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So from what we know about the Optimum cinematic universe he is Optimum Tech, Optimum Plays, Optimum Lifts, and Optimum Car Mods. This man can really do everything
I wanna marry him
Optimus prime is the next one
@@LuisGustavoCP*Optimum Prime
@@AryaStarkyNo I want😮
And he has the face
A pre-built PC building company could make this their main feature as a concept and really take off. Great idea.
Ducts to vented case panels has been a thing for decades. This isn't a new concept by any means.
@@P1ayCrackThe5ky Doesn't matter, an idea doesn't have to be brand new to be a system seller. It just needs to be marketed well.
@@zantardis I stated a fact and you are arguing with yourself. You said great idea...it's not his idea or original. It also isn't going to take off. Good luck being delusional and naive...or get out of the basement and go outside. "I fixed PC cooling"...no, you didn't.
@@P1ayCrackThe5ky It sounded like you were trying to dismiss the idea as dumb with your first comment. If that wasn't the case I'm sorry for mis-interpreting you. I also didn't feel I was being abrasive with my previous comment, but if you read it as so it wasn't mean't with disrespect.
@@zantardis These things are pretty much standard in professional workstations and servers for - well - decades. There ist literally no point in marketing this stuff as "feature".
There has been some stuff like this tried in the past commercially, but it never really succeeded. This is a super complex topic though, not only because fluid dynamics is a masters degree on its own, but you also have to account for all the other parts of the computer that needs some cooling, an almost infinite amount of hardware configurations, the fact that cooling with air is not the same as pushing air into a turbo for fuel, that there is another medium that actually transfers the heat between the source and the air you are moving, fire hazards, material science, the fact that people really like to see their components, convection etc etc. I have seen shrouds like this in the past (dont remember what company) but I like to think there is a reason why they never really took off and that the go-to solution for custom heat exchange is water cooling. But at least it goes to show that theres potential!
Well put, should be upvoted more. I had a case in 2003 that had air flow ducting, I ended up removing it when I upgraded to a larger CPU cooler. As you noted, many parts - capacitors, memory modules etc. are intended to be cooled by the general air flow throughout the case.
This was pretty common in the commercial space. For consumers though it's too expensive outside of prebuilts, there are too many possible configurations for anything but the simplest designs, and at that point you can do it yourself if you care that much about airflow.
I'm starting a new build and doing research on cooling. This was interesting but I doubt will work for the reasons you stated. I was going to post something similar, then saw your post. Well said!
@@8654ZuluFoxtrot Honestly keep at it! In general the whole case's internals should be designed to allow for better airflow. Most cases are too boxy where the air will bounce around and cause turbulence. Also there's tones of gaps throughout most cases to allow different sized hardware to be mounted and things like the I/O slots in the back and if you don't have some positive pressure it will just suck in air and dust that further mess with the whole thing. PC case should look alien like on the inside if airflow is a top concern
The powermac g5 was very successful. They cooled 2 physical processors in the tower this way.
If anyone makes this, make sure you still have airflow over the motherboard, you can run into a lot of weird system glitches if you get hotspots on your motherboard! The 2003 Mac G5, HP Z400 from 2009, Z420 from 2013/2014 all had airflow guides. (and probably every Workstation released since)
Same as I thought. RAM slots and SSD drives need some "fresh air" too, so I guess you heat up the other stuff with this solution.
yup
Yeah plus its an nzxt case which are normally look pretty over perform well, I could see the working better with other cases though.
There are 2 system fans which are not connected to the ducts. So interior temp should be fine.
Not every fan was ducted so I think that's the point.
Man this guy is dedicated to everything he does and I’m all for it
@@phoenix1453 I'm confused by your question. I just love his videos.
He can cool cpu to sub ambient temp if he printed adapter which allows 16 fans to blow in parallel to that radiator. But he does only one fan as lenovo, dell and other premade pc manufacturers do it. So he is true original. ( sarcasm, last part )
Such a massive improvement in CPU and GPU temps, would love to see some data posted on how the VRMs/RAM/other components are doing.
This, particularly M.2 SSDs too. And if there are rises in the temps of the other components is there a healthy middle ground that can be reached where everything either benefits or doesn't noticably change?
Burning. They are burning.
Will try this without ducts to see if at least mobo components and CPU lower
7:36
@@kwinzman that graph is still from the 4090 actually (VRAM)
The only thing I’m curious about is potential turbulence caused by the walls of the ducts having those edges due to the layers of the 3d print material. If you could print them in a different orientation so that the material is laid down longways going in the direction of the duct, that would tremendously increase air velocity and overall CFM and efficiency. Alternatively, you could line the ducts with a smoother material, or somehow construct them completely of metal.
5 minutes and a piece of light grit sand paper sloves that problem.
Minimal effect. The layers would have to be much more coarse to have a significant impact.
These ducts were common in 2000-ish desktops like pentium 2/3s. They sat on the mobo and one fan cooled everything. Later side panel mounted tunnels on towers were the stuff. And LPT controlled LEDs. And old PCI cards with scraped off components and drilled hole as a mount for a small fan under the passively cooled GPU.
Yo!
@@aarondustinestrada8103 fellow peepo! sup?
Just a tip if you ever decide to revisit this or if anyone else tries this, look into using the "sweep" function as well. It lets you "sweep" a curve you've made along a path you've defined. That lets you make complex ducts with gradual curves more easily, and gradual curves are good for airflow.
U mean like the inner side barrel gun? Create spinning tornado airflow?
