# A few aircooling tips and tricks



## de.das.dude (Dec 20, 2010)

Disclaimer:- all the ideas given below in this thread has been acquired from experience.


*Proper directional flow through fans*

This following picture shows the flow of air through a fan if you hang it in mid-air.





The red circular streams you see is very bad. When the fan is in a confined space these extend till the center of the fan, reducing efficiency by circulating hot air(which gets hotter) by 80%!

So what to do??
The obvious answer is to stop these little loops from happening.
And the easiest way to do it is to place a obstruction in th place where it works. Like below






But this isnt possible for all cases(situations).
For example RAM coolers or some VGA other PCI card cooler, were there is a heat sink and the fan is mounted on it plain jane as shown below.






*A few MOAR tips and tricks:-*

*Its best to have intakes and exhausts for each major heat source in your case*
For example, i put a side intake fan for my GPU, and since it didnt come with its own awesome cooling, i had to raise my case to total lift of 1.5cm and put an exhaust tunnel to the back, sucking the air from below.
*Make sure your exhausts and intakes dont end up circulating one another's air*
what i mean is, sometimes having an intake and an exhaust will cause he intake to circulate the exhausts hot air itself.
*To prevent the problem stated in the above point, i like to set different sides for the intake or exhaust.*
For example:- i put all exhausts to the back and the side panel and front is for intakes.
Use incense sticks to check air flow and remove unwanted turbulences.









Fatal's Questions...
*Q1.Whats the deal about Air filters??*
*Ans*. Well, airfilters are *only required for the intakes of hard-to-clean-components and if you live in a dusty environment ( have industries nearby, or a lot of vehicles moving about).*
Air filters will save you the trouble of having to dismantle the whole cooling unit for cleaning every month or so..

Air Filters are a complete waste on exhausts. In-fact i even chop off the grills on the case for the exhausts. They are also a waste in clean areas like the countryside. As Magikherbs stated, having a high RPM causes TURBULENCE. this is solved by placing the filter on the side of the fan such that the fan is SUCKING the air through it.

I have an air-filter for the CPU intake as my cooler is hard to clean. The GPU one dont need filters, a brush clean every month does the trick.
i found out that a 1mm wire mesh is working for me!
 hope this answered your query.

*Q2. What about negative and positive pressure??*
Ans. Frankly, i never noticed the difference, but as AMD says it, always have exhausts, intakes are automatically chosen.
and i always like to keep a discrete hole someplace for the pressure balance, or to check pressure balance.


*Click HERE for Fan Maintenance Procedures*


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## Magikherbs (Dec 20, 2010)

Its all about the FLOW 

Peace


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## de.das.dude (Dec 20, 2010)

updateD!


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## Fatal (Dec 20, 2010)

Great thread, I do have some questions about air-cooling from your experience. My first question is fan filters I am sure many dislike the air cleaning that we have to do due to the many fans that can be added to most cases. Many of these filters restrict airflow do you have any tips on filters that do the job but don't effect the cooling performance? My second question is positive VS negative pressure what have you found out about these two and what do you believe is best?


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## de.das.dude (Dec 20, 2010)

Q1.Whats the deal about Air filters??
Ans. Well, airfilters are only required for the intakes of hard-to-clean-components and if you live in a dusty environment ( have industries nearby, or a lot of vehicles moving about).
Air filters will save you the trouble of having to dismantle the whole cooling unit for cleaning every month or so..

Air Filters are a complete waste on exhausts. In-fact i even chop off the grills on the case for the exhausts. They are also a waste in clean areas like the countryside.

I have an air-filter for the CPU intake as my cooler is hard to clean. The GPU one dont need filters, a brush clean every month does the trick.
i found out that a 1mm wire mesh is working for me!


rest gotta wait. im sleepy


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## Magikherbs (Dec 20, 2010)

I've learned to watch my fan speeds, when using a filter. If set too high, all you'll get is turbulance.
Some case designs work great with every fan set as exhaust (positive ?). It all depends on what your personal thermal limits are heh... Later on tonight, I'll reconfig my fans and see what happens lol..


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## Fatal (Dec 20, 2010)

Thanks just figured I would ask  like many people I'm always looking for tips to improve my case cooling.


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## Magikherbs (Dec 21, 2010)

Sweet setup there Fatal ! 

What are you lookin to improve ? Temps, noise and/or dust ?


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## Fatal (Dec 21, 2010)

Magikherbs said:


> Sweet setup there Fatal !
> 
> What are you lookin to improve ? Temps, noise and/or dust ?



