HWC has published several analyses that deserve to be revisited. Although they are not from today—or even yesterday—we still consider them useful in practice. How can cooling performance be affected by the use of heatsinks in a space where there would otherwise be a fan? What is the difference between a punched and a wire grille (in PC cases)? Did you know that airflow in some situations also depends on the shape of the fan frame?
Some motherboards use active cooling to cool the chipset. But what if you disconnect the fan, physically remove it, and fill the space where it was with small heatsinks used for smaller memory chips?
- Link to analysis: AMD X570 cooler: Will 4 heatsinks beat a VRAM fan?
Case grilles are often punched out of sheet metal. They come in various shapes and, in many cases, some users also consider them more attractive. This is compared with circular wire grilles, which are generally more aerodynamic, resulting in a positive effect on the intensity of airflow through them as well as on acoustic characteristics—the system runs more quietly with them.
- Link to analysis: Analysis: a hexagonal grille is no match for a circular one, in any way
Various gaps between an obstacle and the fan lead to a drop in static pressure and therefore also to lower airflow and, overall, lower cooling performance. We also looked at this as part of our testing of the Silent Wings Pro 4 fan. A characteristic feature of its accessories is that it comes with multiple corner types. These then shape the outline of the frame, which is sometimes more and sometimes less tightly sealed against, for example, the radiator of a liquid cooler.
- Link to analysis: Re-test of Silent Wings Pro 4 mounting corners. It makes sense now
English translation and edit by Jozef Dudáš
Ha! Can anyone identify the fan in the photo in the article header? 🙂