@@ckngmad1357 No. If you take a look at the finished product, 10:27, there's a lot of acute angles, and thus, sharp curves. This can disrupt airflow because the air will run into the angled surface much like a physical object and bounce off, creating turbulence and disrupting the flow of the air coming in behind it. When you have a gradual curve, (like a bell curve from a graph) air will travel much more smoothly, and 'slide' along the curve, rather than 'bounce' off an angle. Think of it like driving. If you take a sharp corner going 50, you'll smash into the guard rail. If you take a gradual curve going 50, you'll stay on the road without having to slowdown much, if at all. What you're saying is rifling, and I think that would actually harm airflow, rather than aid it. Rifling is useful for creating a stabilizing spiral on an object be ejected, (and yes, air) but the only real benefit would be if you're trying to aim the air at a distant target.
That is not what he meant @@ckngmad1357
@@ckngmad1357 no, like a waterslide. his current design has angles which means the air will hit the walls and bounce off and cause turbulence. With curves instead it will create a laminar flow and increase the airflow significantly.
Thank you for this
As a mech engineer who's worked with Fusion360 heaps and on the uni racing team, this video couldn't have ticked more geek tickboxes. Love the car brag, certainly earned the rights
This is definitely mech eng eye candy. I did my first degree 20+ years ago, so this video made me especially smile at how far accessibility of 3D modelling and rapid prototyping has come.
It's a painted love to design those thing to really nail the goddamn dimension and tolerance with almost zero trial. The skill I'm still struggle with until this day
A directional air intake in a pc is called a shroud. And its nothing new. The reason why pcs dont put them everywhere like you did is because other parts in the pc, like ram and ssds, among others still need air cooling even if they dont have dedicated fans. Current gpus already use shrouds, between the intake fans of the gpu and the board, but putting them everywhere is not optimal.
The way it’s done in this video works though, there’s still at least a spare intake fan pulling cool air into the case. As long as the air inside isn’t static and the ambient temperature is kept cool, it’s not an issue. Those components won’t be generating enough heat to throttle or affect the case’s temperature.
You argued against your own point... "Shrouds need to be everywhere including the RAM and SSD etc" and "It's not ideal to have shrouds going everywhere."
Read it again, he didnt say that. @@stevenswall
@@Endeva09 He seems to be pointing out that they aren't put everywhere, because they aren't cooling the RAM and SSD... So if they were put actually everywhere, things would be great.
@@stevenswall ah I didn't take it like that, I think what he was saying was that we don't put fans "everywhere" in a case because there is no point, but conversely having directional tunneling onto the gpu and cpu is bad as the other components such as RAM and SSDs also require cooling. Ultimately the components that generate the most heat (gpu, psu and cpu) need dedicated fans and in all three instances the fans are setup to blow ON to those components, so the ambient case temperature needs to be maintained for that to be beneficial - the most effective way to do that in a room that's below 30c is to have an airflow which brings in more air than it pushes out (say 4 in, 2/3 out) and in the example of a hot country where the ambient is say 35-40 to have it balanced. Tldr is you want the ambient temperature of the air in a case to be around 20-25 where possible for air cooling, if that's not possible then water cooling is necessary for high spec rigs and/or overclocked builds.
I saw someone else cover this in s YT short a few days ago. I liked the video, and I'm glad the algorithm blessed me with your long form video over this build!
The production quality... it's just amazing
it always is
@@hagen9027 of course, it gets me every time
he's been this way for years. Its why I'm subscribed despite not watching everything.
Because he edits on a Mac - it has that professional look.
@@bmwofboganville456😂😂😂
It used to be more common in older desktop PCs to have a dedicated airflow path for the CPU. My mom's old Windows Vista era PC has a scoop from one of the vents that shoots directly into the CPU fan.
Everything is new, well forgotten old. I hope I translated the old Russian proverb correctly into English.
i think it was common on older dell pcs at least i can remember dell using it alot in the early 2000s
@@McGreenBean my mom's was an e-machine. pretty sure the company is defunct now.
bought an old dell optiplex off ebay that was like this. thought it was pretty interesting. and now seeing this, i'm wondering why this isn't more of a thing.
@@xExekut3x one possibility is visual aesthetics. nothing pretty about a fat air duct shooting from the side panel to the CPU. a more likely explanation is diminishing returns. cooling solutions in computers have come very far from cheap fans and shitty heat syncs. these system integrators probably see solutions such as the aforementioned air duct as a waste of development time and money, being that they can get plenty capable cooling out of any regular CPU cooler off the market.
Been a while since I watched your videos, man. I gotta say you have significantly improved. This has been informative, clearly explained, and to the point. Stay humble and cool. I think you may be one of the best tech channels around right now.
You should probably test the temperatures on your Motherboard and VRM since you changed the natural airflow inside the case and now the hot air could be accumulating inside your case (hot air should almost always exhaust on the top)
I remember back in the 90s you could see PC cases with direct airflow designs all over the place. They were pretty awesome but very limited on what hardware you could use.
Still on Modern Systems. Just upgraded the pc from my girlfriend which had that.
Hp used to do this in their workstations. Not sure if they still do it or not. But it was a common thing on mid/ high end workstations. Hp z800 comes to mind
Dell had is air shrouds as well.. even some generics cases had them in the Prescott era
@@aker2KK Yup.. This is nothing new in the slightest. Mac Pros have them, too. I guess it could be deemed novel because you 3D print to fit your own parts.
