Has anyone run passively cooled cards in a HL15 case? I was looking at a pair of ASRock AI PRO 9600D Passive. I would duct the CPU and limit some of the vents, crank up the case fans in the IPMI. I would think the stock case fans could provide enough air flow when cranked but have not tried yet.
Given the relatively low TDP of those cards, and that the Dynatron case fans were originally selected for passive CPU coolers used in the HL15 v1, I think theoretically that would work. Do you have a full v1, full v2, or custom build?
To cool the GPUsYou’d need to dedicate two of the three fans across the midplane to the GPU baffle and one to the CPU chamber. So, you’d have to be able to place the HBA and any other cards in the CPU chamber, and one midplane fan might not be enough for all that. What you might consider is replacing one of the stock midplane fans with a high sttic pressure 120x38 fan like the Delta PFC1212DE-F00. That might be easier to duct from and leave two of the three midplane fans free for the CPU and other PCIe slots. The trick will be getting a tight seal on the ducting for the GPUs since air will take the path of least resistance.
You could also look through existing 3D printable ducts where you attach the fan to the duct, products like this;
https://www.ebay.com/itm/287161043789
Thanks. Custom build with a ROMED6U-2L2T MB. Directly attached fans would be my 2nd choice, though I would need to remove one of the case fans to get them to fit. That is a downside of the HL15 case, no room for longer cards.
OK. With only four PCIE slots, I’m not sure if it is better for the baffling to have the GPUs in slots 6 and 7, or 4 and 5. Not dure how those line up with the fan positions.