Lemonade X-Factory (by M.M.M)

Upgraded on
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May 17th, 2004

My own made Wind Tunnel

A few years ago when I upgraded my former computer system, I was faced with a challenge. Once the hardware kept evolving it also stepped ahead in producing more heat, and since then that became a trend.

As I live in a very hot place, where hot means some 40°C (=105°F) in summer time, and because I couldn't afford to let the air conditioner turned on the same amount of time I use to let the computer on, I had to find some cooling alternative.

I ended re-engineering my desktop case, that thanks to good luck was perfect fitted for the intended plans. As it is shown in the following images the plan was to install a reasonable fan as a means of injecting cool air in the case.

This fan I used has 12cm diameter, operates directly on mains power (127V) and push about 45 liters/seg of air into the case. Besides that I added another small exhausting fan at the back and opened some holes to facilitate the exit of the hot air from the case.

I have been happily using this case since year 2000 just upgrading the hardware inside. I really prefer the desktop model as it both keeps the monitor at eyes height as also let all the drives easily at hand.

With this solution I have been able to keep the CPU temperature in a range from 40 to 50°C, depending on the load of the running programs. X-Plane is very good for making things hotter.

Other than just drilling the circular opening in case's frontal panel and installing the fan, I made the intake duct and added a R/C model spinner on fan's rotating core.

The control panel (that rectangular piece with the two push-buttons, leds and the fan knob) I saved from a spare part of my first computer (a 486) and adapted it to fit the placement and needs of this mod.

As can be noticed in the above image this case has the left side of its plastic frontal covering detachable and that was a gift, because I could re-engineer that piece using my plastic modeler skills. I saved only its frame, cutting out the rest and then I scratch-built a new front for it.

Looking at its back (left image) you can verify the amount of resin left in all the perimeter of the internal border. The intake duct is 2 inches deep.

This is the internal arrangement. I locked all the cables in that fashion not because I am too capricious but as a matter of letting the way clear for the fresh air to hit the CPU, memory and Mobo chipset. Oh, yes, there is also a Volcano™ 11 over the CPU.

Everything was fine until the very moment when I upgraded the videocard. As you can see in the above image, the cooler of this vcard works like a water-wheel pulling air from the front and pushing it out in a radial way.

Unfortunately the huge intake fan would create a counter flow in the vcard fan's near side cancelling its (vcard) cooling efficiency. So I took advantage of this new challenge and found a way to better stream the intaken fresh air. What I would need was a flow divider device that I first drawn on paper and then assembled using some wood.

This at right is how the setup is working since May/2004. I managed to direct part of the air flow direct onto the memory banks and to the CPU, while the other part goes over the videocard sensitive are, both feeding its fan with freshen air but also draining the hot exhaust out of that case area. After adding this flow distributing piece the measured CPU and mother board's temperatures went down 2 more degrees.

Once that the computer was feeling confortably, the human hardware was in need of some cooling too, then I went for this ceiling setup as it has an attractive aviation appeal and produces a lot of prop-wash direct over head :)

Almost everything here done by me: Marcelo M. Marques - codename 31 M.M.M
mmarques@frontier.com.br