Single fan madness pt 1 - PIII Gateway

IsaacKuo · Post by **IsaacKuo** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 9:43 pm

This PIII Gateway has a slot 1 Pentium III 500 with the fan removed. The only fan is the PSU fan--a 92mm flipped fan exhausting air into the case.

Exterior View

Interior view

This duct directs air from the 92mm PSU fan over/past the CPU heatsink. This fan is flipped to blow downward, and undervolted to 5volts. Very quiet! The duct is made out of a plastic cup for fruit snacks.

This drive suspension is a cut up plastic drink bottle with bubble wrap partially wrapped around it. I found this old Quantum was already surprisingly quiet--luck of the draw.

This computer is pretty quiet; while not quite up to my own standards it's good enough for my Dad. While this mod involved mixing and matching a lot of equipment, the basic mod could be done to a stock Gateway.

BTW, the stock Gateway of this model is LOUD!!! The stock CPU fan is hellacious and the 92mm at 12volts isn't far behind. At work, one of these Gateways easily overwhelms the noise of half a dozen nearby computers of various makes and models (ranging from old Pentium Pro IBMs to modern P4 Compaqs).

skj · Post by **skj** » Wed Jun 15, 2005 6:05 am

Isaac,

Enjoyed both of your projects, especially the hard drive mods. They should get bonus points for buoyancy.

One question--how come you decided to flip the PSU fan? If the CPU heatsink is ducted, wouldn't it get cooler air with the fan blowing up? Did you find one method noisier than the other?

Thanks,
skj

IsaacKuo · Post by **IsaacKuo** » Wed Jun 15, 2005 6:19 am

Thanks! I flipped the fan for a couple reasons:

The main reason is that it's easier to blow air "at" a heatsink than it is to suck air past it. Air blowing out of a duct will remain somewhat coherent, and will actually draw along some more air from the surroundings. Air being sucked into a duct comes inward equally from all directions.

For this particular project, the PSU is more important than the CPU. I have a few spare slot 1 processors lying around. I only have one working Gateway PSU. The original Gateway PSU that this case came with died a couple years ago. The PSU mounting isn't ATX. Therefore, I'd rather provide the PSU fresh air than the CPU.