Re: [tlug] Bitsa Woes: Quieter Cooling Alternatives

[jep200404@example.com]

On Thu, 22 Sep 2011 12:04:17 +0900, CL <az.4tlug@example.com> wrote:

> On 09/22/2011 10:56 AM, jep200404@example.com wrote:

> > How much money and time are you willing to spend?
> 
> The money I already spent was _supposed_ to be the solution.

Ahh, so you have copious spare time to spend on this. :-)

> > There are quieter ways of cooling your board.
> 
> And, short of spending the price of another board, what might some of 
> these be?

> > How tolerant are you of ugly but functional improvisations?
> 
> What are you offering?  What can't be seen doesn't offend.  If you have 
> some ideas, let's take a look.

If you have room beside your video board, try using a bigger, 
slower fan. Try using a bigger heat sink[1]. Try them together. 
Those can accomplish the same cooling as your noisy fans. 
Unfortunately, many video boards have another board beside 
them so there is no more room for a bigger heat sink and 
bigger fan. 

I have done some of this. I get used computers. 
Video board fans are fast, tiny, noisy, and usually of poor 
quality, so they quit working, usually due to loss of 
lubrication. I can usually relubricate other computer fans, 
but my success rate with relubing video board fans is poor. 
So I _add_ a fan, usually a bigger slower fan. The mechanical 
mounting is the hard part. Usually, I wing it with sloppy hacks 
such as: 

o using screws that bite into the fins of the heat sink 
  or drilling holes for screws into a plate that covers 
  the heat sink

o using tywraps to hold the fan to something

    E.g. http://colug.net/~jep/images/tywrapped-fan/

o using dental floss to tie the fan to something

Sometimes the fan is not even mounted to the video board, 
but is mounted to something else nearby. The improvised 
bigger, slower fan is quieter than the original fan. 

Rubber mounts for fans will reduce case vibration. 

One can also use ducting to put the fan somewhere else. 
You can make ducting out of various materials, such as 
cardboard and plastic packaging. Vacuum cleaners are noisy. 
Some people put the noisy blower in the basement with 
plumbing to vacuum outlets in the rooms. The rushing air 
still makes noise, but much less than the blower. You 
can make a milder version of that for your computer. 

Water cooling can allow to eliminate the noisy fans from 
inside the computer. With a big enough exterior heat sink, 
you will not need exterior fans either. A cooling tower 
above the external radiator will silently help the air flow. 

Heat pipes are another way of getting the heat from your 
board to a better radiator/heat sink outside the box, 
or a better place inside the box. Unfortunately, fabrication 
of heat pipes is not something you can do yourself. 

Big squirrel cage fans are the quietest, but usually need 
ducting. 

Avoid having things close to the leading edges of fan blades. 
Things close to the leading edges make more noise than 
things close to the trailing edges. 

Search for site:linuxjournal.com ultimate computer cooling 
E.g. http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/8292
http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/8318

Use your imagination. _Try_ stuff. 

[1] Bob Pease[2] would recommend using a cylinder head from an 
    air-cooled motor[3]. 
    https://duckduckgo.com/html/?q=bob%20pease%20cylinder%20head%20heat%20sink
    https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Special:BookSources/9780750694995
[2] https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Bob_Pease
[3] https://duckduckgo.com/html/?q=How%20to%20Keep%20Your%20Volkswagen%20Alive
[4] Hmmm. More fun: 
    https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/ZMM
    https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/The_Tao_of_Programming