Well I wanted to water cool but I think I will wait I just set up rigs for my little brother and his wife. His case is the Cooler Master HAF X and she got an Antec DF-85. They both have the AMD 1090T in them I told them to get the FRIO cooler nice cooler pain to mount. He was concerned about airflow and with those cases they shouldn't have an issue at all. Both of the cases are quiet well to me they are. My bro and I try to out do each other so I may build my first Intel rig with a I7. 

My case well not much I can switch around dust is not an issue. It is however loud due to the Kaze's but when gaming I cant hear it with the headset. The Antec 900 case I had out cooled my current case. The 180mm's fans in this case are terrible might switch them when I get a better performing computer.  My main goal is temps 100% noise and dust I can deal with.


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## de.das.dude (Dec 21, 2010)

Fatal said:


> Well I wanted to water cool but I think I will wait I just set up rigs for my little brother and his wife. His case is the Cooler Master HAF X and she got an Antec DF-85. They both have the AMD 1090T in them I told them to get the FRIO cooler nice cooler pain to mount. He was concerned about airflow and with those cases they shouldn't have an issue at all. Both of the cases are quiet well to me they are. My bro and I try to out do each other so I may build my first Intel rig with a I7.
> 
> My case well not much I can switch around dust is not an issue. It is however loud due to the Kaze's but when gaming I cant hear it with the headset. The Antec 900 case I had out cooled my current case. The 180mm's fans in this case are terrible might switch them when I get a better performing computer.  My main goal is temps 100% noise and dust I can deal with.



yo i answered all your queries. check the thread. peace :


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## micropage7 (Dec 21, 2010)

i put spacer on the fan to prevent dead airflow and to make it easier to clean


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## Magikherbs (Dec 21, 2010)

Fatal said:


> Well I wanted to water cool but I think I will wait I just set up rigs for my little brother and his wife. His case is the Cooler Master HAF X and she got an Antec DF-85. They both have the AMD 1090T in them I told them to get the FRIO cooler nice cooler pain to mount. He was concerned about airflow and with those cases they shouldn't have an issue at all. Both of the cases are quiet well to me they are. My bro and I try to out do each other so I may build my first Intel rig with a I7.
> 
> My case well not much I can switch around dust is not an issue. It is however loud due to the Kaze's but when gaming I cant hear it with the headset. The Antec 900 case I had out cooled my current case. The 180mm's fans in this case are terrible might switch them when I get a better performing computer.  My main goal is temps 100% noise and dust I can deal with.



I think its great that people water cool, but I'm not into it. The extra maintenance, cost and risks, are keeping me away lol...
What temps are you getting on those 1090's ? The stock Phenom II HSF's with copper/heatpipes are AoK in my books. My friend's 125w PII 920/40 only runs 5-7C hotter than my 95w chip, using the same model HSF.
What kind of speed control are you using (my keyboard has gone french lol.. question mark is now ÉÉÉ !! hah..


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## Fatal (Dec 22, 2010)

Magikherbs said:


> I think its great that people water cool, but I'm not into it. The extra maintenance, cost and risks, are keeping me away lol...
> What temps are you getting on those 1090's ? The stock Phenom II HSF's with copper/heatpipes are AoK in my books. My friend's 125w PII 920/40 only runs 5-7C hotter than my 95w chip, using the same model HSF.
> What kind of speed control are you using (my keyboard has gone french lol.. question mark is now ÉÉÉ !! hah..



I am not concerned about the 1090T's those belong to my brother and his wife. I doubt they will over clock them at all I left the 1090T's stock. Maybe after they have had them a while they will want to over clock them.  They most likely have great temps both have the Thermaltake FRIO. 

Water cooling has risk as you stated but for the case I have my air cooling options are limited. That is why watercooling would be my answer, but I am leaning more towards an upgrade CPU/Motherboard/Memory and graphics card. 

thanks for the OP update de.das.dude


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## Magikherbs (Dec 30, 2010)

*Amd CPU fans make for great cooling mods *

I twist tied my spare cpu fan to the main one then added some folded duct tape on the two sides. After installing my new ram, I was expecting my CPU temps to rise 7-10C, but instead its barely 1C lol..






Update.. 

After re installing the 8800 GT, mobo/HDD/Gpu temps went up then back down lol.. I added a 4th 120mm fan aswell, which didn't help at first. On a hunch, I removed the twist tied ram fan and it did the trick !  Temps are almost what they were before I added the 2nd gpu and ram.


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