Good Cooling Solution

[Rocinante]

I was reciently surprised when I was looking over some HeatSink/Fan Diagrams and to my surprise, and I hope I am not the only one who admits this, the fan on the heatsink pushes air into the heatsink structure, not pulls hot air off as i "assumed" it was doing. I had never really looked in detail to this, even thou i have installed thousands of various heatsinks over the years.

Discovering this, I would like to share a very very efficiant cooling solution. My current CPU has been running around 43-44c idle, and i just wanted to cool it down, as we all do. I have the recommended air in front, push out the back. So with my trusty dremmel, i cut a blow hole, not on the top, but on the side exactly where the cpu is located. I used a 80mm case fan blowing air directly onto the heatsink/fan and i have reduced my cpu temp down to 35c

Sorry for the long windedness of the post, but i feel its a very simple solution to the heat problems.

[MacGyver]

The HP Kayak workstations we have at the office have a plastic duct and hood that surrounds the CPU and RAM and has a dedicated 80mm fan that cools them. This prevents the heat generated in this area from migrating to other areas of the case.

If was looking for a new case, I would try to find one that had some sort of fan mounting on the rear near the CPU.