I'm a bit concerned over the airflow of my new case, so i wanted to make sure i had decent cooling on the video. I've been using a ghetto job with a 60mm fan slapped over the video, and i wanted to make a nicer looking one using a 120mm fan i have lying around. I just wanted to check with smarter minds than mine, what is the best placement for such a thing? 1. Above the video, blowing up and away (towards the exhaust fans) - this is what i usually do. 2. Above and blowing down onto the video to cool the ram? 3. Below and blowing down and away to keep the hot air flowing away from the gpu? 4. Below and blowing up...doesn't seem like a great idea, will compete with the gpu hs/f. Other questions: I haven't planned anything for my power and hdd activity lights...what do i need to take into consideration here? I bought a few "lamps" from radioshack, they are 12v ... just led's i figure but used for auto or something (they weren't with the other leds). Uh...could i just wire them to the power and hdd mobo connectors or am i being to simplistic? I know this is a bit out there, but what about using my 4" wallmart neon? I want to put it in the subfloor...I didnt' make a switch for it though, i could incorporate one in the back or do without one or ... I don't suppose i could wire it to work as the hdd activity light or something? Thanks guys.
video cooling...the fan you are talking about, is it inside the case redirecting the warm air or is it mounted in the side panel blowing cool(er) air directly onto the video? most go with the fan mounted in the door to send fresh/cool air directly onto the vid card. a 120 would be a bit large for a side mounted fan though, unless you dont mind the noise. above the video, blowing up and away (towards the exhaust fans) is ok if yuou have sufficient air entering the case from other intake fans. otherwise you are just recirculating hot air. the mobo header that the hdd and pwr leds hook up to supplies a very small amount of voltage. some motherboards wont even light a 3v led off of the mobo header. the superbright bloo leds usually wont even light (3.7v). the 2.1v variety does well though. bottom line, it definitely wont light a 12v lamp find a low voltage led (1-3v) in a color you like and tail it to the mobo connector as for the neon, most are designed to run off 12v, again you wont be able to light it off of the mobo header to use it as an activity light. of course you could wire up a relay and just use the led off of the mobo header to trigger the relay which would then pass power from a different 12v power source to the neon, lighting it. of course you still have to worry about the reaction time of the neon. neons dont light instantly, so it probably wouldnt react fast enough to show most of the hdd activity the neon is either going to have to be on all the time or be switched, unless you want to get really creative.
Okay, thanks. Yeah, I'm still not 100% on whether or not i will have a side fan blowing in, strange though it sounds my PSU might be in the way of that. I think I should plan on doing so though unless something comes up. Thanks for the info regarding the mobo leds, i figured that would be the case.
ive got a tiny board the size of my thumb that i made out of strip board for exactly this kinda thing. Takes a 12V input from ur mail molex, and a 3v (or whatever, can actualy go as low as a few millis) from the HD header. when power goes over a certain level on the header (set by a zenner diode) the 12v pass thru is activated. Worked too, but i havent had time yet to hack it on permanently.
