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June 30th, 2009 02:00

Airflow Direction of CPU Fan

          This is all about my old Dell Dimension 4400's design. I noticed that there were only two fans installed on my computer - a CPU Fan installed at the back of the casing with a duct heading towards the heat sink (no fan on top of the heat sink) and the other is the exhaust fan of my PSU - all are exhaust, meaning, they all pull hot air out. With this kind of set-up, I'm always having clogged optical drives because there is not even one  fan pushing fresh air in nor any ventilation holes in it. Recently, after upgrading my processor, I had my CPU Fan faced the inner side so as to blow fresh air into the heat sink. I have also installed some kind of plastic mesh on the grilles of the casing to filter out dirt and dust from the outside. But I have some reservations about this set-up because it's only right below the PSU Fan which blows out hot air. Because of the proximity of these two fans, I'm afraid that the CPU Fan would just be recirculating in the hot air being exhausted by the PSU Fan.

          My question is: Am I doing the right thing or am I ruining Dell's design regarding heat management?

10 Elder

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46K Posts

June 30th, 2009 09:00

rfn109

The 4400 is engineered by Dell to have the case fan in the back panel to discharge the air out, pulling the air from the intake grill located in the front panel, though the case, to keep the PC cool and within it's temperature limits.

Bev.

10 Elder

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46K Posts

June 30th, 2009 23:00

rfn109

You are welcome.

The Dell 'Clamshell' case, usually has the air intake, under the 'lift up' door on the front panel.

Bev.

4 Posts

June 30th, 2009 23:00

Thanks for the quick reply, but there's no intake grills on the front side of the case. Anyway, I just let the case fan face outside to discharge hot air, but I opened up the a provisional slot in front of the case, just below the Floppy Drive Slot, to act as intake opening. I hope this will prevent dirt and dust from clogging up my optical drives. Thanks again!

 

 

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