New bottom-vented case design, now with photos...free.

[Bluefront]

Here it is, photos 83-90


I've come up with a unique case/cooling design, unlike anything I've seen before. And I'm looking to sell the design/plans before I go public and post pictures on this website. Perhaps I can work a deal like I sell the design, and sign a form not to design any new computer products for a year......something like that.

Here's the deal, what it will do, and some info. Don't expect to figure this out by looking at any of my other projects posted around here....it's different.

I'm going to use a standard case, but the technique/design could be used to construct a brand new case from scratch. The case will look totally OEM from the outside, with the new system incorporated with stealth features.

A normal computer person, with beginner skills, could mod his case with this design. So it's a relatively easy mod. And since there are several distinct parts to this design, a person could use one or all the features.

Just how quiet the final setup will be depends on the processor heat, how much filtration you use, and how hot you're willing to run. I've done some experimentation with a P4 3.2.....it runs cool on minimum fan speeds. I'm talking real slow.....like 120mm fans at 2.8v. The cpu/heatsink will be cooled with ambient air, but you won't see the process even with a window on the case.

The case will be neutral pressure, with no air being sucked through the optical drives. All the incoming air will be through one filter....which can be easily changed or eliminated completely. Any intake sounds will be muted, and with the fans on their lowest setting, well it's quiet. If desired, standard dampening pads/panels can be installed, although that's not part of the basic design.

The hard drives will be copper heat-sinked, and cooled with reverse airflow.....using no direct fan airflow. In fact, if you look at the HD setup, the way it's cooled is not visable.

The CPU heatsink is not directly attached to the CPU fan...another stealth mod. Even with a window the mount method is invisable.

There will be direct airflow/cooling for a hot video card....maybe enough to eliminate the VGA fan. Depends on how hot it is.

The PSU is totally untouched, so you can use any type....even vented if you want.

I could go on.....but I don't want to give the whole thing away. Any takers on my offer?

Anybody want to venture a guess on how I pulled this off? It's maybe two months from completion.....

[acompeau]

I'll take a guess, just because it sounds really similar to something I've been churning over design-wise. As for the case design sale, I'll tell you right now that large OEM case companies will not come knocking on your door. I wish you all the best with it, but you'd be better off attempting to fabricate and sell it directly, a la www.coolcases.com (IMO, of course).

Anyway, onto the design supposition:
- hard drives mounted into an enclosure that is padded, mounted a bit higher than normal in the case. The intake is the conventional fan location, but the offset allows for an indirect air flow path that can be "ducted" and padded with acoustic material.
- The HDD enclosure has a single 120mm fan mounted at the back, pulling in the cold air from the from of the case, through the padded duct described above, across the hard drives.
- This single 120mm fan then blows air "sideways" onto the CPU heatsink and GPU heatsink.
- The CPU heatsink is oriented with the fins running laterally (i.e., in the direction of air flow from front to back of the case). A Zalman "flower" style cooler would work fine here. Preferably the same with the GPU.
- This air flow path from the HDD fan to the CPU & GPU heatsink can also be ducted and padded to exit the system through the rear exhaust (no fan here).

So what you have single 120mm fan (in the middle of a padded duct in the middle of the case) pulling in cold air from the front fan grill (presumably removed and filtered) over the hard drives, and then blowing it onto the GPU And CPU heatsinks (northbridge, too). This whole air path is ducted, and that duct is padded with acoustic material. You can count on the PSU to exhasut any lingering internal case heat.

I forgot to mention that the hard drives are suspended with heatsinks as part of the suspension. This cries out for a diagram, but each HD has it's own side "clips" made of copper or AL that has holes for shock cord and the shock cord attaches to the enclosure (detachable clips - like carabiners)

So how close am I, or does this approach sound interesting to you? I'm in the middle of constructing this, with most of the time taken to construct the padded ducting & HD enclosure. I've been making it out of acrylic, but I feel that some kind of flexible mylar would be superior.

