted to, but it's unnecessary.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811129021

Check retail though. I've seen this case cheaper at CompUSA and Microcenter locally, and you won't have to pay for shipping. Sometimes all the added cooling in the world isn't going to help, the case just has poor airflow (learned this the hard way on my old Raidmax case). Not to mention 120mm fans keep things much cooler and are much quieter than several smaller fans.

I know changing your case would be a pain in the ass, but it seems to me that your case is the problem. An easy way to tell is to run your machine with the side off your case and see if your machine runs alot cooler. If it does you're having some airflow issues inside your case. Can you take some pictures of your case and post them?

 

[i_am_mustang_man]

the added intake will help, but because it is not necessarily taking hot air from a specific component, it won't be a miracle worker. pure speculation, clearly, but my educated speculation. it would probably be better to add a 120mm fan right in front of your hdd, cuz they are quieter and push more air. unless you already have one, but i didn't see it in the diagram.

 

[JC316]

I basicly have the same setup, except my blower is my X1800XT. I think adding the intake would help you out a bit.

 

[Completely Bonkers]

1./ Blowers that make air turn 90 degrees are not so effective (compared to a simple exit fan).

2./ Making sure there is MINIMUM air resistance/blockage on your exit fan in important. Many cases need their swisscheese fan holes cutting out completely and replacing with a fan guard.

3./ Fan are very ineffective (and noisier) if there is resistance to airflow. You already have 3 exits and only one entry. Unless this one entry is HUGE... I would suggest putting your case on feet (just a couple of cm) and cutting a large hole with fan guard (no fan needed) in the bottom of the case.

4./ As a rule of thumb... your (passive) air entry should be twice the size (or more) than your active exits. Remember that air volume out has to be matched with volume in. Let the air get in easy.

5./ Consider removing the cover plates in your 5.25 inch slots in your PC. See if that helps. If it does... keep them open (or replace with dust cover) and implement 3

 

[Completely Bonkers]

See picture for OPPOSITE problem. Exactly how is all that air going to get OUT ???

P.S. You could put this PC on your go-kart to make it go faster... LOL