Hello,
I have a module which requires a heatsink. I want to add a fan about 3 inches away. My dilmena is this. Should I be blowing air on the heat sink, or should I be blowing air out of the enclosed module. I made hole all around so there is a breathing space.
ken
have a vent that cool air can be brought into, pull air out across the sinks. the intake should have a filter.
-- "I\'m never wrong, once i thought i was, but was mistaken" Real Programmers Do things like this. http://webpages.charter.net/jamie_5
Depending on what kind of heat transfer you need, if you don't have any ducting, I'd blow the air from the fan towards the heatsink. If you try to suck the air away, a lot of it could miss the heatsink, unless, like I say, you've got some kine of ducting.
A dust filter on the intake side of the fan would do no harm. :-)
Good Luck! Rich
Rich Grise wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@example.net:
*trim*
I agree, blow the air where you want it to go, don't suck it away.
...until it clogs. Your fan may have to work harder when the filter's dirty (depending on where it is) which may shorten its useful life.
Puckdropper
-- Wise is the man who attempts to answer his question before asking it. To email me directly, send a message to puckdropper (at) fastmail.fm
Hard to say, without knowing how much cooling you need. But the best thing would be to have the fan intake cool air from outside, blast it directly onto the heatsink fins at close range, and allow the heated air to escape through vent holes.
The reverse would work almost as well: Have the fan exhaust air from the box, and place the heatsink very near or in the only intake port.
Either way, you'd be forcing cool air through the heatsink fins. Given a chance, air prefers to flow *around* the fins, so don't give it a that option.
As Rich points out, you can blow air some distance directionally, but you can't suck air directionally.
John
It all depends on the route the air takes ( backpressure ).
Sometimes it's better to blow, sometimes to suck.
Graham
Ok so I gues i will be blowing. I dont have a filter, just a metallic grid on the cover.
ken
Puckdropper mentioned that a filter will have to be changed, but I guess I'd rather periodically change filters than fix the equipment when the heatsink itself loads up with dust. :-)
I had that happen to a computer the CPU heatsink was totally clogged with dust, and the fan was stuck. The 'puter was erratic. I replaced the fan, blew out the heatsink, and it works fine now. :-)
Then again, I run my computers with the side panel completely off, bypassing any filtering.
Cheers! Rich
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