The only other thought I had was a variant with the exhaust going out the top of the case. This doesn't seem like what you're doing because that would have at least 2 cold air intakes (front and back). I thought it was less likely to cool the CPU & GPU effectively than directly blowing air onto their heatsinks (as above).

Cheers,

Aram

[Bluefront]

acompeau.....Thanks for the summary of your project, but the basic design is different from my setup.

The way you are using your intake fan (internal mounted) is similar to the "cookie jar computer"of MikeC's article. I found that I did not have to run the intake fan quite so fast with this new method.....and at the same time achieve superior cooling. We'll see. Also you're relying on a restricted area in the front cover for a filter....I'm not. The filters I've tried so far are much bigger that a front cover would hold.

Yeah I know selling designs like this is next to impossible.....my offer is half in jest. But you never know. I'm interested in your setup....post pictures if you can. Case modding on this website is unusual....most posters around here just want to bolt stuff on.

[halcyon]

I'll offer you 1 dollar for your case design and you can design more if you want to

Jest aside, I'm sure there are several of us here waiting to hear what you have under wings.

I also wouldn't be too pessimistic about giving free ideas to manufactures. Selling designs might be another issues.

What you'll find with most Asian manufacturers that (after costs, time to market, etc) what matter is the looks of the case. That's what the manufacturers think that sell the case.

So if you slap on a beautiful (or hideous for that matter) design, then you might get more attention

[tay]

I'm not sure how serious you are about selling designs or w/e but you could always talk with quiet pc retailers like ARM or quietpc etc. It is very difficult to beat economies of scale of off the shelf parts however you could start with a stock case as a baseline.

Any up and coming case manufacturers that you could approach? Most of the action is in Taiwan/Korea unfortunately, it would be much easier dealing with a north american manufacturer. Good luck in any case (HAW HAW).

[esn]

I've come up with a unique case/cooling design, unlike anything I've seen before. And I'm looking to sell the design/plans before I go public and post pictures on this website. Perhaps I can work a deal like I sell the design, and sign a form not to design any new computer products for a year......something like that.

Getting a patent on the concept(s) and then selling licenses might be your best way to go (this coming from someone with very little business sense). No doubt your ideas are based on the ATX spec. With BTX on the horizion, manufacturer's may or may not be interested. I'm really not sure what the projected lifespan of the ATX form factor is now. You should consider that before investing in this.

[Bluefront]

IMHO.....getting a patent on a design like this might be possible, at a moderate cost. But what would you do with it? If you tried to sell or licence the thing, just who could you trust? I'm afraid as soon as the concept was known, it would immediately be changed/modified enough to avoid infringement....and you would soon see it as an import from "Young Long Mfg Co.", or whatever. For a little person to defend against this is virtually impossible.

I suspect the way to go would be to accept a flat payment from some company.....with some agreement to sell new designs as they came along. Maybe I'm dreaming....

[acompeau]

Getting a patent on it is really easy (although it's not "cheap"). That doesn't really help you, though. The problem with patents is that related litigation is expensive. Let's say you patent it and someone copies it directly. Now you need to sue them and prove patent infringement in court. How much money did you have ready for that?

If the idea is that simple, you won't be able to sell it. Showing it to a company will most likely result in them:
1. Using directly without paying, and then claiming they came up with it. Prove that they didn't in court...
2. Using the kernel of the idea with some changes, possibly even improvements.
3. Ignoring it completely.

The issue is that an idea alone is almost worth nothing. It may not make business sense to do a product out of it. It might be attractive now, but what about in 2 years? How much return on up front costs (e.g., tooling, design, marketing, etc..) can the company reasonably expect to extract from it? How big is the potential market? Will it evaporate or expand? Is there any barrier to entry/copy for the competition?

