Serendipity

[clocker]

A few days ago while practising Tai-chi and honing my miming skills* I espied a set of el-cheapo speakers by the roadside.
Strangely attracted, I picked one up to study and something clicked....I wasn't sure what, but I was compelled to rescue them.

They joined the rest of my study objects- things I gaze upon and dream up uses for, until today, when a combination of factors came together and they went from junk speakers to potential Sprocket parts.

My temporary fling with watercooling was about to come to an end ( for a variety of reasons not germaine to this topic) and Sprock was going to be breathing pure air again.
This time round I wanted to explore a slightly different airflow config and my eye happened upon the speakers and viola! it all came together.

But, would it work?

Here is the speaker in question....
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[img]http://img26.photobucket.com/albums/v78/clocker/mini-donor.jpg' width='200' height='120' border='0' alt='click for full size view'>
And here it is with the front bezel removed...
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[img]http://img26.photobucket.com/albums/v78/clocker/mini-donorbezel.jpg' width='200' height='120' border='0' alt='click for full size view'>
Can you see what caught my attention yet?
Flipping the bezel over, I tried the proof of concept...
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[img]http://img26.photobucket.com/albums/v78/clocker/mini-aha.jpg' width='200' height='120' border='0' alt='click for full size view'>
Man, don't you just love when a plan comes together?
A PERFECT fit for a 92mm fan.
Now, if I could manage to remove it, I would have a beautiful turbine intake-look bezel/duct for my fans....

Out comes the Dremel (one of the few times ever) and in a matter of minutes....
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[img]http://img26.photobucket.com/albums/v78/clocker/mini-dremeled.jpg' width='200' height='120' border='0' alt='click for full size view'>
You gotta love working with plastic.
Well, most of the time anyway.
This next step was nerve-wracking....it's hard to securely chuck up a part like this cause it flexes.
Disaster waiting to happen...
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[img]http://img26.photobucket.com/albums/v78/clocker/mini-chuckedup.jpg' width='200' height='120' border='0' alt='click for full size view'>
It took a while, but I was finally able to true the edge and flatten the back of the rim.
Scary, but successful.

Now, a bit of nibbling on the sidepanel, some GOOP adhesive, a pair of trimmed down 120mm fingerguards and two 92mm fans later, we have this...
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[img]http://img26.photobucket.com/albums/v78/clocker/mini-installed.jpg' width='200' height='120' border='0' alt='click for full size view'>
Sprocket's new side intakes/ducts.
The lower of the two bathes the video card and southbridge, the upper washes over the northbridge and the Zalman 7000 HS.
Initially I plan on trying her out with ONLY these two fans...no other intakes or exhausts.
We'll see how that goes and add as necessary.
The front of the case is already setup for a 120mm intake and the rear for twin 92mm exhausts so I have expandability well in hand, but the plan is to see just how minimum a setup I can get away with.
I'm figuring that with the current hot temps (no AC on though) that my room ambient is about 25c or so.
If I could get an idle temp of 40c, that would be pretty good assuming the noise level is as low as I expect.
I have to let the adhesive setup for a while longer, then we'll see.


*OK, I lied...I was taking out the trash and one of my neighbors was tossing these out.

I might TRY tai-chi someday though.


Oh hell, who am I kidding?

[tesco]

Seems like a lot of effort for "The speaker Look," but it's cool, nice job.

*OK, I lied...I was taking out the trash and one of my neighbors was tossing these out.

I might TRY tai-chi someday though.


Oh hell, who am I kidding?

Nice closing. You Should be a poet, or write books, or something..


BTW:
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[img]http://img26.photobucket.com/albums/v78/clocker/mini-installed.jpg' width='200' height='120' border='0' alt='click for full size view'>
Where did these other two computers come from?

[clocker]

I wasn't going for "the speaker look" so much, just a nice finished duct.
These place the fans 2 1/2" in from the sidepanel...the lower fan nearly ( and I mean VERY nearly) touches the edge of the video card and the upper fan is but 1 1/2" from the face of the HS.

The other two computers are but bare cases, destined to house the servers I am building for my brother.
Four Raptors have already been found/purchased on eBay and should be here early next week.

I CANNOT let Sprocket see them.

[tesco]

Originally posted by clocker@3 July 2004 - 22:12
I wasn't going for "the speaker look" so much, just a nice finished duct.
These place the fans 2 1/2" in from the sidepanel...the lower fan nearly ( and I mean VERY nearly) touches the edge of the video card and the upper fan is but 1 1/2" from the face of the HS.

The other two computers are but bare cases, destined to house the servers I am building for my brother.
Four Raptors have already been found/purchased on eBay and should be here early next week.

I CANNOT let Sprocket see them.

Oh IC, it doesn't look that way from teh pics, just look like the fans are against the case basically.


They aren't really bare cases, they have floppy and CD-ROM drives in them...

[Tormentor]

I thought you were trying to do as little modding to the case itself as possible? Just couldn't resist? By the way it looks very very nice, good job.

[clocker]

Originally posted by Tormentor@3 July 2004 - 20:19
I thought you were trying to do as little modding to the case itself as possible? Just couldn't resist? By the way it looks very very nice, good job.

This is true and I have a fallback plan should this one not pan out.

It just seemed silly to depend on a fan all the way in the lower front of the case to deliver air to the HSF in the upper back of the case.*
The mods are on the side, so they aren't immediately visible anyway.

* All those darling little drawings of case airflow that show a nice strong flow of air from the front intake to the back exhaust ( with the arrows slowly morphing from blue ( cold presumably) to red ( hot?) as they waft out the back) are so much bull IMO.
I say put the air where you want it and let it flow however it wants after that.

[bigdawgfoxx]

I thought you would use it for that haha...cool idea

[clocker]

Looking over my original post I realized that the pics do not give a good view of just how deep these ducts are.
This should help clarify...
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[img]http://img26.photobucket.com/albums/v78/clocker/newduct.jpg' width='200' height='120' border='0' alt='click for full size view'>

Just getting ready to install the case skin now.
Running naked, Sprocket's temps are:

Case ( whatever that means): 16c

CPU: 36c

Video card:40c

Remember, this is with only the HSF and the southbridge fan running ( well, OK, the PSU also), so any changes with the skin installed will be due to the additional fans/ducts.

Here we go!

[kaiweiler]

Very nice
and a case temp of 16C?? I thought your ambient was around 25.....
Something's off there.
But otherwise it looks very good but your case temp seems a little low and your Vid Card seems a bit high, do you still have that Zalman passive heatsink on it?? It used to be 26C with just that, now with a 92mm fan directly on it I would think it would be lower not almost 15C higher.
Your temps don't really make sense to me, but it's nice work none the less.

[clocker]

It's cooler in the morning, K.
The Zalman heatpipe cooler is gone, replaced by the Zalman HS meant for the northbridge.
I had a 120mm fan blowing over the card from the side with both setups.


The skin is installed but one of the fans is making a horrible whining noise...gotta investigate....