New Theory: Chieftec case airflow design flawed !?

Hello,

According to intel and amd the airflow inside a case is supposed to go from
the front of the case to the back of the case and out the back of the case.

The airflow is supposed to go past the components.

Also the case could be seen as a "air/wind" tunnel.

The problem with the chieftec case could be that it has "holes" on the left
side near the cpu and the rear/back fan.

The back/read fan is thus sucking air directly from this open hole... so the
airflow is not correct.

This means no air is getting sucked away from the motherboard, and no air is
getting sucked away from the graphics cards ?!

That could explain the death of the motherboard.

Also the same can be said for open cases.

Open cases are dangerous because the tunnel effect is lost.

So I have stuck two pieces of papier to fill up these holes...

Only the rear right holes are open... there are fans blowing in cold air
over the harddisks... and then this cold air should now flow
across the inside of the case instead of back out...

While playing battlefield 2 the temperatures were pretty stable:

CPU: 51 degrees

Mainboard: 48 to 49 degrees.

(With open case the mainboard temperature even rose to 51 degrees)
(With holes open the mainboard temperature was 49 degrees and gfx graphs
cards spinning at max or so.)

(CPU might have been cooler though with open holes... )

So not 100% if covering holes is good idea.

I didn't watch the nvidia control panel degrees to bad really, should have
done that...

But now I noticed the fans of the graphics cards are pretty quiet ?!

Apperently the graphics cards could be better cooled now ? Temperature
readings will have to show that.

Also the power fan... which was normally not active... and spinning really
low...

Is now spinning higher... at 800 to 900 RPM.

So more heat is actually being transported out of the case !

Yup I just checked... I almost stuck my finger into the cpu fan on accident
lol... Gotta be carefull when sticking my hand inside the case in the dark


The temperatures felt pretty cool inside...

And I can definelty notice the heat building up in the room !

This means the chieftec case could not have two flaws:

1. Power button clearance... not enough, got stuck in the past !

2. Airflow bad !?!?

Also the standard heatsink of the AMD X2 3800+ is probably also flawed !

The bottom is way to big... which creates a sort of air pocket around the
cpu...

The air cannot get away properly...

After market cpu coolers have smaller area which matches the cpu area... and
then heatpipes upwards.

The more free air arround the cpu will probably tranport more heat away
better and keep things cool.

That could explain why some after market coolers are much better

Bye,
Skybuck.

Ok,

I have done the following:

1. Closed the holes near the harddisks. Fans blowing in cool air over
harddisks.

Cool air should now go through the rest of the system.

2. Plugged the whole near the graphics cards... not sure if that's smart.

3. Left the hole near the cpu open.

This helps keep the cpu cool... the cpu fan can directly blow the hot air
out...

The results so far are:

1. Definetly cooler motherboard.

2. At the same time pretty cool cpu.

3. Also the graphics cards don't seem to spin up, could indicate cooler gfx
as well.

I also closed the holes at the back near the gfx cards... so the gfx cards
don't suck the hot air back in...

Ofcourse I left the holes of the gfx cards themselfs open at the back

Bye,
Skybuck.

- Just put your PC into the bath tub filled with water then you don't
have to worry about airflow and overheat issue.

schreef:
> - Just put your PC into the bath tub filled with water then you don't
> have to worry about airflow and overheat issue.
>
>

With Starbuck in the bath? :-)
--

Rudolpho