It sounds to me, from your description, that:
- the market is small
- it's really easy to copy
- it's inexpensive and easy to make

Anyway, I don't mean any offense here, but I seriously doubt a company will pay you for the idea alone. If you had a thriving business based upon the idea, that's something else entirely. Then you have a proven business case to sell. Ideas are plentiful. Successful businesses are not. Just my 2 cents.

If you think it's really good, then I suggest you offer to sell cases like ARM Systems or Coolcases.com.

Cheers,

Aram

[EndoSteel]

Bluefront
I agree with esn - BTX is your worst enemy. Because it's almost perfect. Do you really have a better system to offer?

[Bluefront]

Bluefront's new design. Nothing is perfect, not this design, not the BTX design. My design runs cleaner than any BTX case I've seen, probably cooler....you judge.

Bluefront's new design.

Ok...here it is, partially completed. Yeah I know it bears a resemblance to the "cookie jar computer" project. But it's completely different in the airflow. And the duct with a 92mm fan in it's mouth, was not a cookie jar. It's a storage container I found at a Target store. I cut the flanges off one side of the fan...which then is held to the duct by rubber mounts and cable ties. It's effectively de-coupled.

The computer case (Ahanix Black Knight) has the 3.5" HD cage completely removed. The new HD mount (actually two aluminum HD mount plates from CompUSA) is held against foam pads on the bottom of the upper drive cage, and foam pads on the top of the clear duct. Nylon cable ties keep it from moving....so the drive and the side plates are de-coupled. Before this computer is completed, I'll probably change this HD mount into a copper metal for better heat transfer. Also there will be fewer holes in the plates so more of the airflow is ducted over the HD.

There is a hole in the back of the clear duct...and the front bezel of the case was made air-tight. The 92mm fan is drawing air through this front air channel. The air enters over the hard drive and through the former floppy drive hole into the case (no outside un-filtered air enters here as the front bezel floppy drive cover hole remains closed). Reverse airflow for HD cooling. There is another smaller hole in the bottom of the clear duct, right over the front end of the filter. The result is a mixture of ambient fresh air, and internal case air being blasted upward at a 45 degree angle toward the video card, and other MB components. Depending on HD temps, the amount of airflow over the HD can be increased by reducing the size of the bottom hole in the clear duct (it's hard to see in the photos).

This case is running almost neutral case pressure, due to the size of the bottom vent. The rear case fan (120mm) and the PSU are drawing air through this filter.....which is held in a plastic register vent, 4"x12", Home Depot $10. The platform is made from a file cabinet roll-around stand. Office Depot $20. I cut a 3/4" thick poplar board the size of the case bottom. Then there is a 4"x12" hole cut in the board, and in the bottom of the case. The bottom of the case is covered in sticky-back felt...seals the cracks.

That's a home-made filter in the photos, but you could use anything there....a white vent filter, a foam AC filter...whatever. There is room for a 1 1/2" thick filter, without sticking into the case. Of course, the less restrictive the filter, the better the airflow.

I have experimented with a similar setup using a P4 3.2 on an Intel board. This case runs cool. With the rear case fan at 2.8v and the duct fan at 2.8v, the CPU maxes out less than 50c. And it's quiet....not silent, quiet. I was using a Swiftech heatsink (like the one in the SPCR review) and a quiet thermally-controlled cpu fan at about 1700rpm.

This is an Ahanix Black Knight case, with a built-in fan control system. But the same design could be used with a number of different cases. I am still working on this setup, but it's coming along just fine. Before it's finished I'll have a duct system for the CPU fan...also drawing air directly through the bottom vent filter (still working on that).

Feel free to borrow this design, improve on it, try to sell it....whatever. It works, and it's plenty quiet, and not too hard to build. You'll have a clean, quiet, powerful computer if you duplicate it. That Black Knight case is a winner.

