- Nov 6, 2011
- 6,292
- 62
- 91
As far as an aftermarket CPU cooler, it's pretty hard to beat the 212+ for the money, but I've always thought the 212 could use some 'sprucing up' as far as it's design efficiency is concerned. As installed there are huge gaps around the fan(s) (I have a push/pull setup on my 212+... mostly trying to get it to work better
It seems kind of dumb to allow the air the fan is pushing to escape around the exchanger before it could do any good (i.e. going through the fins on the heat exchanger to carry off the heat,) and even with a pull fan not increasing the efficiency much (based on my RealTemp readings during LinX testing.)
They say there isn't much duct tape can't fix... so I gave it a try...
Primarly trying to close the top and bottom gaps between the fans and the heat exchanger fins, I used duct and electrical tape to seal the gaps.
Did it work? My idle temps have dropped about 3C (from 33-35C to 28-30C ) and at full LinX testing, temps have dropped about 5C (right at about 70-72C now, as opposed to 76-79C... and 80-83C with a single fan.)
Has anyone else tried to seal their CPU cooler up and what results did you find? And I wonder about a big cooler, like the NH-D14, how much more efficient it could be if they would design shrouds/ducts to get the air through the exchanger fins... instead of allowing it to escape away from them.
It seems kind of dumb to allow the air the fan is pushing to escape around the exchanger before it could do any good (i.e. going through the fins on the heat exchanger to carry off the heat,) and even with a pull fan not increasing the efficiency much (based on my RealTemp readings during LinX testing.)
They say there isn't much duct tape can't fix... so I gave it a try...
Primarly trying to close the top and bottom gaps between the fans and the heat exchanger fins, I used duct and electrical tape to seal the gaps.
Did it work? My idle temps have dropped about 3C (from 33-35C to 28-30C ) and at full LinX testing, temps have dropped about 5C (right at about 70-72C now, as opposed to 76-79C... and 80-83C with a single fan.)
Has anyone else tried to seal their CPU cooler up and what results did you find? And I wonder about a big cooler, like the NH-D14, how much more efficient it could be if they would design shrouds/ducts to get the air through the exchanger fins... instead of allowing it to escape away from them.