I think dell still does it in some of of there pcs
This is actually awesome. I'm a 3D modeller/designer in the manufacturing industry and there are several ways to use the loft and shell commands to optimise your current design. Airflow clings to edges and 3D printing ridges and those straight lines would be causing some turbulence, decreasing the overall efficiency. I would be rounding everything possible to lessen this. However, you are 90% there and I'm definitely going to use this design methodology on my next build. I also have the advantage of 3D rendering skills so I can design this and also test how it will look before printing. Thanks for this idea!
I was thinking about the turbulence as well. Although it look nice to have straight ducts going through the case, they will not be the most effecient towards air flow. Also, fdm might not be the way to go to make the most productive parts.
I love when a community shares what it knows to fill in the gaps in individuals' expertise. If you do fine-tune the project, please let us know how it comes out!
I def want to try this, but my 3d printer is too tiny. Question though. I thought the same with curving the parts, but with such a short distance would the riges really cause that much of a difference?
Please share your designs if you do! It would be great to see that!
@@arnoutdecock476 you can increase wall thickness and provide some kind of smooth transition for airflow inside, keeping oustide edgy
You can DIY this pretty simply and cheaply with some thin cardboard like cereal boxes or soda cases and some duct tape. I did it years ago on my AMD FX rig, those cpus were known to be little toaster ovens, and it worked great. Dropped the case temp a lot since the cpu and gpu each had their own intake and exhaust vents.
I'd love to see that in a like a current $3000 build, and have it showing 10-degree drops or something. Low tech can be high-tech!
Same for the first I series in 2010, spray painting the cardboard after cutting the pieces, then some nail stenciled logos, looked neat... then I went back to watercooling and a mid case LED fan velcro'd on the non-visible sides to blow up and into the graphics card... :D
I started doing this with cardboard and masking tape back in 1998. I spent more than a decade having people mock the low-key mods, but I also achieved some pretty epic overclocks. As you've identified in many videos before thhere are really only a couple of parts that are properly temperature-sensitive; the rest just need to be 'cool enough'. You've really added a great engineered look for the first time that I've seen. It's the same outcome as cardboard and tape, but the result is something I'd be happy to show off in a case modding context. The one lesson I learned the hard way was to not take incidental airflow away from the MOSFETs on the motherboard. Keep an eye on those temps for reliability, SSD and RAM aren't as big a drama that way. Looks like the airflow pattern from the top rear intake fan is probably doing an ideal job of keeping the key motherboard and RAM parts cool in this instance though.
Same. Recently modded my 10 year old PC with cardboard and OCed the CPU from 2.9 to 3.7 GHz. Cardboard (shoe cartons) and some tape are a really easy way to do this.
I never modded my PC with cardboard but I admire the idea.
@@Slay_No_Moresame
Those memories, it was a great time on overclockers
I used posterboard when I did mine, thinner so easier to fit in the right places.
I used to see ducts like this when working on PCs "back in the day", often times from the CPU cooler to a fan mounted on the side panel. Feels like we're coming full circle here XD
Yea, a lot of hp and dells were like that. It makes sense to do stuff like that when mass producing computers. Makes less sense when all the components are custom.
This was my thinking too. I had a blue UV reactive shroud for my Athlon XP back in the day!
When you have pre determined hardware it makes sense, even now oem will have some shrouding. You don't necessarily even need 3d printer, cad ( cardboard aided design ) will function just the same, when happy, with results, fiber glass it.
it was common on the pentium slot card cpu's of the 90's (pretty sure pentium II's).. had a number of them which were more or less my payment when my friends and I used to help the local chapter eagle scouts the guys in charge of the group asked for people to donate their old pc's and we would go through and make the best possible builds out of what was available for people to buy (generally first pc's for grandparents in 2000-2003 time)
My thoughts exactly, old pc's had those ducts: hp, dell and other manufactures.
System integrators like Dell and HP use airflow ducts, mostly in workstations and servers.. Back in the day I hand crafted something similar from plastic sheets and tape for my core2quad, though 3d printing is definitely cleaner and more precise! Good job on verifying results and adjusting for better gains!
This is absolutely killer man.. I think this is a huge deal. Such an accessible idea, but its a proof of concept that payed off so well that it's impossible to ignore. The accessibility of this compared to water cooling solutions is night and day. Anybody with access to a 3D printer (even at their local library), a set of calipers, adn the willingness to spend a couple hours learning to model everything can take advantage of this and really push their hardware. I will be looking into doing this for my PC. The optimization opportunities are unreal with a 10 degree variance. Even just pushing it back up to the same temps afterwards would be some crazy performance upgrades. Good shit man
One thing you'd have to think about is RAM and SSD temperatures now that they get basically no airflow at all. Otherwise, this is definitely inspiring me to do something similar :)
There is still one intake and one exhaust that takes care of case temperature.
This is actually a good point. The case being used I believe is actually designed for negative airflow which just means it's designed for pushing hot air out as the priority. That's why the front intake is actually routed from the opposite side panel. Positive airflow typically leave a mesh grill at the front for direct fan intake. Gamer nexus did a great video on negative airflow cases and the effects of jamming more fans in them. In this case(ha) I think if you were having high temps on ssd or ram already, this would not help those components if the case is truly a close air circuit.
Also VRM's and chipset. Especially with a 13900k in there
dun worry, he will add some water cooling blocks to them in the next video...
I dont think its a problem because the inside should be way cooler now because of the exhaust channels. And both the unchanneled fans are exclusively taking care of ram chipset etc., which is way more than in most builds
Tunneling like this is one of those things/concepts that I'm sure a lot of us PC enthusiasts have at least briefly imagined in passing and dismissed. Seeing someone actually do it and make it come to life is kinda magical. 😄
It used to be a common thing
@@ThePlacehole yeah the older MacPros had it
It was pretty normal in prebuilds. But there were also cardboard mods for your GPU and stuff.
i actually saw something simmiliar in dell workstations
@@jackson9415 the new ones have it too, in fact, most high end workstations and many mass-produced prebuilts have it. It seems it's more a factor of justifying the injection molding costs that limit its use rather than creativity, and in many circumstances it's not worth the added cost.