[chylld]

i think you've done a lot of good work bluey, but as others have said, i don't think it warrants the trouble of going through the process of getting it patented.

think of yourself as one to aircooling what cathar is to watercooling - "open source" design

having said that, i think it's too much trouble for a regular spcr person to do all of those mods. perhaps if you can modularise it into distinct 'sections' (e.g. filter section, duct section) and make each part ridiculously easy to install into almost any case, then you might have a winner on your hands.

keep it up

[ahrbruz]

Excellent work as usual Bluefront. At first I thought your 'cookie jar' was remarkedly similar to the 'GummyBear' dispenser at my local mega-mart.

I have a cruder version, two years old, for my significant other's computer. Air is drawn through the bottom of the case via an angled fan mount, in this case an 80mm Pana. Air is filtered using a rectangular Fram automotive filter. Again quiet; not quite silent.

Keep us in our toes with your next 'out of the box' mod.

Thanks

ahrbruz

[GOODFELLA]

BTX is not perfect and most motherboard manufacuters are not even adopting it, or they are just producing them for the niche that may actually need BTX. ATX is going to be around for at least the next 5 years. Good luck with your design man.

[EndoSteel]

Bluefront
Looks nice . I wonder, though, what occurs to airflow when a full set of PCI cards is installed...

[Bluefront]

It's hard to get a good perspective looking at flat pictures. But actually most of the flow from the bottom duct fan goes over the top of an AGP card....maybe 40% is directed under the card.

Same with the PCI slot cards.....most of the airflow goes over the outer edge of the card. They do partially sit in the airflow...just not enough to matter. During testing on the first computer, there were no temp differences with or without any cards.

[stuartlee]

You can apply for a provisional patent application at the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office.

It doesn't really give you any protection, but it does preserve the filing date of the provisional patent application at the USPTO so that you can pursue a much more expensive nonprovisional patent application, i.e., a "regular" patent application", within 1 year of the filing date of the provisional patent application.

Case in point:
Inventor invents A and B.
Inventor files provisional patent application for "A" and provisional patent application for "B". Each provisional patent application is accompanied with an $80 fee.
Inventor determines after some dog and pony shows that A is worthless (nobody want to license it or technologically/cost-wise not feasible) but B shows promise.
With the money from licensing deals, the Inventor files a "regular" patent application for B within 1 YEAR of the filing date of the provisional patent application for B.
Inventor abandons the provisional patent application for A by not doing anything for 1 year after the filing date of provisional patent application A.
..............
During examination of the patent application at the USPTO, an Examiner is unable to cite a patent or some other prior art dated AFTER the date of filing of the provisional patent application "B" to support his arguments against the patentability of invention B.

So the provisional patent application will give you some sort of priority IF you decide to pursue a non-provisional patent application (i.e., a "regular" patent application) based on the provisional patent application, later.

BUT, you gotta realize that from start to finish, it is not unusual to incur costs beyond $10,000 to get a patent (that issues from a non-provisional patent application), with most of the costs from patent attorney fees. You do not get a patent from a provisional patent application alone.

"Patent It Yourself" from Nolo Press isn't soo bad if you have the time to learn and do the stuff that a patent attorney would do.

Check out: www.uspto.gov

THIS IS NOT MEANT AS LEGAL ADVICE, nor should be used as such.

[edcrane]

Cool stuff. I recently did the 45degree mount w/a shitake mushroom jar from costco. I like the idea of making this more compact than the cookiejar mod, but I've got to imagine the recirculaitng air (around the HD) will inevitably cool less than fresh room temperature air. Regardless, the 45 degree mount is definitely key. IMO the big problem with the cookiejar mod (at least my implementation) was that it shot all that fresh air into the PCI area and only managed to hit the bottom of my zalman z-80 (which seems almost counterproductive to me). The 45 hits the cpu, northbridge, and top of zalman, which has resulted in lower temps where it counts.

[Bluefront]

Yeah this was the reason for the new design. With the cookie jar setup I used louvers to direct airflow upward....but they don't show up well in the photos, since the bottom louver was clear. This setup is more compact, and blowing upward without additional louvers.

