While I dearly love the raw power that my dual gigahertz G4 gives me, it comes at a
cost paid in heat and fan noise. I keep my computer in the side compartment of a computer
desk in my studio. With my old system (a beige G3) when I needed it completely quiet I was
able close the cabinet for periods without fear of a cooked computer The new machine would
not survive for long in those confines.
I considered several options but due to lack of available space (space is expensive
here near the beach) I couldn't set up a machine room nor did I have the space for a large
isolation box. My solution was to punch holes in the floor and duct my computer into the
garage beneath my studio.
Extreme? maybe.
Effective? definitely.
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| This is how I originally had my computer set up. The back panel in the
desk was a something just a little thicker than cardboard. |
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| These are most of the parts that were used to do the ventilation job. The
most expensive part were the fans. Between the two fans, the filters and power cords it
was just about $50. The PVC pieces were very inexpensive. |
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| I decided to use AC powered fans to deliver the force that I figured I
needed to move the air through the pipes and circulate it in the enclosure. |
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| The first real damage is done. A quick slit in the carpet to expose the
flooring beneath. I could still turn back with minimal repair work... nah, time for the
big saw. |
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| Now it's serious, I can now see into the garage below. A beefy hole
cutting saw was used to wreak this havoc. It's not really that bad. A little patch work
and everything could be good as new, or at least not easily detectable. |
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| One of the items that had to be improvised were the fan mounts. The hole
saw ended up being used to take out the grill in this plastic drain. A little silicone and
some screws and we're rolling. |
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| With the plywood we now had a surface to mount the fan on. A generous
application of silicon again ensues an air tight seal. |
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| Looking behind the desk you can see the two PVC pipes dropping down
through the floor. A piece of 3/4" plywood was used to replace the cardboard backing
on the desk. |
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| Here is the view from the garage. Due to the thermal mass of the building
above the garage it always stays cool down there even in hot weather. This was one of the
reasons I chose to go through the floor. |
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| Here you see the fan assemblies mounted on the pipes and the power cords
passing back up through the floor. 90 degree angle pieces were used so that the hot air
coming out is not picked up by the fan pushing cool air in. |
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| Here is the duct in the top rear corner of the desk that is used to suck
out the hot air. Again silicone was used generously to seal the hole around it. |
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| I wanted to be able to completely pull out the computer for maintenance
without unplugging everything. I made sure I had enough cable fed through the 2" pipe
segment I was using for the cable run. Next to that you can see the cool air feed. |
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| Once I had everything wired up I used plumbers putty to pack the air
space around the cables. The closest this putty gets to hardening is a slightly rubbery
state. |
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| I used adhesive backed foam weather stripping to seal all the way around
the front door of the compartment. The top and bottom didn't have a suitable place to
mount the foam so I bought a length of 1/4" aluminum L-bracket to use. Hey look at
that, more silicone ;) |
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| Since the computer would be blocking the cool air feed I decided to make
a little stand off to elevate it. I used half of an old electronics project box and piece
of foam from a previous project to make this. I figured that
the foam would also serve to mechanically isolate the computer from desk. |
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| In order to monitor the heat I picked up a $15 Radio Shack Indoor/Outdoor
Car Thermometer (#63-1023). I mounted the remote sensor right in the middle on one of the
inside walls. |
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| Here is the finished product. The entire project cost less than $100 in
parts and keeps the computer cool and the studio quiet. |
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Next week we'll ventilate a PC, all you need is one PC, a shotgun...
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