Do I really need a fan if...

[XFactor]

I got three heatsinks off of newegg.com recently. They are roughly 37.5x37.5mm and are 32mm tall. I actually plan to saw these down to around 20mm to conserve space. The ram chip heatsinks will most likly be cut down so that one heatsinks covers both chips (this, i theorize, will render more surface area which = better cooling).

Anyways, these heatsinks will be placed over the 4 main chips; two of which are the ram chips. I read on another thread that the system doesn't get too hot when you apply heatsinks; however, just i case this is not true, i already have a 25mm fan which runs at 5v and displaces 3.5cfm.

My question is do i really need the fan? If possible i would like to just go with heatsinks to save space. Also, should the wires be secured inside the unit because if the heatsinks do get hot enough, i fear that they will melt the insulation surrounding the wire and will fry the unit.

Thanks

[XFactor]

Good point...<frowns and grunts>

I guess i'll incorperate the fan somehow. I was thinking about making a seperate compartment for the batteries but i am still planning out my case. Does the fan need to suck the air out or does it rather force air into the case? I want to make sure i get this right...

[joevennix]

If you put a lot of vents in the back, you probably wouldn't need a fan. But then that could always lead to damaging your creation... I just went ahead and got a small fan. Plus it came with a free heatsink!

[timmeh87]

actually. most fans on most electronics (including the laptop that i am on) blow air out of the case. i can only assume the engineers that made these things knew what they were doing.

either way makes dust. its unavoidable. dust is everywhere.

but yeah. you want to put some holes above your heatsinks, so when the fan sucks air through your case, most of it comes in rigt above the heatsinks.

[daguuy]

since the N64p most likely won't have anything to make air go over the heatsinks if the fan sucks air out, it would be more efficient to have the fan blow air in from the bottom and have vents on top. you don't have to worry about heatsinks melting wires, they don't get too hot. if you only play for about 10-20 minutes at a time and have plenty of well-placed air vents then you probably won't need a fan

[timmeh87]

well the idea is that you put holes in your case right above the sinks, so that the fresh air will get sucked in right above them.

whatever though, it really dosent matter. i still dont know if i am even going to put a fan in mine. it dosent seem to run very hot at all.

[monkeymagic]

heat problems? dont like fans?

why dot you water cool it just make a closed loop system put the radiator heat dissipater at a higher level to the cpu and it sould work

will look bloody cool aswell a lot of work though

[timmeh87]

i personally would not feel comfortable with liquid in my protable, considering how much it wil inevitably be banged around.

plus, with watercooling you need to power a pump. which isnt fun for your batteries.

[monkeymagic]

I think i've read somehwere about water cooling without pumps it uses the heat from the cpu to make the water go round

and you dont have to worry about shorts from leaks if you use pcice its non conductive.

or if you had a realllllyyy tinnnyyy pump


we can only dream

[timmeh87]

youre thinking of more of a heat pipe setup, where you have a liquid that boils at the temperature you want to keep your chips at. it absorbs the energy from the chip to make it boil (thus keeping the chip at its boiling point), then condenses somewhere else and flows back.

anyways... ill just stick to regular aluminum sinks, thank you very much.

[blackbox_dev]

Ha, I don't think I'll need a fan in my Battle Ship 64. There are already a ton of holes in the back because of where you put the peg things in. (Also I'm putting my mobo upside down for certain reasons, see my thread for details)