The down side is cooling the hard drive with internal case air. When I built the first computer with this new system, the internal case air temp was low....maybe ambient +3c. So I think the drive temps will only be affected slightly. If this setup is close to the first in performance, I expect the HD temp to be about 34c...we'll see.

The other thing about this new design is the ease of assembly/dis-assembly. The HD comes out in a minute, as does the entire lower clear duct assy. And you could build it without the roll-around stand, simply with castors screwed directly to the bottom of the case. I try to make these case projects as simple as possible....

FWIW....The lower angle fan's role in pulling in outside air is totally different from the "cookie jar computer". Most of the air is pulled into this case by the rear 120mm fan and the 120mm PSU fan. The angle fan is getting maybe half of it's air through the filter. But it's major roll is to cool the HD, provide internal case air movement, and to directly blow air over the AGP card area,as well as other spots on the MB. So it's roll as an intake fan is relatively minor. All the air entering this case comes through the bottom filter......no openings at the front at all.

[Trip]

That's really amazing Bluefront - if I needed a case, I'd buy one. Heh, not the design but a case

[edcrane]

Hmm, well after a second look I see your point that this is an entirely different beast (from the cookiejar). As I see it, there's a likely compromise made between ease of construction and noise reduction. It's still an excellent case idea for uses with relatively quiet components (eg: hds that aren't made by WD). I think these last two concepts have been really innovative, and really should be marketed and sold somehow.

[Bluefront]

edcrane....I know some of the things here are hard to see. They're also hard to photograph. The HD mount is even hard to explain. It is totally de-coupled. The mount plates function as heatsinks, but they have no metal connection to the case. There are 4mm foam strips between the HD cage and everything it touches. I don't expect any noise from this drive....but should it happen, there is enough room for more dampening.

Yeah this case is simpler than the cookie duct setup.....but it may end up being quieter. The cookie duct computer had only two fans.....this setup will have four. But with the Black Knight's fan controller, I can run the rear case fan and the angle fan at 2.8v (very quiet). The 120mm PSU fan is on a reostadt, and it should run at minimum speeds. I haven't decided on a CPU yet....or a CPU heatsink/fan. I'm thinking a P4 3.0 with an Aerocool HT 101.

[edcrane]

My primary noise concern is HD whine (not seek noise, which is most effectively reduced with decoupling). This may actually become even more of an issue this week as I look to possibly moving on to scsi. Anyway, the muffled intake in conjunction with acoustic shielding on the inside of the case seems to prevent whine from escaping. I would expect the large, direct opening at the bottom of this case would make shielding elsewhere in the case moot.

[Bluefront]

Not really....This case will sit on a carpeted floor. And noises from openings that face down, like this one, are effectively muffled by the carpet. So it does pay to dampen the inside of the case. An effective dampening material inside will lessen sounds directed downward, out the vent. I'd treat a setup like this just like a standard setup...dampening helps.

[Trip]

I'm thinking a P4 3.0 with an Aerocool HT 101.

Good choice

do you think you would duct (if you went with this) and what other HSF would you consider, "Copper Triple HeatPipe Ultra Performance HeatSink" (which is just ARM's name for the thermalright hs, I think...)?

[Bluefront]

That HT 101 is a perfect candidate for a short duct pointing back at the 120mm rear case fan.....the mount points for the duct are already on the HS. A quiet 80mm fan blowing through the HS, being helped along by the suction from the rear 120mm...sounds good. Pointing the duct at the rear case fan would limit the amount of heated air going through the PSU.

In response to the question about sounds escaping through the vent/filter....it would be an easy matter to construct a simple internal sound baffle at that location. A plate say 4"x8" over the filter, mounted about 1.5" above the filter opening, cover the top of the plate with some dampening....you got an easy internal sound reduction system for the opening. When this thing is running I'll probably experiment with this idea.

