blow air without fan ???

Vilius · Post by **Vilius** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 2:20 am

Hi.

I have good heatsink mounted on my cpu, and of coure I need some air flow. The problem is that I can't use fans for that purpose( at least blades spining around the axis ). So maybe there some technology to blow air not using fans ? ( I don't need powerful flow )
One option could be pasive water cooling system - but it is a little pricey.

thanks
Vilius

qviri · Post by **qviri** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 3:01 am

What's the heatsink in question, so that we can visualise the problem better?

QuietOC · Post by **QuietOC** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 3:56 am

Vilius wrote:I have good heatsink mounted on my cpu, and of coure I need some air flow. The problem is that I can't use fans for that purpose( at least blades spining around the axis ). So maybe there some technology to blow air not using fans ?

Bellows, pistons, flapping wings.

jmke · Post by **jmke** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 4:47 am

a crossflow fan could work; but noise/performance ratio is rather poor compared to a regular fan

loz · Post by **loz** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 4:53 am

Or a chimney (needs a lot of room, poor efficiency).

IsaacKuo · Post by **IsaacKuo** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 6:01 am

Vilius wrote:I have good heatsink mounted on my cpu, and of coure I need some air flow. The problem is that I can't use fans for that purpose( at least blades spining around the axis ).

Why not? Is it that you're hoping to avoid moving parts altogether?

So maybe there some technology to blow air not using fans ? ( I don't need powerful flow )

There are some possibilities, none of which are really competetive with using a fan. At really low airflows, a suitable fan can be silent for all practical purposes.

You can push air by ionizing it, like in the "ionic breeze". However, this creates ozone and may be hazardous to your computer.

A better option may be to pull air into a chimney, but this is very bulky and stupendously weak. I tried making a solid state chimney which even used a light bulb to heat the air within the chimney to make it more powerful. It was utterly hopeless. My conclusion was that any computer chimney would be most effective as a muffler for a normal fan. Just line the chimney tube with foam and place the undervolted fan near the middle. The result will be completely silent except for the inherent whoosh of the flowing air.

jaganath · Post by **jaganath** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 8:00 am

A better option may be to pull air into a chimney, but this is very bulky and stupendously weak. I tried making a solid state chimney which even used a light bulb to heat the air within the chimney to make it more powerful. It was utterly hopeless.

What shape was your chimney, out of curiosity? Cylindrical? or funnel-shaped?

IsaacKuo · Post by **IsaacKuo** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 8:52 am

10cm diameter tube, about 4feet...umm...120cm tall.

Vilius · Post by **Vilius** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 3:35 pm

I can't use fan because of my health problems, and it's does't matter how loud it is. I just noticed that my 12cm fan (now it's the only one fan in my case) placed into power supply is right for me, but other fans just attached to heatsinks harms my health.
I tried to use similar cooling system as my power supply, so i bought thermaltake sonic tower and attached 12cm fan to it. I used termoresistors to customize speed, but it still killing me. Of course I used 8cm, 7cm fans, different heatsinks - nothing helped.
However 12cm fan still brings minimal harm - so maybe there is a way to 'box' is somehow ant put it in similar working situation - like my power supply's fan ?
Now I'm using realy 'passive' system with my case open, and trying not to load cpu heavily.
Thats why I'm looking non standard fans or just alternative air blowers.

BrianE · Post by **BrianE** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 4:08 pm

I have trouble imagining what kind of health problems would be associated with axial fans so specifically, but have you considered watercooling (ie. a Reserator) with a fanless PSU (maybe mounted outside the case)?

I hope you're not "allergic" to EM waves or something, because almost everything I can think of uses spinning electric motors somehow in some form... If you're really serious about getting away from "spinning" air movers I agree with QuietOC that you're looking at things like bellows or flapping devices powered by a crankshaft-like device that translates rotational motion (of a motor) into linear motion. Needless to say you're going to either have to custom make this or modify some kind of hobby kit.

Actually.... it sounds kind of cool now that I think about it. Anyone want to make a retro Victorian-era themed computer?

Bluefront · Post by **Bluefront** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 4:42 pm

You guys are missing an easy way to get airflow without a fan.....a remote air-compressor, a pressure line running to the computer, a temperature regulated air nozzle(s) blowing on the hot spots.

Reasonably quiet at the computer, noisy near the compressor. I use such a system at work every day.....

IsaacKuo · Post by **IsaacKuo** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 5:26 pm

I don't understand. What health problems? I'm not aware of any way in which quiet fans can be harmful.

dhanson865 · Post by **dhanson865** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 7:05 pm

either he is trying to win a bet or is some kind of magnetic therapy freak. Though that is just a guess.

I could imagine too much airflow being an issue for someone with allergies. No sense stirring dust around if you can avoid it but he didn't mention wanting to keep airflow down, he just mentioned avoiding blades around an axis.

He could use the curcuit found in this movie to supply airflow

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089114/

eternizer · Post by **eternizer** » Fri Apr 21, 2006 1:53 pm

dhanson865 wrote:either he is trying to win a bet or is some kind of magnetic therapy freak

Hey, that's a bit harsh~
It's not like you know every health problem in the world.
We don't know yet if there's something like "Axial fanophobia."

jaganath · Post by **jaganath** » Sat Apr 22, 2006 12:58 am

I don't understand. What health problems? I'm not aware of any way in which quiet fans can be harmful.

He could have tinnitus. Although some tinnitus sufferers find the "white noise" broadband whoosh of a quiet fan can actually help with their condition.

dhanson865 · Post by **dhanson865** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 12:44 pm

eternizer wrote:Hey, that's a bit harsh~

If he lists any AMA recognised concern that could conceivably be affected by a fan I'll apologise to him and the thread in public.

BrianE · Post by **BrianE** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 7:05 pm

dhanson865 wrote:
eternizer wrote:Hey, that's a bit harsh~
If he lists any AMA recognised concern that could conceivably be affected by a fan I'll apologise to him and the thread in public.

I think that would be a private matter though, and Vilius may not wish to share such information with the public.

In any case, it is an interesting problem and challenge, and the impetus for coming up with a solution shouldn't really matter. It could just be simple eccentricity or somthing... what difference does it make?

Along the lines of Bluefront's idea, a remote mounted air source has been mentioned before in the past. Someone proposed mounting a fan or blower in their basement and running the air upstairs through a central vacuum cleaner hose type of deal through the wall.

blow air without fan ???

blow air without fan ???

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Vilius