Airflow question

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max789

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Hi, all

A friend wants to buy a number of Dell Vostro 460's for his small business and asked me for my opinions on its design, specifically regarding internal airflow. Not wishing to give him any wrong answers, I'd appreciate it if experienced members here can provide some insight.

As seen from the images below, the Dell Vostro 460 has one principal case fan in the back and side vents near the front. Its side panel has vented holes next to the PCI Express slots.

My friend's query is, he plans to use one or two passively cooled display cards in the machine (probably Radeon HD6450) and wants to be sure that the internal airflow will be adequate to cool the graphics card(s) and other hardware components.

dellvostro460opened.jpg


dellvostro460side.jpg


Your feedback, please!

Thanks in advance.
 
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It should be ok if the rest of the PC is low power.
 
I personally wouldn't trust it main steam companies such as dell/hp etc do not go for airflow and etc they just design simple cases. I wouldn't do it.
 
If you can add a fan to the front of the chassis then I wouldn't see why it would be an issue. Really though as long as he keeps them dust free then it should be OK. Dust your chassis twice a year if your PC is near carpeting.
Handcokc said:
I personally wouldn't trust it main steam companies such as dell/hp etc do not go for airflow and etc they just design simple cases. I wouldn't do it.
Click to expand...
That's pretty funny. HP and Dell have been using bolt through coolers for years. They are superior air cooling compared to the push pin coolers many people with Intel cpu's have. Do you think they want their equipment overheating and causing warranty repairs?
 
6450 in Vostros should be fine. Our office has been using the 5450's (for dual-monitor arrangements) in both normal width and low-profile chassis without issue. Typical usage is on a wide range of applications: from basic office productivity, to advanced development tools like Expression Blend, Adobe CS-whatever, and Visual Studio.
 
Thanks for all your input.

Would anyone hazard a guess as to how effectively TWO HD6450 cards will be cooled, assuming one is near the CPU and the other close to the bottom of the Vostro 460 case? I can't help wondering how useful those vented holes on the side right next to the display cards are for cooling, and how hot air around the cards will be dissipated.

Will the principal fan at the back suck cool air in through the front side vents and somehow partly cools the graphics cards, too?

Thanks again!
 
Those vents in the side will help a lot with airflow. I don't see any problems running them stock.
 
Any reason why your friend will be running two 6450's instead of one beefier card? Or why a single 6450 isn't sufficient in a work environment?
 
max789 said:
Thanks for all your input.

Would anyone hazard a guess as to how effectively TWO HD6450 cards will be cooled, assuming one is near the CPU and the other close to the bottom of the Vostro 460 case? I can't help wondering how useful those vented holes on the side right next to the display cards are for cooling, and how hot air around the cards will be dissipated.

Will the principal fan at the back suck cool air in through the front side vents and somehow partly cools the graphics cards, too?

Thanks again!
Click to expand...

Two things: 1) How are you gonna fit two HD 6450 inside the case? There's only one PCI-E x16 slot. Is one of the PCI-E x1 slots opened at the end or something?

2) I'd add another fan somewhere just in case.
 
It should be fine, but I would imagine you might have power supply issues with TWO video cards.

The PC in my office looks the same, FWIW. I think as others said it might not have two PCI-e slots.
 
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