will normal fans bother a computer if real close?

[estesflyer]

hi, i bolted a window fan into the side panel of my case. i can turn the fan on and off w/ a switch. The fan is sposed to lay horizontally in the window sill, drawing in air, or blowing it out, whichever you choose. i have the fan bolted in so it can only blow air into the case. The fans are really close to my hardrive, zip drive, cd rom, etc... I guess about 2 inches away. Would this damage my computer in any way, shape, or form?

 

[edfair]

Potentially dust in the CD, floppy, and ZIP. And these don't really need cooling. The processor is the part that generates the damaging heat. Ed Fair
efair@atlnet.com

Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply.

Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[estesflyer]

yes, i know.

i have the fan blowing directly in the comp so it will keep cool air circulating throughout the comp. hehe

umm, So the fans rotative movement wont cause the disks to spin wrong, or something like that? because the fan will make the moniter go all weird, so i was wondering if it would damage anything in the comp.


TIA

- Rusty

 

[edfair]

normal fans aren't strong enough to shove dust into the drives. Your fan is. Other than that, no problem. Ed Fair
efair@atlnet.com

Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply.

Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[estesflyer]

what if i were to vaccum out all the dust in my case every.... say.... month?

- Rusty

 

[edfair]

You would get a gold star. But in the meantime you would be building a thin film of dust inside the drives where you can't get to it.
My personal choice is to pull air through the box, and in those really dirty environments to tape the drive openings. Looks bad, but 5 of my customers are pet hospitals and I've had enough dust to get in a 3" drive that I couldn't insert a floppy without digging the dirt out first. Cat fur is particularly bad.
All in all, I guess I'm really saying that you are practicing overkill. You would be better off with gentle flow pulling the heated air out rather than blasting everything.
But it your choice. You may never have a drive failure from induced dust. Ed Fair
efair@atlnet.com

Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply.

Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[dawghouse]

I feel the fans can cause problems. Fan motors designed for home use are not typically magnetically shielded. The same principal applies to stereo speakers, especially the center channel. If they are not shielded and you place the center channel speaker on your TV, the picture can do strange things. Problems may occur with IC chips and the loss or instability of magnetic data such as hard drives, zips and floppies.

 

[estesflyer]

exactly what i was thinking.

so... now i have a big hole in the side of my case.

any suggestions for something to put there?

TIA

- Rusty

 

[ThaPiRAyA]

You could put a window there, some smaller fans, some sort of net or grid, or anything you like really.
Using a vacuum cleaner on a computer may likely destroy it, because the violent air flow will cause static buildup that may damage the components (many floppy drives have been damaged that way).

 

[estesflyer]

well, ok forget about the vacuum cleaner every 3 weeks.

I will prolly use a vacuum cleaner, or some kinda static absorbing rag whenever it REALLY needs it. Maybe I should put a picture there? lol.
I like the idea of a window though!

- Rusty

 

[Foxx]

Things to put in a gigantic hole in the side of the case? Well, if you were a friend of mine, Warlock, then you'd remove the casing entirely and breadboard the computer all over the room (kind of weird to seem him roll over to one side of his room and pull a souncard out, then roll back to the other side and put in a modem). This kind of makes the room have to be dust-free, but he hasn't had any problems. Kind of weird, actually...its like LIVING in a computer...

But as for something to put in it, I second the window notion. They're simple, and are a blast at LAN/Programming/Chilling parties. Holiday lights....my favorite is Duct-tape or other kinds of adhesive. You could also take a cargo net, cut it down to that size, drill some holes around the oriface, get out some needle and thread, and put in a heavy-duty cargo net into the side.

Or you could leave it there. That's good, too.

 

[sodbuster]

Of course Dust would be a factor to think about but I would be more concerned witn EMI, Electro Magnetic Interference. Normal House Fans can run havic on systems as I found out at a hardware store, the Clerk had a fan placed to close to the register and it wasn't recording transactions to the mainframe.