Great concept and realization. Thank you for the inspiration.
I'm loving these more engineering focused projects! Keep up the good work
Using paper or rubber gaskets might improve even more the performance ! This video was insanely good, bravo.
He could test with some tape before going through all that trouble.
Just 3d print the case at this point mate
now that you mention it. @@simonvutov7575 🤔
Another benefit is dust reduction from mixed airflow. This way dust protection would be much better and easy to clean up. Great video great content ! 👍🏻
Yupppp
Wonder why the pre-built PC companies (like Dell/Alienware) aren't really doing this.
They do@@RUHappyATM
@@Zero-wt7xf Only partially. I do remember the Dell Precision had a chimney/hood from the CPU heat sink to the rear...many years ago.
HP did it for years, even more on the workstations. Open those up and you couldn't see one component until you removed all the ducting.@@RUHappyATM
Seeing these optimized flow ducts is really satisfying!
Really interesting project, this isn't a new idea, around 10 years ago I used to have a "HP XW9300 workstation" back in the day, and it was amazing, the motherboard had 2 physical CPU slots for dual Opteron 250 processors, and it had a duct for its CPUs like the one you're designing!
these airflow guides are quite common on workstations and servers, great project!
Yeh it’s nothing new He came across something But yknow I Fixed, lol
i can imagine something sort of like this has to be similar to what consoles do too, yeah?
I literally had a case that came with a shroud for airflow about 20 years ago
@@Ober1kenobi PCs modularity is its biggest strength and weakness at the same time. None of the parts are optimized, that's why a $400 console beats $800 pc
@@Ober1kenobihe prob meant he fixed it for himself
This has to be one of the absolutely best aesthetically looking tech videos of all time. Content value is also sky high as this was an awesome and impressive video to say the least! Well done Optimal Tech, keep this up and you'll be nr1 in no time!
Aesthetically, maybe, but in technical terms it is not the best idea. The airflow is needed for RAM, VRM, chipset, and add-in cards.
dude really said optimal tech when the name is right under the video 🤦♂
Who's got time to read properly these days. I also commented on my phone so it was probably autocorrected@@DonOfAnn
Aesthetic wise , that British guy makes the best .
@@Y2KvidsDIY Perks?
Well done. Of course have always have to redesign if you have different hardware, but with knowledge of parametric design changing the geometry isnt that difficult. And you have to print it one by one anyway. My next pc build will have that for sure. Thank you for the idea!
I had the same idea as you. Today, I'm shopping for a CPU cooling fan, and I've been thinking that to maximize the cooling airflow, it would be better for the fan to go through a smaller opening. It's just a theory I had, and then I stumbled upon your video. It was really great! This concept reminds me of the Venturi effect, where air passing through a smaller opening creates a more focused and cooler airflow, similar to blowing air through pursed lips instead of an open mouth. Thank you
interesting because i had this idea about gpus and how they are all semi unique because its hard to replicate a dye and then linus recently posted a video about the same idea but w cpus
Forcing air through a smaller opening does not reduce air temperature rather it increases velocity. One perceives the air is cooler due to the increased velocity. Think of it this way. The faster you spin a fan (increase velocity), the cooler the air feels yet the air temperature did not change.
It’s pretty normal to see air vents on workstations and some prebuilt PCs. That being said, I really like this project. It was fun watching you combine your various skills with great results!
yeah, I was about to post that he built a Dell from my childhood/teen years but much classier looking
@@bigdumpfarts For me this reminds me the HP Workstations series 800 (with wich I worked for a decade) where everything was ducted in a much similar way to this build. Good job!
Was about to say, he made an optiplex
@@EstelonAgarwaen With Pentium 4, no less. :-). This one Dell Optiplex PC had intake funnels and PC fan exhaust duct. All i know it was LOUD. I was toying with the idea of doing something similar (with added difficulty of not having 3D printer or easy access to one), but I passed. And since I watched the JTC's video on how liquid cooling on front intake reduces temperatures (and subsequently extending the lifetime) of every other component in the case, I wouldn't even bother considering...
I was going to rite the same. 😂
Server hardware has been doing this for years and its good to see it finally implemented into desktops. I have seen some older dells and HPs that have intake ducts, but I think this is the first time I've seen a full intake/exhaust setup. Good job my guy! Well Done!
seen it on plenty of OEM towers in computer labs while serviceing them. kind of a pain most often to take them out tho 😅
Never Dells and HPs, as well as Lenovo workstations are still doing it. They achieve some impressive numbers with pretty small fans. Quiet too!
@@davidbischi yeah this is nothing new, every workstation in my school district has ducted airflow. My old Pentium 4 Dell tower when I was a kid also had a duct for the CPU cooler to channel cool air in and exhaust out the back.
Haha I want to see the RAM and the m2 data for how good they can really work before performance tanks.
i was coming here to say the same - its an economies of scale thing for sure - if HP or Dell designs a server or desktop they plan on selling 900,000 units of, intake ducts are worth designing and paying for, but doing it on a full custom def is super cool. given that PCIe slots, etc are spacially designated by form factors like ATX, ITX, mATX etc. itd be interesting if case manufacturers were to do a bundle deal with cooler, ducts and case. doubt itll happen with how cheap AIOs are these days but still a neat idea.
