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Alan- Concerning the reliability of fans used on processing heat sinks, I can say from experience that it is poor. My PC's processor has a heat sink with a small, cheap fan screwed to it. After about 1 1/2 years, my PC started making a loud groaning noise. It was driving me crazy. Eventually I opened the cabinet and found the fan was the cause. It vibrated so badly I was worried about damage to the electrical components on the boards, but everything was fine. I pulled the fan out and it was covered with dust, which also got into the fins of the heat sink. In these days of maximizing profits, PC makers will install the cheapest components wherever possible, as long as it won't affect speed and performance. They won't "invest" in a better quality fan, if you can't "see" the benefit. I wonder how many service calls can be attributed to cheap, noisy fans for those people who are afraid to open up their PC's. Concerning passive cooling, Iit seems that more effort should go into designing air-tight cabinets to maximize airflow around the "hotter" chips, using a filter to keep out dust. The source of air movement could be the power supply fan, drawing air across the motherboard. I guess it's cheaper and more convenient to screw a cheap fan to the heat sink on the chip, then hyping it as have "dual cooling fans". |
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