I just did to my PC what in the USSR used to be called a "Skillful Hands" club, and what is now called modding.
The gist of it was simple: I replaced the 8cm exhaust fan on the back panel with a 12cm one. To do this, I first had to slightly mangle the case with wire cutters, then bend the sheet metal with pliers, and rub the fan's plastic with a needle file so it would fit. At this point, I rejoiced at the fact that our house has every conceivable tool.
Next, I replaced the AMD stock CPU fan, which I had set up as an intake, with that very 8cm fan from the back panel. Along the way, it turned out that the AMD fan wasn't working for some reason. Apparently, serving below its rank didn't do it any good. The proud special forces fan, whose duty was to guard the central processor, couldn't bear the appointment to the pathetic position of the fourth-ranking blower in the case. The installation of the 8cm old-timer, however, went almost without a hitch.
Then a fresh thought crossed my mind, one that for some reason hadn't visited me before. The thing is, all my fans run at a reduced speed. One is connected through a special device - an adjustable rheobus. The CPU fan is controlled by the motherboard - at high temperatures, the revolutions per second increase. But there is no good solution for the third fan, so it was connected to the red and yellow wire from the power supply, which gives 7 volts instead of the usual 12. It's an inflexible solution, but it worked.
So, the thought was as simple as five kopecks, and yet not bad at all. Why not connect the exhaust fan, the 12cm one, in parallel with the CPU fan to the motherboard? I hardly play games, so its RPM will almost always be reduced, just like the CPU's. But if it gets hot - no problem, the airflow will immediately go full blast.
And so I did. There's not that much left - to drill more air holes where the 12cm fan is now, because this spot isn't meant for it, and so half of its effort is currently going to waste.
If you want to ask why I needed all this, the answer is: just out of curiosity.
And, as it turned out, even a bit useful - after all, I discovered that the hard drives weren't getting any airflow due to the death of the AMD cooler. And I have 4 hard drives, and they heat up like irons, which without cooling means a short life and a painful death.
The whole process took me about two hours, with breaks for pickles.
Fans
2007-02-16