[PretzelB]

You'd think a picture is worth a thousand words but Bluefronts mods are so intense that the pictures aren't enough!!! Sorry but I gotta ask questions again.

So the plastic Target container has a hole in the bottom and back? I see the foam on top but I think that's just to cushion the drive cages. If the jar has a hole in the back then it's pulling unfiltered air into the case right? There must be a filter in the front that I can't see. I'm confused by this part because you say you made the case air tight (look like a nice neat job) and you put that nice filter in the bottom, but it also sounds like you're pulling unfiltered air thru the front. It says the air enters over the hard drives thru the front but the front is closed.

I like your mod for the wheels - very creative. Makes me wish I didn't have a desk with a pc storage cabinet.

There is a hole in the back of the clear duct...and the front bezel of the case was made air-tight. The 92mm fan is drawing air through this front air channel. The air enters over the hard drive and through the former floppy drive hole into the case (no outside un-filtered air enters here as the front bezel floppy drive cover hole remains closed). Reverse airflow for HD cooling. There is another smaller hole in the bottom of the clear duct, right over the front end of the filter. The result is a mixture of ambient fresh air, and internal case air being blasted upward at a 45 degree angle toward the video card, and other MB components. Depending on HD temps, the amount of airflow over the HD can be increased by reducing the size of the bottom hole in the clear duct (it's hard to see in the photos).

[Bluefront]

Ok...I put up more photos of the setup, 91-96. You can see the bottom part of the front bezel is sealed from the outside. The only thing there is the fan control board, and two openings. The lower round opening goes into the clear angle duct. Air is being sucked into this hole by the 92mm fan. The air is being suicked out of the upper square hole....the hard drive cage. So the HD is being cooled by air from inside the case. No outside air gets into this part of the computer bezel. It is serving as an air channel only.....and it's padded, and quiet. From the front this computer makes very little noise...

I have high hopes this computer will be quieter than the cookie jar computer which is running on two fans only....this Black Knight will have four, but running very slowly.

[Sledge]

BTX is not perfect and most motherboard manufacuters are not even adopting it, or they are just producing them for the niche that may actually need BTX. ATX is going to be around for at least the next 5 years. Good luck with your design man.

Recently at a computer forum, one of the admins got a chance to ask some AMD reps questions. One of them was abut BTX. Of course the AMD rep took this opportunity to tweak the nose of their rival Intel by saying that BTX is useful if you have excessive heat problems and Athlon64s do not require any special modifications for cool running.

[PretzelB]

Oh my gosh, I think I get it. You are a creative modder I'll give you that.

I wouldn't think the 92mm fan would be powerful enough to pull air that far so a current was generated around the drives. Or at least, pull air that far and still remain quiet.

Did you leave the fan grill on the exhaust?

One last compliment - you sure do neat work. It looks very tidy and precise. Well done.

Ok...I put up more photos of the setup, 91-96. You can see the bottom part of the front bezel is sealed from the outside. The only thing there is the fan control board, and two openings. The lower round opening goes into the clear angle duct. Air is being sucked into this hole by the 92mm fan. The air is being suicked out of the upper square hole....the hard drive cage. So the HD is being cooled by air from inside the case. No outside air gets into this part of the computer bezel. It is serving as an air channel only.....and it's padded, and quiet. From the front this computer makes very little noise...

I have high hopes this computer will be quieter than the cookie jar computer which is running on two fans only....this Black Knight will have four, but running very slowly.

[Bluefront]

Thanks PretzelB....I hope how this setup is working, is clear to everyone. The one big advantage here is to cool your hard drives, mounted in a normal position, without the noise of a front fan opening.

FWIW...In case anyone wonders how I can judge fans, airflow, controller boards etc., without a CPU installed, it's easy. I hook up an Antec power supply tester, which will run fans, lights, fan controllers, etc. To simulate a cpu fan I just sit the cpu fan I intend to use somewhere inside the case, let it run there. Doing noise testing before the whole setup is complete makes final changes much easier.