Upcycling - bunch of case fans :P

[Memmento Mori]

Just wanted to share 

 

Well i still have some  stock fans which are just in the box and ofc after some years of "building" computers you gather a fair amount of HW which becomes kind of obsolete but you don't want to throw it away as it works. Trying to sell it is mostly an effort which turns out to be a energy and time burner. So i just thought what to do out of it.... And hey Fans are meant to cool HW - so why it could not cool me? Not having an AC bcs i get mostly a cold from it... And a classic fan has a problem that even on the slowest speed it becomes kind of too much "wind" after a while and annoying   (mostly in smaller rooms).... 

 

I got 1  desk fan powered by USB - its not bad but not enough when the summer hits my HO/Gamer room which is just 3mx3m ... :

 

 

So i dusted my old Fan controller:

 

 

 

 

 

Connected it to a molex extendercable to my PC and some fan extension cables and biuld my first "Drone-like" personal FAN:

 

 

 

Now to be honest im rly very positive how it turned out, it does not blows you away but its makes a gentle breeze. An here is a Pros vs Cons summary:

 

 

Pros: 

1, upcycling - not creating unnecessary E-waste

2, It fulfills  my expectations way better then expected  

3, its not louder then my case

4, the energy consumption is around 12W (don't have a way to separate the measurement just on the Molex and measured it with a watt meter on the whole case - idle turned on and off - difference is the result)

5, its one of its kind  

6, - just my personal thing - but i like the ghetto look and anyway i like to watch fans  spinning  

 

 

Cons:

1, DIY 

 

P.S. - would be here enough brains for a upcycling thread?  

 

 

[ENTERPRISE]

I love it. Pure upcycling and a great use of unused hardware, hopefully will help with the upcoming summer, could always put an ice pack behind it and have poor mans AC lol.

[bonami2]

Just realised after a cleanup that i have like 25 random crappy 120mm fan. Lot of them just grind but uh.

Great idea maybe a laptop cooler could be an option too

[Memmento Mori]

16 hours ago, ENTERPRISE said:

I love it. Pure upcycling and a great use of unused hardware, hopefully will help with the upcoming summer, could always put an ice pack behind it and have poor mans AC lol.

 

poor mans AC it is  but just not able to place properly the ice behind the  fans. But if i would be able then i would turn it in an defrost / AC device    2in1  

 

 

26 minutes ago, bonami2 said:

Just realised after a cleanup that i have like 25 random crappy 120mm fan. Lot of them just grind but uh.

Great idea maybe a laptop cooler could be an option too

to be honest it was my first idea/conclusion with the 20 cm fans but after properly cleaning the notebook cooler its working like a charm again. But yeah will work for sure especially if you have a cooler like the cooler master notepal U2 /U3 which i bought today  (used on a secondhand shop) and it will be easy to replace the fans there as it is just a bend aluminium  

 

and in the end even a crappy fan  will cool a notebook better then nothing   and for a distance of 1-2 cm you dont need a expensive fan to get the job done...

Edited May 16, 2023 by Memmento Mori

[pio]

I've up-cycled plenty, I have not zip tied a bunch of spare case fans together to make a personal desk fan though.  That's a new one.

[Memmento Mori]

12 hours ago, pioneerisloud said:

I've up-cycled plenty, I have not zip tied a bunch of spare case fans together to make a personal desk fan though.  That's a new one.

 

can you share what you did with the fans? Lets inspire  Any good idea should be shared  

[pio]

2 hours ago, Memmento Mori said:

 

can you share what you did with the fans? Lets inspire  Any good idea should be shared  

I used 4x of those 3k RPM fans under the floor in my car to keep my amps cool.  I've also used them in an ice bucket before to make a make-shift swamp cooler too.  Of course zip ties for various spot coolers in rigs too, but I've never built a personal use fan out of them before lol.

[J7SC_Orion]

On 15/05/2023 at 12:16, Memmento Mori said:

Just wanted to share 

 

Well i still have some  stock fans which are just in the box and ofc after some years of "building" computers you gather a fair amount of HW which becomes kind of obsolete but you don't want to throw it away as it works. Trying to sell it is mostly an effort which turns out to be a energy and time burner. So i just thought what to do out of it.... And hey Fans are meant to cool HW - so why it could not cool me? Not having an AC bcs i get mostly a cold from it... And a classic fan has a problem that even on the slowest speed it becomes kind of too much "wind" after a while and annoying   (mostly in smaller rooms).... 

