Those horrible looking flexible ducts: worth anything, or?

Cerb · Post by **Cerb** » Sat Nov 25, 2006 7:17 pm

Like this, or maybe this.

Are they worth using at all? Now, I'm not concerned about reduced air flowing through. The duct in my PC is actually holding up great, and the Panaflo at 5v can keep the video card (a Geforce FX) at barely acceptable temps (103C has been the max read) with the case intake fans turned off. What I'm worried about is that the tubing may cause more noise than the fans, being ribbed and having that foil stuff, and even if not making much noise, that it may make exceptionally annoying noise.

My objective is to get rid of two fans, as they are largely redundant (a lower intake, video card fan, then an upper intake, and CPU fan--why not combine them?). The video card cooling fan should be able to handle being an intake for the HDD, video card, and bottom part of the motherboard; while the CPU fan can be an intake for the whole top section of the motherboard.

I've been trying to just use foam board, but cutting by hand (well, break-off blade knives) is just not doing the job very well. Prototype after large prototype just doesn't cut it. I need to make them too complex for my current methods and skill. So, I thought, maybe I'll try that ducting stuff to go to component areas, from 120mm fans near the front.

Has anyone had any experiences with these things to share? Any alternative materials (for tubing, or to card board and foam board for ease of manufacture)?

Tibors · Post by **Tibors** » Sun Nov 26, 2006 7:40 am

I've used one of those sunbeam kits (loooong ago). The tubing doesn't create or increase noise in it self, but in your case it might indirectly. Your current setup uses 120mm fans. the sunbeam kit only works with 80mm and 70mm fans, so for the same airflow you will need louder fans. The iner diameter of the tubing in the sunbeam kit is only 60mm to 70mm (depending on how far you stretch it). Besides it is to expensive (including shipping).

If you want to use this kind of ducting, then go to your local home improvement store. Look for ducting for dryer vents or kitchen ventilation. Here in the Netherlands such ducting has a standard diameter of 110mm, which fits a lot better with your fans. Besides it only costs a few â‚¬ per meter and you don't have to pay for shipping.

On the other hand I have had more success with using cardboard partitioning than with tube ducting.

Shadowknight · Post by **Shadowknight** » Sun Nov 26, 2006 8:28 am

thermalright makes 120mm ducts for some of their heatsinks, so you might want to try one of those, if your heart is really set on trying this.

Cerb · Post by **Cerb** » Sun Nov 26, 2006 9:02 am

The Thermalright ones are too short (I'd need two major bends each hose, and no less than 1ft), too stiff, and I don't think 120mm or will work due to height.

the sunbeam kit only works with 80mm and 70mm fans, so for the same airflow you will need louder fans.

That should be irrelevant, as adapting a 120mm fan is pretty easy, and would seem the better way to do it. The diameter is certainly quite small on both units, though.

I may see what my local Aces carry. I'll gladly pay markup and shipping before going to Lowe's or Home Depot. I guess silicone rubber would probably affix it fine, and remove any issues of uneven cutting.

I've had good results with card board and then for the final products, foam board, and may try again for the CPU (it has to go around vertically, but not horizontally); but going around the rear components and power plug on the video card offers too many places for small errors to add up to big ones, which is what happens. My idea with a flexible duct there is to take what I've got, mate it to a hose (be it the Panaflo at the card, or a Yate Loon/Nexus at the PC's front), and mate the hose near the intake.

jackylman · Post by **jackylman** » Sun Nov 26, 2006 1:09 pm

Or you could get a better video card (7600GS)

Cerb · Post by **Cerb** » Sun Nov 26, 2006 2:05 pm

Huge markup, shipping, etc: $30 or so, for two, maybe less.

New video card: minimum $133.63 (at Newegg). That's at least 4x more, and still keeps me tied to AGP.

I'd love to just build a new dually set of guts with a new card, too, but it's not a viable option, right now. However, while the details are killing me, it appears the general design of my case works exceptionally well, so I am entertaining ideas that I would previously have avoided like the plague...within budget shackles.

alleycat · Post by **alleycat** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 6:28 am

I made a coil using stiff wire then wrapped it with duct tape. The resulting duct was very solid. You can customise it however you like and it costs next to nothing. I've documented it here.