The Solution

The materials: 3" plastic duct (about $10 for a 20' long piece) reinforced by wire to prevent collapsing, duct tape.

Total cost per unit: approximately $3, 1 hour to build.

Two closeup pictures of the device as it is running in one of the boxes. In this case there are two fans installed, one attached to the heatsink and the other mounted against the case wall.

The only important thing is really to leave some breathing space at the bottom of the heatsink so that the air can actually get into the duct. There are different possibilities of how the fan can be mounted, it can either be left attached to the heatsink or else be mounted directly on the case as an exhaust fan. The latter solution also has the advantage of moving the EMI (electromagnetic interference) generated by the fan motor as far away as possible from the CPU itself. Even if there is no direct measurable benefit of this layout, it may help with overclocking.

The impact on case temperature

As a result of the heat extraction, the overall case temperature has decreased by approximately 7 centigrades and remains constant at about 1-2 centigrades above room temperature. In view of the low cost of the design, the channeled heat extraction system may be the most cost efficient cooling solution currently available.

Case temperature: 1-2 centigrades above room temperature, cool, very cool

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