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 ....

....


... and piled up in the configuration they're going to go into my rig in:







Fitting

Time to get on with the installation. Removing the existing 80mm fan showed that Q-Tec use my most hated method of fixing the fan to the heatsink - self-tapping screws between 2 of the fins. Shows you get what you pay for

Installing the Thermaltake "Ducting Mod" was easy, thanks to a couple of slots in the moulding allowing my screwdriver a straight run to the lowermost screws.




Installing the Mitron 80-120mm adaptor was more tricky, thanks to rapidly diminishing space .....




.... Fitting the fan was a real problem for the same reason. In the end I had to remove the case exhaust fan to get the nut on the final fan screw.




Never mind, I got it all in there in the end ... but it looks like I'll have a fight on my hands getting the wiring vaguely tidy again.




'nother break ...

....


Noise

Without any equipment to measure sound pressure levels any comments about noise are purely subjective, however I'd say that the noise level from the new fan is approximately equal to the existing case fans, which Antec claim run at 24.85 Db(A).

That's a lot louder than the 21 Db(A) that Thermaltake claim for the fan, though it's still pretty easy on the ear.



Temperatures

Before removing the 80mm fan, I left my rig folding at 100% CPU load, unattended for a whole hour. The CPU temperature at the end of that was 41.0C, off an ambient (room) temperature of 21.5C.

After fitting the "Ducting Mod", 80-120mm adaptor & the 120mm fan, running the same test in an ambient 20.1C showed the CPU temp was a steady 35C.

Taking into account the difference between the ambient temps, I'd call that a useful increase in cooling power

Quitting f@h & leaving the rig alone for 20 minutes showed the CPU temperature had fallen to 22.5C.
As I used two different devices to measure the temps there is a margin for error, but I'm still chuffed with getting a CPU idle temp on the close order of 1.5C above ambient


"Proof" of ambient temps (upper reading is the temperature of the sender on the unit, the lower figure is that of the external sensor {the small dark sausage just visible on the bottom of the case}):





CPU temp at full load (bottom right of window):





Idle temps:






Conclusion

I'm pretty pleased with the increase in cooling power, especially as I've achieved it with no noise penalty.

Of course, all this does raise the question of how much better I could do with a decent heatsink, decent thermal grease, and a straight path from a sidepanel mounted fan ....

I guess that'll be part 2 when I get around to it, but for the meantime, what I've got is good enough.



Post Scriptum

Well, I thought it was good enough .... but a problem appeared over the next couple of days. Both the "idle" and "load" temps crept up a couple of degrees ... and kept on climbing

PRs Mack-Daddy of all things cooling (ZENNZZO), and I have theories about what's causing this, so I guess part 2 will be a fuller explanation & what I'm going to do about it, and part 3 will be whether it worked.

Pretty neat mod there. One question, how heavy is it? It seems that there would be a lot of force pulling against the top of the socket.

You got real close to the window. It wouldn't take too much to take it that little bit more and get some clean outside air ducted in.

Yet another great write-up there Jonny, are you a writer or something?

I'm with BA on this. Do an intake straight to the HSF. It's fresh cold air.

Quote: Originally Posted by BigAkita Pretty neat mod there. One question, how heavy is it? It seems that there would be a lot of force pulling against the top of the socket....

It is a bit of a worry ... it's heavier than the average cooler, & hangs out a long way - far too much leverage when it comes to moving the rig. It really needs some sort of bracing. I'm leaning towards a single 120mm wide strip of plexi running the full height of the case, with cutouts & edge shaping to improve the pimpness

Quote: Originally Posted by BigAkita ...You got real close to the window. It wouldn't take too much to take it that little bit more and get some clean outside air ducted in.

I do plan to do that - this was really just a test to see if the basic idea was worth pursuing. It works (sort of), so making my own straight-to-outside duct is on my list of things to do

Quote: Originally Posted by Jonny English It works (sort of), so making my own straight-to-outside duct is on my list of things to do

I have done the same thing with the following differences, I didn't use the 45 deg elbow duct, and have a fan from outside blowing over the 120 fan. Granted this is another fan to add noise, but I am assuming that the additional "fresh" airflow will help cool northbridge and ram as opposed to a direct duct to the cpu which will only benefit the processor.



I have since added a blue UV 120mm fan to interact with the UVCC 80mm fan shown in pic.

Very enjoyable and well laid out article Jon

Sorry to hear the temps are going awry..I'm looking forward to hearing the solution

How the crap is your room temp 20c, thats frecken cold!!! mine is 35ish.

Nice writeup tho, when my Aero7 Tubine fan stops working I will be looking into something like that.

Quote: Originally Posted by TYCOON How the crap is your room temp 20c, thats frecken cold!!! mine is 35ish.

You actually keep your room temp at 95 deg F? What do you wear around the house, a speedo?

Hi - my first post here .

Just saw this and thought hmm! Mainly because I tried something similar (see attachment) with the AX478 I have, only difference is that I went with the 120mm focussed-flow delta fan (hehehehe), although I'm running it off 5 volts since, obviously, 60dBa isnt fun! (well, not for more than 5 minutes it isnt). It certainly performs better temperature wise than my Tt smart fan on 5v. It does seem to work quite well, doesnt it!

I used the pretty much the same 80/120 adapter as you (only I got one from the abominable ebuyer many days ago). Problem I've been having though is that the deadzone of the delta fan is comparitively huge versus other 120mm fans, and I suspect that's having an effect on the amount of air getting through. I'm wondering if having used the ducting would have helped, specifically because the new moddy casey type thing I'm doing will hopefully have a huge duct in the side direct for the delta, so hopefully I'll be able to experiment a bit with a bit of airflow before the HSF.

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