Re: Do you think case volume affects cooling?

"Mike Easter" wrote:
Lee M. wrote:

So my question is: is it the larger volume, the side panel vents or the
combination that results in the dramatic reduction in both CPU and
case temps?

No.

In air cooling, what makes more efficient cooling is more efficient
movement of air over/ across/ thru'/ in-out to dissipate the heat by
carrying it away in heated air from what needs to be cooled to
somewhere else.

A well designed 'closed' directional case airflow will be more efficient
at cooling than a poorly designed open case situation. A spinning case
fan 'over yonder' or another one 'over yonder' which isn't contributing
to any useful directional airflow in an open case which has no airflow
configuration isn't going to be doing any good except both of them
making noise.

--
Mike Easter

I've had this discussion before with Korny Kornhole, and it's not
simply the "efficient" movement of air through the case which does
the cooling. It's also the velocity and turbulence of the air along the
surfaces of components which need cooling. Everything is cloaked
with a very thin layer of stagnant air which is called the "boundary"
layer in aerodynamics. This layer is adhesive, and it acts to insulate
the underlying object. It's effect can be reduced by thinning it with
high velocity air passing over it and by turbulence. But since turbulence
can act to reduce the "efficiency" of getting air in and out of the case,
proper component cooling is an art of balancing the two conflicting
needs - turbulence impinging the hot components, but then moving on
without impinging the cool components or diverting air that is headed
for other hot components. CPU coolers and graphic card coolers
solve this by putting a fan right up against a hot heatsink to get
localized air speed and turbulence without impacting the bulk flow of
air through the case. But what about other components which need
cooling, such as the hard drives? Some case designs put small fans
immediately upstream of the hard drives, but that usually adds noise
that escapes through the case inlets. Most middle-ground desktop
manufacturers put the hard drives just downstream of the case's air
intake holes - able to bathe in the cool incoming air that has been
"turbulated" by the sharp un-aerodynamic edges of the air intake
holes. Power supplies also have dedicated fans that pull air through
sharp-edged holes to bathe the power components with turnbulated
air. (Have you ever seen a high-end power supply designed with
smoothly constricting and smoothly expanding air holes that reduce
the turbulence entering the power supply?) Considering these factors,
especially the fans that are dedicated to individual components, simply
getting air into and out of the case "efficiently" is not the ultimate goal
in providing cooling - as non-intuitive and non-"green" as that may
sound.

*TimDaniels*


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