Power supply at the bottom of the computer chassis?
in [Hardware]
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From: ToolPackinMama on 14 Mar 2010 17:10 On 3/14/2010 8:19 AM, TVeblen wrote: > On 3/14/2010 5:29 AM, Man-wai Chang to The Door (33600bps) wrote: >> >> Would it suck a lot of dust like a vacuum cleaner? :) >> > Most power supplies suck air in through the bottom (or top) of the unit > and exhaust it out the back as their cooling strategy. If the air is > dusty it will suck in the dust also. Most time the air comes from inside > the case, so the air comes through the case intakes. Most cases have a > screen on the intakes. Short answer: it probably doesn't matter where in > the case it is, but if you keep your case on the floor and never clean > your screens or blow out the case then it might see a greater than > average flow of dust It seems to me that, if the intake areas become choked with dust, overheating will become a problem before PSU sucking dust will become a problem.
From: kony on 14 Mar 2010 22:31 On Sun, 14 Mar 2010 15:28:24 GMT, "SteveH" <steve.houghREMOVE(a)THISblueyonder.co.uk> wrote: >Man-wai Chang to The Door (33600bps) wrote: >>> No, a PSU in the bottom of the case doesn't vacuum up anything, >>> unless the case designer was stupid enough to put holes in the case >>> directly under the PSU fan, which certainly isn't the case in my >>> Antec P180. >> >> You talking about a dust filter? I was talking about a regular hole! >> The old design (power supply at the top) should be more tolerant to >> dust. > >I'm talking about no hole at all. The PSU in my P180 gets its air from the >front of the case, the same as if it was at the top, except its /nearer/ to >the source of incoming cool air, which should be better for it. Perhaps better for it, but that also means less air flows over the rest of the parts in the system so they get cooled less, unless you have even more case airflow to compensate which increases the dust level. If you regularly clean out the system or it has good (high surface area) filtered intake then that can work out fine, but otherwise due to gravity a PSU mounted at the bottom will have a higher rate of dust buildup than one mounted at the top and IMO, cleaning dust out of a PSU is more of a pain than anything else because you have to unscrew it from the case, unplug a few cables usually, take the cover off (which often voids the warranty).
From: kony on 14 Mar 2010 22:34 On Sun, 14 Mar 2010 17:07:57 -0400, ToolPackinMama <philnblanc(a)comcast.net> wrote: >On 3/14/2010 8:03 AM, Man-wai Chang to The Door (33600bps) wrote: >>> No, a PSU in the bottom of the case doesn't vacuum up anything, unless >>> the >>> case designer was stupid enough to put holes in the case directly >>> under the >>> PSU fan, which certainly isn't the case in my Antec P180. >> >> You talking about a dust filter? I was talking about a regular hole! >> The old design (power supply at the top) should be more tolerant to dust. > >Just keep your local area free of dust. If you don't like >housecleaning, hire somebody. > Depends on cleaning interval... Even if you clean the house you would clean it when there is something to clean, right? If there is something to clean in the house, at the same time that dust was in the air being sucked through the system. Obviously cleaning house regularly will greatly reduce the frequency of cleaning out a computer, but IMO one of the best alternatives is to use a room air cleaner so at least a % of the air is cleaned by it's filter instead of being trapped in the computer... or put really good filter panels on the computer and it becomes the room air cleaner.
From: SteveH on 15 Mar 2010 06:33 kony wrote: > On Sun, 14 Mar 2010 15:28:24 GMT, "SteveH" > <steve.houghREMOVE(a)THISblueyonder.co.uk> wrote: > >> Man-wai Chang to The Door (33600bps) wrote: >>>> No, a PSU in the bottom of the case doesn't vacuum up anything, >>>> unless the case designer was stupid enough to put holes in the case >>>> directly under the PSU fan, which certainly isn't the case in my >>>> Antec P180. >>> >>> You talking about a dust filter? I was talking about a regular hole! >>> The old design (power supply at the top) should be more tolerant to >>> dust. >> >> I'm talking about no hole at all. The PSU in my P180 gets its air >> from the front of the case, the same as if it was at the top, except >> its /nearer/ to the source of incoming cool air, which should be >> better for it. > > Perhaps better for it, but that also means less air flows > over the rest of the parts in the system so they get cooled > less, unless you have even more case airflow to compensate > which increases the dust level. > Yes and no. 140mm fan in the top of the case, 120 in the back, filtered 120 in the front, 140 on the HSF and a twin fan Arctic cooling thingy on my video card. That do? -- SteveH
From: Man-wai Chang to The Door (33600bps) on 15 Mar 2010 08:16
> I'm talking about no hole at all. The PSU in my P180 gets its air from the > front of the case, the same as if it was at the top, except its /nearer/ to > the source of incoming cool air, which should be better for it. A typical power supply assumed you to put it at the top of chassis, and opening at the bottom and the front for air intake. If you mounted it at the bottom (that doesn't have a hole), the bottom air intake of the original design would not be functioning!!! I have never heard of a PSU manufacturer selling a PSU tailored for bottom mounting! Could you name one? -- @~@ Might, Courage, Vision, SINCERITY. / v \ Simplicity is Beauty! May the Force and Farce be with you! /( _ )\ (x86_64 Ubuntu 9.10) Linux 2.6.33 ^ ^ 20:15:01 up 7 days 4:36 1 user load average: 1.09 1.06 1.01 不借貸! 不詐騙! 不援交! 不打交! 不打劫! 不自殺! 請考慮綜援 (CSSA): http://www.swd.gov.hk/tc/index/site_pubsvc/page_socsecu/sub_addressesa |