I did something very similar to mine. For the best effect, you want only 1 fan per duct, and avoid sharp corners. You really also want it completely airtight, and space the fan from radiators as the surface in the corners and center is lost. I got the best results with the intake fan glued the furthest away from the radiator. The inside of my duct goes round (fan side) to square-ish (radiator). Hot glue is great to seal ducts to radiators, fans to ducts, and is pretty easy to remove.
I think the cpu temps didn’t change, purely because of the smaller internal case volume you created by adding all of the ducts. Less room for the motherboard heat to dissipate. Awesome design and love the rs3…I have the TT. 🇦🇺🤜🏼🤛🏼🍀😎
Most older server desktops had directed cowlings for fans blowing on the important components. I always wondered why they weren’t in PCs but I guess the variety of components means that they would always be custom. Thanks for 3d printers!
They weren't ubiquitous, but they were there. One of my older systems had an adjustable side-panel duct to feed air directly into the CPU cooler, one of my tower coolers shipped with a flexible exhaust duct, and I remember later using a sheet of plastic to similarly force air through HDDs. But now, side panels are glass, so aesthetics just take priority.
I love how you were able to leave a front fan and a top fan working as regular case circulation, and keep the positive pressure in the case outside of the shrouds. Keeping the ambient temp in the case in between the hardware nice and cool
yeah everyone missed this.
This guy is really bringing creativity to the area. And if you think about it, it's not hard to make flexible tubes which can adjust length to fit the hardware's layout.
like those dryer tubes
@@ennayanne My next build will now have a laundromat theme. lol
No disrespect, I love this cooling design, but my gateway computer from 2005 utilized the same technique.
@@Kimboslot always ahead of their time
@@Kimboslotdamn than it feels like pc design went from performance and optimization to aesthetics somewhere down the line
Jeez good work! I am early into studying fluid mechanics which I am really interested in, and I can tell you, fluid mechanics but mostly dynamics is said to be the most difficult physics to simulate and understand. Just that you made this work and this well, even though there definitely are things that can be improved, is a super cool thing. Like the fact that you use the simple fact of just flipping the fans, so unconventional and smart. Again great work!
Mount AIO radiator outside of the case. Problem solved. Cases with a vertical mounting option (often) have a thumbscrew to open a 3 slot cutout through which you can insert the cooling block.
Would love to see a company do pre-builts like this, with stock hardware but custom ducts. That way you can always remove the ducts if you upgrade
Dell have always used vents in their desktops
@@UnsettlingNarrationsI was 2 seconds away from saying that Dell Optiplex 755 systems from like.... 2007... had directional fan ducts in. Literally a shroud at the front and the back that surrounded the CPU block which meant they could run all day on a tiny, slow speed fan that didn't make a ton of noise when you had 100 of them all running in an open plan office.
Back in the day before people cared about how the interior of the PC looked and most PCs were solid and did not use any glass there were directional fans with Shrouds pushing air to a particular point.
yeah ... Dell has been doing this since the 90s
Have you ever taken apart a Dell optiplex?
Smooth out those bends with a fillet, get as much laminar flow going in, and less static pressure will be required, airflow should improve significantly more on the CPU. (master of eng. - thesis on airflow in medical devices) - currently in that scenario the air will be separating massively, with lots of turbulent air only getting to the bottom half of the air cooler just so you know. Try and straight line the air as much as possible. Edit: P.s commented before watching
I was thinking the same thing, but At least with the current design, there isn't much space to round out the CPU duct because of the GPU duct competing for the same space. I'm sure there is a complex design that somehow smooths the curves of both, but it might be too much work for minimal pay-off.
At these relatively low Reynolds number and mass flow rate, does it matter that much though (been about a decade since the last time I touched an analytical fluid dynamics textbook, but if memory serves right, it should not matter too much at this type of scale and ambient conditions)
I think that if I were to design something like this, I would have the Upper fan at the front of the case act as intake and the Top fan that he is currently using as intake for the CPU as the new exhaust for the GPU. You would have to get a bit more creative with making the 2 tubes move past one another, but you would get a much more direct airflow path for both CPU and GPU. Hell, you MIGHT even be able to use both top fans as exhaust for the GPU that way. It's worth noting that I think this is why most SFF cases do so well with thermals and smaller coolers compared to their larger tower brethren. Many SFF cases place the components where they bring in fresh air from one side and exhaust out the other side fairly efficiently.
@@DuyLeNguyen No, it's not going to matter that much
Do remember the limits of 3d printers. Overhangs of >45° cause problems without supports
On the issue with the CPU temp that was resolved by reversing an upper fan. I wonder if the intake fan for the CPU cooling was drawing in hot exhaust air from the other upper (exhaust) fan next to it. Making the both upper fans intakes would certainly have resolved that issue. Great to see someone putting some acutal thought into cooling issues. Enjoyed this video, very nicely done.
Your channel is SERIOUSLY underrated... Love your content!
Man, this channel never ceases to amaze. Just pure curiosity, talent, engineering, and application (with excellent video production as a bonus).
This channel seriously deserves so much more attention than it gets. Optimum brings a certain creativity that bigger channels lost their ability to produce in their content.
Fr I can barely stand other tech KZheadrs at this point
Once you see those dollar signs who cares about quality content...lol
if it was this simple, it'd be done already. people who make videos don't tend to be in the business of revolutionizing industries. well except maybe the mindless entertainment industry
This video inspired me to relook at my PC's cooling after moving it into an NR200, and I have modeled + printed my first air duct to go into my new case. It's incredibly fun, and with my ATX PSU in my NR200, I hear and feel an immediate improvement in thermals. Time to duct the rest of the machine!
