I have that case. From what I can tell the intake is between the front plastic and the metal inner case. About 1/2 inch gap the whole width of the case. The air then goes up behind the front and through lots of holes that appear to be designed to cool the drives.

I have an iStyle case, the plastic front panel wraps under the case about an inch, with a decent gap between case and front panel. The intake air then can fill the whole space between the front plastic panel and the inner metal wall of the case. The inner wall has various holes, and several perforat...

Ever thought about doing this? Shouldn't be all that tricky with an old fea market silver spoon and a cheap battery charger, viola silver electroplate.

I wonder what sort of performance gain you would get if you electroplated an slk-800

The wet sandpaper is how a lot of guys who can't afford waterstones and the diamond stones to flattent them with sharpen their woodworking tools. Do you do anything special to get a flat fit? Seems to me that the little spring thingy's that clip to the cpu socket are a weak link. When I put the slk-...

Tricky business pattens, you have to prove that you invented something unique, and not just adapted something from one use to another. Since heatsinks are used on everything from transistors to motorcycle engines, what is unique here. They might, however, have a trademark on the shape, that is more ...

Interesting, I seem to remember back in metrology that the gauge blocks would get stuck together, the professor claimed it was because they were so finely honed that the molecules actually formed bonds from being so close to each other, I have my doubts about his explaination. I know, you could buil...

I wonder why you couldn't build a case where the sides are like the freezer box in a mini/midi fridge.

could just go with 5400 rpm some are very quiet, and you certainly would be getting the lower performance you crave

Actually I was somewhat serious on that point. Can you/do you lap the heat spreader? I also wonder if the heat transfer compound and lapping are cumullative. It would seem that the better the lapping the less the compound would do. As matter of fact, I would wonder if there wouldn't come a point whe...

It's faily new, I think it's running a celeron 2.4 and 512 mb of DDR, no fan on the video. The intake is below the PSU and the duct is square in cross section, goes directly into the HS. Pretty good rig for like $400 I think, can't remember, it's my wife's computer, I'm her office manager. Fairly la...

Silencing a PC is an iterative process... - Stick a fan contoller on a the case , cpu and video fans to dial them down. The Zalman Multi is a good on, but there are others. - Use the IBM/Hitachi software tool to put your drive in quiet mode - Get quiet hard drives - get a quiet CD ROM - Replace you...

Indeed, one and the same. I have one under the desk at work and it really is quit quiet. Not as quiet as my home computer though. At home I have a PIII 1.0 ghz with a silentpc or quietpc or some other damn name I can't remember little round HS fan combo and an NX-3000 PSU. Can't hear that computer a...

My loudest component is going to be the PSU. ... the heat from the CPU is being taken out instead of getting into the PSU. With the case over pressure, and no added heat from the CPU, I can get the PSU as quiet as I can. Also a duct from the CPU all the way to a blowhole will allow me some turns in...

I would be really interested to know how this setup would work if you closed the front exhaust and let the PSU do all the exhaust duties. Granted the PSU fan would spin faster, but, since you're using a ducted intake straight at the CPU there would be some flow through the PSU without the PSU fan op...

I quit doing reliability engineering some time ago, it's got to be the most boring job known to man. So boring that even in the early 90's I was getting paid $30 an hour to make great huge spreadsheets of electronic components on the engines of apache helicopters and F-18 aircraft. If there is a mor...

True back EMF would be the greates source of friction, sorry I didn't remember to include that, however, having the back EMF in sync is a major part of the motor design in the first place otherwise the motor would be hopelessly ineffecient. For a really good overview of DC motor design and control h...

I'm sorry, but there are just too many variables involved to assign an effect of 1 or 2 degrees to a specific change. You could see a 5 degree change in temp from one test to another without changing anything. For that matter, if 5 degrees is important to your cooling setup you need a complete redes...

If the air did not go through the heat sink, what would be the point. That it takes a circuituous route is beside the point. Whether the fins are attached to a solid piece of metal, or a piece of metal with fluid inside is also beside the point, since the fins are acting as a solid to air heat excha...

I doubt very much if the actual airflow would increase appreciably by simply backing it away from the sink a few inches. Yes, the fan would see less resistance, but not appreciably less. Now, if you could mount the fan on what is usually reserved for the exhaust fan and then run the duct all the way...

This is a cheap quiet computer available at all sorts of big box retailers. It runs what would normally be the exhaust fan as an intake, ducts this straight to the cpu, then the PSU blows the hot air out the back. The PSU fan doesn't ramp up as much as you might think since the intake fan "assists" ...

I suspect that most cheap DC fans are speed controlled by friction. Air reisistance and bearing/bushing friction probably limit the speed. Therefore, lowering the voltage simply reduces the force opposing said friction and therefore reduces the speed. Otherwise, reducing the voltage would increase t...

Efficiency isn't quite as simple as dividing a couple of numbers, especially when you're going from AC to DC. Simple division works fairly well in High School Physics class but anything beyond that, like the real world, things get a bit trickier. I especially like the testing/reviews done on an un-n...

Does anyone have a logical reason why computer heatsinks are made more like fanless heatsinks than the forced air type? As far as I can tell the fins on most heatsinks should be about three times closer together and about 1/4 as thick. Forced air heatsinks should probably be more akin to those on ai...

Thank you for that post. Amidst all the discussion of flows and fins people seem to forget the whole objective. The objective is to remove BTU's (or calories in some places) from the chip. Some of us would like to do this as quietly as possible. The superior thermal efficiency of copper versus the t...

Yes, Rusty, if you have the same cfm of air hitting the heatsink through that small hole the heatsink would remove the same BTU's. If course to get the same CFM through a space that size would probably require more than just a fan because you would be looking at quite serious pressures. You have to ...

Rusty wrote:
"Now the same amount of air is hitting the heatsink, only in a different pattern. Right?"

WRONG!!!!!!

Think about it and let me know what you come up with. Or better yet, hook up a 120mm fan to a 60mm duct and see if you get the same airflow as that 120mm fan with no duct.

Sucking hot psu air is what I meant by short circuit, yes there would have to be a method to physically seperate the exhaust from the intake. I guess my real question is with the common methodology that you should piecemeal quieten the loadest components in order. This may not always be the right an...

Simple really. The solder that holds it together wasn't hot enough, it's called a cold joint and is one of the major reasons for "infant mortality". Electronics fail along a curve that looks a bit like a bathtub, it's called a weibull distribution. Lots of early failures due to manufacturing flaws, ...

cheaper is better!!!! If an extruded aluminum HS works and lets you spend the money on more speed or higher reliability, it's the best HS. But, that's the beauty of aftermarket. Some people really prefer to put a $6,000 stereo into a 1985 toyota corolla. And others might rather spend money on a big ...

Sorry, I mistakenly assumed that most people would realise that I was controlling for the other variables, and only speaking to the point at hand i.e. the fan. But yes, it is my contention that for any given heatsink the amount of btu's transfered to the air is a direct result of the amount of air h...