PBO Cooling Suggestion

[sci062982]

I find the fan generates less vibration and noise if you screw in from the top instead of the bottom.

[aasoror]

I find the fan generates less vibration and noise if you screw in from the top instead of the bottom.

Nice idea, thanks for sharing.

[Terrentius]

I seem to be in the same boat as other who have added an in-box HDD, in that the case seems to heat up to a more than comfortable external temperature. I am not so much worried about the component heat as most of them are solid state and should be able to withstand the internal operating temperatures.

I was more concerned with the external 'touch' temperature of the case while it is running.

I have read through this particular thread and see several ideas for isolating or directing the internal air, but has anyone explored the idea of bringing in external (in theory cooler) air from outside the case. Maybe by adding some holes in the external case over the intake side of the fan to increase the airflow?

Just a thought,

Rod

I have actually done that. I went and put multiple holes in the casing above where the fan sits, since its designed to extract air, and I also put in holes above where the hard-drive sits to allow for radiation of heat from the hard-drive itself. My hole pattern is not pretty, or symmetrical, but it certainly has done the trick. Exhaust air from the fan is now only 0.4c warmer than room temperature.

On that note, the fan is quite powerful, maybe too powerful for the application. I lit a match and held it 1 inch over the casing and the exhaust from the fan blew out the match almost immediately.

[Steff 320i]

Okay, here's my situation: as long as the fan is installed, cooling works fine, whether a HDD is installed or not. Temperature problems start as soon as you unplug the fan, for whatever reason. In my case, I had to disconnect the fans on both my PBO's because of the noise. Since I had HDDs in both PBO's, without the fan the devices got hot pretty quick, and none of the cooling suggestions here worked 100% for me.
At the end, I pulled the HDDs out of the units and got myself a NAS storage with a 2 GB hard disk. I stream all the contents via CAT5 cables, and don't need HDDs nor fans in my PBO's anymore.
This was 4 months ago, and since then the PBO's are totally silent and they stay cool, even after watching countless hours of 1080p material. IMHO the best solution to keep the device cool is to operate it without a HDD.

[aasoror]

Since I had HDDs in both PBO's, without the fan the devices got hot pretty quick, and none of the cooling suggestions here worked 100% for me.

These mods are not meant to replace the fan, its meant to keep the thermal stability of the box with the fan running.

This was 4 months ago, and since then the PBO's are totally silent and they stay cool, even after watching countless hours of 1080p material.

I think you are lucky, not sure for how long though.
Based on various reports here, the fan is meant to cool down the chipset, with or without an HDD the fan is meant for cooling the chipset, there is lots of reports here about failing PBO (without an HDD) with a disconnected fan.

[andytx]

Here is my ndew fan mod and wireless usb adapter holes

http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/3967/img0045xk.jpg
http://img715.imageshack.us/img715/448/img0046ax.jpg
http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/3686/img0047vy.jpg

[G00fY]

Hello,

here is my solution of a quiet and cool PBO. I just installed a Noiseblocker XM1. The best fan of it's class. It is really completely noiseless. Here are some pics:

[adamsky]

Hi,

Does the bootcode affect the fan output voltage? I find it a little strange that the 12V fan output measures 7.5V only. Thus, it is spinning extremely slow, so that I cannot even feel the air flow. Is this normal?

[G00fY]

How did you measure it?

Well I flashed the latest firmware just after I bought by PBO. So I have no comparison. But even with the latest Firmware, the fan was too loud. I don't think, that the fan conector can be software-controlled.

[adamsky]

With multimeter of course! I unplugged the fan and measured the current on two pins while the box was on. Approx. 7.5V and 110mA. I'm going to adapt a new blower that I've ordered on ebay. This should work much better than the original fan as it pushes the air straight out of the box through the outlet. I've already channel-modded my box, so, will see if it does any better with this. Will post it here once received.