Safely direct airflow using household items

[½mv²]

Get those fire extinguishers ready - Skreap is modding again!
(For those of you with ADD, you can skip right to my question in bold at the end of the post)

It's time to OC.
The one catch is that I don't want to spend more than a few dollars on cooling improvement.


For those of you that don't remember or know, I am *THE* Zero-Dollar Master Fabricator of MotherBoards.org. All posts recommending cheap store-bought solutions will be ignored... Not because I think my way is better (trust me, it's not), but because if it costs more than a roll of duct tape, it's too expensive for me!

(all suggestions/ideas are welcome, BTW - even the really crazy ones...
...scratch that - ESPECIALLY the really crazy ones!)


So, here's my situation:
I've got 4 case fans that aren't currenlty "dedicated" to the cooling of a particular device (2 exhaust in back, 1 intake on top, 1 intake on front). I've also got 3 extra case fans that I'm prepared to fabricate mounting locations for if necessary. I have all the tools I need to cut / bend / shape my case, as well as whatever household items I plan to use.

But therein lies the problem - I'll be directing the flow of air using common household items, not the fancy plastic things you see in most store bought PC's. There is a 100% chance that my creation will be mostly (if not entirely) duct tape.
So my question is this: can heatsinks generate enough heat to ignite/melt/singe common household items like cardboard, plastic bottles, construction paper, styrofoam, and duct tape?

[Sabrewings]

Just a helpful hint, fans at the top of the case are for exhaust, not intake. Fans at the lower/front of the case suck in, and fans at the upper/rear of the case blow out.

Good luck.

[~Rob]

2 Words...

Bean Cans

[½mv²]

... fans at the top of the case are for exhaust, not intake...

Currenlty, the top fan is exhaust. At the moment, I only have 2 intake fans, and one is occupied cooling my SATA config. The only remaining 80mm isn't quite strong enough to push that much air that far across the case. The 120 is closer & more powerful so it makes sense to spin it around for the sake of this mod.

2 Words...

Bean Cans

definately study & cheap, but the only means available to bind the cans together is duct tape. Plus, if any of the tape ever came lose, I'd risk shorting out everything. For a setup this flimsy, I'd prefer to use non-conductive materials.

[ajrox]

WHAT YOU NEED:
plastic water bottles work awsome with duct tape and are really easy to manipulate with sharp scisors. get some zip ties or the wire pairs out of an old network cable by cutting off the mod plugs and pulling the wire out of the jacket.

WHAT YOU DO WITH IT:
i would channel air from an out side source or two and bring it to the CPU heat sink for more efficient cooling. maybe cut a hole at the top of your case and then one in the back or where ever you have room.
i would also make a fan shroud for your memory to get a good flow of air over the memory.

i have also used the exhaust hose from a clothes dryer to direct cold air from outside in the winter time, into my case using house fans and creating my own funnels from water/milk juggs.
it was used on an old celeron 300A OCed set up. man did it run good when the CPU ran at 58 F . thems were the dayz............

on a side note:
for a more professional appearance, use card board and duct tape to get a good tight fit of your shrouds and fans. then use the card board shrouds as a template and make something really nice out of foam board. the kind you find at craft stores for 3 or 4$, for a 2 foot -by- 3 foot piece. use hot glue to assemble the new shroud. a trick on this, only cut one side of the foam board so it will still hold together, yet allow you to fold it a 90* angles or more....
good luck
AJ

[MrCraigCraig]

(all suggestions/ideas are welcome, BTW - even the really crazy ones...
...scratch that - ESPECIALLY the really crazy ones!)

I suggest not being cheap.

Otherwise, I'd feel you're conducting an experiment where everthing you utilize is an EXPENDABLE item.

Enjoy.

Sincerely,
MrCraigCraig

[Twisty]

Dude, use cardboard.
I have many times.
With a bit of care things can be made virtually airtight.
Cardboard to duct air from intake fan onto CPU heatsink.
I have also used a modified cereal packet to make a -scoop- that ducts from the front to fan on back of case used for CPU intake, but I never took a photo of that

But if you want a crazy idea, just dunk the whole motherboard in engine oil. I have done that too.

[KineticNRG]

Interesting that you would necro this Mr.C...

Due to the lack of ideas at that point in time (note that this thread was started in November), I went ahead and used cardboard and duct tape. A friend let me borrow a dremmel saw, which I used to cut a hole for an 80mm case fan. I attached a cardboard cone to the fan and pointed it directly into the heatsink. I assumed that it worked just fine and just assumed that everything was alright....

...(Define Irony, Mr. C)....

Last night I took my computer apart for some quarterly dusting and saw that the 80mm + cardboard cone was NOT getting the job done. The heatsink was BADLY oxidized and partially warped. I ripped the cardboard out and put the fan-wich back. I also decided what my next mod was going to be...

...but that'll be an all new thread for the future....

[MrCraigCraig]

Interesting that you would necro this Mr.C...

Due to the lack of ideas at that point in time (note that this thread was started in November), I went ahead and used cardboard and duct tape. A friend let me borrow a dremmel saw, which I used to cut a hole for an 80mm case fan. I attached a cardboard cone to the fan and pointed it directly into the heatsink. I assumed that it worked just fine and just assumed that everything was alright....

...(Define Irony, Mr. C)....

Last night I took my computer apart for some quarterly dusting and saw that the 80mm + cardboard cone was NOT getting the job done. The heatsink was BADLY oxidized and partially warped. I ripped the cardboard out and put the fan-wich back. I also decided what my next mod was going to be...

...but that'll be an all new thread for the future....

No disrespect intended earlier or now. Earlier I was just putting my proverbial two-cents into the mix.

Glad you still seem to be having fun. Hope things are better in the future.

Sincerely,
MrCraigCraig.

P.S. Yes, I do appreciate irony.

[Twisty]

Execution and selection of materials is more important than value
I have run cardboard for years, practically non stop with the CPU maxed out.
I also find better airflow if I remove the fan from the heatsink and just use the intake fan on the case. The whole system has to be practically airtight though, with the duct sealing around the top of the heatsink, just pointing the duct in the vague direction of the heatsink wont cut it. I usually cheat and draw my templates in AutoCAD.