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Ghetto Mods

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So I've had a bit of a ghetto mod going in one of my Dells. Recently rebuilt it to work better and with a 129mm fan instead of a 92mm fan. Here are the results;
View attachment 206944
View attachment 206945
View attachment 206946
It's basically a wind tunnel with one end wrapped around the back of the heatsink and the other end wrapped around the 120mm fan. The effect is much better cooling and much lower noise than the 92mm fan provided. And even though it's a bit ghetto, I think it looks really cool! No pun intended.

BTW, yes I know the cable management isn't great. It's a T3500 and there's only so much you can do..
yeah, it's ghetto and neat solution too
 
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So I've had a bit of a ghetto mod going in one of my Dells. Recently rebuilt it to work better and with a 129mm fan instead of a 92mm fan. Here are the results;
View attachment 206944
View attachment 206945
View attachment 206946
It's basically a wind tunnel with one end wrapped around the back of the heatsink and the other end wrapped around the 120mm fan. The effect is much better cooling and much lower noise than the 92mm fan provided. And even though it's a bit ghetto, I think it looks really cool! No pun intended.

BTW, yes I know the cable management isn't great. It's a T3500 and there's only so much you can do..
Looks good! Not entirely dissimilar from the shroud I made in my NAS recently. Sorry for the blurry pic, either I had smudged the lens on my phone or it has some weird depth of field stuff going on.

Rear fan is an Arctic P14 CO PWM, heatsink is a Cooler Master TX3 Evo. Fitting the 92mm fan to the heatsink would either put that right up against the rear fan (turbulence noise hell, so no thanks) or up against the HDD cabling in the front (again, no thanks), so I just made a shroud connecting the two from some black foam core board and scotch tape. Would have liked some black fabric tape for the looks, but ... I didn't have any, and I sure wasn't buying it for this. And now it's dead silent, has a fan that can easily cope with the thermal output of the 1600X in there even if I suddenly start stressing it, and looks decently good too. Only downside is that the rear fan doesn't directly flow air across the HBA's heatsink, but it'll live.

I guess the 2.5GbE NIC on an m.2 riser isn't quite a ghetto mod, but it sure is convenient!
 
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Rear fan is an Arctic P14 CO PWM, heatsink is a Cooler Master TX3 Evo.
Looks good too! Arguably better than mine.

Fitting the 92mm fan to the heatsink would either put that right up against the rear fan (turbulence noise hell, so no thanks) or up against the HDD cabling in the front (again, no thanks)
Agreed. Given the space limitations, yours was more of a necessity, I think. With my T3500, I could and did get the job done with a good 80mm fan. But with that Arctic MX-5 testing last month, I wanted to maintain a high level of static airflow pressure.

I just made a shroud connecting the two from some black foam core board and scotch tape.
I did the same. Black foam core poster board and metal tape.
 
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20210705_114813.jpg

it should be cool coz it said the best fan :D :roll:
 
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The tiny fan on this 9500GT packed up so I bolted this one on it.
9500GT (1).jpg 9500GT (2).jpg
 
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The tiny fan on this 9500GT packed up so I bolted this one on it.
View attachment 207806 View attachment 207807
Nice! I once did this with AGP video cards all the time. Knowing that the tiny fans would give out I started mounting 80mm fans to the tops of heatsinks on GPU's to guarantee proper cooling and reduce noise. Always worked and everyone was always grateful!
 
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something that ironic about low end laptop is the fan is not for cooling down the heatsink, just to cool down itself
20210729_183832.jpg

no fins, no heatsink, athough if you ask me the laptop runs well. yes, it runs pretty well but the fan spinning like jet engine without cooling down any components
then i buy another fan then cut it to make the fresh air flowing to those components
20210731_132619.jpg

after some testings it looks pretty good, and sorry for custom washer and wifi cable there, the connector is broken so i need to wrap it to prevent any short circuit
 
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something that ironic about low end laptop is the fan is not for cooling down the heatsink, just to cool down itself
View attachment 210683
no fins, no heatsink, athough if you ask me the laptop runs well. yes, it runs pretty well but the fan spinning like jet engine without cooling down any components
then i buy another fan then cut it to make the fresh air flowing to those components
View attachment 210684
after some testings it looks pretty good, and sorry for custom washer and wifi cable there, the connector is broken so i need to wrap it to prevent any short circuit
Looks like there is room for a heatsink there, maybe that is available on Ebay or similar and can be retrofitted?
 
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Looks like there is room for a heatsink there, maybe that is available on Ebay or similar and can be retrofitted?
i've browsed but i can't find any model that match to my laptop, so i leave it like that
 
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Here's my latest mod from the ghetto...
GatewayKeyboardWithCarpet.jpg

Yes, that IS a rubber base carpet tile cut to fit the wrist rest. The rubber handrest was falling apart so I replaced it. This is my very favorite keyboard and it would be a total waste to just throw it away. The keys are showing some wear but it's not bad for being older than a few of my children and all of my grandchildren!
 
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using plastic from this one
bodrex-flu.png


scratch the aluminum layer and add double tape, tadaaaa
20210821_121940.jpg

a thin and heavy duty mouse feet, btw i need to sand the bottom of the mouse so it can perfectly flat enough
 
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Don't have cpu cooler for Lenovo brand motherboard. s478 stock cooler works fine
139440_20210817_163404.jpg
 
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I found this on reddit, I think it deserves to get a mention here.

 
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Here's a clearer picture of an IHS soldered to heatsink. Unlike an earlier photo I upload to this thread which was a downdraft Noctua heatsink, this one is a Phantek downdraft. This was solder under high pressure, but what you can now see is how the solder flows up & around the IHS giving it a seal..
So we have more contact with the coldplate, but this is debatable if it's a improvement.
 

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I'd bet there is at least some. How much? Who knows.

Well one can debate could the IHS perform better with the side of the IHS exposed direct to the air. In this config it now needs to travel through the solder. This experiment is to close the gap to it's only competitor LM.

My testing has shown LM only has a maximum peak advantage of 4C over a soldered IHS, but in most cases, you will be 2 - 3C behind LM.
 
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Finally bought a Dremel last weekend, had time to make my first case mod!

I added a 120mm intake fan to the front and a few holes for cable management. The case is pretty old and used to have some sort of LGA 775 (G31) motherboard in it.

20210830_184152_HDR.jpg

20210830_184200_HDR.jpg

I kinda messed up a bit with the fan but it still holds!
 
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Finally bought a Dremel last weekend, had time to make my first case mod!

I added a 120mm intake fan to the front and a few holes for cable management. The case is pretty old and used to have some sort of LGA 775 (G31) motherboard in it.


I kinda messed up a bit with the fan but it still holds!
This is a cool mod, nicely done! That fan is going to be far more effective now.
 
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I kinda messed up a bit with the fan but it still holds!
naw you didnt, looks good for a first attempt. Next stop, round holes!
 
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Opposite thumbs rulez :toast:
keep on moddin'.
 
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