This used to be a thing actually
That was crazy. The quality, the editing and the project. Best tech channel right now.
Linus is out of the realm rn haha
@@Jumbro6 this is better imo
totally agree
optimum is the fucking goat man. Everything from video quality, quality of projects, to aesthetics are all top class. really pushing the barriers of tech videos, super sick
This is my first time watching one of his vids and I'm legitimately blown away by how beautifully-shot this video was.
and no midroll ads 🙏
@EuanZhang That's because he has a "real" job outside of KZhead. This is more of a passion thing and it shows.
I’m impressed, very nice project. I want to try it too now
Cool solution, nice results! I see this kind of vent implementation on brand PC's, like Dell. But I think their goal is to make it as compact as possible with least amount of fans/fins used.
A note to anyone else attempting this - you need some airflow left for the VRMs on the motherboard and a little for RAM, SSDs, etc, so don't duct every single fan unless you've got a solution for those too.
Seriously, too many shills here, giving mass praise when other parts need cooling
Yeah, that’s the one glaring problem I see with this too. I’d be interested to see the difference in SSD temps/performance especially with this setup, as you’re getting almost zero airflow to it because of the manifolds. This is also one of the more heat sensitive components when it comes to longevity and can have massive consequences if it fails.
@@rtopz1 Don't get me wrong, having dedicated fans for the CPU and GPU and ducting them is probably super efficient, but the PC builder definitely needs to leave at least one fan with no ducting unless these other components have MASSIVE heatsinks.
@@theredscourge agreed
wonder if he'll see an nvme or something burning up in a few years because its heat sink is now blocked by the huge duct and there's basically no more circulation in the case
I did a simpler version of this a while ago, but what I LOVED about your approach was that you built the actually PC first then designed the parts to fit in the virtual machine... I'm going to give that a go. I also didn't know about that ducting tool, although I am only versed in TinkerCAD right now. Thanks for this video!
Loft is common, if you used F360 for anything with a curve/direction that has a Start and an End you'll know already. It's cool to see your ideas come to life after years, by a youtuber x)
Tinkercad from experience is really limited. I'd recommend starting to learn F360, once you get mildly comfortable with it, it'll already be faster to use than tinkercad.
as much as i loved looking at your air intake and hearing the blow off valve, your fan ducts are by far the coolest thing I've seen in while! now I'm trying to think of custom parts for my PC to make it unique and functional.
I am impressed. I would like to see your next design featuring a water-cooled PC. I am thinking of this myself with easy cleaning in mind. Looking forward to seeing what you can do in the future. Thank you for a very creative video. Cheers.
This whole video is just awesome! The content, shots, editing, dedication are pure quality. No weird Intro with annoying music, no subscribe or bell icons with infuriating sound effects. I adore your content!
I agree. Also without click bait, without boring sponsors and without "let's dive in" moment. Pure joy. Less is more.
i love how you pivoted to start experimenting and incorporating new things with your channel. SFF is so awesome but it’s even more awesome seeing you talk to the entire PC community. Been a huge fan for YEARS. keep it up dude!
My old Dell from the 2000s had channeled air like this--I definitely did not appreciate how smart that was at the time. Would love to see more mass produced computers that are highly optimized for airflow like this. That'll allow for quieter PCs and/or lower overall energy usage, which is awesome either way.
This is great! I really like the 3d printing idea. Even for custom watercooling loop builds, if you wanna go stealth. You could cover it up with a clean look.
Crazy how you keep a massive project like this to a 10 minute video. Amazing results
Some old systems had them, like 1990/early 00's when desktop processors started to need fans, through at least the early 2010's. I want to say HP and Compaq had some for sure. About 10-12 years ago I did a few different ducts to accommodate a few different sized fans. Worked great.
Ducting was pretty common in the modding scene in the early 2000s
I had an old Dell in early 2000's that was given to me for parts / to mess about with and that too had ducted intakes and exhausts
This is awesome. I had this thought watching tech tips the other day and wondering if I could build an intake to a fan in my case. I bet a case could be designed around this concept.
Adding a thin foam layer (use glue or double sided taping) to create a much better air seal where the 3d printed parts connect to your fans (maybe also to your pc parts) should create a much more concentrated air flow. (Just like the metal clamps in your RS3's turbo tubing)😊
This is where a liquid cooled system comes into its own, the heat is immediately exhausted out of the case. Cooling ducts in PCs have been done for years by the likes of Dell and other OEMs, hell I even had my own 'cold air intake' in my PC back in 2009 made out of a Haribos tray. Always good to see some lovely 3D printed parts 👍
Yep. I went to liquid cooling about 9 years ago and haven’t looked back. I know that in that time, air coolers have definitely progressed (the Assassin he used in this video is a monster) but, so far, nothing has been able to pull me away.
And if you want even more airflow, you can route the pipes outside the case through a pci slot and put the radiator outside as well. You still want some airflow in the case for the drives, but this way the majority of the heat is immediately dumped outside.
@@JosephKinney What are you talking about dude? Fans now a days are as good and quiet as liquid, and they almost never fail compared to liquid. Not to mention its cheaper, easier to build and upgrade, and you don't have the huge risk of flooding and destroying your entire pc. That alone should be enough.
@@JosephKinney if the air cooler breaks, you get a new one. If the water cooler breaks, your parts get soaked in water and fried. No thanks.
@@shynnsup8383 absolutely not lol. For GPUs it’s fine for CPUs it depends which one but it’s miles away when it comes to cooling. AiO is safe and almost as good as custom
OT, you've easily been my favorite tech youtuber for a while now. Thank you for mad shit like this.
