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Question about motherboard stacks

B

Bill Clo

Gawd
Joined
Jan 24, 2002
Messages
959
I recently tried stacking up motherboards in an wooden enclosure that I built. It had 4 vertical posts, and removeable shelves 6" apart. The sides, front, and rear were open. Yet I was having serious heat issues; to the point that 2 systems overheated.

I see pictures of this kind of stack on various websites, and I have to wonder what the owners are doing to keep them cool. The pics don't show big ass fans blowing air onto the stacks, etc...

Anyone had good luck with this method, and can you share any tips?
 
Bill Clo said:
I recently tried stacking up motherboards in an wooden enclosure that I built. It had 4 vertical posts, and removeable shelves 6" apart. The sides, front, and rear were open. Yet I was having serious heat issues; to the point that 2 systems overheated.

I see pictures of this kind of stack on various websites, and I have to wonder what the owners are doing to keep them cool. The pics don't show big ass fans blowing air onto the stacks, etc...

Anyone had good luck with this method, and can you share any tips?
Click to expand...

Whether they show fans or not, your gonna have to move some air across those boards.
Heat will build quickly in a small area like that. You dont need a lot of airflow but you gotta keep that heat from building up!

 
I would do at least 8" apart on the shelves, but thats just me. If you can only do 6" run plastic duct sheets, flimsy sheets of plastic that route air right over the cpu and then back out the open side. Most of the ones I've seen do need some type of sideways airflow. Ah la the 20inch floor fan from Wal-Mart for $10. Otherwise the boards at the top tend to absorb alot of heat from the bottom boards.




 
i was thinking about this problem too, and , if each mobo had its own PSU, couldn't you just turn the PSU around so its exhaust fan was blowing accross its respective mobo?
 
We need pictures -
First are the mb's raised off the wood by at least an inch of airspace?
Short standoffs are fine when you are dealing with metal below.

 
[H]ugh_Freak said:
. Ah la the 20inch floor fan from Wal-Mart for $10. Otherwise the boards at the top tend to absorb alot of heat from the bottom boards.




Click to expand...

Thats what I was thinking as well! :D

gnewbury said:
We need pictures -
First are the mb's raised off the wood by at least an inch of airspace?
Short standoffs are fine when you are dealing with metal below.

Click to expand...


That is true. Wood makes a good insulator! :D

 
I use plastic crates to make my stack with.
They are the type with an open gridwork sides so I can get a good air flow through them.
Approx size 20"x15"x9".

I then use 20mm bolts to make my standoffs.
The board just stand loose in the crate.

Air flow is generated by two 120mm fans.
They are running in series @ 6v each.
That way they are quite but if one fan freezes the other gets 12v and you can hear it.

The only disadvantage of this system is that to get a the bottom mobo means switching them all off and unstacking the whole lot.

Luck............. :D
 
gnewbury said:
We need pictures -
First are the mb's raised off the wood by at least an inch of airspace?
Short standoffs are fine when you are dealing with metal below.

Click to expand...

No, I didn't think of using standoffs for the boards. Were laying right on the wood.

I did try moving one of the boards to the top shelf of the stack, which was 12" from the top panel, and it didn't make much difference (1C temp lower).

I can only conclude that a big 'ol fan blowing across the stack is needed. Which uses a fair bit of power...nah, not worth the bother. I ended up taking the systems out of the stack and putting them back where they were.
 
The other option would be to put the boards in vertically... and let natural convection help you out.... But I would definately get a few 120s or even one larger fan to move some air across them...

Tiger, do you have any pics of your farm??


Keep on Folding!! For the [H]orde!!

 
I'm planning on doing something similar... but I'm using 4" metal standoffs between the boards. And all my boards are socket 478 with celerons(northwoods)... they run a little cooler than the newer iron. The plan is to eventually get to 8 boards total - maybe 12 if I can find a cheap switch.

I like the idea about standing the boards on edge. It would solve a lot of problems. Might have some issues with differing size mobos though - maybe, maybe not - if you can find a common edge/hole location for one side and let the other 3 float.

Check ebay in the electronics section.... there was a lot of different sellers carrying hardware and such there.

Luck....
Keep us informed. And just because it didn't work the first time doesn't mean you can't get it to work.
 
I've been working on that how-to on building a stack of naked boxen.... haven't gotten very far... but, I did draw this up...

motherboard1.jpg


Basically, the holes that have Letters on them are standard holes for ATX and mATX... So in theory, every board "should" have these 7 holes in common with every other board......

This is taken from the specs found on formfactors.org


Keep on Folding!! For the [H]orde!!

 
okay, there most be some obvious flaw with this, but i'm not seeing it.

you have a wooden rectangular stack frame rack -thing. the motherboards rest on the wood. they have their PSUs on a little piece of wood infront of them, blowing over them.

problem solved, no?
 
I guess heated air (from the PSU) is better than no air.... but idealy, "fresh" air would be best


Keep on Folding!! For the [H]orde!!

 
just mount them all in the freezer (make sure its one of the once that dont build up on ice ;))
 
OSUguy98 said:
I've been working on that how-to on building a stack of naked boxen.... haven't gotten very far... but, I did draw this up...

Basically, the holes that have Letters on them are standard holes for ATX and mATX... So in theory, every board "should" have these 7 holes in common with every other board......

This is taken from the specs found on formfactors.org


Keep on Folding!! For the [H]orde!!
Click to expand...

So this means that we can have at least 6-7 comon standoff locations and that the back (I/O) edge and the top edge (PSU side) will line up.

Just laid an ATX and an m-ATX board together and it works... :D Cool.

A good HSF stands about 3 1/2" above the board.

Looks workable...if you get the airflowing between the boards.

Thanks for the pics


 
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