Anyone have any experience building a wind tunnel for CPU cooler exhaust?

[soarwitheagles]

Hi everyone!

Ok, some time ago I built an AMD 1055T/Gigabyte's 890XA-UD3 combo and it worked flawlessly for a few months. When I attempted to upgrade from a GTS 250 to a GTX 460, something went wrong and my MOBO died on the spot.

I received the RMA'd MOBO, but as I was reassembling everything I noticed my Corsair H70 leaking like crazy [I have suspicions the leaky H70 is what killed my MOBO in the first place].

I have decided to no longer use Corsair water cooling in my computer builds simply because I do not want the stress of wondering if it is leaking.

One of the main reasons I liked the idea of water cooling was because I no longer needed a massive air cooler restricting case air flow and applying massive weight on my Mobo.

As a happy compromise, I decided to use the Hyper 212+, which by the way, weighs exactly half as much as that monster Noctua NH-D14.

I also found some scrap metal on the way home from work and decided to assemble a "wind tunnel" for the exhaust of the Hyper 212+.

I am not even sure if it is a good idea.

Can people here please comment on the concept/effectiveness of using a "wind tunnel" to get all the hot air out of the computer case?

Thanks and I included some pics of my tunnel.

Soar

 

[patonb]

What case do you have?


Doh.... a sniper right?

You don't need a tunnel, just point thne exhaust up to the top fan. i think you'll reduce air flow with an exhaust tunnel.

 

[S0ULphIRE]

^indeed.
And btw, new mobos are designed to handle the stress of heavier heatsinks. It's like worrying about putting a 5 ton weight on a boat that can handle 10 tons. You're not going to do any damage to the mobo with the D14, unless you transport the computer vertically somewhere and you bump or drop it.

 

[soarwitheagles]

What case do you have?


Doh.... a sniper right?

You don't need a tunnel, just point thne exhaust up to the top fan. i think you'll reduce air flow with an exhaust tunnel.

Paton,

Yes, it is the Sniper by CM and I love it.

I too thought of turning the CPU Cooler but then the Hyper 212+ I am using would block nearly all four of the memory slots! When you move the Hyper 212+ from east/west orientation and move it to north/south orientation, it covers just about all four RAM slots. The illustrations from CM all show east/west orientation as well....

^indeed.
And btw, new mobos are designed to handle the stress of heavier heatsinks. It's like worrying about putting a 5 ton weight on a boat that can handle 10 tons. You're not going to do any damage to the mobo with the D14, unless you transport the computer vertically somewhere and you bump or drop it.

Thanks for the suggestion, but I still feel uncomfortable with 1240 grams of D14 weight towering off my MOBO. I am concerned one accidental bump and my MOBO would look like the San Andreas Fault line in the Bay Area after the 1989 quake! And I have accidently bumped and dropped my rigs before, even though I was doing my best to be gentle and careful...

I know this build looks like crap with the wind tunnel...maybe I should just let the Hyper 212+ do its thing without the exhaust tunnel? Will the tunnel help cool down case temps or did I make a big mistake?

To be honest with you, it looked and performed a whole lot better with the H70, but after the leak, I no longer trust Corsair's H70 [please look at the second pic I posted below and you will see the leak]. I will not touch the H70 again. They lost my confidence.

Soar

 

[S0ULphIRE]

I'd suggest taking some temperature readings using Realtemp. Get your idle and load temps with your windtunnel, then get them again with the windtunnel removed. For load temps I'd suggest running something that stresses your entire system (because the heat the graphics card and mobo puts out will influence the temps on the CPU).

 

[kmote]

I quite like your wind tunnel, only problem I can think of is that it might prevent heat generated by the GPU from being exhausted out the back.

 

[soarwitheagles]

I'd suggest taking some temperature readings using Realtemp. Get your idle and load temps with your windtunnel, then get them again with the windtunnel removed. For load temps I'd suggest running something that stresses your entire system (because the heat the graphics card and mobo puts out will influence the temps on the CPU).

Thanks for the input SP. Unfortunately, this is an AMD rig. I went to Realtemp's website but it appears to be made exclusively for Intel Processors. I hope to use it after completing my new Intel 2500K build.

Soar

 

[soarwitheagles]

I quite like your wind tunnel, only problem I can think of is that it might prevent heat generated by the GPU from being exhausted out the back.

kmote, Thanks! That is a very important idea that I did not consider. I thought the GPU exhausts out the GPU vents outside the case...am I mistaken in believing this?

Soar

 

[patonb]

Isn't your South bridge, or whATEVER that is going to not be cooled now?

I have the x58a-ud3r and the heatsinks there need airflow.

Next thought, the hsf should be high enough... My nh-u12 can be sideways and clean my ram... How big are your ram sinks.

Still think youre overreactig to the mobo cracking. Even my 680i held my Tuniq 120.

 

[kmote]

kmote, Thanks! That is a very important idea that I did not consider. I thought the GPU exhausts out the GPU vents outside the case...am I mistaken in believing this?

Soar

Primarily, yes, but there will always be some heat from the GPU that doesn't get exhausted in the way you expect.