Introduction
For a while I've been thinking that grafting a 120mm fan on to a
CPU heatsink would be a great idea, so when my
Q-Tec AMD "Noiseless" Cooler turned out to be a lot less effective than I'd hoped, it seemed to be an ideal candidate for the treatment.
There were two ways this could have turned out, either:
* it would be a kickarse cooling solution, in which case I'd (eventually) make my own adaptors & ductwork to a sidepanel-mounted 120 fan; or
* it would be pretty indifferent, in which case the
HSF & all the gubbins would get moved to my 800 Duron rig, & I'd have to buy a better cooler for my #1 rig.
80 to 120mm adaptors have recently become available over here, so one of those seemed an ideal buy - there's no point going to the effort and expense of making something yourself for a proof of concept if it turns out that the concept is a load of baloney.
The most obvious problem was the lack of space between the
HSF & the
PSU in my
Antec Super LANBOY case - no way was I going to be able to plonk a 120 straight on the heatsink. A bit of guesswork & "measuring" with a CD later, I thought a Thermaltake "Ducting Mod" (basically a 45 degree bend for 80mm fans) would do the trick - angling the 120mm fan slightly downwards should give enough clearance.
List of bits (either bought new or from my overflowing moddin' box o' tricks):
* Mitron 80-120mm fan adaptor (£5.22 at
www.overclock.co.uk);
* Thermaltake "Ducting Mod" (£8.84
at
www.overclock.co.uk);
* Chrome 120mm fan grille (around £2);
* Thermaltake "Thunderblade" 120mm blue LED fan (I liked the sound of 21Db(A) & 78cfm: £10 from
www.tekcomputersuk.com);
* Molex plug, sleeving & heatshrink to make the fan wiring look pretty (probably another 3 quids worth);
* Q-Tec AMD "Noiseless" Cooler (around £8).
Adding in the cost of postage that comes to around £45. I could have bought a pretty good cooler for that much - maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all
Unpacking
A pic of the principal bits, still in their boxes (I'm assuming you know what the rest looks like
) ...
... out of the boxes ...
.... continues after the break (too many images, apparently ....