More mad shit like "strapping pc to audi roof, test temps" or "pc mounted inside bar fridge temp test" with mint cinematics
“We have the LOUDEST passively-cooled PC setup for you today!” as the Audi zooms by at 90mph.
Interesting idea, might try to do that for myself and my water cooled PC to see of i can improve the cooling for half my loop.
I have actually seen directed airflow from the front case fan directly to the cpu cooler in the 20 year old dell PC my father had. I think in pre built systems, that's definitely a good solution.
Pretty much the reason servers and some OEMs use these cowls. Gotta channel that airflow. Nice video
Yeah I instantly thought of OEMs like Dell and HP...they've been doing this for a while.
my thought same but usually OEMs just draw airflow to CPU cooler but no exhaust like OT did. And look at the performance result. that looks like beating the AIO performance that has possibility of failure in long run.
For anyone who was wondering the reason why CPU didn't drop much is because the 13900k is known as the uncool-able cpu. as it produces as much heat as you can get rid of
No, it must have been ain air flow problem. There is no way even a 13900K should hit 90C while just gaming. He switched intakes and exhausts around later in the video and it went down to below 70, just from that
@@DerRusher Are you being serious or what? Look at how the new intels boost performance..they're literally designed to push usage to the point of thermal throttling on purpose. You're better off undervolting these CPUs...fixing the air flow is only useful if you have an air flow problem.
Uncoolable ??? NO. My 13900K overclocked to 6/5Ghz and mime sits at 25C all day under heavy load. You just need the right equipment.
@@mrgcav X to doubt. 25C? Under heavy load? Serious doubt. Post a youtube video of your stuff under load and use a steady hand, I don't want to watch a video that looks like the user is having a seizure.
@@mrgcav What kinda heavy load is that, minesweeper? 🤣
Neat idea. The modeling and shapes of the ducts needs substantial iteration and improvement. I recommend you try to simulate fluid flow in the pc case to see where your airflow is being directed. There is a reason the automotive world optimizes airflow paths and minimizes sharp angles. Also, for PC testing- a lot of parts these days can ramp up power usage when they have additional thermal headroom, especially the 13900K. To better judge the performance difference, power draw and frequency also need to be recorded. Finally, these ducts substantially impede airflow to the rest of the case. SSDs, cpu VRMs, and RAM are going to be starving for airflow now that a giant plastic shape is covering where the air flow travels normally. Be sure to measure those temperatures as well.
note that fans have been left free of ducts - an intake and exhaust still exist for the lesser components - and with the GPU and CPU not heating up everything else, the componentry is probably much better off
Tbf the performance boost from optimizing the perfect cooling duct would be pretty negligible. Sure you could possibly squeeze another 5 degrees down, but it’ll be diminishing returns after a certain point.
great work,laptops and smaller pcs do have ducts but its a balance of noise vs temps
I work at Autodesk, and things like this is why. So cool to see what people do with F360. Looks like a sick build.
I also work at Desk .
Used auto desk for years in engineering academy at highschool lol
I also work at autodesk.
Ducts on PC modding should be way more popular, really well done. I'm just wondering about sound, would be nice if for a second video you could add noise levels all around because I would think the duct makes it louder but since some fans slowdown that would help, and in case it is louder, I'm guessing some dampening on the connections could help.
Since the ducts lead to better air flow which leads to lower fan speeds this should lead to lower noise levels for the same cooling effect.
Ducts make quite a bit less sound.
I had an old dual xeon workstation which came with 1 cpu actively cooled and 1 passive. The passive one was constantly thermal throttling and when I investigated it became apparent some ducting was missing from my system. It was basically impossible to get hold of so I truly botched it with cardboard and aluminium tape. In my defense it worked and the cpu became usable, and it never went on fire!
I believe you'd benefit more from using liquid metal thermal interface material under your cpu heatsink. It worked for me - difference in temps was huge.
I've always been super intrigued by the airflow shrouds in server and workstation cases, so it's awesome to see you take a stab at this. Might be interesting to see how the airflow path could be improved further with alternative case layouts and component orientations.
I would love to see how cases with the PSU at the front (e.g. JONSBO D40) work in this regard. With bottom and rear intake and top exhaust, that layout allows both the CPU and GPU to get fresh air. But I have not found anyone who tested one of those cases with a back to front CPU cooler flow direction.
You're doing amazing stuff and always pushing it. What a beautiful thing to see.
make content
Hah didn't expect to see BananaMan himself here
I know this is an older video, but here are 2 cents. Traditionally the cold air in take in front, and hot exhaust to the back. With components and AIOs, and different amount of fans mounted front and back it is hard to archive this. However many cases these days are designed to have cold air intake on the bottom and hot air exhaust on the top. This allows cold air to go through components and exit the case. There are other things to consider as well when dealing with cooling. The direction of airflow is one thing, the amount of air flow through the case is another. Depending on the type of air press in side the case, you would have different amount of fans for intake and exhaust. I personally prefer equal pressure to ensure same amount of cold air goes and same amount of hot air goes out. In the case show cased in this video, there are 3 intake fans, and 3 places for exhaust fans. I would have printed a air duct to connect the top (1 of 3) fan on the front panel to connect to the CPU cooler, and use the fan in the rear to exhaust the hot air from CPU cooler. And 3 printed a divider to help redirect air from the bottom 2 fans from the front panel to the GPU, then use the 2 top fans on the top of the case to exhause hot air from the GPU and mainboard. This will ensure the cold air go through system and cools off GPU, and mainboard componets. But that is just my thoughts
you're my current favorite computer youtuber. thank you for the content!
this man really does everything i swear. mf is the whole package
the most eligible bachelor. If i was a lady of a particular persuasion, I'd swoon.
