os10

the case i have now is mid-tower with a 120mm fan in front blowing air over the HDDs, and another in back that doesn't really help, since i leave the side of the case open.

even with cool ambient temperatures (65-70F), i was getting system lockups after a couple hours of p95 stress testing. i suspect heat buildup on the NB and/or RAM - they have heatsinks but no airflow over them.

i have a 20" box fan, the cheap white plastic kind, and i set that up a few inches from the open case. with that on the system passed 12 hours of p95. using the low setting, the fan noise is mild and it still pushes a lot of air. i took off the 5.25" bay covers in front and PCI slot covers in back so the air has an escape path.

the question i have is about whether there is potential harm from having an AC motor just a few inches from the hard drives and other components. i know motors have magnets, the AC amplifies it, and magneticky stuff is bad for hard drives, so it doesn't seem like a good combination. but i have been using it like this for a couple of weeks and everything seems to be working normally.

i checked search and found a couple of threads about using a box fan for testing but i'm not clear if this is (relatively) safe for use as a permanent solution.

TIA.

meticadpa

If you're just pushing air over all of the components, you're going to be fine. Having an AC power source near hard drives won't shorten their lives, unless they're like right on-top of them.

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killa_concept

There is no real issue with what you're doing - it takes a VERY strong magnetic force to disrupt a hard drive. The magnet in the box fan could be strong enough, but unless it's within 2-3inches of the hard drive it won't do jack. If it were to cause any negative affect, it would have happened by now.

The question is practicality and aesthetics.... IMO, you'd probably be better off strapping a 40mm fan to the northbridge or cooling it with a spotcool fan

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IEATFISH

Try using something like HWMonitor to watch your temps. What are they getting up to under load?

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os10

killa_concept: practicality and aesthetics, not an issue for me. case and fan are not in the way and it only takes a second to flip on the fan before the computer. also i'm used to messy looking computers, all of mine have the sides off for cooling and quick access to parts.

IEATFISH: no monitoring points on the NB and RAM, or at least they aren't showing in any of Abit's OC tools. CPU is 65-75C under p95.