Lets talk extreme air cooling

[stealthy123]

I am curious about somethings.

first of all is it possible to get your processor to below ambient with just a fan and heatsink?

do fans decrease temperature or is it the air movement that matters?

in other words on a hot day if I turn the fan on and it feels cooler is it really?

at some point there has to be a break even point where more air flow won't matter anymore.

I saw a 240cfm delta fan and thought there is no way that isn't over kill for a CPU.

and at some point will friction come into play with air flow?

I had a panaflo 110 cfm on my xp-120 but then I bumped the blades with a knuckle and the fan threw a couple blades.I have no idea how I didn't even draw blood.
was gonna replace the fan but I wonder if something quieter wouldn't do just as good a job...

i have the side off and a deskfan blowing on it now and its cooler than ever I may just keep it this way.

 

[tdiddy]

No it is not possible on air cooling to get below ambient temps. A perfect air or water cooling set up can only cool to ambient, nothing lower. On a hot day the fans will be moving the same type of air, it will be hotter, but because of the rise in ambient temps it will feel cooler. And yes friciton does come into play and there is a certain amount of air moving over an object that won't increase performance if you create more airflow. Your break even point would be ambient temps.

 

[Decker87]

Something slower might actually do a better job.