Fans & cooling mods

Here are some of my crazy cooling mods.  Some of the original versions were made before my 3D printer.  They were made with cardboard, FR4 and even injection molded plastic from food container or other materials.  I cleanup the mods as an exercise for my 3D modelling.

Exhaust fan for 28mm height clearance for USB drive enclosure

Even if you managed to find a 28mmx28mm fan, it won't work too well as there is very little space for the fan blades. I got around the height by mounting a 40mm fan at an angle. Good old Sine function is useful for something in real life.

I tried glued it down on the base at first but it interferes with the  replacement USB controller module. The new mount takes advantage of an existing standoff for easier removal.

 It require a lot more depth, but I managed to find some space by replacing the original USB controller PCB.

Here is my design in Sketchup.  There is a small piece of filament bridging the 2 upper fan mount that act as the only supports needed for the 2 overhanging mounting posts.

Low profile Sideways CPU fan cooler

There is a glued on heatsink on the Pentium that is designed for mounting a fan on top.  I have decided to mount the fan sideways instead to lower the height profile.  There is a temperature sensing fan speed controller in PVC heat shrink as the old Pentium doesn't need the fan at full speed.

One side of the fan housing was removed in an attempt of converting a regular fan into a make shift blower.  The fan is mounted into an enclosure that channels the air escaping the cut edge passing through the adjacent CPU heatsink.

It is important to have good mechanical support to the modified fan.  The fan is friction fitted to the cover.  There is a slot for the wires to escape.

Cooler fans recycled into Blower

Back in the day, Thermaltake made a tall Mini Super Orb that uses 2 blower type fans that have short deep blades.  The way the cooler mounted to the CPU socket was brutal.  I retired it for some more regular cooler.

I have designed a couple of shroud to turn them into blowers.  The fans are press-fitted to the shrouds.

I broke the blades in the left while I was trying to remove it from the prototype shroud.  I glue it back together with superglue and baking soda.  The new version has a cut out to expose the backside of the fan to make it much easier to remove.

Fan shroud for old mod

Previously I modded an oversized fan from my Ryzen cooler onto a FM1 cooler.  I made a shroud to redirect some of the exhaust towards the Northbridge.  

Horizontal slots on the side vents some of the exhausts to the DDR memory as the new shroud blocks the air flow.  The base is a few mm off the PCB for component clearance.

The shroud is mounted on the right hand side of the CPU fan.  The exhaust is vented to the aluminium heat spreader below.  The low profile spreader was supposed to rely on exhaust from an optional GPU in the PCIe slot but this is a motherboard for AMD's first APU with an integrated GPU.