Cooling experts wanted.... (with pictures)

[SluggerB]

So if you have been following my urine odor saga with my new PC, I believe I finally found out what is happening, my Northbridge heatsink is getting quite toasty, and other people online with my motherboard say the VRM's get hot as well. That may be the source of the odor I am smelling.

Current setup
The case has 3 fan openings, a 120mm front, a 120mm side, and a 92mm rear. Currently the only fan installed is the 120mm front. The CPU cooler has a side mounted 92mm fan on it (and that cooler is very cool, CPU temps are great). The only exhaust is from the PSU

I came up with 2 options for cooling the Northbridge/VRM's:

Option 1
The stock case side opening is near the Northbridge, and the 92mm is by the VRM's. I could install fans in those openings and see if that amount of airflow solves the issues.



Option 2
I could rig up a few small 20mm-40mm fans, I could screw one directly onto the Northbridge heatsink, and I could fabricate some sort of bracket to hold 1 or 2 of them over the VRMs


Currently there's not a lot of airflow THROUGH the case, which #1 would address, but that would not have air blowing directly on the components I want to cool, which #2 would address. I could do both but then I need to run fan header splitters and wire management origami.

Suggestions on which path to take? I am leaning towards getting 2 new, high quality 120mm fans and a high quality 92mm fan and going with option 1 (as well as replacing the existing stock 120mm in the front), and then if that doesn't work adding a small fan to the Northbridge heatsink directly since I think that is the source of th odor (it is the hottest thing by touch in the case)

[TechGeek]

Re: Cooling experts wanted.... (with pictures)

I'd go with a hybrid approach. Go with #2, but also do the case fan upgrades.

[TMTGTR]

Re: Cooling experts wanted.... (with pictures)

I am leaning towards getting 2 new, high quality 120mm fans and a high quality 92mm fan and going with option 1 (as well as replacing the existing stock 120mm in the front), and then if that doesn't work adding a small fan to the Northbridge heatsink directly since I think that is the source of th odor (it is the hottest thing by touch in the case)

IMHO I believe this is a good course. I personally go "overboard" with fans. But I have 9 PC all quite old (6 XP + 2 98/ME + 1 Win7). They all work fine except one I need to Recap.

That said, all of my fans are exhaust. I never use intake. I have a friend who was US Navy guided missile system technician (1960's - 70's) He advised me on that. I also read a PDF back in the 90's (I think ASUS) that said exhaust fans in the same system Vs. intake fans resulted in a 1.xx degree difference with exhaust being cooler.

I never did an actual A/B test myself. Just thought I'd share that. Good Luck!

[stj]

Re: Cooling experts wanted.... (with pictures)

use baffles and ducting to direct the air where you need it

incidentally, i go the other way.
BIG intake fans to create a positive pressure inside the case.
then if you put intake filters on the fans the case stays clean.