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Heatsinks and airflow

N

N_Raged

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jul 8, 2004
Messages
446
This is a networking related topic, but my question is more cooling related. I'm sure many of you have had experienced the tremendous heat that the Linksys WRT54G wireless router generates, and it has been said to affect wifi performance.

Well the lack of venting holes makes adding cooling hardware difficult without extensive modding to the router's casing. I want to stick a small heatsink on the Broadcom CPU as seen in this pic, but there are no vents directly above for the heatsink to breathe. So how effective would the cooling be for that heatsink in an area with no active airflow? I don't want to cut the casing like ryuji did:D.



Update:
Well I finished cooling my WRT54g. I slapped on some tsop ramsinks and installed a fan (off an AMD heatsink) under the stock top venting holes.

IMG_3375.jpg


IMG_3378.jpg


The fan is running off an AC adapter with various voltage settings. Everything runs much cooler now, and the wireless has stabilized somewhat. Also from the outside, the router doesn't look like it has been modded at all :).
 
N_Raged said:
[..]how effective would the cooling be for that heatsink in an area with no active airflow? I don't want to cut the casing like ryuji did:D.
Click to expand...
Whether the IC's heat is released directly into what amounts to a dead air pocket, or through a heatsink doesn't really matter, other than that it'll take a bit longer for the IC to reach peak temperature when first turned on.

If there are vents elsewhere in the case, you can route a duct from over the heatsink to those vents, and place small fan in it Else you could cut small vents in the back of the case or another place where they don't look out of place.

Alternatively you could replace one or more (sections of) the case's side with metal, and use heatpipes or such to direct the heat to there, using those sides as heatsinks.
 
I am assuming (bad thing to do) you have warranty concerns. One option would be just to take the top off and leave it off. Looks like hell but /shrug, just keep the sodas away.
 
Looks great. My Netgear gets pretty damn hot too and I was wondering about the same thing. Have you noticed any difference with the new cooling?
 
Any differences are mainly with the wireless performance. If I were to boost the power to the antennae, the heat would increase and I would lose stability (not to mention burning out the router). Now I don't have to worry about that anymore.
 
Thats a good idea. I have the same router, but the vonage version w/phone ports, and I was having a HELL of a time with my wireless connection that is 20 ft away!! Now I know why. As far as the fan goes, you could always mod a usb cable to power it (cut the square end off....tie red/black wires into same wires on fan connector)
ANyways, very good info. And I really like ryugi's mod.....looks...custom and [H]ard. :D
 
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