With time and money nearly everyone dedicated enough can. :) He is fortunate to be able to pursue all these hobbies so adamantly without much limitation.
Wow relax people lmao
@@TaiylimMany people forget about this if i had the money he has i would probably fo some crazy stuff too
A lot of old Dell computers had great airflow paths. Specific the old Pentium D Dell Dimension and some SFF Optiplexes
Apple used to have it as well.
My alienware R3 has ducts, well channels inside. Really interesting case
You're such an artist with everything you do man.
I had an OEM computer from 2007 that did this, so....I'm glad to see you're really innovating here
As a car enthusiast myself, I absolutely love this idea and way of thinking! Some notes though: -The rest of the parts/components on the motherboard need decent airflow too. The only air they are getting from this set up is from the bottom of the front fans blowing in, and the rear back fan is the exhaust fan for the case itself. With the GPU in the way the air is likely splitting the 1 intake fans airflow, best case scenario half towards the motherboard and half the glass (which is useless, and more than half is likely going this way). This could be fixed with a piece that moves air from that front fan directly to the motherboard. -The SSD must be an M.2 under one of those plates with the ROG eye on it, which does not look like is getting much airflow as is, meaning the SSD is getting much less from the one fan when it was likely used to getting it from the bottom fan (floor-fan? That's what I call mine) as well. -When you remember that he said he "drastically" reduced those fans speeds because they "aren't really doing anything", you start to realize the case isn't getting much airflow to the other components. Might want to make sure those are at a decent speed if they are not already. Still, an awesome video!
This. I was thinking the same especially the components VRM and southbridge as those things insanely heats up. Although modern motherboards have heatsinks on them, it would be great to see it properly dissipated too.
Fascinating and beautiful. I really like that modern car engine look with no wasted space. Really cool performance improvement!
Awesome idea. I thought about doing similar in a Lian Li O11 Air MINI... but still needed airflow for the VRM and RAM. Problem was that I upgraded from a 120W GTX1660S to a 340W RTX3080ti and suddenly the new blow through GPU was venting straight into the air cooled, overclocked R9 5900X (still only 175W max).... But causing it to get close to thermal throttling. I went for an AIO for the CPU on the front intake and used the 2x120mm bottom intake for the the GPU (small plastic shroud), then left the GPU to vent into the RAM+VRM area (Arctic freezer also has a down draft fan for the VRMs on the CPU block).
Oh, CPU went from real world (gaming) peaks of 85-90C 1500rpm to 65-75C at about 900rpm, could probably achieve lower, but the case and AIO fan profiles are set to fire "quiet until gaming", so it stays at 500rpm until 65C.
i think the best solution for an optimum cooling air flow in PC towers, was implemented in the design of the 2020 cheesgrater Mac Pro. Cool air comes in through the front ventilation fans. Hot air gets blown out through the back ventilation fans. Every other component in the middle of that air flow is passive cooled.
WERE NOW CLOSER INTO PUTTING A TURBO ON OUR PC
Wtf bro you have everything I want in life😭 RS3 (my dream car), a full gaming set up, and good looking body When I grow I want to be like you!! DAMN!!!!
Same but just going setup...
All of that is achievable with hard work. You got this!
Would've been nice to see the smoke test and how efficient the air flow is displayed with it it. This is a sick build man! Congratz
I guess no one has seen inside an old Dell PC... Back in the day I made a duct for the first aftermarket heat pipe CPU cooler to replace the 60mm fan with a 92mm. Better cooling, much less noise. The real solution would be an integration of heat pipes, duct and exhaust fan to cool everything with minimum path length so airflow can be maximized while fan noise can be minimized. Or looking at it another way: building a PC like a laptop without the size or power restrictions.
The main problem with PC cooling is that most people just slap it on without thinking about airflow, convection or air pressure. The bandaid for that is a mesh case. I like relatively low power, quiet PCs so my solution is a fairly compact case with solid sides using a single low front intake fan, a top mounted PSU acting as exhaust fan, the best quiet CPU air cooler I can fit in the case and cable management to keep the path of air clear. I don't use a duct because the path is already clear. The GPU and CPU fans create some circulation in the case but that cools the motherboard chipset, ram, SSDs and other components that don't like heating up in stagnant air. It would be better if everything was integrated for a duct but almost every motherboard I see has heatsink fins running in multiple directions so actual integration only happens in laptops and OEMs like Apple where they make every part and don't want to be modular or upgraded ever. You would need a new standard stepping away from ATX to make ducting feasible on a large scale.
always love how much effort goes into your videos. thank you for time that you put in them
How does this man not have more subs? His content is interesting, original, and pertinent. 10/10 love the output mate!
He's growing nonstop, one day he will be huge and replace MKBHD
The exact reason for that is the complete opposite of the giant tech channels: hes not a sellout shill!
My first experience with intake airflow and how important it can be was when I first took my Xbox 360 apart and removed the air duct from it and instantly noticed it was overheating within about 20 mins of being idle and even now that I know more about computers in general this is how all laptops are also designed and most tablets. It just seems the industry standard of brute force airflow to keep case temps low has become the norm as it just works in most cases. I do really like the methodology behind this though and would love to experiment myself.
Yeah. I was going say exactly this. Consoles have done this. PC's from the 90's have done this. Funnels are not new.
Very cool. I hope some solutions will emerge in the future for better cooling.