 

I got 1  desk fan powered by USB - its not bad but not enough when the summer hits my HO/Gamer room which is just 3mx3m ... :

 

 

So i dusted my old Fan controller:

 

 

 

 

 

Connected it to a molex extendercable to my PC and some fan extension cables and biuld my first "Drone-like" personal FAN:

 

 

 

Now to be honest im rly very positive how it turned out, it does not blows you away but its makes a gentle breeze. An here is a Pros vs Cons summary:

 

 

Pros: 

1, upcycling - not creating unnecessary E-waste

2, It fulfills  my expectations way better then expected  

3, its not louder then my case

4, the energy consumption is around 12W (don't have a way to separate the measurement just on the Molex and measured it with a watt meter on the whole case - idle turned on and off - difference is the result)

5, its one of its kind  

6, - just my personal thing - but i like the ghetto look and anyway i like to watch fans  spinning  

 

 

Cons:

1, DIY 

 

P.S. - would be here enough brains for a upcycling thread?  

 

 

  

...I would love to see some additional upcycling ideas here, re. fans and 'other'...pic on the left is just one of three bags of old fans (OEM, custom, 80mm - 200 mm) and the fans need to find some gainful employment instead of just taking up space / dust !

 

Pic on the right is an upcycling solution of sorts . This thing with its three GPUs and TR gets normally used for some light ML and as a rendering backup machine. However, we had some window closing / locking issues right at the coldest time mid-winter, so in the evenings, I fired that thing up and ran a bunch of Octane benches which maxed all three GPUs at once; within 5 min, room temp had risen by 3 C (and more when running it longer). Nice and cozy space-heater !

 

Edited May 19, 2023 by J7SC_Orion

[Memmento Mori]

18 hours ago, J7SC_Orion said:

  

...I would love to see some additional upcycling ideas here, re. fans and 'other'...pic on the left is just one of three bags of old fans (OEM, custom, 80mm - 200 mm) and the fans need to find some gainful employment instead of just taking up space / dust !

 

Pic on the right is an upcycling solution of sorts . This thing with its three GPUs and TR gets normally used for some light ML and as a rendering backup machine. However, we had some window closing / locking issues right at the coldest time mid-winter, so in the evenings, I fired that thing up and ran a bunch of Octane benches which maxed all three GPUs at once; within 5 min, room temp had risen by 3 C (and more when running it longer). Nice and cozy space-heater !

 

 

well it strongly depends on the situation, weather and other multiple conditions, but you could make something like small wind turbines? 

 

 

 

Stacked like 5 together in a nice place where you are able to create a draught it would be giving you a bit of free electricity   Its just a question of time, effort and possibilities / abilities    

 

I saw once a Spain guy which was experimenting with this kind of stuff, but he had dry conditions and build a wall of it on the roof....  Cant find it anymore but here is another guy :

 

 

 

Just an inspiration  

 

 

 

[damric]

1 hour ago, Memmento Mori said:

 

well it strongly depends on the situation, weather and other multiple conditions, but you could make something like small wind turbines? 

 

 

 

Stacked like 5 together in a nice place where you are able to create a draught it would be giving you a bit of free electricity   Its just a question of time, effort and possibilities / abilities    

 

I saw once a Spain guy which was experimenting with this kind of stuff, but he had dry conditions and build a wall of it on the roof....  Cant find it anymore but here is another guy :

 

 

 

Just an inspiration  

 

 

 

What's sad is I probably have enough old fans in storage bin to build that myself. I hate throwing away things that function ><

[J7SC_Orion]

1 hour ago, Memmento Mori said:

 

well it strongly depends on the situation, weather and other multiple conditions, but you could make something like small wind turbines? 

 

 

 

Stacked like 5 together in a nice place where you are able to create a draught it would be giving you a bit of free electricity   Its just a question of time, effort and possibilities / abilities    

 

I saw once a Spain guy which was experimenting with this kind of stuff, but he had dry conditions and build a wall of it on the roof....  Cant find it anymore but here is another guy :

 

 

 

Just an inspiration  

 

 

 

   

...Good idea - and  I have enough fans for it and also a good breeze wind ~30 floors up >>> but the condo strata council & city safety engineers would get too annoying if I hang that outside the windows...